Letter 92: Procopius compares Orion's self-control to an athlete training for Olympia and Odysseus passing the Sirens.

Because I always carry you in memory, I almost seem to have you present, and I contrive to make the absent present. When I remember you, everything comes in with pleasure: the steadiness of your character, your zeal for letters, the moderation of your mind, and, greatest of all, the self-control that checks the unreasonable impulses of youth. Sometimes I reckon with myself: if he appeared such a person while all of us were watching, what will he become when he is on his own? I think you will outdo what came before by competing with yourself, so that you may show us, though absent, that you honored virtue for its own sake and not merely from shame before observers. If you now have a luxurious city around you, full of examples of wantonness, that will make you more ambitious in resisting pleasure. What athlete, proud of victory, comes to Olympia and treats the greatness of the contest as a chance for ease? Does he not immediately intensify his training and confirm earlier victories by a greater one? So close your senses. Stand unmoved before every sound and sight. Show that abundance of evils does not know how to defeat self-control. Where longing for higher things exists, even if you name the Sirens and Circe who changes everything, Odysseus will conquer again: now displaying moly, which I take to be the reason Hermes gave; now binding himself with virtue and, I think, shouting many things as he sails past pleasures.

Ὠρίωνι Ἀεί σε φέρων τῇ μνήμῃ μικροῦ μοι καὶ παρεῖναι δοκῶ καὶ τὸν ἀπόντα παρεῖναι σοφίζομαι. καί μοι μεμνημένῳ πάντα πρὸς ἡδονὴν συνεισέρχεται, τὸ τῶν τρόπων εὐσταθές, ἡ περὶ τοὺς λόγους σπουδή, τῆς διανοίας τὸ μέτριον καί, τὸ δὴ μέγιστον, σωφροσύνη νεότητος ἀλόγους ὁρμὰς ἀνακό πτουσα. καὶ πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν ἔσθ' ὅτε λογίζομαι ὡς ὁ πάντων ἡμῶν ὁρώντων τοιοῦτος φανεὶς τίς ἂν γένοιτο καθ' ἑαυτὸν γεγονώς; νικήσει γάρ, οἶμαι, τὰ φθάσαντα πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἁμιλλώμενος, ὅπως ἂν δείξῃ τοῖς ἀποῦσιν ἡμῖν ὡς ἄρα δι' αὐτὴν ἐτίμα τὴν ἀρετήν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ὁρῶντας αἰδούμενος. εἰ δὲ καὶ πόλιν ἔχει τρυφῶσαν, καὶ πολλὰ τῆς ἀσελγείας τὰ παραδείγματα, τοῦτο φιλοτιμότερον αὐτὸν ἀντιτάξει ταῖς ἡδοναῖς. τίς γὰρ ἀθλητὴς ἐπὶ τῷ νικᾶν σεμνυνόμενος εἰς Ὀλυμπίαν ἐλθὼν τοῦ ἀγῶνος τὸ μέγεθος καιρὸν ῥᾳστώνης ἡγήσεται, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐπιτενεῖ μὲν αὐτίκα τὴν ἄσκησιν, βεβαιώσει δὲ τὰς προλαβούσας νίκας τῇ μείζονι; καὶ σὺ δὴ μύσας τὰς αἰσθήσεις, ἀκλινὴς πρὸς πᾶσαν ἀκοὴν καὶ θέαν γενόμενος, δείξεις ὡς οὐχ ἡ τῶν κακῶν εὐπορία τὴν σωφροσύνην οἶδε νικᾶν, ἀλλ' ἔνθα τῶν σεμνοτέρων ὁ πόθος, κἂν τὰς Σειρῆνας εἴπῃς, κἂν τὴν πάντα μεταβάλλουσαν Κίρκην, νικήσει πάλιν Ὀδυσσεύς, νῦν μὲν τὸ μῶλυ δεικνύς, λόγον, οἶμαι τοῦτον ὃν Ἑρμῆς ἐδωρή σατο, νυνὶ δὲ περιδήσας ἑαυτὸν ἀρετῇ, καὶ πολλὰ βοώσας οἶμαι παρα πλέων τὰς ἡδονάς.