1.1

Just as athletes seek appropriate rest for the body, so too readers should profit from intermittent light reading, especially if it is clever as well as entertaining. Such is offered here, an amusing collection of fictions which, unlike such authors as Iambulus and Ktesias, makes no pretense to truth.

ὥσπερ...οὕτω δὴ καὶ: "just as...so also." Lucian begins with an elaborate comparison between athletes and scholars.

τοῖς ἀθλητικοῖς καὶ...ἀσχολουμένοις: "to athletes and to those occupied with...."

οὐ μόνον φροντίς ἐστιν...ἀλλὰ καὶ: "not only is it a care...but also."

φροντίς ἐστιν: governs the genitives εὐεξίας, γυμνασίων, and ἀνέσεως, (S. 1328, 1356; G. 511c).

κατὰ καιρὸν γινομένης: "happening in season." 

γινομένης = γιγνομένης (S. 89).

αὐτὴν ὑπολαμβάνουσιν: "this (i.e., ἀνέσις) they suppose to be…"

ἡγοῦμαι προσήκειν: "I think it fitting to...." The thought is completed by ἀνιέναι τε καὶ παρασκευάζειν.

ἀνιέναι: pres. act. infin. of ἀνίημι "relax," from the same stem as ἀνέσις, "relaxation."

τοῖς ἐσπουδακόσιν: perf. act. part. masc. dat. pl. of σπουδάζω, "for those who have labored," (S. 2052; G. 582).

τῶν σπουδαιοτέρων: "of more serious works," philosophy and the like.

πρὸς τὸν ἔπειτα κάματον: “for subsequent labor," (S. 1153e).