§10λέγε δή μοι καὶ σὺ τὰς τῶν ἀθλητῶν προσαγορεύσεις.
Tell me now, you too, the titles of the athletes.
ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἐρεῖς ὅτι μηδ’ ἔχεις εἰπεῖν, εἰ μή τι τοῦ μάρτυρος ὡς οὐκ ἀξιόχρεω κατέγνωκας· ἐμφαίνειν γὰρ ἔοικάς τι τοιοῦτον, ὅταν ἐπὶ τοὺς πολλοὺς τὸν λόγον ἄγῃς μάρτυρας καὶ τὸν παρὰ τούτων ἔπαινον προχειρίζῃ.
But you will not tell them because you do not even have them to say, unless you have condemned the witness as untrustworthy; for you seem to indicate something of this sort when you bring your argument to the many as witnesses and produce their praise.
καίτοι 〈γ’〉 οὔτε νοσῶν εὖ οἶδ’ ὅτι τοῖς πολλοῖς ἂν ἐπιτρέψαις αὑτὸν ἀλλ’ ὀλίγοις δή τισιν ἐξ ἁπάντων καὶ τούτων τοῖς ἰατρικωτάτοις, οὔτ’ ἂν πλέων ἅπασι τοῖς συμπλέουσιν ἀλλ’ ἑνὶ τῷ κυβερνήτῃ, ἤδη δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν σμικροτάτων τέκτονι μὲν τεκταινόμενος, ὑποδημάτων δὲ χρῄζων τῷ σκυτοτόμῳ.
And yet, if you were sick, I know well that you would not entrust yourself to the many, but to some few out of all, and these the most skilled in medicine; nor, if you were sailing, to all those sailing with you, but to the single helmsman; and furthermore, in the smallest matters, if you were building you would trust the carpenter, and if you needed shoes, the shoemaker.
πῶς ἂν οὖν ἔνθα περὶ πρωτείων ὁ ἀγών ἐστι, σαυτῷ διδοίης τῆς κρίσεως τὴν ἐξουσίαν, ἀφελόμενος αὐτὴν τῶν σοφωτέρων ἢ κατὰ σαυτόν;
How then, when the contest is for the first place, would you give the authority of judgment to yourself, taking it away from those who are wiser than you?
παρίημι γὰρ τό γε νῦν εἶναι μεμνῆσθαι τῶν θεῶν.
For I pass over for the moment mentioning the gods.
ἄκουσον οὖν ὅπως Εὐριπίδης φρονεῖ περὶ τῶν ἀθλητῶν· κακῶν γὰρ ὄντων μυρίων καθ’ Ἑλλάδα
οὐδὲν κάκιον ἔστιν ἀθλητῶν γένους· οἳ πρῶτον οἰκεῖν οὔτε μανθάνουσιν εὖ
οὔτ’ ἂν δύναιντο.
Listen then to how Euripides feels about athletes: 'For though there are myriad evils throughout Greece, there is nothing worse than the race of athletes; who first of all neither learn to live well, nor would they be able to.
πῶς γὰρ ὅστις ἔστ’ ἀνὴρ
γνάθου τε δοῦλος νηδύος θ’ ἡττημένος,
κτήσαιτ’ ἂν ὄλβον εἰς ὑπεκτροφὴν πάτρας;
For how could any man who is a slave to his jaw and conquered by his belly acquire wealth for his fatherland's support?
οὐδ’ αὖ πένεσθαι κἀξυπηρετεῖν τύχαις
〈οἷοί τ’〉· ἔθη γὰρ οὐκ ἐθισθέντες καλὰ
σκληρῶς μεταλλάσσουσιν εἰς τἀμήχανον. ὅτι δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐπιτηδευομένων αὐτοῖς ἕκαστον ἄχρηστόν ἐστιν, ἄκουε πάλιν εἴπερ ἐθέλεις ἅ φησιν· τίς γὰρ παλαίσας εὖ, τίς ὠκύπους ἀνὴρ
ἢ δίσκον ἄρας ἤ γνάθον πλήξας καλῶς
πόλει πατρῴᾳ στέφανον ἤρκεσεν λαβών; εἰ δὲ καὶ τούτων ἔτι λεπτομερέστερον ἀκούειν ἐθέλεις, ἄκουε πάλιν ἅ φησι· πότερα μαχοῦνται πολεμίοισιν ἐν χεροῖν
δίσκους ἔχοντες ἢ δι’ ἀσπίδων ποσὶ
θέοντες ἐκβαλοῦσι πολεμίους πάτρας;
Nor, on the other hand, are they able to be poor and serve their fortunes; for not having been accustomed to good habits, they change with difficulty into helplessness.' And that each of their pursuits is useless, listen again, if you please, to what he says: 'For who, having wrestled well, or what swift-footed man, or having lifted a discus, or having struck a jaw well, has aided his father city by receiving a crown?' And if you wish to hear still more in detail about these things, listen again to what he says: 'Will they fight the enemy hand to hand, holding discuses, or will they drive the enemy from their fatherland by running on foot through shields?
