Ath.O my friend,there will be no difficulty,for the law has already given and will give him permission to select as his assistants in this charge any citizens,male or female,whom he desires;and he will know whom he ought to choose,and will be anxious not to make a mistake,from a due sense of responsibility,and from a consciousness of the importance of his office,and also because he will consider that if young men have been and are well brought up,then all things go swimmingly,but if not,it is not meet to say,nor do we say,what will follow,lest the regarders of omens should take alarm about our infant state.Many things have been said by us about dancing and about gymnastic movements in general;for we include under gymnastics all military exercises,such as archery,and all hurling of weapons,and the use of the light shield,and all fighting with heavy arms,and military evolutions,and movements of armies,and encampings,and all that relates to horsemanship.Of all these things there ought to be public teachers,receiving pay from the state,and their pupils should be the men and boys in the state,and also the girls and women,who are to know all these things.While they are yet girls they should have practised dancing in arms and the whole art of fighting-when grown-up women,they should apply themselves to evolutions and tactics,and the mode of grounding and taking up arms;if for no other reason,yet in case the whole military force should have to leave the city and carry on operations of war outside,that those who will have to guard the young and the rest of the city may be equal to the task;and,on the other hand,when enemies,whether barbarian or Hellenic,come from without with mighty force and make a violent assault upon them,and thus compel them to fight for the possession of the city,which is far from being an impossibility,great would be the disgrace to the state,if the women had been so miserably trained that they could not fight for their young,as birds will,against any creature however strong,and die or undergo any danger,but must instantly rush to the temples and crowd at the altars and shrines,and bring upon human nature the reproach,that of all animals man is the most cowardly!
Cle.Such a want of education,Stranger,is certainly an unseemly thing to happen in a state,as well as a great misfortune.
Ath.Suppose that we carry our law to the extent of saying that women ought not to neglect military matters,but that all citizens,male and female alike,shall attend to them?
Cle.I quite agree.
Ath.Of wrestling we have spoken in part,but of what I should call the most important part we have not spoken,and cannot easily speak without showing at the same time by gesture as well as in word what we mean;when word and action combine,and not till then,we shall explain clearly what has been said,pointing out that of all movements wrestling is most akin to the military art,and is to be pursued for the sake of this,and not this for the sake of wrestling.
Cle.Excellent.
Ath.Enough of wrestling;we will now proceed to speak of other movements of the body.Such motion may be in general called dancing,and is of two kinds:one of nobler figures,imitating the honourable,the other of the more ignoble figures,imitating the mean;and of both these there are two further subdivisions.Of the serious,one kind is of those engaged in war and vehement action,and is the exercise of a noble person and a manly heart;the other exhibits a temperate soul in the enjoyment of prosperity and modest pleasures,and may be truly called and is the dance of peace.The warrior dance is different from the peaceful one,and may be rightly termed Pyrrhic;this imitates the modes of avoiding blows and missiles by dropping or giving way,or springing aside,or rising up or falling down;also the opposite postures which are those of action,as,for example,the imitation of archery and the hurling of javelins,and of all sorts of blows.And when the imitation is of brave bodies and souls,and the action is direct and muscular,giving for the most part a straight movement to the limbs of the body-that,I say,is the true sort;but the opposite is not right.In the dance of peace what we have to consider is whether a man bears himself naturally and gracefully,and after the manner of men who duly conform to the law.