Cleinias:  He will be far more temperate when he is in training.

Athenian:  And have we not heard of Iccus of Tarentum, who, with a view to the Olympic and other contests, in his zeal for his art, and also because he was of a manly and temperate disposition, never had any connexion with a woman or a youth during the whole time of his training?  And the same is said of Crison and Astylus and Diopompus and many others; and yet, Cleinias, they were far worse educated in their minds than your and my citizens, and in their bodies far more lusty.

Cleinias:  No doubt this fact has been often affirmed positively by the ancients of these athletes.

Athenian:  And had they the courage to abstain from what is ordinarily deemed a pleasure for the sake of a victory in wrestling, running, and the like; and shall our young men be incapable of a similar endurance for the sake of a much nobler victory, which is the noblest of all, as from their youth upwards we will tell them, charming them, as we hope, into the belief of this by tales and sayings and songs?

Cleinias:  Of what victory are you speaking?

Athenian:  Of the victory over pleasure, which if they win, they will live happily; or if they are conquered, the reverse of happily.  And, further, may we not suppose that the fear of impiety will enable them to master that which other inferior people have mastered?

Cleinias:  I dare say.

Athenian:  And since we have reached this point in our legislation, and have fallen into a difficulty by reason of the vices of mankind, I affirm that our ordinance should simply run in the following terms:  Our citizens ought not to fall below the nature of birds and beasts in general, who are born in great multitudes, and yet remain until the age for procreation virgin and unmarried, but when they have reached the proper time of life are coupled, male and female, and lovingly pair together, and live the rest of their lives in holiness and innocence, abiding firmly in their original compact:  surely, we will say to them, you should be better than the animals.  But if they are corrupted by the other Hellenes and the common practice of barbarians, and they see with their eyes and hear with their ears of the so-called free love everywhere prevailing among them, and they themselves are not able to get the better of the temptation, the guardians of the law, exercising the functions of lawgivers, shall devise a second law against them.

Cleinias:  And what law would you advise them to pass if this one failed?

Athenian:  Clearly, Cleinias, the one which would naturally follow.

Cleinias:  What is that?