οὐδεὶς σιδήρου ταῦτα μωραίνει πέλας. πότερον οὖν Εὐριπίδου μὲν καὶ τῶν τοιούτων καταγνῶμεν, τοῖς δὲ φιλοσόφοις ἐπιτρέψωμεν τὴν κρίσιν;
No one plays the fool in this way near iron.' Should we then condemn Euripides and his like, and commit the judgment to the philosophers?
ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τούτων ἁπάντων ὥσπερ ἐξ ἑνὸς στόματος ὡμολόγηται φαῦλον εἶναι τὸ ἐπιτήδευμα.
But even by all of them, as if with one voice, it is agreed that the pursuit is bad.
οὐδὲ μὴν οὐδὲ τῶν ἰατρῶν τις ἐπῄνεσεν αὐτό· πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ Ἱπποκράτους ἀκούσῃ λέγοντος ‘διάθεσις ἀθλητικὴ οὐ φύσεις, ἕξις ὑγιεινὴ κρείσσων’, ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων τῶν μετ’ αὐτὸν ἀρίστων ἰατρῶν.
Nor, indeed, did any of the physicians praise it; for first you will hear Hippocrates saying, 'The athletic constitution is not a natural state; a healthy habit is better,' and then also all the other best physicians after him.
ὅλως μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ μάρτυρος οὐκ ἐβουλόμην κρίνεσθαι· ῥητορικὸν γὰρ τὸ τοιοῦτον μᾶλλον ἢ τιμῶντος ἀλήθειαν ἀνδρός· ὅμως δ’ ἐπειδή τινες ἐπὶ τὸν τῶν πολλῶν ἔπαινον καταφεύγουσι καὶ τὴν παρὰ τούτων κενὴν δόξαν, ἀφέντες αὐτὸ 〈τὸ〉 ἐπιτήδευμα γυμνὸν τῶν ἔξωθεν σκοπεῖν, ἠναγκάσθην κἀγὼ τούτους προχειρίσασθαι τοὺς μάρτυρας, ἵν’ ὅτι μηδ’ ἐνταῦθα πλέον ἔχουσί τι γιγνώσκωσιν.
On the whole, then, I did not want to judge by witnesses; for such a thing is rhetorical rather than suitable for a man who honors truth; but nevertheless, since some people flee to the praise of the many and the empty glory from them, leaving aside examining the pursuit itself stripped of external things, I too was forced to produce these witnesses, so that they may know that not even here do they have any advantage.
ὅθεν οὐδὲ τὸ τῆς Φρύνης ἄκαιρον ἤδη μοι διηγήσασθαι.
Whence it is not untimely for me now to relate the story of Phryne.
αὕτη ποτ’ ἐν συμποσίῳ, παιδιᾶς τοιαύτης γενομένης ὡς ἕκαστον ἐν μέρει προστάξαι τοῖς συμπόταις ὃ βούλοιτο, θεασαμένη παρούσας γυναῖκας ἀγχούσῃ τε καὶ ψιμυθίῳ καὶ φύκει κεκαλλωπισμένας ἐκέλευσεν ὕδατος κομισθέντος ἀρυσαμένας ταῖς χερσὶ προσενεγκεῖν ἁπάσας τῷ προσώπῳ καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο εὐθέως ἀπομάξασθαι σινδονίῳ, καὶ αὐτὴ πρώτη τοῦτ’ ἔπραξε.
She once at a banquet, when there was a game of such a kind that each in turn should command the fellow-drinkers whatever he wished, having seen the women present adorned with alkanet, white lead, and rouge, ordered water to be brought, and that they all draw it with their hands and apply it to their faces, and immediately after this wipe it off with a linen cloth; and she herself did this first.
ταῖς μὲν οὖν ἄλλαις ἁπάσαις σπίλου τὸ πρόσωπον ἐπληρώθη, καὶ ἦν ὁμοιότατα ἰδεῖν τοῖς μορμολυκείοις, αὐτὴ δὲ 〈καὶ〉 καλλίων ἐφάνη· μόνη γὰρ ἦν ἀκαλλώπιστός τε καὶ αὐτοφυῶς καλή, μηδεμιᾶς πανουργίας κομμωτικῆς δεομένη.
To all the other women, then, their faces were filled with stains, and they looked most like bogeymen, but she herself appeared even more beautiful; for she alone was unadorned and naturally beautiful, needing no trickery of cosmetics.
ὥσπερ οὖν τὸ ἀληθινὸν κάλλος ἀκριβῶς ἐξετάζεται μόνον αὐτὸ καθ’ ἑαυτὸ τῶν ἔξωθεν αὐτῷ προσόντων ἁπάντων γυμνωθέν, οὕτω καὶ τὴν ἀθλητικὴν ἐπιτήδευσιν ἐξετάζεσθαι προσήκει μόνην, εἴ τι φαίνοιτ’ ἔχειν χρήσιμον ἢ κοινῇ ταῖς πόλεσιν ἢ ἰδίᾳ τοῖς μεταχειριζομένοις αὐτήν.
Just as, therefore, true beauty is tested accurately only by itself, stripped of all its external additions, so too it is fitting to test the athletic pursuit alone, to see if it appears to have anything useful either in common for cities or individually for those who practice it.