Full Idea
Seneca held that human beings owe the original acquisition of the concept of virtue to an analogy with bodily health and strength
Gist of Idea
Humans acquired the concept of virtue from an analogy with bodily health and strength
Source
report of Seneca the Younger (Letters from a Stoic [c.60], 120.5) by James Allen - Soul's Virtue and the Health of the Body p.76
Book Reference
Adamson,Peter: 'Health: a history', ed/tr. Adamson,Peter [OUP 2019], p.76
A Reaction
This is an unusual view, even for a stoic, but shows how close the concepts of health and virtue were. Notice that it is strength as well as health. Plato just emphasises mental and physical harmony.