And I call on all other people as well, as far as I can – and you

especially I call on in response to your call – to this way of life,

this contest, that I hold to be worth all the other contests in this life.

- Plato, Gorgias 526e

Close the GAP and Cultivate Virtue Daily

To make our program a way of life we need to develop daily habits that guide the choices we make every day. And to inspire us in this practical approach we will look to another famous Greek philosopher, Plato’s most famous student, Aristotle.

In Raphael’s famous painting “The School of Athens,” Plato and Aristotle are depicted in the center, representing two contrasting but complementary philosophical worldviews. Both teacher and student focus on virtue and wisdom but have different orientations.

Plato is shown as an older man with grey hair, pointing upwards towards the sky. Aristotle, in contrast, is depicted as a younger man with his hand outstretched horizontally towards the viewer. Plato’s main focus is on divine wisdom - sophia - while Aristotle prioritizes practical wisdom - phronesis.

While Plato is known for pointing up - divine wisdom - Aristotle is pointing towards the ground, exhorting practical wisdom.

Plato and Aristotle, The School of Athens by Raffaello Sanzio, Wikimedia

We turn to Aristotle in our last section for inspiration because he describes a type of wisdom concerned with action and decision-making in practical life. Aristotle presents askesis as a methodical, daily practice—virtue is built through action and repetition, not theory alone.

“Virtue is not an innate quality, nor is it simply learned. Rather, it is the result of repeated actions, just as a craftsman becomes skilled through practice. We do not become just by merely thinking about justice, nor do we become brave by discussing bravery. Instead, we become just by performing just acts, temperate by practicing temperance, and courageous by choosing courage when we are afraid. For this reason, it is necessary to make virtue a habit, as we shape our character through the choices we make each day.”

— Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1105b

Let’s look at the timeless workout wisdom we discovered from Plato’s Protocol and see how we can map it into a daily practical program inspired by Aristotle’s cultivation of virtue as habit.

We summarized Plato’s Protocol with three ancient Greek words:

• Gymnastiki: physical workout that produces Physical Excellence

• Philosophia: cultural workout, the love of wisdom, that creates Moral and Intellectual Excellence.

• Askesis: spiritual and philosophical workout that produces Spiritual Excellence.

We can take the acronym this produces - GAP - and use it as a motivational acronym to remind us to close the gap to our highest potential to cultivate virtue - in body, intellect and soul.

• Gymnastiiki becomes Fitness, and all the physical protocols that we practice daily.

• Askesis become Faith, and the other spiritual and psychological practices to cultivate a healthy soul.

• Philosophia is the Greek origin of the word Philosophy and includes other topics in humanities that help us train moral and intellectual excellence.

Exercising Fitness, Faith and Philosophy to Flourish

This last word - flourish - is also a timeless Aristotelian idea. In Aristotle’s most famous book - Nicomachean Ethics - he looks at the virtues and how to apply them to live a flourishing life. Aristotle’s word for flourishing was eudaimonia. This was more than just fleeting happiness or pleasure, but rather a state of living well and doing well, in accordance with reason and virtue.

Eudamonia was about achieving a deep well-being or flourishing in life. Eudaimonia represents the highest good and the ultimate goal of human life. And we achieve that by exercising the virtues - Moral, Intellectual, Spiritual and Physical.

In our program, exercising our virtues becomes a daily workout but also a way of life.

• Fitness - Gymnatiski. You practice physical excellence through a daily workout that includes strength training, stamina building, stretching and sports. But also it’s a way of life because you enhance your physical life through diet, supplements and regular labs to test your health and nutrient levels. In fact diet, another Greek word (diaita) in the original meaning represented a whole way of life. It was a healthy lifestyle that was both mental and physical rather than a narrow weight-loss regimen.

• Faith - Askeis. You exercise spiritual excellence through your daily practice of self-mastery. Your key capacity is your attention. You are vigilant with your focus. You practice the theological virtues of faith, hope and love through the practices from the bible: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These three practices are meant to harmoniously work together. Prayer purifies the heart and mind, fasting disciplines the body and detaches from excess, while almsgiving fosters love and compassion toward others. As St. Maximos the Confessor says,

Almsgiving heals the soul’s incensive power; fasting withers sensual desire; prayer purifies the intellect and prepares it for the contemplation of created being. For the Lord has given us commandments which correspond to the powers of the soul. 3

• Philosophy - Philosophia. You train moral and intellectual excellence by learning to love wisdom. This is not a passive activity but requires struggle and practice. You cultivate wisdom and develop an awareness of moral excellence through wrestling with the Great Books - the great ideas, events, stories and people of Western civilization. If we are to mirror the education of the classical Greeks - from noble warriors to scribes (people of the book), then we have to imitate the books they created and read. The foundations are the western classics from Homer to the Bible. This contains four categories of books: literature, history, philosophy and religion. From Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey to Herodotus’ Histories, Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, Plato’s Dialogues (like The Republic) and Aristotle’s Ethics to the Christian Bible. These books became the foundation of the future humanities.

Renaissance scholar James Hankins writes that humanitas ‘’in the widest sense of an education meant to bring out our full human potential, intellectual and moral. ‘’ It was ‘’the belief that certain forms of study—the study of languages, literature, history, eloquence, and above all philosophy—are tools inherited from our revered ancestors that enable us to improve ourselves and the quality of human beings generally.” 4

This study has a practical element for us leaders. The great Greco-Roman philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, to the humanistic reformers of the Renaissance, all asked the same question: “What sort of people do we want to govern us?” James Hankins explains they all had the same answer: “We want people to govern us who display moral excellence and have prudentia (phronesis in Greek), practical wisdom, and are thus able to make good decisions for their communities. These virtues are not innate but acquired through study.” 5

As we close, here is a table that summarizes our programmatic approach to exercising virtue. You’ll see an organized approach that takes you from ancient Greek wisdom to modern practices helping you to cultivate virtue and flourish.

“Never cease sculpting your own statue”

I want to leave you with one final practical concept to embrace in your training. Think of it as a maxim you can call upon as you meet internal and external resistance. As you train daily to close the GAP to your highest flourishing and virtuous self, remember this exhortation: ‘’never cease sculpting your own statue.’’

This inspirational idea doesn’t come from a modern motivational speaker or life coach but from a philosophical descendant of Plato, the Greek philosopher Plotinus. Plotinus (204-270 AD) is considered the founder of Neoplatonism, a philosophical movement that sought to revive and reinterpret Plato’s ideas.

Plotinus has this beautiful passage in his book Enneads. He encourages continuous self-improvement through introspection and continued effort. Plotinus uses the metaphor of sculpting to illustrate the process of refining one’s character and virtues

“If you do not see your own beauty yet, do as the sculptor does with a statue which must become beautiful: he pares away this part, scratches that other part, makes one place smooth, and cleans another, until he causes a beautiful face to appear in the statue. In the same way, you too must pare away what is superfluous, straighten what is crooked, purify all that is dark, in order to make it gleam. And never cease sculpting your own statue, until the divine light of virtue shines within you”

- Plotinus, Enneads I.6 (1)

In Plotinus’ ideal our daily grind can be glorious, as we focus on our inner and outer beauty. ‘’The divine light of virtue’’ is an ideal we all need to embrace. But, channeling Plotinus, we need to realize it will require daily focus in these specific areas:

• Continuous effort: This ideal is one of an ongoing process that requires consistent and long term effort.

• Targeted refinement: Plotinus suggests focusing on specific areas for improvement, such as cutting away excess, straightening the crooked. For us, we need to identify and work on specific habits and skills.

• Self-reflection: Plotinus’ approach involves envisioning an ideal self, to “purify all that is dark, in order to make it gleam.”

• Holistic approach: Plotinus’ metaphor encompasses both external actions (chiseling) and internal transformation (seeing one’s own beauty). We need to address both behavior and mindset.

• Gradual transformation: The sculpting process implies gradual change over time. We need to understand that our personal growth often occurs incrementally rather than through sudden, drastic changes.

These are great practical principles to embrace externally, in your daily practice, and internally, in the cultivation of your mindset.

Here’s to your embrace of the Ancient Athlete Way where you struggle, in a daily contest for the ultimate prize, your holistic excellence and flourishing.

Remember, ‘’never cease sculpting your own statue.’’

Notes

1. The Making of a Corporate Athlete Harvard Business Review article, J. Loehr and Tony Schwartz, 2001

2. H.I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, p xiv

3. St. Maximos the Confessor, “First Century on Love” in The Philokalia: The Complete Text. Volume Two. Trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, Kallistos Ware et. al. (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), 61-2.

