The Erotic Essay (21-25)

Furthermore, while the majority of men, when young, seek a reputation for prudence by keeping silent, you are so superior to them in natural gifts that you gain men’s good opinion of you not less by your speech and demeanor in casual company than by all your other merits; so great is the grace and charm of your words whether in jest or in earnest. For you are ingenuous without doing wrong, clever without being malicious, kindly without sacrifice of independence, and, taking all in all, like a child of Virtue sired by Love.[*]

Turning now to courage—for it will not do to omit this either, not because I would intimate that your character does not still admit of great development nor that the future will fail to furnish richer material for eulogy to those who wish to praise you, but rather that words of praise mean most at your age when to do no wrong is the best hope for other lads—your courage a man might extol on many other grounds but especially because of your training for athletic sports, of which you have a multitude of witnesses.

And perhaps it is in place first to say that you have done well in choosing this kind of contest. For to judge rightly when one is young what line of action one should pursue[*] is the token of an honest soul and of sound judgement alike, and on neither ground would it be right to omit praise of your choice.

You, therefore, being well aware that slaves and aliens share in the other sports but that dismounting is open only to citizens and that the best men aspire it, have eagerly applied yourself to this sport.[*]

Discerning, moreover, that those who train for the footraces add nothing to their courage nor to their morale either, and that those who practice boxing and the like ruin their minds as well as their bodies, you have singled out the noblest and grandest of competitive exercises and the one most in harmony with your natural gifts, one which approximates to the realities of warfare through the habituation to martial weapons and the laborious effort of running, in the magnificence and majesty of the equipment simulates the might of the gods,[*]

presents the number and the greatest variety of features and has been deemed worthy of the most valuable prizes. For, apart from those offered, getting the drill and practice in such exercises itself will possess glamor as no paltry prize in the eyes of those who are even moderately ambitious for excellence. The best evidence for this may be found in the poetry of Homer, in which he represents the Greeks and barbarians warring against one another with this equipment.[*] I may add that even now it is customary to employ it in contests in Greek cities, and not in the meanest cities but in the greatest.[*]