Memorabilia

On noticing that Epigenes, one of his companions, was in poor condition, for a young man, he said: You look as if you need exercise,[*](ἰδιώτης is one who is ignorant of any profession or occupation: ἰδιωτικῶς ἔχειν here means to be ignorant of athletic training.) Epigenes.Well, he replied, I’m not an athlete, Socrates.Just as much as the competitors entered for Olympia, he retorted. Or do you count the life and death struggle with their enemies, upon which, it may be, the Athenians will enter, but a small thing?

Why, many, thanks to their bad condition, lose their life in the perils of war or save it disgracefully: many, just for this same cause, are taken prisoners, and then either pass the rest of their days, perhaps, in slavery of the hardest kind, or, after meeting with cruel sufferings and paying, sometimes, more than they have, live on, destitute and in misery. Many, again, by their bodily weakness earn infamy, being thought cowards.

Or do you despise these, the rewards of bad condition, and think that you can easily endure such things? And yet I suppose that what has to be borne by anyone who takes care to keep his body in good condition is far lighter and far pleasanter than these things. Or is it that you think bad condition healthier and generally more serviceable than good, or do you despise the effects of good condition?

And yet the results of physical fitness are the direct opposite of those that follow from unfitness. The fit are healthy and strong; and many, as a consequence, save themselves decorously on the battle-field and escape all the dangers of war; many help friends and do good to their country and for this cause earn gratitude; get great glory and gain very high honours, and for this cause live henceforth a pleasanter and better life, and leave to their children better means of winning a livelihood.

I tell you, because military training is not publicly recognised by the state, you must not make that an excuse for being a whit less careful in attending to it yourself. For you may rest assured that there is no kind of struggle, apart from war, and no undertaking in which you will be worse off by keeping your body in better fettle. For in everything that men do the body is useful; and in all uses of the body it is of great importance to be in as high a state of physical efficiency as possible.

Why, even in the process of thinking, in which the use of the body seems to be reduced to a minimum, it is matter of common knowledge that grave mistakes may often be traced to bad health. And because the body is in a bad condition, loss of memory, depression, discontent, insanity often assail the mind so violently as to drive whatever knowledge it contains clean out of it.

But a sound and healthy body is a strong protection to a man, and at least there is no danger then of such a calamity happening to him through physical weakness: on the contrary, it is likely that his sound condition will serve to produce effects the opposite of those that arise from bad condition. And surely a man of sense would submit to anything to obtain the effects that are the opposite of those mentioned in my list.

Besides, it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.

On a man who was angry because his greeting was not returned: Ridiculous! he exclaimed; you would not have been angry if you had met a man in worse health; and yet you are annoyed because you have come across someone with ruder manners!

On another who declared that he found no pleasure in eating: Acumenus, he said, has a good prescription for that ailment. And when asked What? he answered, Stop eating; and you will then find life pleasanter, cheaper, and healthier.

On yet another who complained that the drinking water at home was warm: Consequently, he said, when you want warm water to wash in, you will have it at hand.But it’s too cold for washing, objected the other.Then do your servants complain when they use it both for drinking and washing?Oh no: indeed I have often felt surprised that they are content with it for both these purposes.Which is the warmer to drink, the water in your house or Epidaurus water?[*](The hot spring in the precincts of Asclepius’ temple at Epidaurus.)Epidaurus water.And which is the colder to wash in, yours or Oropus water?[*](The spring by the temple of Amphiaraus at Oropus in Boeotia.)Oropus water.Then reflect that you are apparently harder to please than servants and invalids.

When someone punished his footman severely, he asked why he was angry with his man.Because he’s a glutton and he’s a fool, said the other: he’s rapacious and he’s lazy.Have you ever considered, then, which deserves the more stripes, the master or the man?

When someone was afraid of the journey to Olympia, he said:Why do you fear the distance? When you are at home, don’t you spend most of the day in walking about? on your way there you will take a walk before lunch, and another before dinner, and then take a rest. Don’t you know that if you put together the walks you take in five or six days, you can easily cover the distance from Athens to Olympia? It is more comfortable, too, to start a day early rather than a day late, since to be forced to make the stages of the journey unduly long is unpleasant; but to take a day extra on the way makes easy going. So it is better to hurry over the start than on the road.

When another said that he was worn out after a long journey, he asked him whether he had carried a load.Oh no, said the man; only my cloak.Were you alone, or had you a footman with you?I had.Empty-handed or carrying anything?He carried the rugs and the rest of the baggage, of course.And how has he come out of the journey?Better than I, so far as I can tell.Well then, if you had been forced to carry his load, how would you have felt, do you suppose?Bad, of course; or rather, I couldn’t have done it.Indeed! do you think a trained man ought to be so much less capable of work than his slave?

Whenever some of the members of a dining-club brought more meat[*](ὄψον, literally a tit-bit eaten with bread; Lat. pulmentum.) than others, Socrates would tell the waiter either to put the small contribution into the common stock or to portion it out equally among the diners. So the high batteners felt obliged not only to take their share of the pool, but to pool their own supplies in return; and so they put their own supplies also into the common stock. And since they thus got no more than those who brought little with them, they gave up spending much on meat.

He observed on one occasion that one of the company at dinner had ceased to take bread, and ate the meat by itself. Now the talk was of names and the actions to which they are properly applied. Can we say, my friends, said Socrates, what is the nature of the action for which a man is called greedy? For all, I presume, eat meat with their bread when they get the chance: but I don’t think there is so far any reason for calling them greedy?No, certainly not, said one of the company.

Well, suppose he eats the meat alone, without the bread, not because he’s in training, but to tickle his palate, does he seem a greedy fellow or not?If not, it’s hard to say who does, was the reply.Here another of the company queried, And he who eats a scrap of bread with a large helping of meat?He too seems to me to deserve the epithet, said Socrates. Aye, and when others pray for a good wheat harvest, he, presumably, would pray for a good meat supply.

The young man, guessing that these remarks of Socrates applied to him, did not stop eating his meat, but took some bread with it. When Socrates observed this, he cried: Watch the fellow, you who are near him, and see whether he treats the bread as his meat or the meat as his bread.