4. James Hankins, Liberal Learning beyond Liberalism: The Humanities as Soulcraft in the Renaissance and Today https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/64818

5. James Hankins, Liberal Learning beyond Liberalism: The Humanities as Soulcraft in the Renaissance and Today https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/64818

We must not train the body while neglecting the soul. Rather, just as the body is strengthened through exercise, so too must the soul be hardened through trials, discipline, and study. - Plato, Republic 410b

Corporate Athlete 1.0 - The Modern Corporate Athlete Skillfully Manages Energy

“Corporate Athlete” is a term I use because to perform at high levels, a corporate executive needs as much stamina as a professional athlete needs in competitive sports. Consider the demands that today’s business climate makes on Corporate Athletes: they must perform at highly competitive levels under intense pressure for ten or more hours a day, often six days a week. They are expected to continue this extraordinary output over a career span of four decades.” - Jack Groppel 1

In the early part of this century the concept of the ‘’Corporate Athlete’’ entered the modern personal development lexicon. Created by Dr. Jack Groppel, an exercise physiologist and Dr. Jim Loehr, a sports psychologist, the two partnered to use sports science to help their business clients.  They called their clients, business executives and professional managers, Corporate Athletes.

Their premise is that business leaders can achieve sustained high performance, in an environment of rapid change and increasing pressure, by applying lessons from professional athletes. The creators of the Corporate Athlete program believe that the ‘’non-athlete’’ business leader and busy professional, have a more demanding job than an elite-level athlete.

Dr Groppel and Dr. Loehr taught the importance of skillfully managing energy: ‘’the fundamental currency of life, both personal and professional.’’ One of the most important ideas the Corporate  Athlete approach brought to our understanding of performance is that the human body is ‘’performance-relevant.’’ And to improve your performance you have to understand how your body produces, manages and renews energy. This requires training like an elite athlete. 

According to the Corporate Athlete approach, the best model to understand high performance is seeing a human as an integrated and multi-dimensional energy system. The foundation of energy management is physical energy. There’s a rhythmic flow (“oscillation”) of energy expenditure: stressing our body means energy out and recovery results in energy in.  Without regular renewal, our ability to effectively increase energy is at risk. 

This holistic approach to energy management is depicted as an energy pyramid with the physical dimension as the foundation and emotional, mental and spiritual levels ascending in significance.  

A successful approach to sustained high performance, we have found, must pull together all of these elements and consider the person as a whole. Thus, our integrated theory of performance management addresses the body, the emotions, the mind, and the spirit. We call this hierarchy the performance pyramid. Each of its levels profoundly influences the others, and failure to address any one of them compromises performance. 2

The concept of a Corporate Athlete is an effective idea to help us better cope with the increasing modern demands on our work-life balance. As the authors of the concept explained, the principles that govern an athletes’ success apply to corporate employees’ success: “Applying sport science research to the world of business serves another purpose.  Corporate employees will see that the principles that govern an athlete’s success are rather analogous to those that govern their success.”  3

But the Corporate Athlete model also has flaws that impact our holistic growth.

Corporate Athlete 2.0 - The Ancient Athlete Trains and Cultivates Virtue

“If you want to progress, do not say you are a philosopher—show it through your actions. A true philosopher does not spend his days discussing what virtue is, but rather, he exercises virtue. Do you wish to be patient? Then train yourself in endurance. Do you wish to be free? Then train yourself to let go of what is beyond your control. Do you wish to be fearless? Then meet hardship with courage. Just as an athlete does not become strong by merely listening to his trainer, but by lifting weights and running, so too must you train daily in the practices of philosophy. Otherwise, you are not a philosopher—you are only a speaker of words.” — Epictetus, Discourses 2.19

Is energy management and engagement enough for a leader’s high performance?

There are definitely benefits in imitating the best practices of sports training and learning the athlete’s energy management skills. We modern achievers owe a debt to Dr. Loehr and Dr. Groppel for ensuring that energy management is a consideration in all our training programs.

But is this enough for the foundation of a leader’s holistic performance program?

Their answer is we modern day business leaders need to understand how to skillfully manage energy: ‘’the fundamental currency of life, both personal and professional.’’ 4

The Corporate Athlete’s strength is actually its major weakness: the program’s focus is solely physical. This is a reflection of the creators’ background in sports science. This program has done a good job of addressing the weakness of most performance programs which focus mainly on cognitive capacity. We learn to apply ‘’energy management technology” to improve performance and engagement.

The performance pyramid is a good first step to bring a holistic approach to training. It tries to differentiate from a pure cognitive perspective. But the Corporate Athlete program goes too much in the opposite direction and focuses primarily on the physical. As a result, this over-reliance of looking at high performance as a physical activity misses several important domains of a leader’s growth and development.

Here are important areas not addressed in the Corporate Athlete program:

• Character and virtue. The foundation of all good leadership is character and virtue, what the Greeks called arete. Virtue here means habits of human excellence. Character is paradoxically the foundation of, and a by-product from, successfully achieving a difficult objective. No elements of timeless virtues like courage, wisdom or self-control are addressed.

• Religion and transcendence. Here is how the spiritual dimension is addressed in the Harvard Business Review article, The Making of a Corporate Athlete:

“Most executives are wary of addressing the spiritual level of the performance pyramid in business settings, and understandably so. The word “spiritual” prompts conflicting emotions and doesn’t seem immediately relevant to high performance. So let’s be clear: by spiritual capacity, we simply mean the energy that is unleashed by tapping into one’s deepest values and defining a strong sense of purpose.” 5

Look at the acknowledgement to being wary of addressing the spiritual level. They generalize spirituality to mean “values” and ‘’purpose.’’ Those are very important characteristics but it’s not spirituality. Missing is any acknowledgement of God, transcendence or any elements of authentic religion.

• Struggle and competition. Actively achieving the standards of a Corporate Athlete requires struggle. To improve our physical capacities requires strenuous and focused effort. We’ll need to compete with others and ourselves to reach our ideal performance state. For experts who trained competitive athletes for over two decades, glaringly missing is any reference to a notion of competition or struggle.

• Integrative health science beyond exercise. The effective application of energy management skills requires more than just exercise and rest. It requires an integrated approach to health, combining ancient wisdom and modern practice. Yes, the Corporate Athletes program writes about diet, sleep and hydration. But their health advice is quite dated. Missing is ancient wisdom like fasting or modern practices like labs. Arguably, the most essential tool in assessing how healthy one is and how best to achieve optimal function is to obtain comprehensive laboratory studies or blood work. None of these points are included.

We are thankful for the insights of the Corporate Athlete approach but recognize its shortcomings. To get a better understanding of the ideal of striving for high performance we suggest going back in time to the original athletes of ancient Greece.

The way forward is through the past.

There is a much deeper history and tradition of the athlete than just the modern professional or corporate athlete. The athlete has a central role in the evolution of excellence from Homer to Christ.

The ancient athlete way provides an evolutionary path for growth embedded in the roles and identities of classical Greeks and the inheritors of Hellenic wisdom. From Homer’s warriors to the Olympic contestants, from the citizens of the polis to the Hellenic philosophers and lovers of wisdom to the spiritual struggle of early Christians, the athlete was an identity of excellence and healthy struggle for the prize of virtue.

Let’s explore how the athletic identities and archetypes of Greek culture evolved and provide us with role models in our quest for excellence and personal transformation.

• Olympic-Athlete. Turning Pro: The origin of high-performance competition. High performance culture has a start date, 776 B.C. This is when the first Olympic games were founded. It marked the start of a competitive tradition that would last over 1,000 years. Olympic athletes were professionals who trained over 10 months to prepare for the games. The concept of “amateur athletics” is a 19th-century development that would have been foreign to the ancient Greeks. For them, the pursuit of valuable prizes was an integral part of being an athlete.

“I cannot, just by telling you about it, convince you of the pleasure of what happens at such a festival as well as you would learn for yourself, sitting in the middle of the crowd, watching the arete of men and physical beauty, amazing conditioning and great skill and irresistible force and daring and pride and unbeatable determination and indescribable passion for victory. I know that you would not stop praising and cheering and applauding.’’ – Lucian, Anarcharis 12 (translation Miller)

Greek vase with boxers and trainer. 510–500 BC. Wikimedia

• Warrior-Athlete. Homer’s heroes: soldiers in war, athletes in peace. Homer’s athletes were both warriors and athletes. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey are filled with stories on athletic competition and references to athletes. Homer’s works not only describe athletic competitions but also use athletic prowess as a means to demonstrate virtue and heroism.

Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior in the Iliad, is frequently described in athletic terms. He is often called “swift-footed Achilles’’ with a good physique who organizes and conducts funeral games for Patroclus, showcasing his leadership in athletic contexts. Odysseus is more of a cunning athlete. When challenged and called out that he is not an athlete, Odysseus surpasses local athletes in the discus. And he secures a draw in wrestling the mighty Ajax in Patroclus’ funeral games.

• Mythic-Athlete: Hercules, strength in suffering for greatness, physically and morally. Hercules was not only an athletic cultural hero associated with the Olympic Games but also a moral exemplar through his famous labors.

As an athletic hero, Hercules is credited with founding the Olympic Games in honor of his father Zeus. Hercules became known as the god of the gymnasium, athletes, strength, and heroes. Beyond his athletic achievements, Hercules’ story embodies a moral journey of virtue and vice. His famous Twelve Labors serve as a metaphor for overcoming personal challenges and striving for greatness. These labors were not just feats of strength, but tests of character, ingenuity, perseverance and suffering.

• Citizen-Athlete: People of the gymnasium. We’ve seen in lesson 4 that the Greeks were considered ‘’people of the gymnasium.’’ In their contact with other Mediterranean cultures, such as the Jews and the Egyptians, the centrality and importance of the gymnasium set apart the Greeks. All citizens, from youth to adults, trained in the gymnasium.

• Philosopher-Athlete: Beautiful souls, in strong bodies training to be Good. We’ve seen in lesson 3 that physical exercise, gymnastiki was the foundation of Plato’s program for leadership development. It may seem strange to us with our modern eyes, but Plato’s school, the original Academy, was a gymnasium. Plato was a former athlete and his philosophers embraced athletic training.

• Christian-Athlete: Struggling for the prize of salvation. St. Paul uses athletes from the Greek athletic festivals as examples of how we are to live as Christians. As we’ve seen in lesson 7, athletic training and competition are used to highlight the importance of self-discipline, focus, and endurance in the Christian life.

All these great athletes of the Hellenic world didn’t train solely for energy, as the modern corporate athlete does. The ancient athlete trains for virtue, arete - human excellence - physically, morally and spiritually.

We look to the great Plato for a holistic approach to working out. We embrace his wisdom when he argues that the soul and the body must be exercised to achieve strength and mastery

In our final lesson we will show you how to combine the Corporate Athlete training with the Ancient Athlete ethos for a truly integrated program of body, mind and soul.

Notes

1. The Corporate Athlete, J. Groppel – 2000, p.2

2. The Making of a Corporate Athlete , Harvard Business Review article, J. Loehr and Tony Schwartz, 2001

3. The Corporate  Athlete  Advantage, J Loehr and J Groppel – 2008

4. The Corporate  Athlete  Advantage, J Loehr and J Groppel – 2008, p.3

5. The Making of a Corporate Athlete Harvard Business Review article, J. Loehr and Tony Schwartz, 2001

Greek vase with runners at the panathenaic games, ca. 530 BC, Wikimedia

Difficulties show a person who they truly are. So when hardship comes, remember that the contest has been given to you as an opportunity. The Olympic Games are not won by the strongest or most beautiful, but by those who train, struggle, and endure. Say to yourself, ‘I will train my will, my endurance, my self-control, just as an athlete trains his body.’ — Epictetus, Discourses 1.24.1

The Ancient Greek Athlete as a Unique Way of Life

‘’As in the very earliest times, athletics was still one of the primary distinguishing marks of the Greek way of life as against that of the barbarians.’’ - H.I. Marrou 1

We’ve seen in lesson 5 that the history of ancient Greek education can be summarized as the transition from a noble warrior to a scribe culture; from Homer to the Bible. Underlying this education and culture of excellence was the role of the athlete. As the late French classicist H.I. Marrou commented above, athletics was a way of life for the ancient Greeks and this distinguished them from non-Greeks.

Athletics wasn’t just a pastime for the Greeks but a way of life. For the ancient Greeks physical education and athletics were the foundation of their culture and the basis of their education. From Homeric times to the golden age of Athens (4th Century BC) to after the conquest of Rome, “physical training remained an essential part of the process of initiation into civilized life – that is to say, of education. ‘’

Modern imitation of athletes for high performance is quite common now. We strive to manage our energy, train our bodies, lift heavy, run fast, get in the ‘’zone’’ or flow, eat clean and nutritious, take health supplements and develop a resilient mindset. These are all important health ideas but incomplete for our holistic growth.

Our approach is that we can learn more from, and be inspired by, the ancient athletes as a foundation for our modern high performance. Whereas modern athletes can teach us primarily the benefits of the body – physical – the ancient Greek athlete inspired our bodies, minds (our intellects) and our soul.

What can the ancient athletes teach us that the modern athlete cannot?

A lot.

Studying the world of the ancient athlete offers a radical approach to our growth. Radical, not as extreme but in going to the roots – the actual definition of radical. The roots here is that of western civilization and culture. The focus is not new and different but old and proven.

Long before the golden age of ancient Greece, the fifth century BC, athletic training had been an integral part of Greek education (paideia) as a means to build moral character and virtue (arete). “Given athleticism’s deep historical links with arete, it is likely that gymnastic education was intended in part to develop – or at least reveal – virtue,’’ writes Heather Reid, professor of philosophy and a former elite cyclist. 2

The ancient athlete becomes a framework and metaphor for our personal growth. We learn about beauty, virtue and strength: training to have beautiful souls in strong bodies struggling to be good. The training of the athlete becomes a contest of virtue. We compete – with others and ourselves – not for the scoreboard but to become better. We strive for human excellence – virtue – moral, intellectual, spiritual and physical.

It’s our belief that if you want a truly holistic and complete view of the pursuit of high performance you can do no better than studying the original culture of excellence. To go forward in your performance let’s go back in time to the world of the first athletes of ancient Greece.

The True Meaning of an Athlete: to Struggle & Suffer in a Contest for the Prize

What is an athlete?

We’ve declared that the ancient athlete is a way of life we need to embrace for our personal growth, but what does the word actually mean?

We shouldn’t be surprised that athlete is a Greek word. Like gymnasium, gymnastics, Olympics, hygiene, diet and calisthenics, athlete is another word originating from the deep Greek history of physical excellence and culture.

A brief look into etymology – the history of words – provides surprising revelations about the original meaning of an athlete. This reveals not only the unique perspective the ancient Greeks had on these original athletes but helps us embrace and embody the proper identity for our growth.

The English word athlete is the romanization of the ancient Greek word athlētēs (in Greek άθλητὴς). Like most of the Greek words in our modern vernacular, athlete is the product of rendering non-Latin words into a Latin style. As the ancient Romans conquered Greece, they integrated Greek culture and their vocabulary. Our modern English language has many of these Latinized Greek words and athlete is one example.

Today’s dictionaries will define an athlete in similar ways: a participant in a group of sporting activities or a person trained in these sports, exercises or games. That seems to coincide with our modern understanding of an athlete. But it’s not what the Greeks meant in their original definition. We should start by taking guidance from the original creators of the word. That’s where etymology helps.

The ancient Greek athletes idolized the divine hero Hercules (romanized from the Greek Herakles). Hercules was arguably the greatest of Greek heroes. The Greeks knew him from many adventures, especially his labors. These were difficult feats or challenges he was forced to do as penance for upsetting the gods. If he succeeded he would be granted immortality by the gods of Olympus. British classicist Nigel Spivey explains how trying to be like Hercules reveals how ancient Greek athletes thought of themselves:

But there was a sense in which every Classical male athlete strove to be a second Herakles, undertaking to train and compete as if facing up to the trials of nightmarish persecution by one monster after another. Greek parlance acknowledged this by letting the noun athlon (or athlos) connote any sort of fight or contest, with the verb athleuo meaning not only ‘I take part in a contest’ but ‘I suffer’. On the positive side, the same cognate term implies that such suffering is not for nothing: with athlos also meaning ‘prize’, the expectation of reward is firmly attached. So Herakles, at the end of his hard-fought and heavily afflicted life, gained the greatest prize of all – elevation to immortal rank, joining the Olympian gods. 3

Herakles wrestling with the Nemean lion, 6th century BC, Ashmolean Museum, Wikimedia

From the ancient Greek we find three different words which combined created the original meaning of athlete.

