Endurance

Use in the book

Pausanias includes holding out under bad treatment among the tests that discriminate durable attachment from surrender to money or influence. Alcibiades reverses the emphasis: if he really listened, he could not hold out against Socrates’ challenge to his way of life. He therefore avoids the encounter rather than refuting it. His own attempt to win Socrates then proceeds “by main force,” but this resolution does not secure its object.

When he finally names Socrates’ endurance, the contrast has been prepared by these failures. Socrates is not mastered by Alcibiades’ bodily beauty; on campaign he outlasts the others when food is unavailable, walks barefoot across severe frost, and continues an inquiry all day and night. The endurance of privation and the endurance of investigation become neighbouring demonstrations rather than separate kinds of man.

The story is not a programme of suffering for its own sake. Alcibiades also says Socrates can enjoy feasts when they occur. What remains consistent is his ability to respond without losing command of himself. Nor should endurance simply be equated with courage or knowledge: the account names these together and gives related examples, but does not formally identify their definitions.

Places to read

1. 184a–bHolding out belongs to Pausanias’ social tests of attachment.
2. 216a; 217cAlcibiades cannot withstand Socrates’ speech and persists forcefully in his own project.
3. 219d–220b2Endurance is named, then illustrated by scarcity and winter.
4. 220c–dA Homeric “strong man” introduces sustained inquiry.
5. 223c–dWakefulness and the ordinary next day complete the portrayal.

Translation in this edition

The edition deliberately distinguishes “endurance,” “holding out,” “feats of endurance,” and “strong.” At 219d the continuous text has karteria; the apparatus records enkrateia in the papyrus. This is a meaningful variant, not permission to quote both as if Burnet had printed both.

καρτερέω (kartereō)

kartereō — To hold out or persist; the value depends on what one withstands.

• 184a–b — καρτερήσῃ. Pausanias tests whether a beloved holds out under mistreatment.
• 216a — καρτερήσαιμι. Alcibiades says he could not hold out against listening to Socrates.
• 220a — καρτερεῖν. Socrates surpasses others in holding out without food.

Read: Endurance.

καρτέρησις (karterēsis)

karterēsis — An act or feat of endurance, here resistance to severe winter conditions.

• 220a — καρτερήσεις. Alcibiades turns to Socrates’ feats of endurance against winter.

Read: Endurance.

καρτερία (karteria)

karteria — Endurance: the capacity to hold steady under difficulty or pressure.

• 219d — καρτερίαν. Alcibiades pairs endurance with intelligence in his admiration.

Read: Endurance.

καρτερός (karteros)

karteros — Strong or stout; context may make the strength forceful persistence or heroic endurance.

• 217c — κατὰ τὸ καρτερὸν. Alcibiades resolves to attack his seduction problem by main force.
• 220c — καρτερὸς ἀνὴρ. A Homeric phrase introduces the story of Socrates standing in thought.

Read: Endurance.