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Isocrates, Speeches and Letters (ed. George Norlin)Editions and translations: Greek (ed. George Norlin) | English (ed. George Norlin)Your current position in the text is marked in red. Click anywhere on the line to jump to another position.
Many times have I wondered at those who first convoked the national assemblies and established the athletic games,1 amazed that they should have thought the prowess of men's bodies to be deserving of so great bounties, while to those who had toiled in private for the public good and trained their own minds so as to be able to help also their fellow-men they apportioned no reward whatsoever,2 1 Pan-Hellenic gatherings at the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian games, including also the Pan-atheniac festival at Athens. See Gardner and Jevons, Manual of Greek Antiquities, pp. 269 ff. 2 This is not quite exact (see Lys. 33.2), nor consistent with ยง 45 where he mentions contests of intellect and prizes for them. But the mild interest which these evoked served but to emphasize the excess of enthusiasm for athletics against which Isocrates here and elsewhere protests. Cf. Isoc. 15.250 and Isoc. Letter 8.5. The complaint is older than Isocrates. See Xenophanes, Fr. 19. There are a total of 3 comments on and cross references to this page.
Cross references from Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache (ed. Ildar Ibraguimov):
Cross references from J.F. Dobson, The Greek Orators: Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Isoc.+4+1 The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text. This text is based on the following book(s): Buy a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com: vol. 1; vol. 2; vol. 3 |