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ANACHARSIS I do not understand this at all, Solon; what you have said is too subtle for me, requiring keen intellect and penetrating discernment. But do by all means tell me why it is that in the Olympic and Isthmian and Pythian and the other games, where many, you say, come together to see the young men competing, you never match them under arms but bring them out naked and show them receiving kicks and blows, and when they have won you give them apples and parsley. It is worth while to know why you do so SOLON We think, Anacharsis, that their zeal for the athletic exercises will be increased if they see those who excel in them receiving honours and having their names proclaimed before the assembled Greeks. For this reason, expecting to appear unclothed before so many people, they try to attain good physical condition so that they may not be ashamed of themselves when they are stripped, and each makes himself as fit to win as he can. Furthermore, the prizes, as I said before, are not trivial—to be praised by the spectators, to become a man of mark, and to be pointed at with the finger as the best of one’s class. Therefore many of the spectators, who are still young enough for training, go away immoderately in love with manfulness and hard work as a result of all this. Really, Anacharsis, if the love of fame should be banished out of the world, what new blessing should we ever acquire, or who would want to do any glorious deed? But as things are, even from these contests they give you an opportunity to infer what they would be in war, defending country, children, wives, and fanes with weapons and armour, when contending naked for parsley and apples they bring into it so much zeal for victory.
