The Erotic Essay

Personally I think you deserve to be eulogized all the more for this reason, that, while the other lads think it one of the impossible things to please men of every type,[*](Blass calls attention to this same thought in Dem. L. 3.27, but Theog. 23-26 shows it to be an ancient commonplace.) you have so surpassed these as to have risen superior to all the difficult and troublesome people, allowing the others no reason even for suspecting immoral relations with any and overcoming your annoyance with them by the adaptability of your manners.

Now touching your admirers, if it is right to speak also of these, you seem to me to deport yourself so admirably and sensibly toward them, that, though most of them cannot be patient even with the object of their preference, you succeed in pleasing them all exceedingly. And this is a most unmistakable proof of your goodness; for not one finds himself disappointed of favors from you which it is just and fair to ask, but no one is permitted even to hope for such liberties as lead to shame. So great is the latitude your discreetness permits to those who have the best intentions; so great is the discouragement it presents to those who would fling off restraint.

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.[*](This is the language of poetry as predicted in Dem. 61.2.)

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[*](Blass notes a similarity in the Dem. 60.17; not impressive.) 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.[*](The contestants were called apobates, desultores, i.e. dismounters. The drivers seem to have dismounted at times and raced with the teams. Dion. Halicarn. Roman Antiq. 7.73; E. Norman Gardiner, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals, pp. 237-239.)

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,[*](Certain gods were represented as using chariots, particularly Ares and Poseidon.)