• Athlon: this meant any sort of contest

• Athleuo: this meant not only “I take part in a contest” but also “I suffer,” “I struggle”

• Athlos: this suffering was not for nothing. This means “prize,” emphasizing the importance of the expectation of reward.

We can combine these concepts and create a more accurate meaning of athlete:

to suffer and struggle in a contest for the prize.

This spirit of struggle, contest and prize helps inform and shape our attitude and ethos of training.

Our ultimate goal is to combine the ancient wisdom and modern practices of athletes to exercise our bodies, minds and souls.

In the next lesson we will look at the benefits of the modern athletic training programs, like the Corporate Athlete and why the Ancient Athlete is superior.

Notes

1. H.I. Marrou, A history of education in antiquity. Translated by George Lamb. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 116

2. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, Volume 4, 2010 - Issue 2: Athletics and Philosophy in Ancient Greece and Rome: Contests of Virtue

3. Nigel Spivey, The Ancient Olympics (pp. 75-76). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

I have fought the good fight,

I have finished the race,

I have kept the faith. - St. Paul, 2 Timothy 4:7

With the advent and spread of Christianity in the first and second century A.D. we start to see the assimilation of Greco-Roman philosophy to Christianity. Christian writers defending and articulating Christian beliefs in a pagan world were referred to as the Apologists. These included early scholars, philosophers and theologians like Justin Martyr, also known as Justin the Philosopher, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Irenaeus.

Justin Martyr is a great example of someone who represents this convergence of Greco-Roman philosophy and Christianity. Born into a Greek family in 90 A.D. he studied the philosophies of Stoicism and met philosophers from the Peripatetic school of Aristotle and Pythagorean school but was turned off by both of them. He subsequently adopted Platonism before converting to Christianity.

“Reason dictates that those who are truly pious and philosophical should honor and love only the truth, declining to follow opinions of the ancients, if they are worthless.” - Justin Martyr

Christianity as THE philosophy

The Christ Pantocrator of the Deesis mosaic (13th-century) in Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey). Wikimedia

There was a widespread Christian tradition that characterized Christianity as a philosophy. Justin Martyr called Christianity ‘’our philosophy.’’ Origen and later the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa) would refer to Christianity as the ‘’complete philosophy’’ and ‘’the philosophy according to Christ.’’ These apologists and theologians didn’t believe it was one of another philosophy like the other Hellenistic schools; they considered it the philosophy. 1

The identification of Christianity with true philosophy appropriated and integrated classical Greek philosophical concepts for Christian purposes. ‘’Each Greek philosopher, they wrote, had possessed only a portion of the Logos, whereas the Christians were in possession of the Logos itself, incarnated in Jesus Christ. If to do philosophy was to live in accordance with the law of reason, then the Christians were philosophers, since they lived in conformity with the law of the divine Logos.” 2 Here Logos was intentionally used to bridge Greek philosophy with Christian theology. Literally meaning word, reason and speech, in ancient Greek, the Stoics expanded Logos to mean a divine and rational principle that governs the entire universe.

The ‘’Hellenization’’ of Christianity not only influenced the emerging Christian assimilation of philosophy but also led to the absorption of the Greco-Roman philosophical spiritual practices. As mentioned in lesson 6 attention and vigilance (prosoche) on oneself was the philosophical attitude par excellence. For Basil, the Cappadocian theologian, who we met in lesson 5, the philosophical idea of self-awareness meant paying attention to the ‘’beauty of our souls.’’

In a sermon, Basil of Caesarea took a passage from Deuteronomy, combined with wisdom from Platonic and Stoic traditions, to focus on the importance of self-awareness, from a Christian perspective.

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. - Deuteronomy 4:9

For Christians, St. Basil instructs his fellow Christians, “attention to oneself consists in awakening the rational principles of thought and action which God has placed in our souls.” By doing this we can correct the judgments we bring upon ourselves, as we ‘’watch ourselves.’’

If we think we are rich and noble, we are to recall that we are made of earth, and ask ourselves where are the famous men who have preceded us now. If, on the contrary, we are poor and in disgrace, we are to take cognizance of the riches and splendors which the cosmos offers us: our body, the earth, the sky, and the stars, and we shall then be reminded of our divine vocation.” - St. Basil 3

It’s not hard to hear the wisdom of the Greco-Roman philosophers, especially the Stoics, in this Christian sermon.

St. Paul and the Athletic Discipline of the Spirit

The practice of askesis, a disciplined training of the soul toward virtue, finds a remarkable parallel in the writings of St. Paul. Drawing from the athletic culture of the Greco-Roman world, Paul employed vivid sports metaphors to convey spiritual truths and inspire Christians to live disciplined, purposeful lives. Like the Greek philosophers before him, Paul recognized the transformative power of struggle and perseverance, using the language of athletic competition to illuminate the spiritual journey.

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. - 1 Corinthians 9:24–27 4

St. Paul’s letters frequently draw from the imagery of the race, the boxing ring, and the wrestling match to paint a picture of the Christian life as a contest of the soul.

• Running the Race: In 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, St. Paul compares the Christian life to running a race, urging believers to run with intention, perseverance, and the aim of securing an imperishable crown. This metaphor highlights the need for focus and endurance.

• Boxing and Discipline: St. Paul likens his own spiritual discipline to a boxer’s training, remarking that he does not fight aimlessly but with clear purpose. This imagery underscores the effort and self-control required to live a virtuous life.

• Wrestling Against Evil: In Ephesians 6:12, St. Paul depicts spiritual warfare as a wrestling match, a direct struggle against powers of darkness. Here, the physicality of wrestling symbolizes the intimate, personal nature of spiritual conflict.

• Athletic Rules and Obedience: In 2 Timothy 2:5, St. Paul compares the Christian life to an athlete competing under strict rules, emphasizing the importance of adherence to God’s will in the pursuit of spiritual victory.

The Spiritual Gymnasium

In the same way that Socrates and Plato mentored students in the philosophical gymnasium, St. Paul called Christians to a spiritual gymnasium—a life of disciplined training in faith and virtue. For St. Paul, this training was not aimed at fleeting worldly rewards but at an eternal crown (1 Corinthians 9:25).

Through practices like prayer, fasting, and acts of charity (alms giving), believers engaged in their own rigorous spiritual training, strengthening their souls in the pursuit of holiness and alignment with God’s will.

Just as athletes endure hardship and discipline to achieve physical excellence, Christians are called to embrace self-control, perseverance, and sacrifice to cultivate their spiritual lives. This training required not only individual effort but also a communal aspect, as believers encourage one another in their shared journey toward salvation.

The spiritual gymnasium, as envisioned by St. Paul, was a place of transformation where the inner struggles of faith were met with steadfast dedication. Here, the “contest” was against sin, temptation, and the challenges of the world, with victory defined not by personal glory but by a life fully devoted to God. The ultimate goal was the sanctification of the soul—a condition of virtue and grace made possible through the power of the Holy Spirit and the believer’s commitment to walking in faith. Paul’s metaphor inspires Christians to approach their spiritual lives with the same intentionality and discipline as athletes preparing for the race of their lives.

Why did St. Paul use Athletic Metaphors?

St. Paul’s choice of athletic imagery was neither accidental nor superficial. These metaphors were deeply resonant with his audience for several reasons:

• Relevance to his audience: St. Paul’s use of athletic imagery resonated with the Greco-Roman culture of his time, where sports and athletic competitions were highly valued. This made his teachings more relatable and understandable to his readers.

• Illustrating spiritual discipline: St. Paul used athletic metaphors to emphasize the importance of self-discipline, rigorous training, and perseverance in the Christian faith. He compared the dedication of athletes to the commitment required in following Christ.

• Emphasizing purpose and focus: Through these metaphors, Paul encouraged believers to maintain a clear goal and stay focused on their spiritual journey, just as athletes remain focused on winning their competitions.

• Demonstrating the importance of rules: St. Paul used athletic analogies to highlight the significance of following God’s instructions, comparing it to athletes adhering to competition rules

• Conveying the concept of reward: The idea of a prize or crown awarded to victorious athletes was used to illustrate the eternal rewards awaiting faithful Christians.

• Explaining his own ministry: St. Paul employed these metaphors to describe his own dedication and struggles in spreading the Gospel, likening his efforts to those of an athlete in training and competition.

By using athletic metaphors, St. Paul effectively communicated complex spiritual concepts in a way that was accessible and meaningful to his audience, drawing parallels between the physical discipline of sports and the spiritual discipline required in the Christian life.

In the next lesson, we will look at the original meaning of the word athlete and how it can serve as inspiration for our way of life.

