Ἀνάχαρσις ἢ Περὶ Γυμνασίων

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İngilizce İngilizce Yunanca

28 As for the mud and the dust, which you thought rather ludicrous in the beginning, you amazing person, let me tell you why it is put down. In the first place, so that instead of taking their tumbles on a hard surface they may fall with impunity on a soft one; secondly, their slipperiness is necessarily greater when they are sweaty and muddy. This feature, in which you compared them to eels, is not useless or ludicrous; it contributes not a little to strength and muscle when both are in this condition and each has to grip the other firmly and hold him fast while he tries to slip away. And as for picking up a. man who is muddy, sweaty, and oily while he does his best to break away and squirm out of your hands, do not think it a trifle! All this, as I said before, is of use in war, in case one should need to pick up a wounded friend and carry him out of the fight with ease, or to snatch up an enemy and come back with him in one’s arms, So we train them beyond measure, setting them hard tasks that: they may manage smaller ones with far greater ease.