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Ephebos (Greek:ἔφηβος;pl.epheboi,Greek:ἔφηβοι), latinized asephebus (pl. ephebi) and anglicised asephebe (pl. ephebes), is a term for a maleadolescent inAncient Greece. The term was particularly used to denote one who was doing military training and preparing to become an adult.[1] From about 335 BC, ephebes fromAthens (aged between 18–20) underwent two years of military training under supervision, during which time they were exempt from civic duties and deprived of most civic rights. During the 3rd century BC, ephebic service ceased to be compulsory and its time was reduced to one year. By the 1st century BC, theephebia became an institution reserved for wealthy individuals and, besides military training, it also included philosophic and literary studies.[2]
Peripoli (περίπολοι) were troops assigned to patrol duty, the term was also used for Athenian ephebes during the two years of their ephebic training, and this phase of their service was known as peripolia (περιπολία).[3]
Though the wordephebos (fromepi "upon" +hebe "youth", "early manhood"[4]) can simply refer to the adolescent age of young men of training age, its main use is for the members, exclusively from that age group, of an official institution (ephebia) that saw to building them into citizens, but especially to training them as soldiers, sometimes already sent into the field; theGreekcity states (poleis) mainly depended (like theRoman Republic) on itsmilitia of citizens for defense.
In the time ofAristotle (384–322 BC), Athens engraved the names of the enrolled ephebi on abronze pillar (formerly on wooden tablets) in front of the council-chamber. After admission to the college, the ephebus took theoath of allegiance (as recorded in histories by Pollux andStobaeus—but not in Aristotle) in the temple of Aglaurus and was sent toMunichia orActe as a member of thegarrison. At the end of the first year of training the ephebi were reviewed; if their performance was satisfactory, the state provided each with a spear and a shield, which, together with thechlamys (cloak) andpetasos (broad-brimmed hat), made up their equipment. In their second year they were transferred to other garrisons inAttica, patrolled the frontiers, and on occasion took an active part in war. During these two years they remained free from taxation, and were generally not allowed to appear in the law courts as plaintiffs or defendants. The ephebi took part in some of the most important Athenian festivals. Thus during theEleusinian Mysteries they were sent to fetch the sacred objects fromEleusis and to escort the image ofIacchus on the sacred way. They also performed police duty at the meetings of theecclesia.[5]
After the end of the 4th century BC, the institution underwent a radical change. Enrolment ceased to be obligatory, lasted only for a year, and the limit of age was dispensed with. Inscriptions attest a continually decreasing number of ephebi, and with the admission of foreigners the college lost its representative national character. This was mainly due to the weakening of the military spirit and to the progress of intellectual culture. The military element was no longer all-important, and the ephebia became a sort of university for well-to-do young men of good family, whose social position has been compared[by whom?] with that of the Athenian "knights" of earlier times. The institution lasted till the end of the 3rd century AD.[5]
In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, foreigners, including Romans, began to be admitted as ephebes. At this period the college of ephebi was a miniature city, which possessed anarchon,strategos,herald and other officials, after the model of the city of Athens.[5]
InAncient Greek sculpture, anephebe is a sculptural type depicting a nudeephebos (Archaic examples of the type are also often known as thekouros type, or kouroi in the plural). This typological name often occurs in the form "theX Ephebe", whereX is the collection to which the object belongs or belonged, or the site on which it was found (e.g. theAgrigento Ephebe).
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Ephebi".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 669–670.
Media related toEphebes at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition ofephebos at Wiktionary
