Editing Civics (section)

=== Ancient Athens ===
==== Pericles ====
[[Pericles' Funeral Oration]] provides insight into Athens' sharply contrasting form of civic education from Sparta, for personal freedom, rather than blind obedience, where he boasts that Athens is 'the school of Hellas', since:{{blockquote|in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.<ref>Thucydides. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htm#link2HCH0006 ''The Peloponnesian War'', Book II, Chapter VI].</ref>}} However, English philosopher [[Thomas Hobbes]] believed that the Athenians were only taught to think they had personal freedom in order to discourage them from seeking reform.<ref>[[Thomas Hobbes]]. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm ''Leviathan''], Part II, Chapter 21. And because the Athenians were taught, (to keep them from desire of changing their Government,) that they were Freemen, and all that lived under Monarchy were slaves; therefore Aristotle puts it down in his Politiques,(lib.6.cap.2) "In democracy, Liberty is to be supposed: for 'tis commonly held, that no man is Free in any other Government." [[Project Gutenberg]].</ref>

==== Crito ====
In the [[Socratic dialogue]] ''[[Crito]]'', [[Crito of Alopece]] learns from [[Socrates]] the importance in civic education of following expert opinion, rather than majority opinion. Socrates uses the analogy of the training gymnast, who he implies ought to follow his gymnastics trainer, not whatever the majority of people think about gymnastics. Crito also hears Socrates' argument that a citizen ought to obey his city's laws partly because it was his city which educated him for citizenship.<ref>[[Plato]]. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13726/13726-h/13726-h.htm ''Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates'']. ''Crito''. Translated by [[Henry Cary (judge)|Henry Cary]]. [[Project Gutenberg]].</ref>

==== Aeschyslus ====
In the [[Aristophanes]] comedy ''[[The Frogs]]'', the character of the playwright [[Aeschylus]] scolds fellow tragedian Euripides for writing scenes pernicious to proper ideals of citizenship:{{blockquote|<poem>What crimes is he not guilty of?
Did he not put up on display
pimps and women giving birth
in holy shrines and having sex
with their own brothers, and then claim
that living is no life? So now,
because of him our city here
is crammed with bureaucratic types
and stupid democratic apes
who always cheat our people.
Nobody carries on the torch—
no one's trained in that these days.</poem>}}

During his diatribe, he emphasises the importance of poetry to civic education: {{blockquote|<poem>Small children have a teacher helping them,
for young men there's the poets—we've got
a solemn duty to say useful things.<ref>[[Aristophanes]]. [http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/aristophanes/frogshtml.html ''The Frogs''], Lines 1260–1300. Translated by [[Ian C. Johnston]]. [http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/ johnstoniatexts].</ref></poem>}}

Similarly, [[Plutarch]] would later speak of the power of the poet [[Thales]] to, in the words of the English poet [[John Milton]], 'prepare and mollify the Spartan surliness with his smooth songs and odes, the better to plant among them law and civility'.<ref>Plutarch. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/674/674-h/674-h.htm#2H_4_0004 ''Parallel Lives'', ''Lycurgus'']. "Amongst the persons there the most renowned for their learning all their wisdom in state matters was one Thales, whom Lycurgus, by importunities and assurances of friendship, persuaded to go over to Lacedaemon; where, though by his outward appearance and his own profession he seemed to be no other than a lyric poet, in reality he performed the part of one of the ablest lawgivers in the world.  The very songs which he composed were exhortations to obedience and concord, and the very measure and cadence of the verse, conveying impressions of order and tranquility, had so great an influence on the minds of the listeners, that they were insensibly softened and civilized, insomuch that they renounced their private feuds and animosities, and were reunited in a common admiration of virtue.  So that it may truly be said that Thales prepared the way for the discipline introduced by Lycurgus."</ref><ref>[[John Milton]]. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/608/608-h/608-h.htm ''Areopagitica'']. That other leading city of Greece, Lacedaemon, considering that Lycurgus their lawgiver was so addicted to elegant learning, as to have been the first that brought out of Ionia the scattered works of Homer, and sent the poet Thales from Crete to prepare and mollify the Spartan surliness with his smooth songs and odes, the better to plant among them law and civility, it is to be wondered how museless and unbookish they were, minding nought but the feats of war.[[Project Gutenberg]].</ref> Plutarch also spoke of the deep influence of [[Homer]]'s 'lessons of state' on [[Lycurgus of Sparta|Lycurgus]], framer of the Spartan constitution.<ref>Plutarch. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/674/674-h/674-h.htm#2H_4_0004 ''Parallel Lives'', ''Lycurgus'']. "Here he had the first sight of Homer's works, in the hands, we may suppose, of the posterity of Creophylus; and, having observed that the few loose expressions and actions of ill example which are to be found in his poems were much outweighed by serious lessons of state and rules of morality, he set himself eagerly to transcribe and digest them into order, as thinking they would be of good use in his own country."</ref>

==== Adrastus ====
In the [[Euripides]] tragedy ''[[The Suppliants (Euripides)|The Suppliants]]'', [[Adrastus of Argos|King Adrastus of Argos]] describes how [[Hippomedon (Seven Against Thebes)|Hippomedon]] received his civic education for endurance, martial skill, and service to the state:{{blockquote|Such another was Hippomedon, third of all this band; from his very boyhood he refrained from turning towards the allurements of the [[Muses]], to lead life of ease; his home was in the fields, and gladly would he school his nature to hardships with a view to manliness, aye hasting to the chase, rejoicing in his steeds or straining of his bow, because he would make himself of use unto his state.}}

Adrastus also describes how [[Parthenopeus]] received his education for citizenship in his adopted city:{{blockquote| Next behold the huntress [[Atalanta]]'s son, Parthenopaeus, a youth of peerless beauty; from [[Arcadia (ancient region)|Arcady]] he came even to the streams of [[Inachos (river)|Inachus]], and in Argos spent his boyhood. There, when he grew to man's estate, first, as is the duty of strangers settled in another land, he showed no pique or jealousy against the state, became no quibbler, chiefest source of annoyance citizen or stranger can give, but took his stand amid the host, and fought for [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] as he were her own son, glad at heart whenso the city prospered, deeply grieved if e'er reverses came; many a lover though he had midst men and maids, yet was he careful to avoid offence.<ref>[[Euripides]]. [http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/suppliants.html ''The Suppliants'']. Translated by E. P. Coleridge. [http://classics.mit.edu/ The Internet Classics Archive].</ref>}}