Gymnopaedia
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:''This article is about the Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek Gymnopaedia festival and dance. For 19th century art referring to this (e.g. the "gymnopédies" by Erik Satie): see Gymnopédie''
, the type of dance most likely danced on Gymnopedia festivals (image from William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith's ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities|Dictionary of Antiquities'')]]'''Gymnopaedia''' derives from the History of the Greek language|ancient Greek γυμνοπαιδία, a festivity in Sparta, where nudity|naked youths would perform war dances.
The term appears in texts of Herodotus, and several authors in the History_of_the_Greek_language#Attic_Greek|Attic and History_of_the_Greek_language#Hellenistic_Greek_-_Koin.E9|Koiné periods. While for the earliest of these authors the meaning of ''gymnopaedia'' appears predominantly as a ''festival'' (including several dances, sports, etc,...), in the later periods of antiquity ''gymnopaedia'' is referred to as a particular dance.
Etymology
The word ''gymnopaedia'' is composed of γυμνός (''gymnos'' - "naked") and the plural of παιδίον (''paidion'' - "child"). In Greek γυμνοπαιδία is always ''plural''.
Apart from "gymnopaedia", modern transliterations include "Gymnopaidiai" (mostly older translations of Greek texts, maintaining a ''plural'' form for the word), "gymnopedia", "gymnopedie" and "gymnopédie" (in French (language)|French, or when referring to the Erik Satie compositions, see Gymnopédie).
Gymnopaedia in ancient Greece
The gymnopaedia festival
In ancient Sparta, the Gymnopaedia was, since approximately 650 BC, a yearly celebration during which nudity|naked youths displayed their athletic and martial skills through the medium of dancing.
The festival, celebrated in the summertime, was dedicated to Apollo (and/or, according to Plutarch, to Athena). Plato praises gymnopaedia-like exercises and performances in ''Plato's Laws|The Laws'' as an excellent medium of education: by dancing strenuously in the summer heat, Spartan youth were trained in both musical grace and warrior grit at the same time.
In ancient Greece, as a general rule, sports were reserved to ''men'', and would be performed ''naked''. Also, men would be the only spectators when such sports were performed publicly. In this sense "gymnos" (''naked'') is not an exceptional part of a word to indicate sports in those days: gymnastics is derived from the same. See also Gymnasium (ancient Greece).
Public performance of such sports would generally be in a ''ceremonial'' setting, i.e. for the occasion of a religious feast. If an element of ''competition'' between the performers was present (which was not so for all ceremonially performed sports), that could as well mean a competition regarding the beauty of the movements, as a competition, for some sports, in the sense of being the fastest or the strongest. This means that many of the sport categories of those days had rather the aspect of a ''dance'', than of a modern understanding of field and track athletics.
All this applies, e.g., for the ancient Olympic games too.
Roman era
Some 8 centuries after the first gymnopaedia had been presented, it still survived in Lacedaemonia. According to Lucian of Samosata (in his dialogue ''Of Pantomime'') there still seems some connection to martial arts, as the youths would engage in gymnopaidia immediately after their daily military training. On the other hand, he describes the gymnopaedia as "yet another dance", neither involving nudity, nor exclusivity for men.
See also
For the pyrrhic dance, a war dance spread throughout Ancient Greece, see: Korybantes (which were the mythological performers of these war dances in Greek Antiquity).
Gymnopédie - 19th century music an poetry referring to gymnopaedia.
References
Johannes Meursius|Meursius, Johannes (Loozduynen, 1579 - Soroe, 1639): ''Orchestra, sive de saltationibus veterum'', Leiden 1618
Reprint of the 1745 Florentine edition + comments, updates (in English) by http://www.geschiedenis.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?c=182and Alkis Raftis, ''Joannes Meursius and his "Orchestra, sive de saltationibus veterum" of 1618. Dutch Dance Studies, 3.'', (Theatre of Greek Dances) Dora Stratou, Athens (distributed by the Pauper Press), 2003, 85 pg., ISBN 960-861505-4
Muller Jzn., F. and Thiel, J.H., ''Beknopt Grieks-Nederlands woordenboek'', Wolters Groningen, 2nd edition (20th century, after 1919)
Otfried Müller|Müller, Otfried, ''Die Dorier'', 1824
''Abridged'' English translation, known as ''The Dorians'': ''The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race'', 2nd. ed. rev., 2 Vol., trans. from the German by Henry Tufnell, ESQ, and George Cornewall Lewis, ESQ, A. M., publ. John Murray, Albemarle Str., London, 1839.
Xenophon, ''Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians'', 4th/5th century BC
English translation by H. G. Dakyns, E-text version prepared by John Bickers for Project Gutenberg, January 1998, available at http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1178
William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith - ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'':
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0063%3Aid%3Dgymnopaedia /Saltatio.html target=_blank>http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA/Saltatio.html
External links
The http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6585contains the full text of ''Of Pantomime''
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Dance.htm http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Festivals.htm http://www.annaswebart.com/culture/dancehistory/history/index.html http://www.oldandsold.com/articles06/dance-1.shtml
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