Notes

1. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, p. 129

2. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, p. 129

3. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, p. 131

4. New International Version (NIV)

For just as those who take care of their bodies do not give them unlimited freedom in matters of eating and drinking, but set a limit to these things in accordance with what will best preserve the body, so too those who take care of the soul… do not let it go wherever it wishes, but exercise it in things which will make it better.

- Socrates on training the soul; Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.5.2

Morality and goodness were the ultimate goal for Socrates. His vision, as expressed through Plato, can be summed up as something like – beautiful souls, in strong bodies, struggling to know goodness and to be Good.

To help leaders (guardians, philosopher-kings) achieve this goodness, Socrates, Plato and a range of other Greco-Roman philosophers advocated for philosophy. A philosopher in the Socratic understanding was someone who loves and pursues the Good by loving and pursuing wisdom - philosophia, the love of wisdom.

Askesis: Disciplined Training of the Soul Toward Virtue

But how do you go from loving wisdom to becoming wisdom?

This required practicing philosophy as a way of life. And this required effort, struggle and training.

Exercise and effort, these philosophers taught, was required to achieve wisdom and know what the good was. To explain the practices needed to achieve this excellence they used another Greek word from the field of athletics and competition – askesis.

For Socrates and Plato arete (virtue and excellence) was understood as a kind of harmony and health of the soul 1 . And like physical, bodily health, achieving arete requires exercise or training.

The word the Greeks used for training was askesis. Achieving excellence and virtue (arete) must be earned through competition and training.

Askesis as understood and practiced by the Greek philosophers was a disciplined training of the soul toward virtue. Socrates taught his followers to exercise their souls to make it better. Socrates and all of his ‘’children’’ and their schools - Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus (Stoics) and even Epicurus - all embraced this concept of training the soul towards goodness and excellence.

Socrates was the coach and mentor at the philosophical gymnasium. He is the master of virtue, showing up at gymnasiums, to train his students. Socrates engages in dialectical/philosophical struggle and competition, whose goal is wisdom. Virtue, and specifically wisdom, was the most common goal of Socrates, as he showed up in Plato’s dialogues, to challenge the leaders of Athens. In the dialogue of Euthydemus, Socrates challenges us to ‘’pay no attention to the practitioners of philosophy but rather to the thing itself...to take it to heart, pursue and practice it [askesis]’‘. 2

This “thing itself “ is philosophy as a way of life. And the transformation came through the ‘’practice,’‘ what the Greeks called askesis.

The West’s First Spiritual Exercises: Effort & Training in your Whole Way of Being

This ‘philosophical askesis’ are in fact spiritual exercises. They are “exercises” because they require effort and training, and they are ‘’spiritual’‘ because they impact one’s ‘whole way of being.’ The goal of these exercises was to help the practitioner live a philosophical life:

Hence, the teaching and training of philosophy were intended not simply to develop intelligence of the disciple, but to transform all aspects of his being – intellect, imagination, sensibility, and will. Its goal was nothing less than an art of living, and so spiritual exercises were exercises in learning to live the philosophical life.

Spiritual exercises were exercises because they were practical, required effort and training, and were lived; they were spiritual because they involved the entire spirit, one’s whole way of being. The art of living demanded by philosophy was a lived exercise exhibited in every aspect of one’s existence. 3

- Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life

The first spiritual exercise we come across in Western civilization and Hellenic philosophy is the dialectic. We see this in the Socratic dialogues of Plato. Socrates’ famous maxim is to ‘’know thyself.’‘ We have to give attention to and care for ourselves. These Platonic dialogues show us that what is most important is not the solution itself but the path we have to traverse to arrive at our particular problem. According to the late French historian of Hellenic philosophy, Pierre Hadot, the Socratic dialogues was a

...concrete and practical exercise, because, to be precise, it is not concerned with the exposition of a doctrine, but with guiding an interlocutor to a certain settled mental attitude: it is a combat, amicable but real. We should note that this is what takes place in every spiritual exercise; it is necessary to make oneself change one’s point of view, attitude, set of convictions, there to dialogue with oneself, there to struggle with oneself. 4

Spiritual exercises can be observed in Hellenistic and Roman schools of philosophy. The Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus would also teach philosophy as a way of life. In his most famous work, Discourses, he uses metaphors of exercise and competitive athletic contests to describe an ideal of seeking the beautiful. Epictetus uses words like “askesis” (training), “agon” (the Greek ideal of competitive struggle), and the verb “gumnazo’‘ “(to exercise, where we get our words gymnastics and gymnasium) approximately 50 times in the Discourses. 5

What advantage does a wrestler gain from his training partner? The greatest. And that man, too, who insults me becomes my training partner; he trains me in patience, in abstaining from anger, in remaining gentle.

– Epictetus, Discourses 3.20.9

Socrates philosophical students and “descendants’‘ created four main schools of philosophy: Plato (the Academy), Aristotle (the Lyceum), Epicurus (the Garden) and Zeno (the Stoa, where we get Stoicism) and to a lesser degree, the Cynics and Skeptics. All these schools agreed that

‘’mankind’s principal cause of suffering, disorder, and unconsciousness were the passions: that is, unregulated desires and exaggerated fears. People are prevented from truly living, it was taught, because they were dominated by worries. Philosophy thus appears, in the first place, as a therapeutic of the passions. Each school had its own therapeutic method, but all of them linked their therapeutics to a profound transformation of the individual’s mode of seeing and being. The object of spiritual exercises is precisely to bring about this transformation. 6

This transformation was tough; a sort of inner metamorphosis. That’s where spiritual exercises, askesis, came in. We saw that Socrates introduced the dialogue and dialectic as an exercise. But we have a number of other exercises that the Greek and Roman philosophers taught.

Plato, Socrates most famous student, can be seen as the first Western philosopher to espouse an integrated approach to one’s growth (what in the 21^st century we’ve come to know as body, mind and spirit). He taught the following exercises in his dialogues:

• Daily self-mastery: ‘’as Dion and I used to advise Dionysius [Dionysius the Younger: Greek political leader in ancient Syracuse, Sicily 397-343 BC], first of all to make his daily life such as to give him the greatest possible mastery over himself’‘ - Plato, Seventh Letter 331 d

• Eat a moderate diet: “According to the philosopher, a moderate and thus a healthy diet, consists of cereals, legumes, fruits, milk, honey and fish. However, meat, confectionery and wine should be consumed only in moderate quantities.’‘ 7

• Love of virtue instead of pleasure: ‘’and he resolved to spend the rest of his life: differently from most Italians and Sicilians, since he had come to love virtue more than pleasure or luxury.’‘ - Plato, Seventh Letter 327b

• Pursuit of virtue: “...he should induce others among his relatives and companions to become friends and partners in the pursuit of virtue...’‘ ‘’Let him take the path we pointed out and perfect himself in wisdom and self-control.’‘ and ‘’..no individual can be happy except by living in company with wisdom under the guidance of justice, either from personal achievement of these virtues or from right training and education...’‘ - Plato, Seventh Letter 332 d,e and 335 d,e

• Reflection & training our minds: reflection, ‘’under the guidance of reason, to make the best possible use of one’s situation....we should constantly be training our minds.’‘ - Socrates, Republic, 404 c

• Exercise love of learning and transcendent wisdom: ‘’On the other hand, if a man has seriously devoted himself to the love of learning and to true wisdom, if he has exercised these aspects himself above all, then there is absolutely no way that his thoughts can fail to be immortal and divine...keeping well-ordered the guiding spirit that lives within him, he must indeed be supremely happy.’‘ - Plato, Timaeus 90 c

Philosophical exercise for Plato was not just intellectual—it was transformative, leading to wisdom and a higher state of being.

Stoic-Platonic Exercises: Self-awareness, Intellectual and Practical

Source: Wikimedia Commons: Stoa of Attalos, Athens, Greece.

There was no systematic guidebook or treatise in the ancient Greek world that outlined all the spiritual exercises of the Hellenic philosophers in one place. We do know that these spiritual exercises were well known since they were part of the daily life at the philosophical schools. But thanks to Philo of Alexandria, according to Pierre Hadot, we do have two lists of spiritual exercises. 8

Philo is an important source for us. He was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in the Roman province of Egypt (20 BC – 50 AD) and was a contemporary of Jesus Christ. Philo bridges the Hellenic and Judeo sources of wisdom which became the foundation of our western culture. Philo wrote in Koine Greek about philosophy, religion and politics. Important for our analysis of spiritual exercises, Philo explored connections between Greek Platonic philosophy and Second Temple Judaism, combining the God of the Old Testament with the Platonic idea of the Good. 9

Here is a summary of the ‘’Stoico-Platonic’ inspired philosophical therapeutics’‘ that Philo listed in his writings, grouped into three categories: self-awareness, intellectual and practical.

