Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae 13.566e: praising female athletics in Sparta and Chios

Athenaeus of Naucratis, Deipnosophistae 13.566e: praising female athletics in Sparta and Chios

2nd/3rd century CE

Anecdote collection

Literary source

And do not we too, even in the case of inanimate things, prefer what is the most beautiful? The fashion, too, of Sparta is much praised, I mean that of displaying their virgins naked to their guests; and in the island of Chios it is a beautiful sight to go to the gymnasia and the race-courses, and to see the young men wrestling naked with the maidens, who are also naked.

Charles D. Yonge, The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the learned of Athenaeus, London 1854.

ἡμεῖς δ᾽ οὐχὶ καὶ τῶν ἀψύχων τὰ κάλλιστα προκρίνομεν; ἐπαινεῖται καὶ τῶν Σπαρτιατῶν τὸ ἔθος τὸ γυμνοῦν τὰς παρθένους τοῖς ξένοις. ἐν Χίῳ δὲ τῇ νήσῳ καὶ βαδίζειν ἥδιστόν ἐστιν ἐπὶ τὰ γυμνάσια καὶ τοὺς δρόμους καὶ ὁρᾶν προσπαλαίοντας τοὺς νέους ταῖς κόραις.

Charles Burton Gulick (ed.), Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, vol. 6 ( = Loeb Classical Library; 327), London 1937.