Xenophon's Cynegeticus and its defense of liberal education
Kidd S.
2014
Philologus
2
10.1515/phil-2014-0006
Today hunting is a leisure pursuit, as it was for a good part of antiquity. In the Cynegeticus, however, Xenophon defends this pastime as a form of liberal education and other authors of the Classical period do the same. How does hunting constitute paideia or "education"? While scholars have generally taken Xenophon at his word and accepted that hunting provides natural training for the military, I apply pressure to this line of reasoning by examining those texts that depict hunting as a leisure pursuit and not an education at all. I raise the question: what is hunting? Is it an education or a leisure pursuit, paideia or paidia, and how can we tell the difference? I argue that Xenophon offers three criteria by which hunting as a paideia distinguishes itself from paidia (and so, by extension, how liberal education distinguishes itself from play more generally): by stressing the pastime's laboriousness, tradition and usefulness.
Education; Hunting; Play; Xenophon
Anderson J., Hunting in the Ancient World, (1985); Azoulay V., Xénophon et les Grâces Du Pouvoir, (2004); Barrett W., Euripides Hippolytus, (1964); Barringer J., The Hunt in Ancient Greece, (2001); Beck F., Greek Education 450-350 B. C, (1964); Beekes R., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, (2010); Bourdieu P., The forms of capital, Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, pp. 241-258, (1986); Burghardt G., The Genesis of Animal Play, (2005); Chantraine P., ÉTudes Sur Le Vocabulaire Grec, (1956); Chantraine P., Dictionnaire éTymologique de la Langue Grecque: Histoire des Mots, (1968); Chick G., What is Play For? Sexual Selection and the Evolution of Play, Play and Culture Studies, 3, pp. 3-25, (2001); Cole T., The Origins of Rhetoric in Ancient Greece, (1991); Cope E., Sandys J., The Rhetoric of Aristotle, (1877); Corbeill A., Education in the roman republic: Creating traditions, Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity, pp. 261-287, (2001); Cribiore R., Gymnastics of the Mind: Greek Education in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, (2001); Delebecque E., Essai Sur la Vie de Xenophon, (1957); Delebecque E., L'art de la Chasse, (1970); Denniston J., The Greek Particles, (1954); Dindorff L., Xenophontis Opuscula Politica, Equestria et Venatica Cum Arriani Libello de Venatione, (1866); Doty R., Xenophon on Hunting, (2001); Dover K., Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle, (1974); Ford A., Sophists without rhetoric: The arts of speech in fifth-century athens, Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity, (2001); Frisk H., Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, (1973); Goffman E., The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, (1959); Gray V., Xenophon's cynegeticus, Hermes, 113, pp. 156-172, (1985); Griffith M., Public and private in early greek institutions of education, Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity, pp. 23-84, (2001); Grimaldi W., Aristotle: Rhetoric, (1980); Groos K., Die Spiele Der Tiere, (1898); Groos K., Die Spiele Der Menschen, (1899); Gundert H., Zum spiel bei platon, Beispiele. Festschrift Für Eugen Fink Zum, 60, pp. 188-221, (1965); Handley E., The Dyskolos of Menander, (1965); Halliwell S., Greek Laughter, (2008); Huizinga J., Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture, (1949); Hull D., Hounds and Hunting in Ancient Greece, (1964); Hutchinson G., Xenophon and the Art of Command, (2000); Jaeger W., Paideia: The ideals of greek culture III, The Conflict of Cultural Ideals in the Age of Plato, (1944); Jebb R., Selections from the Attic Orators, (2005); Johnstone S., Virtuous Toil, Vicious Work: Xenophon on Aristocratic Style, pp. 137-166, (2010); Jouet-Pastre E., Le Jeu et Le Sérieux Dans Le "Lois" de Platon, (2006); Kammer U., Untersuchungen Zu Ciceros Bild Von Cato Censorius, (1964); Kurke L., Ancient greek board games and how to play them, CPh, 94, pp. 247-267, (1999); Longo O., Le Forme della Predazione: Cacciatori E Pescatori nella Grecia Antica, (1989); Loraux N., The Experiences of Tiresias: The Feminine and the Greek Man, (1995); Marchant E., Xenophontis Opera Omnia, 5, (1961); Marchant E., Xenophon: Scripta Minora, (1925); Mewaldt J., Die komposition des xenophontischen kynegetikos, Hermes, 46, pp. 70-82, (1911); Newman W., The Politics of Aristotle, (1887); Norden E., Die Antike Kunstprosa, (1898); Olson S., Aristophanes: Acharnians, (2002); Phillips A., Willcock M., Xenophon & Arrian, on Hunting, (1999); Radermacher L., ÜBer den cynegeticus des xenophon, RhM, 51, pp. 596-627, (1896); Radermacher L., ÜBer den cynegeticus des xenophon, RhM, 52, pp. 13-41, (1897); Rapp C., Aristoteles: Rhetorik, (2002); Schnapp A., Le Chasseur et la Cité: Chasse et éRotique Dans la Grece Ancienne, (1997); Spencer H., Principles of Psychology, 2, (1872); Stoll O., Zum Ruhme Athens: Wissen Zum Wohl Der Polis, (2010); Stoll O., For the glory of athens: Xenophon's hipparchikos
Akademie Verlag GMBH
Article
Scopus