The Instructor 3.10.51
Summary: Reading aloud and plain wrestling are good exercise, not for rivalry or show; in exercise as in everything, the mean between idleness and excess is best.
Greek text · Stählin 1:265–266
πολλοῖς δὲ ἔσθʼ ὅτε καὶ τὸ γεγωνὸς τῆς ἀναγνώσεως γυμνάσιόν ἐστιν. καὶ δὴ τά γε [καὶ] κατὰ πάλην, ἣν ἐνεκρίναμεν, μὴ φιλονεικίας ἀχρήστου παραλαμβανέσθω χάριν, εἰς δὲ ἱδρώτων ἀνδρωδῶν ἐκκρίσεις· καὶ οὔτι γε τὸ ἔντεχνον διαπονητέον, τὸ ἐπιδεικτικὸν αὐτῆς, τὰ δὲ ἀπὸ ὀρθῆς πάλης, ἀπʼ αὐχένων καὶ χειρῶν καὶ πλευρῶν ἐξειλήσεως· κοσμιωδεστέρα γὰρ καὶ ἀνδρωδεστέρα μετʼ εὐσχήμονος ῥώμης ἡ τοιαύτη διαπόνησις ὑγείας ἕνεκεν εὐχρήστου καὶ ὀνησιφόρου παραλαμβανομένη, οἱ δὲ ἄλλοι πόνοι γυμναστικῆς οὐκ ἐλευθέρων στάσεων μελέτην καταγγέλλοντες. πανταχοῦ δὲ τοῦ μέτρου στοχαστέον. ὡς γὰρ πόνους σιτίων ἡγεῖσθαι ἄριστον, οὕτως τὸ ὑπὲρ τὸ μέτρον πονεῖν καὶ κάκιστον καὶ κοπῶδες καὶ νοσοποιόν. οὔτʼ οὖν παντάπασιν ἀργὸν εἶναι χρὴ οὐδὲ μὴν παντελῶς ἐπίπονον. καθάπερ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῆς τροφῆς διεξεληλύθαμεν, παραπλησίως ἐν πᾶσι καὶ πανταχοῦ οὐ πρὸς ἡδυπάθειαν τετράφθαι καὶ ἀκόλαστον χρὴ δίαιταν οὐδʼ αὖ πρὸς τὴν ἐναντίαν τὴν ἄκρατον, ἀλλὰ τὴν μεταξὺ τούτων τὴν ἐμμελῆ τε καὶ σώφρονα καὶ καθαρὰν ἑκατέρας κακίας,
English · Claude translation
For many, reading aloud is sometimes an exercise too. As for wrestling, which we have accepted, let it be taken up not for the sake of useless rivalry but for the manly sweating it produces; and not the artful kind, for show, but straight wrestling, with the unwinding of necks, hands, and sides. For such exercise is more decorous and manly, with seemly strength, taken up for useful and beneficial health; while the other exercises of the gymnasium teach unfree postures. Everywhere we must aim at measure. As it is best to take exercise before meals, so to labor beyond measure is worst, fatiguing, and causes disease. One should be neither entirely idle nor wholly laborious. As we discussed concerning food, so in everything and everywhere one must turn neither to voluptuousness and a licentious way of life nor to its opposite extreme, but to the mean between them, harmonious, self-controlled, and pure of both vices,
About this passage
Notes
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- The sentence continues in the next section.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.10.51 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/10/51/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Paed. 3.10.51 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-paedagogus/3/10/51/).
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