Kitap 8
839
Meg. And you were right in that.
839
Ath. Still, to show that it is not beyond the power of man, but possible, would you like me to try to state an argument which is not without some plausibility?
839
Clin. Certainly.
839
Ath. Would a man be more ready to abstain from sex-indulgence, and to consent to carry out the law on this matter soberly, if he had his body not ill-trained, but in good condition, than if he had it in bad condition?
839
Clin. He would be much more ready if it were not ill-trained.
840
Ath. Do we not know by report about IccusCp. Plat. Prot. 316d ff. of Tarentum, because of his contests at Olympia and elsewhere,— how, spurred on by ambition and skill, and possessing courage combined with temperance in his soul, during all the period of his training (as the story goes) he never touched a woman, nor yet a boy? And the same story is told about Crison and Astylus and Diopompus and very many others. And yet, Clinias, these men were not only much worse educated in soul then your citizens and mine, but they also possessed much more sexual vigor of body.
840
Clin. That this really happened in the case of these athletes is indeed, as you say, confidently affirmed by the ancients.
840
Ath. Well then, if those men had the fortitude to abstain from that which most men count bliss for the sake of victory in wrestling, running, and the like, shall our boys be unable to hold out in order to win a much nobler victory—that which is the noblest of all victories, as we shall tell them from their childhood’s days, charming them into belief, we hope, by tales and sentences and songs.
840
Clin. What victory?
840
Ath. Victory over pleasures,—which if they win, they will live a life of bliss, but if they lose, the very opposite. Furthermore, will not the dread that this is a thing utterly unholy give them power to master those impulses which men inferior to themselves have mastered?
840
Clin. It is certainly reasonable to suppose so.
