ABSTRACT
The ancient Greek city-states developed a variety of educational systems, more or less advanced according to the complexity of their social and political organization. But they have certain common features which show that they rested upon a primitive tribal basis. The Athenian system was the most highly developed and the one which has most influenced later educational theory. In Athens there continued to be two main branches of education, music and gymnastic. The term ‘music’ meant any art presided over by the Muses, particularly lyric poetry as well as music proper. Physical education took place in a gymnasium or a more modest building called a palaistra ('training-school'). The gymnasia were large and costly public buildings, of which even Athens possessed only three in the fourth century B.C. They were frequented by citizens of all ages, taking exercises themselves or watching others, and were centres of social and intellectual life. The gymnasium, in fact, typified a continued relationship between intellectual and physical education.
