Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

GYMNESII.

198

HALTERES.

Paedotribae were required to possess a know-
ledge of all the various exercises which were
performed in the gymnasia ; the Gymnastes
was the practical teacher, and was expected
to know the physiological effects and influ-
ences on the constitution of the youths, and
therefore assigned to each of thein those
exercises which he thought most suitable.
The anointing of the bodies of the youths
and strewing them with dust, before they
commenced their exercises, as well as the
regulation of their diet, was the duty of the
aliptae. [Aliftae.]—Among all the differ-
ent tribes of the Greeks the exercises which
were carried on in a Greek gymnasium were
either mere games, or the more important
exercises which the gymnasia had in com-
mon with the public contests in the great
festivals. Among the former we may men-
tion, 1. The game at ball (o-^aipicruoj), which
was in universal favour with the Greeks.
[PlLA.] Every gymnasium contained one
large room for the purpose of playing at ball
in it (cr<paipi<mjpi.oi/). 2. Hcu£tw eAKUcrriVSa,
SitAxi/crxtVSa, or Sia ypap-fi')!> was a game in
which one boy, holding one end of a rope,
tried to pidl the boy who held its other end,
across a line marked between them on the
ground. 3. The top Oep./3r;f, P«'/xj3ij, pdp./3os,
cr7po/3cAos), which was as common an amuse-
ment with Greek boys as it is with ours.
4. The 7rei>TaA(.0o5, which was a game with
five stones, which were thrown up from the
upper part of the hand and caught in the
palm. 5. 2/can-e'pSa, which was a game in
which a rope was drawn through the upper
part of a tree or a post. Two boys, one on
each side of the post, turning their backs
towards one another, took hold of the ends
of the rope and tried to pull each other up.
This sport was also one of the amusements at
the Attic Dionysia. The more important
games, such as running (Spdp.05), throwing of
the Si<TKOi and the okidv, jumping and leap-
ing (aAp.a, with and without aA-njpes), wrest-
ling (77a,\r;), boxing (miyix-q), the pancratium
(Tra-yKpanov), 7reVTa(?Aos, Aap;7raS)j<popia, danc-
ing {hpxn<n%), tee., are described in separate
articles. A gymnasium was not a Roman
institution. The regular training of boys in
the Greek gymnastics was foreign to Roman
manners, and even held in contempt. To-
wards the end of the republic, many wealthy
Romans who had acquired a taste for Greek
manners, used to attach to their villas small
places for bodily exercise, sometimes called
gymnasia, sometimes palaestrae, and to adorn
them with beautiful works of art. The em-
peror Nero was the first who built a public
gymnasium at Rome.
' GYMNESII or GYMXETES (yvu^cnoi, or

yupuTj-res), a class of bond-slaves at Argos,
who may be compared with the Helots at
Sparta. Their name shows that they attended
their masters on military service in the capa-
city of light-armed troops.

GYMNOPAEDIA (yv^voTtaiUa), the fes-
tival of " naked youths," was celebrated at
Sparta every year in honour of Apollo Py-
thaeus, Artemis, and Leto. The statues of
these deities stood in a part of the agora
called x°P°5, and it was around these statues
that, at the gymnopacdia, Spartan youths
performed their choruses and dances in honour
of Apollo. The festival lasted for several
perhaps for ten, days, and on the last day
men also performed choruses and dances in
the theatre; and during these gymnastic
exhibitions they sang the songs of Thaletas
and Alcman, and the paeans of Dionysodotus.
The leader of the chorus (n-pocrnx'njs or X°P°-
77-0105) wore a kind of chaplet in commemora-
tion of the victory of the Spartans at Thyrea.
This event seems to have been closely con-
nected with the gymnopacdia, for those Spar-
tans who had fallen on that occasion were
always praised in songs at this festival.
The boys in their dances performed such
rhythmical movements as resembled the exer-
cises of the palaestra and the pancration, and
also imitated the wild gestures of the worship
of Dionysus. The whole season of the gym-
nopacdia, during which Sparta was visited
by great numbers of strangers, was one of
great merriment and rejoicings, and old
bachelors alone seem to have been excluded
from the festivities. The introduction of the
gymnopaedia is generally assigned to the year
665 b. c.

GYNAECOXITIS. [Domus, Greek.]
GYNAECONOMI or GYNAECOCOSMI
(yvva.iKovoiJ.01 or yvva.iK.oKoo-)xoi), magistrates
at Athens, originally appointed to superintend
the conduct of Athenian women. Their
power was afterwards extended in sucli a
manner that they became a kind of police for
the purpose of preventing any excesses 01
indecencies, whether committed by men or
by women. Hence they superintended the
meetings of friends even in private houses,
for instance, it weddings and on other festive
occasions.

HALTEPlES (dATrjpes) were certain masses
of stone or metal, which were used in
the gymnastic exercises of the Greeks and
Romans. Persons who practised leaping fre-
quently performed their exercises with hal-
teres in both hands ; but they were also
frequently used merely to exercise the body