Designations for teacher, student, and instruction in Ancient Greek and Roman literature are examined and their metaphorical nature is noted: the teaching process is conceived of as a journey through time and space in which the teacher guides the student from ignorance to enlightenment. However, whereas the teacher's lead is viewed as linear and the instruction process as a progression, the student's movement is nonlinear, repetitive and erratic. Education as a transmission of knowledge through space and time can have a horizontal (from teacher to student) or vertical (from bone generation to the next) aspect. (Copyright 1996, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (Z. Dubiel in LLBA 1996, vol. 30, n. 3)