Anacharsis, or Athletics (36-40)

ANACHARSIS I do not understand this at all, Solon; what you have said is too subtle for me, requiring keen intellect and penetrating discernment. But do by all means tell me why it is that in the Olympic and Isthmian and Pythian and the other games, where many, you say, come together to see the young men competing, you never match them under arms but bring them out naked and show them receiving kicks and blows, and when they have won you give them apples and parsley. It is worth while to know why you do so

SOLON We think, Anacharsis, that their zeal for the athletic exercises will be increased if they see those who excel in them receiving honours and having their names proclaimed before the assembled Greeks. For this reason, expecting to appear unclothed before so many people, they try to attain good physical condition so that they may not be ashamed of themselves when they are stripped, and each makes himself as fit to win as he can. Furthermore, the prizes, as I said before, are not trivial—to be praised by the spectators, to become a man of mark, and to be pointed at with the finger as the best of one’s class. Therefore many of the spectators, who are still young enough for training, go away immoderately in love with manfulness and hard work as a result of all this. Really, Anacharsis, if the love of fame should be banished out of the world, what new blessing should we ever acquire, or who would want to do any glorious deed? But as things are, even from these contests they give you an opportunity to infer what they would be in war, defending country, children, wives, and fanes with weapons and armour, when contending naked for parsley and apples they bring into it so much zeal for victory.

What would your feelings be if you should see quail-fights and cock-fights here among us, and no little interest taken in them? You would laugh, of course, particularly if you discovered that we do it in compliance with law, and that all those of military age are required to present themselves and watch the birds spar to the uttermost limit of exhaustion. Yet this is not laughable, either: their souls are gradually penetrated by an appetite for dangers, in order that

they may not seem baser and more cowardly than the cocks, and may not show the white feather early on account of wounds or weariness or any other hardship.

As for testing them under arms, and watching them get wounded—no! It is bestial and terribly cruel and, more than that, unprofitable to kill off the most efficient men who can be used to better advantage against the enemy. As you say that you intend to visit the rest of Greece, Anacharsis, bear it in mind if ever you go to Sparta not to laugh at them, either, and not to suppose that they are exerting themselves for nothing when they rush together and strike one another in the theatre over a ball, or when they go into a place surrounded by water, divide into companies and treat one another like enemies, naked as with us, until one company drives the other out of the enclosure, crowding them into the water—the Heraclids driving out the Lycurgids, or the reverse—after which there is peace in future and nobody would think of striking a blow. Above all, do not laugh if you see them getting flogged at the altar and dripping blood while their fathers and mothers stand by and are so far from being distressed by what is going on that they actually threaten to punish them if they should not bear up under the stripes, and beseech them to endure the pain as long as possible and be staunch under the torture. Asa matter of fact, many have died in the competition, not deigning to give in before the eyes of their kinsmen while they still had life in them, or even to move a muscle of their bodies; you will see honours paid to their statues, which have been set up at public cost by the state of Sparta.

When you see all that, do not suppose them crazy, and do not say that they are undergoing misery without any stringent reason, since it is due neither to a tyrant’s violence nor to an enemy’s maltreatment. Lycurgus, their law-giver, could defend it by telling you many good reasons which he has discerned for punishing them; he is not unfriendly to them, and does not do it out of hatred, nor is he wantonly wasting the young blood of the city, but he desires that those who are destined to preserve their country should be tremendously staunch and superior to every fear. Yet, even if Lycurgus does not say so, you see for yourself, I suppose, that such aman, on being captured in war, would never betray any Spartan secret under torture inflicted by the enemy, but would laugh at them and take his whipping, matching himself against his flogger to see which would give in.

ANACHARSIS But how about Lycurgus himself, Solon? Did he get flogged in his youth, or was he then over the agelimit for the competition, so that he could introduce such an innovation with impunity?

SOLON He was an old man when he made the laws for them on his return from Crete. He had gone to visit the Cretans because he was told that they enjoyed the best laws, since Minos, a son of Zeus, had been their law-giver.

ANACHARSIS Then why is it, Solon, that you have not imitated Lycurgus and do not flog your young men? It isa splendid practice, and worthy of you Athenians!

SOLON Because we are content, Anacharsis, with these exercises, which are our own; we do not much care to copy foreign fashions.

ANACHARSIS No: you understand, I think, what it is like to be flogged naked, holding up one’s arms, for no advantage either to the individual himself or to the city in general. Oh, if ever I am at Sparta at the time when they are doing this, I expect I shall very soon be stoned to death by them publicly for laughing at them every time I see them getting beaten like robbers or sneak-thieves or similar malefactors. Really, it seems to me that the city stands in need of hellebore[*] if it mishandles itself so ridiculously.

SOLON Do not think, my worthy friend, that you are winning your case by default, or in the absence of your adversaries, as the only speaker. There will be someone or other in Sparta who will reply to you properly in defence of this. However, as I have told you about our ways and you do not seem to be much pleased with them, I do not think it will be unfair to ask you to tell me in

your turn how you Scythians discipline your young men, what exercises you use in bringing them up, and how you make them good men.

ANACHARSIS It is entirely fair, to be sure, Solon, and I shall tell you the Scythian customs, which are not imposing, perhaps, or on the same plane as yours, since we should not dare to receive a single blow in the face; we are cowards! They shall be told, however, no matter what they are. But let us put off the discussion, if you will, till to-morrow, so that I may quietly ponder a little longer over what you have said, and get together what I must say, going over it in my memory. At present, let us go away with this understanding, for it is now evening.