Self-awareness meant interior exercises to train and control inner discourse. Here were specific exercises the Platonic and Stoic schools taught:

• Attention (Greek: prosoche): “Attention to the present moment is, in a sense, the key to spiritual exercises... It is a continuous vigilance and presence of mind, self consciousness which never sleeps. Attention to the present moment allows us to accede to cosmic consciousness, by making us attentive to the infinite value of each instant, and causing us to accept each moment of existence from the viewpoint of the universal law of the cosmos. ‘’ 10

• Meditation (Greek: meltai): “The exercise of meditation allows us to be ready at the moment when an unexpected – and perhaps dramatic – circumstance occurs…The goal is to use thought exercises to help focus on what we can and cannot control…The first thing in the morning and in the evening, we should examine ourselves to become self-aware; aware of the progress we have made and the faults holding us back. 11

Intellectual exercises were used to train philosophical understanding. Here the activities were reading, research, listening and investigation. The goal was to provide ‘’food for meditation:” reading and researching the texts of poets and philosophers

This learning would be often summarized in pithy maxims, sayings or proverbs called apophthegmata in Greek. These sayings would be memorized to be at hand and readily called upon during meditation. 12

The final category were practical exercises, everyday exercises, to develop virtuous habits. The first of these was self-mastery, as Plato said above; “make his daily life such as to give him the greatest possible mastery over himself.’ This required an indifference to indifferent things, and applied to all men as they fulfilled their duties of social life and being a good citizen.

Fortunately for us there are a number of treatises relating to these practical exercises that are extant, still in existence. For example, the Platonist philosopher and historian Plutarch and the Stoic philosopher Seneca specialize in these moral and ethical texts. Plutarch’s Moralia include writings titled: On Restraining Anger, On Peace of Mind, On Brotherly Love, On the Love of Children, On the Love of Wealth, On False Shame, On Envy and Hatred. Seneca created works in the same genre with titles such as On Anger, On Benefits, On Peace of Mind and On Leisure.

In the next lesson we will continue with askesis. We will discover what happens when Hellenic philosophy comes into contact with the ‘’philosophy’ of Christianity.

Notes

1. Plato frequently uses the analogy of virtue as health. For example, in The Republic 444d-e

2. Euthydemus 307c

3. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, introduction, Arnold I Davidson, p21

4. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, introduction, Arnold I Davidson, p20

5. Heather Reid, Olympic Philosophy: The Ideas and Ideals behind the Ancient and Modern Olympic Games (p. 193). Parnassos Press – Fonte Aretusa. Kindle Edition)

6. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life. p. 83

7. Dietetics in ancient Greek philosophy: Plato’s concepts of healthy diet, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2001 55, 532-537: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601179

8. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, p. 84

9. Philo of Alexandria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo.

10. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, p. 84-85

11. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, p. 85

12. Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, p. 86

Read not the Times. Read the Eternities. Knowledge does not come to us by details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

- Henry David Thoreau, Life Without Principle

Read good books. Read great books. Read The Great Books!

Reading the Great Books is the most unique element of my classical approach to personal growth. If you read the Start Here article - How Plato, the US military and C.S. Lewis helped me find the missing piece to my daily workout - you will see how I was inspired by Plato’s cultural program, in his Republic, to complement my physical workout. I was further inspired by the Marines’ idea of a professional reading list to develop a ‘’5,000 year old mind,’’ and C.S. Lewis’ recommendation to alternate between old and new books.

But what are these foundational classic books to read, why are they so important for us and how do you find a working list to use in your ‘’cultural workout?’’

Let’s take a deep dive into some key training material to help you strengthen your cultural muscles.

The original canon of ‘’admitted’’ and ‘’included’’ Greek classics

The idea of a literary ‘’canon’’ was a Greek invention.

The British-born classical scholar and historian Bernard Knox explains the history of the idea of a canon in his book The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics. Writing in 1993 Knox states that the ‘’’source’’ and ‘’vital core’’ of the so-called cannon were classics of Greek literature:

“At the heart of the so-called canon, it’s source and still after all these years it’s vital core, are the masterpieces of classical Greek literature: the epic poems of Homer; the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; the comedies of Aristophanes; the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides; the odes of Pindar and the remnants of the other lyric poets, Sappho their brightest star; and the dialogues of Plato.’’ - Bernard Knox

How did the Greeks come up with this list of writers and their works?

The original canon was created by scholars of the Alexandrian library, in the third and second centuries BC. This era was characterized by the spread of Greek culture and language (Koine Greek) throughout the Mediterranean and Near East, including Egypt under the Ptolemaic dynasty. The library flourished in the Hellenistic period following the conquests of Alexander the Great, who founded the city of Alexandria in 332 BC. It was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, dedicated to the Muses, the goddesses of arts. The Great Library of Alexandria stood as a symbol of ancient Greek intellectual ambition and cultural fusion in the Hellenistic world.

The Greek scholars and critics of the Alexandrian library ‘’established select lists of the principal figures in each literary genre,’’ Knox tells us. “Homer and Hesiod were singled out from the immense body of early epic poetry as the great masters.” The Alexandrian scholars also chose nine lyric poets, which included Pindar and Sappho. They chose play writers from the tragic stage - such as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. They also chose historians, philosophers, and even orators.

Although ‘’canon’’ is an ancient Greek word (meaning a carpenter’s rule) it wasn’t the word that the Alexandrian scholars used. (Canon was first used in 1768 by the German scholar David Ruhnken). The Greek word these scholars used was hoi enkrithentes, which meant ‘’the admitted’’ or ‘’the included.’’ The Romans, as they have always done, appropriated the Greek word and expressed the idea with the word classicus, a Latin word derived from their political institutions, meaning ‘’belonging to the highest class of citizens.’’

This first ‘’canon’’ was not merely an academic exercise, as we probably envision it in our modern times. In this ancient time period book production was a time-consuming business of hand-copying on fragile and perishable papyrus scrolls. If these books were not ‘’admitted’’ or ‘’included’’ they were likely to disappear as there were no new copies created.

During this time of foreign invasion and civil wars there was great turmoil in these classical civilizations. The majority of Greek literature has been lost to us, such as the majority of the nine lyric poets. Knox explains to us how the foundational great books survived:

‘’Only those works transferred to the more durable (and expensive) material of parchment could survive, and in what was now a Christian world the pagan authors preserved were those thought necessary for the schooling of the young - a restricted version of the original canon: Homer, Hesiod, Herodotus, Thucydides; seven tragedies each for Aeschylus and Sophocles, ten for Euripides; eleven comedies of Aristophanes; and, partly no doubt because of the influence of Neoplatonic philosophy on the Christian theologians, all of Plato, and much of his successor Aristotle.”

Why read the Great Books: Cultivate Virtue and Human Excellence

Real literature is something much better than a harmless instrument for getting through idle hours. The purpose of great literature is to help us to develop into full human beings. - Russell Kirk

The Great Books are not museum pieces; they are training partners.

When you read Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Augustine, Dante, Montaigne, Tocqueville, Austen, and Dostoevsky, you step into a gym for the soul where your faculties are put under disciplined stress: memory, attention, imagination, reason, courage. The result is not trivia or mere “context,” but mental muscle—habits of mind that can withstand confusion, fashion, and flattery. Plato (and Socrates) teaches you to ask the question behind the question. Thucydides trains your organizational eye to see consequences before they arrive. Marcus Aurelius steadies your hands when duty feels heavy.

These books do not simply entertain; they tutor your powers and form your character, helping you become the kind of person who can act—calmly, decisively, prudently—when it actually counts.

They also give you a “5,000-year-old mind” with a spine. C.S. Lewis warned that every age has its own blind spots; the antidote is alternating old and new books so the past can correct the present. The canon—the “admitted” and “included” classics—functions like a leadership council across centuries. You gain second sight: patterns in human nature, wisdom, love, loyalty, pride, decay, renewal. Read Herodotus or Aristotle and you learn to separate permanent things from passing fashions.

This is the classical path to excellence: to cultivate virtue by companionship with the best minds, to apprentice yourself to greatness until its standards become your own. In a culture of hot takes and short memory, the Great Books reforge a long view—and with it, judgment.

