[29,0] The Twenty-ninth Discourse: Melancomas I.
1 Ah sirs! I cannot think of anything at all to say, so great is my grief alike and my 
consternation at this sudden bereavement; for not only on account of the office which 
I hold does the disaster come home to me more than to any other citizen, but 
Melancomas was also a personal friend of mine beyond all others, as most of you 
know. And to me at least it seems an absurd custom, when citizens die, that those 
most deeply afflicted should be thought the most fitting persons to speak at their 
obsequies; since those who are most grief-stricken are for that very reason incapable 
of speech. 2 Moreover, I am at the time of life when all men find that, while their 
ability to speak is always less than it was, yet the emotions of both joy and sorrow  are 
greatest in intensity. Since, however, a eulogy spoken by a general over a good soldier 
who has passed away does him a greater honour, and one spoken by any ruler a 
greater honour than one spoken by a private citizen, so it devolves upon me also, in 
view of the office I hold, to speak to the best of my ability. And it would be in keeping 
with the merit of the deceased and my own youth to demand of me no lengthy or 
studied eulogy, but praise that comes from the heart. 
(p377) In the first place, he had the good fortune to be truly well-born. For it is not 
because he chanced to have forebears who were rich — nay, not even if they were 
kings but in other respects were quite without merit — that this man was well-born. 
3 That term applies to those who have come from good parents, as this man did.  For 
his father stood out conspicuous among all men of his time for those fairest gifts — 
nobility of soul and bodily strength. This is proved by the victories that he won, both 
at Olympia and in the other games.  
Then he was himself by nature's gift the most beautiful of men, not only of those of 
the present day but, as one may infer from his surpassing beauty, of absolutely all 
those of all time who have been renowned for beauty, all those, I mean, who were 
born mortal. 4 For the majority of those who have been regarded as beautiful because 
they did possess comeliness in certain parts of their body afterwards have got the 
reputation of being beautiful; since the eye ever wishes to direct itself to the most 
pleasing things to the neglect of what is inferior. And certain others were not 
favoured by nature with a beautiful body, but a lovely prime had arrived for them, so 
that those who met them, succumbing thereto, called it beauty, since the heyday of 
life always bourgeons in all animals and plants alike. 5 Thousands of persons of this 
sort can be found who at one time seem beautiful and at another time ugly; and 
though they please some exceedingly, with others they get no notice at all. But when it 
is a question of perfect and true beauty, it would be surprising if anyone ever 
possessed it as this man did. For he had it in his whole body and always (p379) to the 
same degree, both before he reached years of manhood and afterward; and he would 
never have lived long enough, even if he had reached an extreme old age, to have 
dimmed his beauty. 
6 And here is an indication of the surpassing quality of his beauty: not that he stood 
out pre-eminent in any company of professional men, or was admired merely by 
some few who saw him, no indeed, but that he was always admired when in a 
company of those who are perhaps the most beautiful men in the world — the athletes 
among whom he moved. For the tallest and most comely men, whose bodies receive 
the most perfect care, are these. And he was seen by practically all mankind. For there 
was no city of repute, and no nation, which he did not visit; and among all alike the 
same opinion of him prevailed — that they had seen no one more beautiful. And since 
he was admired by the greatest numbers, and amongst the most beautiful men he 
alone possessed the fame of sheer beauty, it is evident that he was blest with what we 
may term a form truly divine. 
7 I therefore in the first place felicitate him for his beauty, a thing which certainly is 
the most conspicuous of the blessings that can fall to man, which, while being most 
pleasing to gods and most pleasing to men, is yet fraught with least pain to its 
possessor and is easiest to recognize. For while the other blessings that a man may 
have might easily pass unnoticed, such as courage and temperance and wisdom, 
unless some deed should happen to reveal them, yet beauty cannot remain hidden. 
For it becomes manifest the moment its possessor appears; nay, one might say that it 
becomes manifest even (p381) sooner, so penetrating is the impression it makes on the 
senses. Furthermore, most men envy all other blessings and become hostile to their 
possessor, but beauty makes friends of those who perceive it and allows no one to 
become an enemy. 
