Pseudo-Crates, Epistula 33.1: effect of exercise on pregnancies and labor

Pseudo-Crates, Epistula 33.1: effect of exercise on pregnancies and labor

1st/2nd century CE

Letter

Literary source

So you are convinced that toiling is the cause of not toiling. For you would not have given birth so effortlessly if you had not continued to toil like the athletes while you were pregnant. But many women are enfeebled when they are pregnant. When they give birth – those who happen to survive, that is – they produce unhealthy babies.

translation by Alexander Meeus for the Cynisca project

πέπεισαι ἄρα ὅτι τὸ πονεῖν αἴτιόν ἐστι τοῦ μὴ πονεῖν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν ὧδέ γ’ εὐμαρῶς ἀπέτεκες, εἰ μὴ κύουσα ἐπόνεις ὥσπερ οἱ ἀγωνισταί. ἀλλ’ αἱ πολλαὶ γυναῖκες, ἐπειδὰν κύωσι, θρύπτονται· ἐπειδὰν δὲ ἀποτέκωσιν, αἷς δ’ ἂν συμβῇ περισωθῆναι, νοσερὰ τὰ βρέφη γεννῶνται.

R. Hercher (ed.), Epistolographi Graeci, recensuit, recognovit, adnotatione critica et indicibus instruxit Rudolphus Hercher; accedunt Francisci Boissonadii ad Synesium notae ineditae, Paris 1873.