Is, then, the bodily habit of the athletes we see about us suitable for such?
Perhaps.
Nay,
said I, that is a drowsy habit and precarious for health. Don’t you observe that they sleep away their lives, Footnote 1Cf. Ἐράσται 132 C καθεύδων πάντα τὸν βίον. Xenophanes, Euripides, Aristotle, and the medical writers, like Plato, protest against the exaggerated honor paid to athletes and the heavy sluggishness induced by overfeeeding and overtraining. and that if they depart ever so little from their prescribed regimen these athletes are liable to great and violent diseases?
I do.
Then,
said I, we need some more ingenious form of training for our athletes of war, since these must be as it were sleepless hounds, and have the keenest possible perceptions of sight and hearing, and in their campaigns undergo many changes Footnote 2Laws 797 D. Cf. 380 E. Aristotle’s comment on μεταβολή, Eth. Nic. 1154 b 28 ff., is curiously reminiscent of Plato, including the phrase ἁπλῆ οὐδ’ ἐπιεικής. in their drinking water, their food, and in exposure to the heat of the sun and to storms, Footnote 3Perhaps in the context cold. without disturbance of their health.
I think so.
Would not, then, the best gymnastics be akin to the music that we were just now describing?
What do you mean?
It would be a simple and flexible Footnote 4Literally equitable, if we translate ἐπιεικής by its later meaning, that is, not over-precise or rigid in conformity to rule. Adam is mistaken in saying that ἐπιεικής is practically synonymous with ἀγαθή. It sometimes is, but not here. Cf. Plutarch, De san. 13 ἀκριβὴς . . . καὶ δι’ ὄνυχος. gymnastic, and especially so in the training for war.
In what way?
One could learn that,
said I, even from Homer. Footnote 5So Laws 706 D. The καί is perhaps merely idiomatic in quotation. For you are aware that in the banqueting of the heroes on campaign he does not feast them on fish, Footnote 6Homer’s ignoring of fish diet, except in stress of starvation, has been much and idly discussed both in antiquity and by modern scholars. Modern pseudo-science has even inferred from this passage that Plato placed a
taboo
on fish, though they are at the sea-side on the Hellespont, which Homer calls fish-teeming,
Iliad ix. 360. nor on boiled meat, but only on roast, which is what soldiers could most easily procure. For everywhere, one may say, it is of easier provision to use the bare fire than to convey pots and pans Footnote 7Cf. Green, History of English People, Book II. chap. ii., an old description of the Scotch army: They have therefore no occasion for pots and pans, for they dress the flesh of the cattle in their skins after they have flayed them,
etc. But cf. Athenaeus, i. 8-9 (vol. i. p. 36 L.C.L.), Diogenes Laertius viii. 13 ὥστε εὐπορίστους αὐτοῖς εἶναι τὰς τροφάς
. along.Indeed it is.
Neither, as I believe, does Homer ever make mention of sweet meats. Is not that something which all men in training understand—that if one is to keep his body in good condition he must abstain from such things altogether?
They are right,
he said, in that they know it and do abstain.
Then, my friend, if you think this is the right way, you apparently do not approve of a Syracusan table Footnote 8Proverbial, like the
Corinthian maid
and the Attic pastry.
Cf. Otto, Sprichw. d. Rom. p. 321, Newman, Introduction to Aristotle’s Politics, p. 302. Cf. also Phaedrus 240 B. and Sicilian variety of made dishes.I think not.
You would frown, then, on a little Corinthian maid as the chère amie of men who were to keep themselves fit?
Most certainly.
And also on the seeming delights of Attic pastry?
Inevitably.
In general, I take it, if we likened that kind of food and regimen to music and song expressed in the pan-harmonic mode and in every variety of rhythm it would be a fair comparison.
Quite so.
And here variety engendered licentiousness, did it not, but here disease? While simplicity in music begets sobriety in the souls, and in gymnastic training it begets health in bodies.
Most true,
he said.
Book 3