Cynegeticus - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Xenophon switches to the discussion of the sophists who teach merely words but not thoughts or deed. (In his Memorabilia he stresses how his teacher Socrates turned men to virtue and then to action.) He complains of the sophists flourished language without any stress upon bringing their students to virtue. He explains his own objective: “It may well be that I fail to express myself in subtle language,388 nor do I pretend to aim at subtlety; what I do aim at is to express rightly-conceived thoughts such as may serve the need of those who have been nobly disciplined in virtue; for it is not words and names that give instruction, but thoughts and sentiments worthy the name” (XIII.5). He then writes further about his own writing.

He eventually concludes the work stressing that hunting makes men pious and pleases the gods, “For all men who have loved hunting have been good: and not men only, but those women also to whom the goddess Artemis has given this blessing, Atalanta and Procris and others like them.