Source edition
Galen. Claudii Galeni Protreptici quae supersunt. Kaibel, Georg, editor. Berlin: Weidmann, 1894.
Source data
A Digital Corpus for Graeco-Arabic Studies · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is an exhortation in which the author addresses young people, promoting the value of human "reason (logos)" and "art (techne)" and encouraging them to pursue intellectual and practical disciplines. The author begins by warning against relying on the fickle and unstable "fortune (tyche)," urging instead to follow Hermes, the symbol of stable reason. Through various anecdotes and metaphors of philosophers, the text demonstrates that wealth, noble birth, and physical beauty are temporary and vain, emphasizing instead the crucial importance of cultivating the soul through education. In particular, the author launches a fierce critique against athletic training, which was highly popular at the time, arguing that it ruins health, is useless in practical life, and is inferior to the natural abilities of animals. Ultimately, the work concludes that the "liberal arts" (intellectual arts), which remain useful in adversity and do not decay with age, are what truly deserve pursuit, with medicine positioned at their absolute pinnacle.