Learning from the Great Books is a form of leverage. Very few people learn from the classics or history. But true learning is not just memorizing information. It’s changing behavior. That’s where the struggle (agon in Greek) comes from and the need to consider this type of reading more than an act of leisure but rather a real workout. Reading the Great Books well has the power to cultivate virtue.

Most importantly, Great Books reading is a way of life, not a one-off activity. Like the Marines’ professional reading list, it builds a cadence: steady, deliberate, cumulative. You read to become more capable in your virtuous vocation, more loyal in your friendships, more patient in your trials. You read to recover words for realities our age forgets—honor, magnanimity, piety, duty—and to test them against the hardest cases.

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” — James Baldwin

The classics won’t do the pushups for you, but they will intellectually spot you, coach your form, and refuse to let you skip intellectual leg day. Over time, they cultivate the inner posture of the traditionally minded leader: principled, resilient, oriented to the good—and ready.

Assembling a Great Books list

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. - Mortimer Adler

Where does one go to find a definitive list of the Western Canon?

I found it especially helpful to focus on two credible sources: 1/ scholars who have written on the importance of the Western Canon and created their own lists and 2/ universities who specialize in teaching a Great Books program.

I began with Mortimer Adler (1902–2001) a 20th century American philosopher and educator. He taught at the University of Chicago, helped found the Aspen Institute, and was a long-time editor and guiding force behind Encyclopaedia Britannica’s editorial projects. He saw the Great Books as an ongoing “Great Conversation” in which authors respond to one another over centuries. Reading them trains people to join that conversation thoughtfully. In 1952 he wrote Great Books of the Western World ( with Robert M. Hutchins): A curated 54-volume set published by Encyclopaedia Britannica. In addition he wrote How to Read a Book (with Charles Van Doren in later editions). In this second book he included A Recommended Reading List, as an appendix:

All of these books are over most people’s heads—sufficiently so, at any rate, to force most readers to stretch their minds to understand and appreciate them. And that, of course, is the kind of book you should seek out if you want to improve your reading skills, and at the same time discover the best that has been thought and said in our literary tradition.

Here is Adler’s list of 137 authors, from Homer to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Another take on the Great Books was from Harold Bloom (1930 - 2019). Bloom was an influential American literary critic and professor of Humanities at Yale University and later an English professor at New York University. In 1994 he directly stepped into the Great Conversation with the publishing of his book The Western Canon: The Books and Schools of the Ages.

The Western Canon is a landmark book in literary criticism. Bloom directly defends the concept of a Western literary canon, identifying 26 key authors as central to the Western tradition. Bloom’s stated goal was to ‘’confront greatness directly.’’

Bloom argues that true greatness in literature comes from originality and aesthetic strength. An author enters the canon not through ideology but through an innovative mastery of language, cognitive power, and a necessary “strangeness” that challenges readers. He describes the impact of reading a Great Book for the first time.

‘When you read a canonical work for a first time you encounter a stranger, an uncanny startlement rather than a fulfilment of expectations.’

For my Great Books planning, Bloom also created his own complete list of a Western Canon. Here is a list of Bloom’s full canon.

The final source for our Great Books inventory is St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. This school is known for its distinctive Great Books curriculum which was first started in 1937. This unique academy program emphasizes the study of classic works of Western civilization. Every student reads a very large, fixed sequence across four years. According to its site :

The reading list at St. John’s includes classic works in philosophy, literature, political science, psychology, history, religion, economics, math, chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy, music, language, and more.

St. John’s graduate Salvatore Scibona wrote about the impact the Great Books program had on him:

The college’s curriculum was an outrage. No electives. Not a single book in the seminar list by a living author. However, no tests. No grades, unless you asked to see them. No textbooks—I was confused. In place of an astronomy manual, you would read Copernicus. No books about Aristotle, just Aristotle. Like, you would read book-books. The Great Books, so called, though I had never heard of most of them. It was akin to taking holy orders, but the school—St. John’s College—had been secular for three hundred years. In place of praying, you read.

What did I get out of these Great Book lists?

All these lists - Morimter Adler, Harold Bloom and St. John’s College - provide a great starting point. There are 47 writers who are common to all three lists. As you can see below, it comprises foundational figures in literature, philosophy, political theory, history, science, and psychology, spanning from ancient antiquity through modernity.

Here is the total breakdown by source:

• St. John’s list - 158 books

• Mortimer Adler’s list - 286 books

• Harold Bloom’s list - 1,864 books

  • Theocratic Age (2000 BCE - 1321 CE): 96

  • Aristocratic Age (1321 - 1832): 229

  • Democratic Age (1832 - 1900): 345

  • Chaotic Age (20th Century): 1,194

The three sources above were a good place to start but not always helpful. Bloom recommends Plato’s Dialogues and Shakespeare’s Plays and Poems. Plato’s Complete Works include 36 dialogues and are over 1800 pages while Shakepeare’s works are over 1200 pages with 37 plays. These are more anthologies rather than individual books to read.

In addition, some key authors were missing. No Hesiod, Xenophon, Polybius, from the classical Greeks nor any of the Stoics, such as Epictetus, Seneca or Marcus Auriellius. Key time periods were also under represented. As a Christian, I wanted to see more Early Christian fathers and their writing included. And I was surprised to see only Bloom include Medieval classics like the tales of King Arthur.

The total numbers were also very telling. St. John’s 158 books show what a 4-year focused program can achieve. On the extreme side, Bloom’s list of over 1,800 seems like a ridiculously high number, with over 1,200 books just from the 20th Century. Adler’s total of 286 seemed like a challenging but also possible lifelong number to aspire too. But upon further examination the list wasn’t helpful to create an individual book reading list. Where do you start with these famous classic Greek and Roman writers?

• Plato: Dialogues

• Aristotle: Works

• Cicero: Works

• Virgil: Works

There had to be a better source to get a workable reading list.

My list: The 300 Great Books

Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library. — John Waters

With these 3 lists as inspiration I began creating my own reading list.

First, I began with the end in mind. I used 300 as the target number of total books.

Why 300?

The number 300 resonates in Western thought through two iconic episodes:

• The 300 Spartans at Thermopylae (480 BC): a small, chosen band holding a pass against overwhelming force—discipline, civic virtue, duty unto death, the defense of free polities against an empire.

• Gideon’s 300 (Judges 6–8): a divinely winnowed few defeating a vast host—purification, reliance on providence over numbers, moral renewal preceding victory.

Here is a breakdown of the books by time period and type of book.

A few points of additional insight to better understand my reasoning behind the choices:

• Where possible I tried to select individual, separate books. Instead of Homer, I have the Iliad and Odyssey as two separate entries.

• Where the main works of an author - such as their poems or plays - could fit into approximately 600 pages I listed it as one entry. For the three great classic Greek playwrights - Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides - we can fit their major plays into one book-length volume.

• For most of Plato’s works I have included individual dialogues separately. But where some can be combined, I did that. For example, the first Five Dialogues of Plato - Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo - can be read as a book, when published separately was 168 pages.

• My list contains more military histories than I found on any of the three sources listed. Part of the bias is due to my military background as a West Point grad and Army veteran. More importantly, there are great lessons of virtue and strategy to learn from the histories of great military commanders like Xenophon, Alexander the Great, Caesar not to mention Plutarch’s Lives and the Roman historians of Livy, Nepos, Tacitus, and Suetonius.

• I organized the Bible into distinct books: Law, History, Wisdom and Prophets. I applied this to the Old and New Testament, while treating the Apocrypha as a separate book.

• Where singular books are fundamentally structured as three distinct books or volumes, I created three separate entries. Divine Comedy, The Lord of the Rings, and The Gulag Archipelago each consist of three separate books instead of one.

• At risk of upsetting literary scholars, I’ve included a number of writing collections that don’t typically qualify as Great Books. We have the writings and letters of a number of famous American and British statesmen. I’ve included these eight collections as separate history books to help benefit from the direct words of these Great Men:

  • George Washington: Selected Writings

  • The Essential Hamilton: Letters & Other Writings

  • Thomas Jefferson: Selected Writings

  • The Adams-Jefferson Letters

  • The Writings of Abraham Lincoln

  • The Man in the Arena: Selected Writings of Theodore Roosevelt

  • Churchill: The Power of Words: His Remarkable Life Recounted Through His Writings and Speeches

  • A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.

• Dates are estimates. Where the date is unknown I tried to use the writer’s year of death as an indication.

Without further ado, here’s the complete list: A lifelong reading list of the best 300 books of the Western Tradition.

