Ath. In all these subjects there should be public instructors, paid by the State; and their pupils should be not only the boys and men in the State, but also the girls and women who understand all these matters—being practiced in all military drill and fighting while still girls and, when grown to womanhood, taking part in evolutions and rank-forming and the piling and shouldering of arms,— and that, if for no other reason, at least for this reason, that, if ever the guards of the children and of the rest of the city should be obliged to leave the city and march out in full force, these women should be able at least to take their place; while if, on the other hand—and this is quite a possible contingency—an invading army of foreigners, fierce and strong, should force a battle round the city itself, then it would be a sore disgrace to the State if its women were so ill brought up as not even to be willing to do as do the mother-birds, which fight the strongest beasts in defence of their broods, but, instead of facing all risks, even death itself, to run straight to the temples and crowd all the shrines and holy places, and drown mankind in the disgrace of being the most craven of living creatures.
Clin. By Heaven, Stranger, if ever this took place in a city, it would be a most unseemly thing, apart from the mischief of it.
Ath. Shall we, then, lay down this law,—that up to the point stated women must not neglect military training, but all citizens, men and women alike, must pay attention to it?
Clin. I, for one, agree.
Ath. As regards wrestling, some points have been explained; Footnote 1Plat. Laws 795d, Plat. Laws 795e. but we have not explained what is, in my opinion, the most important point, nor is it easy to express it in words without the help of a practical illustration. This point, then, we shall decide about Footnote 2Cp. Plat. Laws 832e. when word accompanied by deed can clearly demonstrate this fact, among the others mentioned,—that wrestling of this kind is of all motions by far the most nearly allied to military fighting; and also that it is not the latter that should be learned for the sake of the former, but, on the contrary, it is the former that should be practiced for the sake of the latter. Footnote 3Cp. Plat. Laws 803d.
Clin. There, at any rate, you are right.
Ath. For the present let this suffice as an account of the functions of the wrestling-school. Motion of the whole body, other than wrestling, has for its main division what may be rightly termed dancing Footnote 4Here a wide term, embracing all kinds of bodily gestures and posturing. ; and we ought to consider it as consisting of two kinds,—the one representing the solemn movement of beautiful bodies, the other the ignoble movement of ugly bodies; and of these again there are two subdivisions.