The Two Customs Must Converge
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Pausanias — ἡντινοῦν δουλείαν παιδικοῖς μὴ κολακείαν εἶναι μηδὲ ἐπονείδιστον, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἄλλη μία μόνη δουλεία ἑκούσιος λείπεται οὐκ ἐπονείδιστος· αὕτη δʼ ἐστὶν ἡ περὶ τὴν ἀρετήν. νενόμισται γὰρ δὴ ἡμῖν, ἐάν τις ἐθέλῃ τινὰ θεραπεύειν ἡγούμενος διʼ ἐκεῖνον ἀμείνων ἔσεσθαι ἢ κατὰ σοφίαν τινὰ ἢ κατὰ ἄλλο ὁτιοῦν μέρος ἀρετῆς, αὕτη αὖ ἡ ἐθελοδουλεία οὐκ αἰσχρὰ εἶναι οὐδὲ κολακεία. δεῖ δὴ τὼ νόμω τούτω συμβαλεῖν εἰς ταὐτόν, τόν τε περὶ τὴν παιδεραστίαν καὶ
Whatever kind of slavery to the boy is not flattery nor disgraceful so, indeed, too, one other, single, voluntary slavery remains, one that is not disgraceful: this and it is the one concerning virtue. For it is our custom, indeed, among us, if someone is willing to serve another, believing that because of him he will become better, either in some wisdom, or in some other part of virtue whatsoever — this, in turn, willing slavery is not shameful, nor flattery. These two customs, then, must combine into the same thing — the one, both concerning the love of boys, and—
Continuing directly from 184b, where Pausanias declared that our custom allows a lover willing to undergo any slavery for his beloved without shame — here he names the one other slavery that is likewise not shameful: service undertaken for the sake of virtue. He then draws the conclusion the whole speech has been building toward — that the custom of loving boys and the custom of pursuing philosophy and virtue must line up into a single thing, a sentence he starts here and finishes in 184d.
Pausanias needs a second, gentler verb for what happens between a student and the person he serves for virtue's sake, and he reaches for therapeúein rather than repeating douleúein. The same root gives the English "therapy," and in Greek it names looking after a god's cult, a sick body, or a farm — attentive upkeep, not submission. By shifting verbs mid-argument he quietly reclassifies the whole relationship: the boy who serves a good man in hope of getting wiser is not a slave who happens to have a kind master, he is something closer to an attendant tending something worth tending. The noun he then coins, ethelodouleía, "willing slavery," holds the tension in one word — slavery, but chosen, and chosen precisely because it is not really slavery at all.
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