BOOK II. V. 11-17
a storm comes down upon us. Very well, what further concern have I? For my part has been fulfilled. The business belongs to someone else, that is, the helmsman. But, more than that, the ship goes down. What, then, have I to do? What I can; that is the only thing I do; I drown without fear, neither shrieking nor crying out against God, but recognizing that what is born must also perish. For I am not eternal, but a man; a part of the whole, as an hour is part of a day. I must come on as the hour and like an hour pass away. What difference, then, is it to me how I pass away, whether by drowning or by a fever? For by something of the sort I must needs pass away.
15This is what you will see skilful ball players doing also. None of them is concerned about the ball as being something good or bad, but about throwing and catching it. Accordingly, form has to do with that, skill with that, and speed, and grace; where I cannot catch the ball even if I spread out my cloak, the expert catches it if I throw. Yet if we catch or throw the ball in a flurry or in fear, what fun is there left, and how can a man be steady, or see what comes next in the game? But one player will say "Throw!" another, "Don't throw!" and yet another, "Don't throw it up!"[1] That, indeed, would be a strife and not a game.
- ↑ A variety of ball-playing among the Greeks consisted in tossing the ball back and forth between partners or teammates (often in response to a call, Plutarch, Alex. 39, 3), while their opponents tried to get the ball away (Galen, de Parvae Pilae Exercitio, 2), somewhat as in the American games Keep-away and Basket-ball. An interesting series of calls used in the game is given by Antiphanes in Athenaeus, I. 15a, one of which, ἄνω, "Up!", may be the short form of the positive of the call given in the text here. On the ball-teams at Sparta see M. N. Tod, Annual of the British School at Athens, 1903—4, 63 ff. Possibly one might read ἀναβάλῃ, "Don't wait!" or "Don't stall!" which would fit the context admirably, although the use of βάλλω in different senses within the same sentence would appear rather strange.