8 But if anyone says that I am uttering an encomium of beauty and not of the man 
himself, his criticism is unjust. To illustrate: it would be called a eulogy of a man if we 
should dwell upon his manly courage. Very well, then: when it is a matter of dispute 
as to whether a person possesses any given quality, then it is necessary to prove he 
does; but when he is known to possess it, we need only to praise the nature of the 
good trait which is admittedly his. For the eulogy of this will be at the same time also 
a eulogy of its possessor. 
And what is most admirable in Melancomas is that, with all his beauty of figure, he 
surpassed in manly courage. 9 Indeed, it seems to me that his soul vied with his body 
and strove to make herself the means of his winning a greater renown. He therefore, 
recognizing that, of all the activities conducive to courage, athletics is at once the 
most honourable and the most laborious, chose that. Indeed, for the soldier's career 
no opportunity existed, and the training also is less severe. And I for my part would 
venture to say that it is inferior also in that there is scope for courage alone in 
warfare, whereas athletics at one and the same time produce manliness, physical 
strength, and self-control. 

[29,10] Furthermore, he chose, (p383) not the easiest branch of athletics, 
but the most laborious, since he trained for boxing. Now it is difficult to 
reach the top even in the humblest branch, let alone to surpass all others in the 
greatest and most difficult one, as this man. 
To give the full record, one after another, of his crowns and the contests in which he 
won them is superfluous in the presence of you who know of them, and especially 
since anyone could name others who gained these same victories. But that which has 
fallen to the lot of no one else, 11 although you are aware of it as well as I, yet for that 
very reason must be mentioned; for even those who do not know of it also find it 
difficult to credit — I mean that, although he met so many antagonists and such good 
ones, he went down before none of them, but was himself always victorious.  Yet you 
could find in all the past no general who was never defeated, no hero in war who did 
not actually some time or other flee from battle. For one could not say of our friend 
that he remained undefeated simply because he died early, since, after all, he went 
through far more contests than anyone else; and the chance of losing depends upon 
the attempts made and not upon the length of life. Furthermore, a person might have 
been amazed at this — that he won all his victories without being hit himself or 
hitting his opponent, so far superior was he in strength and in his power of 
endurance. 12 For often he would fight throughout the whole day, in the hottest 
season of the year, and although he could have more quickly won the contest by 
striking a blow, he refused to do it, (p385) thinking that it was possible at times for the 
least competent boxer to overcome by a blow the very best man, if the chance for 
making it were offered; but he held that it was the truest victory when he forced his 
opponent, although uninjured, to give up; for then the man was overcome, not by his 
injury, but by himself; and that for an adversary to give up because of the condition of 
his whole body and not simply of the part of his body that was struck, meant brilliant 
work on the part of the victor; whereas the man who rushed in to win as quickly as 
possible by striking and clinching was himself overcome by the heat and by the 
prolonged effort.  
13 But if anyone does not look at the matter in this light, let him reflect that boars and 
stags, as long as their strength holds out, do not come to close quarters with either 
men or dogs, and that it is only when they give out from exhaustion that they come in 
close and prefer wounds and death to enduring the fatigue of pursuit any longer. It is 
the same with men in war: although they know well that they are more likely to be 
struck when in flight than when they stand their ground, yet because they are 
unwilling to suffer distress through weariness any longer, they retire, in this way 
exposing themselves to the blows of their enemies in their rears. Therefore contempt 
for wounds is not a mark of courage but of the opposite. 
14 So I think that under one and the same head everything has been said, not only 
about manliness and courage, but also about self-control and about temperance. For 
if Melancomas had not been self-controlled and temperate, I imagine that he would 
not have been so superior in strength, even if nature did make him the strongest man. 
And I for my part (p387) should not hesitate to say that even of all the ancient heroes 
whose praises everyone chants, he possessed valour inferior to none, inferior neither 
to those who warred at Troy nor to those who in later times repulsed the barbarians 
in Greece. Indeed, if he had lived in their day, his deeds would have matched theirs. 
