The Nothoi of Kynosarges

Abstract

Our main pieces of evidence about the bastards who exercised in the gymnasium of Kynosarges not far outside the walls of Athens are the following: (1) Plutarch, Themistocles 1: Themistocles' mother was a Thracian (or Carian) and he therefore exercised at the gymnasium of Kynosarges where the nothoi were enrolled ( syntelein ), the gymnasium being sacred to Heracles because he, too, being the son of a divine father but a mortal mother, was a nothos among the gods. Themistocles persuaded aristocratic friends to exercise with him at Kynosarges and thus abolished social discrimination between pure-born Athenians and nothoi.