When someone else desired to know why he instituted strenuous exercise for the bodies of the maidens in races and wrestling and throwing the discus and javelin, he said, ‘So that the implanted stock of their offspring, by getting a strong start in strong bodies, may attain a noble growth, and that they themselves may with vigour abide the birth of their children and readily and nobly resist the pains [p. 363] of travail; and moreover, if the need arise, that they may be able to fight for themselves, their children, and their country.’ 1
1 Cf. Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus, chap. xiv. (47 F); Suidas, Lexicon, under Lycurgus.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 3.
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