Classical Etiquette

[barca]

Throughout the ages there were numerous codes or manuals for appropriate behavior. From the middle ages, chivalry; from the renaissance, Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, to George Washington's rules of civility and decent behavior. And many other works throughout the ages.

 

Were there any such manuals in ancient world form Greece or Rome? Plutarch wrote a number of essays on the conduct of life in general, but were there any more explicit writings?

[DecimusCaesar]

I'm not sure that there were etiquette manuals so to speak, but ancient writers did give advice about the proper way to present yourself to higher society. Most of this was drilled into elite men through lessons in oratory, and one of the most important lessons was not to appear effeminate in any way. Such writers as Quintilian gave advice about the tone of voice, the bearing, what was acceptable to say or not. He even gave advice about how direct your eyes:

 

"The eyes should never look rigid or bulging, languid, torpid, or lasciviously rolling. They should not swim about looking watery and voluptuous, with sidelong sexy glances. Nor should they ever look as if they were asking or promising anything."

 

While this advice, and others like it too, was directed at students of oratory, I think they would have applied in social situations among the elite too. Whether there was a sense of etiquette among the lower classes is harder to say, although the graffiti on the walls of Pompeii might give us some insight into how the plebeians interacted with each other socially.

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

What you're thinking of is mostly the Illiad and the Odyssey, the references which drove the greek culture and were in part adopted by the romans (first greek books translated to latin, some of first attempts of latin higher litterature being attempts to do roman equivalent of the story, place of the Enneid from the Augustean era onward) : Homer's books were really the closest the ancient western world had to chivalry code. It spoke of what a man could, should and would do if he truly was manfull, and what he should not, what would ashame him and what would bring him honour. The romans added their own concepts of, amongst others, Majestas, Gravitas and all that made up the Mos Maiorum (behaviour of the ancestors) to this greek heritage, and this made up what the higher class at least would take as a good and respectable etiquette.