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SOLON To describe everything, my friend, in brief compass is not an easy task, but if you take it up a little at a time, you will find out in detail all the opinions we hold about the gods and about parents, marriage, and everything else. And I shall now tell you what we think about our young men, and how we deal with them from the time when they begin to know good from bad, to be physically mature, and to bear hardships, in order that you may learn why we prescribe these exercises for them and compel them to train their bodies. It is not simply on account of the contests, in order that they may be able to take the prizes—very few out of the entire number have the capacity for that—but because we seek a certain greater good from it for the entire state and for the young men themselves. There is another competition which is open to all good citizens in common, and a wreath that is not made of pine or olive or parsley, but contains in itself all human felicity,—that is to say, freedom for each individual singly and for the state in general, wealth, glory, enjoyment of ancestral feast-days, safety for one’s family, and in short, the fairest blessings that one could pray to receive from the gods. All these things are interwoven in the wreath that I speak of and accrue from the contest to which these exercises and hardships lead.
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ANACHARSIS Then, Solon, you amazing person, when you had such magnificent prizes to tell of, you spoke of apples and parsley and a sprig of wild olive and a bit of pine?