15 And, speaking generally, I give athletics the preference over distinction in warfare 
on the following scores: first, that the best men in athletics would distinguish 
themselves in war also; for the man who is stronger in body and is able to endure 
hardship the longer time is, in my opinion, he who, whether unarmed or armed, is the 
better man; second, it is not the same thing to contend against untrained opponents 
and men who are inferior in every way, as it is to have for one's antagonists the best 
men drawn from the whole inhabited earth. Besides, in war the man who once 
conquers slays his antagonist, so as not to have the same opponent the second time; 
whereas in athletics the victory is just for that one day, and afterwards the victor has 
for his opponents, not only the men he has beaten, but anyone else who cares to 
challenge. 16 Further, in athletics the better man proves superior to the inferior man, 
since he must conquer with nothing else but his courage and physical strength; while 
in war the might of steel, which is much superior to mere human flesh, does not allow 
the excellency of men's bodies to be tested and often takes the side of the inferior 
man.  Moreover, everything that I have said about athletics I have also said about 
one who was an athlete, aye, and one who has been proved to be the best of the men 
in (p389) that profession; and perhaps both for me and for this audience my speech may 
appropriately show that this is for the best. 
Now since his was beauty of body, his was courage and a stout heart and, besides, 
self-control and the good fortune of never having been defeated, what man could be 
called happier than he? 17 And yet for a man like him these twin virtues, courage and 
self-control, are most difficult to achieve; since beauty is stronger than any other 
influence to make people conceited and to entice them to a life of luxury and ease, as 
though they had no need of any other glory when they are noted for their comeliness, 
and as though an idle life were more pleasant. And one might find in reckoning over 
the most beautiful men of former times from the beginning that the great majority of 
them did no deed which gave proof of manliness or of virtue in general. Nay, while in 
the case of Ganymede they thought it was because he disappeared from the sight of 
man when a boy that he did not perform any brilliant exploit; 18 yet regarding 
Adonis, or Phaon, or similar men, all of whom gained extraordinary fame for their 
loveliness, we hear nothing except about their beauty. The only exceedingly beautiful 
men who were brave that we can mention were Theseus and Achilles, and these men 
did not have very much self-control; for otherwise the former would not have carried 
off Helen by force, and the other would not have quarrelled at (p391) Troy for reasons 
that he did. Hippolytus did have self-control, but it is not clear whether or not he 
had manly courage, since hunting is no real proof of it. 
19 But the man who actually gained all the blessings found among mankind must be 
worthy to be accounted happy in his death also. For if the longest possible time were 
best for man, we might well have lamented over him in that regard; but as it is, seeing 
that all the life given to man is but short, you will find that with very many men it 
would have been much better if they had died sooner, so many are the misfortunes 
that overtake them. 

[29,20] Again, in the case of the most eminent men of ancient times, 
history tells us that none of them reached a great age, neither Patroclus nor 
Antilochus, and further, neither Sarpedon, nor Memnon, nor Achilles, nor 
Hippolytus; nor the Boeotians, Otus and Ephialtes, who, Homer says, were the tallest 
and handsomest men ever born next to Orion, nor Orion himself. But these men 
perished owing to their folly, while the others whom I have mentioned were called by 
men children and offspring of gods. Now the gods would not have given an early 
death to their own children and those whom they especially loved if they did not 
consider this a good thing for mankind. 
21 Therefore, sirs, you should take these considerations into account and regard him 
as blessed, and should yourself therefore be none the less eager for toil and the 
distinction it brings, since you may be sure that, if it should be anyone's lot to die too 
soon, he will be without part in any of these blessings; for the man (p393) who gains fair 
renown departs laden with blessings. Come then, train zealously and toil hard, the 
younger men in the belief that this man's place has been left to them, the older in a 
way that befits their own achievements; yes, and take all the pride in these things that 
men should who live for praise and glory and are devotees of virtue. 22 And after the 
departed, honour him by remembrance, not by tears; for that tribute would not be a 
seemly one for noble men to give a noble man, nor should I commend Homer for 
saying that the sands and their armour were bedewed with the tears of the 
Achaeans. However, he aimed rather to give poetic pleasure when he pictured 
excessive lamenting, but do you bear your grief with self-control.