Lucian of Samosata, Anacharsis, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 16

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[16]

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?

SOLON

But really, Anacharsis, even those prizes will no longer appear trivial to you when you understand what I mean. They originate in the same purpose, and are all small parts of that greater contest and of the wreath of complete felicity which I mentioned. Our conversation, departing somehow or other from the natural sequence, touched first upon the doings at the Isthmus and Olympia and Nemea. However, as we are at leisure and you are eager, you say, to hear, it will be an easy matter for us to hark back to the -beginning, to the common competition which is, as I say, the object of all these practices.

ANACHARSIS

It would be better, Solon, to do so, for by keeping to the highway our talk would make greater progress, and perhaps knowing these prizes may persuade me never again to laugh at those others, if I should see a man putting on airs because he wears a wreath of wild olive or parsley. But if it is all the same to you, let us go into the shade over yonder and sit on the benches, so as not to be annoyed by the men who are shouting at the wrestlers. Besides—I may as well be frank!—I no longer find it easy to stand the sun, which is fierce and burning as it beats upon my bare head. I thought it best to leave my cap at home, so as not to be the only person among you in a foreign costume.¹_ But the season of the year is the very fieriest, for the star which you call the Dog burns everything up and makes the air dry and parching, and the sun, now hanging overhead at midday, produces this blazing heat, insupportable to the body. I wonder, therefore, how it is that you, an elderly man, do not perspire in the heat as I do, and do not seem to be troubled by it at all; you do not even look about for a shady spot to enter, but stand the sun with ease.

SOLON

These useless exertions, Anacharsis, the continual somersaults in the mud and the open-air struggles in the sand give us our immunity from the shafts of the sun and we have no further need of a cap to keep its rays from striking our heads.

Anacharsis. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Anacharsis, or Athletics (English) (Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Ἀνάχαρσις ἢ Περὶ Γυμνασίων Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 4. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925 (printing).) — 16 focus

Ἀνάχαρσις

εἶτα, ὦ θαυμάσιε Σόλων, τοιαῦτά μοι καὶ τηλικαῦτα ἔχων ἆθλα διεξιέναι, μῆλα καὶ σέλινα διηγοῦ καὶ θαλλὸν ἐλαίας ἀγρίας καὶ πίτυν;

Σόλων

καὶ μήν, ὦ Ἀνάχαρσι, οὐδʼ ἐκεῖνά σοι ἔτι δόξει μικρὰ εἶναι, ὁπόταν ἃ λέγω καταμάθῃς· ἀπὸ γάρ τοι τῆς αὐτῆς γνώμης γίγνεται, καὶ μέρη πάντα ταῦτά ἐστι μικρὰ τοῦ μείζονος ἐκείνου ἀγῶνος καὶ τοῦ στεφάνου ὃν κατέλεξα τοῦ πανευδαίμονος. ὁ δὲ λόγος, οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅπως ὑπερβὰς τὴν τάξιν, ἐκείνων πρότερον¹ ἐπεμνήσθη τῶν Ἰσθμοῖ γιγνομένων καὶ Ὀλυμπίασι καὶ ἐν Νεμέᾳ. πλὴν ἀλλὰ νώ — σχολὴν γὰρ ἄγομεν καὶ σύ, ὡς φής, προθυμῇ ἀκούειν — ἀναδραμούμεθα ῥᾳδίως πρὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ τὸν κοινὸν ἀγῶνα διʼ ὅν φημι πάντα ταῦτα ἐπιτηδεύεσθαι.

Ἀνάχαρσις

ἄμεινον, ὦ Σόλων, οὕτως· καθʼ ὁδὸν γὰρ ἂν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος μᾶλλον προχωροίη, καὶ τάχʼ ἂν ἴσως ἀπὸ τούτων πεισθείην μηδὲ ἐκείνων ἔτι καταγελᾶν, εἴ τινα ἴδοιμι σεμνυνόμενον κοτίνῳ ἢ σελίνῳ ἐστεφανωμένον. ἀλλʼ εἰ δοκεῖ, εἰς τὸ σύσκιον ἐκεῖσε ἀπελθόντες καθίσωμεν ἐπὶ τῶν θάκων, ὡς μὴ ἐνοχλοῖεν ἡμῖν οἱ² ἐπικεκραγότες τοῖς παλαίουσιν. ἄλλως τε — εἰρήσεται γάρ — οὐδὲ τὸν ἥλιον ἔτι ῥᾳδίως ἀνέχομαι ὀξὺν καὶ φλογμώδη ἐμπίπτοντα γυμνῇ τῇ κεφαλῇ. τὸν γὰρ πῖλόν μοι ἀφελεῖν οἴκοθεν ἔδοξεν, ὡς μὴ μόνος ἐν ὑμῖν ξενίζοιμι τῷ σχήματι. ἡ δὲ ὥρα τοῦ ἔτους ὅ τι περ τὸ πυρωδέστατόν ἐστι, τοῦ ἀστέρος ὃν ὑμεῖς κύνα φατὲ πάντα καταφλέγοντος καὶ τὸν ἀέρα ξηρὸν καὶ διακαῆ τιθέντος, ὅ τε ἥλιος κατὰ μεσημβρίαν ἤδη ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς ἐπικείμενος φλογμὸν τοῦτον οὐ φορητὸν ἐπάγει τοῖς σώμασιν. ὥστε καὶ σοῦ θαυμάζω, ὅπως γηραιὸς ἤδη ἄνθρωπος οὔτε ἰδίεις πρὸς τὸ θάλπος ὥσπερ ἐγὼ οὔτε ὅλως ἐνοχλουμένῳ ἔοικας, οὐδὲ περιβλέπεις σύσκιόν τι ἔνθα ὑποδύσῃ, ἀλλὰ δέχῃ τὸν ἥλιον εὐμαρῶς.

