The wrestler, not the dancer. A metaphor-definition of "the art of living" (ἡ βιωτική — τέχνη understood). It is "more like wrestling (παλαιστική) than dancing (ὀρχηστική)" — and the difference is stated precisely: by the capacity "to stand ready and unfalling (ἄπτωτος) against what falls upon one (τὰ ἐμπίπτοντα) and is unforeseen (οὐ προεγνωσμένα)." A dance is performed to a choreography known in advance — there everything is "foreknown"; wrestling is unpredictable, the opponent strikes off the score. Life is of the second kind: the script is not handed out, the blows come out of turn.

A stance instead of a score. Hence virtue is not a learned sequence of figures but a stance (ἑστάναι — "to stand"): not a programme of acts but a readiness (ἕτοιμος) to answer anything. ἄπτωτος — "not to be thrown," a wrestler's term: not the one who knows all the holds, but the one who cannot be toppled by the unexpected. A continuation of the wrestling image of 7.52 (a rival "more skilled at wrestling"); the practical correlate is EXERCISEpremeditation (2.1: from the morning prepare to meet the meddlesome, the ungrateful): not to predict what will happen, but to be in a stance toward anything. The governing discipline is action (readiness to act); the sustaining one, desire (to accept the unforeseen).