Σόλων

οἱ μάταιοι γὰρ οὗτοι πόνοι, ὦ Ἀνάχαρσι, καὶ αἱ συνεχεῖς ἐν τῷ πηλῷ κυβιστήσεις καὶ αἱ ὕπαιθροι ἐν τῇ ψάμμῳ ταλαιπωρίαι τοῦτο ἡμῖν τὸ ἀμυντήριον παρέχουσι πρὸς τὰς τοῦ ἡλίου βολάς, καὶ οὐκέτι πίλου δεόμεθα ὃς τὴν ἀκτῖνα κωλύσει καθικνεῖσθαι τῆς κεφαλῆς.

Translations (1)

Anacharsis, a Discussion of Physical Training Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 16 focus

[16]

Anacharsis

You strange man! you had all these grand prizes up your sleeve, and you told me a tale of apples and parsley and tufts of wild olive and pine.

Solon

Ah, you will not think those such trifles either, when you take my meaning. They are manifestations of the same spirit, all small parts of that greater contest, and of the wreath of happiness I told you of. But it is true that instead of beginning at the beginning I was carried away to the meetings at the Isthmus and Olympia and Nemea. However, we have plenty of time, and you profess curiosity; it is a simple matter to go back to the beginning, to that many-prized contest which I tell you is the real end of all.

Anacharsis

That will be better; we are more likely to prosper on the high road; perhaps I shall even be cured of my inclination to laugh at any one I see priding himself on his olive or parsley wreath. But I propose that we go into the shade over there and sit down on the benches, not to be interrupted by these rounds of cheering. And indeed I must confess I have had enough of this sun; how it scorches one’s bare head! I did not want to look like a foreigner, so I left my hat at home. But the year is at its hottest; the dog-star, as you call it, is burning everything up, and not leaving a drop of moisture in the air; and the noonday sun right overhead gives an absolutely intolerable heat. I cannot make out how you at your age, so far from dripping like me, never turn a hair; instead of looking about for some hospitable shade, you take your sunning quite kindly.

Solon

Ah, Anacharsis, these useless toils, these perpetual claybaths, these miseries in the sand and the open air, are prophylactics against the sun’s rays; we need no hats to ward off his shafts. But come along.

Notes on the current edition

Anacharsis, or Athletics

A great pointed cap of felt or skin was part of the Scythian costume. The Greeks went bare-headed, unless they were ill, or on a journey, or regularly exposed to bad weather, like sailors and farm-labourerr, who wore a similar but smaller cap.

Lucian of Samosata Anacharsis 16

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

ANACHARSIS

SOLON

ANACHARSIS

SOLON

Current edition Perseus

Ἀνάχαρσις

εἶτα, ὦ θαυμάσιε Σόλων, τοιαῦτά μοι καὶ τηλικαῦτα ἔχων ἆθλα διεξιέναι, μῆλα καὶ σέλινα διηγοῦ καὶ θαλλὸν ἐλαίας ἀγρίας καὶ πίτυν;

Anacharsis

Solon

Anacharsis

Solon

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

ANACHARSIS

SOLON

ANACHARSIS

SOLON

Current edition Perseus

Ἀνάχαρσις εἶτα, ὦ θαυμάσιε Σόλων, τοιαῦτά μοι καὶ τηλικαῦτα ἔχων ἆθλα διεξιέναι, μῆλα καὶ σέλινα διηγοῦ καὶ θαλλὸν ἐλαίας ἀγρίας καὶ πίτυν;

Anacharsis

Solon

Anacharsis

Solon

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers

Ἀνάχαρσις

εἶτα, ὦ θαυμάσιε Σόλων, τοιαῦτά μοι καὶ τηλικαῦτα ἔχων ἆθλα διεξιέναι, μῆλα καὶ σέλινα διηγοῦ καὶ θαλλὸν ἐλαίας ἀγρίας καὶ πίτυν;