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you’re functionally illiterate”- General Jim Mattis

Download The Great Books list

I hope this list has given you Great Ideas for Great Books to add to your reading list.

I want to end by preempting an expected critique of this list. You will find only Western books.

Why aren’t there Eastern books on this list?

I’ve benefited from reading such Eastern classics as Tao Te Ching, the popular Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita and excerpts from Confucius’s Analects and the mystical Persian Muslim poet Rumi. But I have limited knowledge of the Eastern traditions. I was raised in a different culture, in a different country.

Mortimer Adler addressed this point better than I can. I’ll leave you with his response to the same question above from his book, How to Read a Book:

We want to mention one omission that may strike some readers as unfortunate. The list contains only Western authors and books; there are no Chinese, Japanese, or Indian works. There are several reasons for this.

One is that we are not particularly knowledgeable outside of the Western literary tradition, and our recommendations would carry little weight.

Another is that there is in the East no single tradition, as there is in the West, and we would have to be learned in all Eastern traditions in order to do the job well. There are very few scholars who have this kind of acquaintance with all the works of the East.

Third, there is something to be said for knowing your own tradition before trying to understand that of other parts of the world. Many persons who today attempt to read such books as the I Ching or the Bhagavad-Gita are baffled, not only because of the inherent difficulty of such works, but also because they have not learned to read well by practicing on the more accessible works—more accessible to them—of their own culture.

And finally, the list is long enough as it is.

Here is to your reading journey, as you explore the perennial questions about what it means to be human.

“The world is a great book...they who never stir from home read only a page.” - St Augustine

Baldassarre Peruzzi - Apollo and the Muses, Wikimedia

“My father, wishing me to become an accomplished man made me learn the whole of Homer, so that even today I can still recite the Iliad and Odyssey by heart.’’

- Nicoratus, Xenophon’s Symposium

“There are many testimonies to the fact that every cultivated Greek had a copy of Homer’s work at his bedside (as Alexander did during his campaigns)” 1

The next part of the classical Greek program for growth and excellence is mousiki, the art of the muses. Mousiki was the cultural workout that Plato wrote about that included literature, poetry, drama and music. The goal was to cultivate the love of wisdom - philosophia.

From the Noble Warrior to the Scribe

The ancient Greek ideal of human excellence called for lifelong commitment to moral and intellectual education. Classical Greek education has a history, progressing from Homer to the Bible. The 20th century French classist H.I. Marrou explained the development well, summarizing it as a transition ‘’from the noble warrior to the scribe.’’

To sum up this complex development in a simple formula, it might be said that the history of ancient education reflects the progressive transition from a ‘noble warrior’ to a ‘scribe’ culture…. The whole history of ancient education constitutes a slow transition from the latter to the former type of culture. 2

Marrou shares with us the central importance of Homer for Greek education.

It’s origins are to be found in a society still impregnated with the warrior spirit, which nevertheless manage to produce the central pivot around which the whole of Greek education was to be organized – and this was a book, Homer’s Iliad, though it is true that it was entirely devoted to celebrating the deeds of heroes. 3

Plato called Homer the educator of Greece. In The Republic he wrote about ‘’those who praise Homer and say that he’s the poet who educated Greece,’’ (Republic 606e). Greek literary education kept Homer as the basic text from its studies. Homer wasn’t valued so much as a literary text but because the Greeks considered its content ethical.

The Iliad and the Odyssey were considered crucial treatises on the ideal moral life. Every accomplished and cultivated Greek was expected to have studied Homer and emulated his heroes.

We saw in lesson 1 that this moral ideal was called arete. For Homer’s warriors arete was displayed as an excellence and an ethic to strive to be the best. The highest ideal was the love of honor. For Homer’s heroes, it was an agonistic, competitive ideal of life. But according to Marrou, it wasn’t meant to be selfish or egotistical

In my view this is not, however any romantic individualism, however personal it may seem. This love of self – philoaftia – which Aristotle was to analyse, is not the love of the ego but of the Self, The Absolute Beauty, the Perfect Valour, that the hero long to express is one Great Deed that will utterly astonish the great envious company of his equals.”

To dazzle, to be first, the victor, to triumph, to prove one’s worth in competition with others, to oust a rival before the judges, to perform the great deed – aristeia – that will make one pre-eminent amongst men – the living, and perhaps even the dead – that is why a hero lives, and why he dies.’4

From Achilles to Christ: How Christian’s Profit from Pagan Literature

Homer’s heroes expressed the ideal values that nourished the souls of ancient Greek children for over seven-hundred years. It was not until much later, more than seven centuries (dating Homer around the mid 8th century BC) that the advent of Christianity changed the culture of classical education:

“It was not until long afterwards, when the Christian Faith decided to organize culture and education around the Book of Books – the Bible, the source of all knowledge and all life – that the literary man of antiquity finally became a scribe.” 5

St Basil the Great provides an insightful example of how the scribe culture of Christianity, over 1,000 years after Homer, still integrated the wisdom of Achilles and Christ.

Basil of Caesarea (AD 329 - 379) was not only a famous Christian bishop but also a scholar and teacher. Together with his brother Gregory of Nyssa and their mutual friend Gregory of Nazianus, their significant intellectual and moral leadership during the critical fourth century led them to be remembered in church history as the ‘’Cappadocian Fathers.’’

Basil’s broad education illustrated the importance of integrating ‘’Athens and Jerusalem.’’ Educated not only in his hometown of Caesarea but also in Constantinople (New Rome) and Athens. “His literary education steeped him in Greek epic and lyric poetry, plays, history and Platonic philosophy.’’ 6

He wrote a sermon called ‘’To Young Men, on How They Might Derive Profit from Pagan Literature.’’ As evident in the title, this famous church father of the Greek East instructed how Christians should respond to classical, pagan culture and learn from it.

So we also must consider that a contest, the greatest of all contests, lies before us, for which we must do all things, and, in preparation for it, must strive to the best of our power, and must associate with poets and writers of prose and orators and with all men from whom there is any prospect of benefit to the care of our soul. 7

The ultimate contest for Basil, what the Greeks called agon, [the same word used for battle, struggle and athletic competition] is the ‘’care of our soul.’’ Basil exhorted ‘’let us not fail to derive advantage” from ‘’passages in literature which contain an admonition of excellent things’’ in which ‘’the virtuous deeds of men of old have been preserved for us.’’

How do we do this? Basil suggests that we should be like bees, ‘’for those neither approach all flowers equally, nor in truth do they attempt to carry off entire those upon which they alight, but taking only so much of them as is suitable for their work, they suffer the rest to go untouched.’’ 8 Or to quote the famous martial artist Bruce Lee, “Absorb what’s useful. Disregard the rest.’’

What do we read? Although unfortunately Basil doesn’t leave behind a detailed reading plan, the various writers he mentions in his sermon does give us guidance on what we should read. The classical reading plan included literature (epic poetry and plays), history, philosophy and religion. Classical Greek poets and historians like Homer, Hesiod and Plutarch are all referenced in his sermon, in addition to stories about Hercules and Pericles. The focus is on a ‘’devotion to wisdom’’ to help us acquire virtue (arete) and to avoid vice.

Basil’s sermon influenced the future of western educational culture. It was cited in the Renaissance, recommended in the Jesuits’ Ratio Studiorum, their foundational document of education and used by sixteenth century reformer John Calvin, "'to defend a broad appropriation of the wisdom of the ancients.” 9

Paideia Becomes Humanitas

Mousiki was also part of the Hellenic idea of paideia. Paideia was the cultural and educational ideal that inspired and supported the growth of the ancient world for many centuries. Its goal was to create excellent men as part of excellent societies.

...as means to a good life paideia [education] and arete [virtue, excellence] would make the most just claim.

- Aristotle, Politics 3.1283a

You may find the word paideia strange because you don’t understand the ancient Greek word. But rest assured, you know the concept, at least in its modern form. The Romans wholeheartedly embraced the ideal of paideia and passed the idea on to our modern education. The Romans translated paideia into Latin using the word humanitas. This meant the essence of being human.

Renaissance scholar James Hankins writes that humanitas ''in the widest sense of an education meant to bring out our full human potential, intellectual and moral. '' It was ''the belief that certain forms of study—the study of languages, literature, history, eloquence, and above all philosophy—are tools inherited from our revered ancestors that enable us to improve ourselves and the quality of human beings generally." 10

Humanitas in the Renaissance was a revival and reinterpretation of classical humanism. This original ideal of humanism - paideia in Greek - had a focus on cultivating greatness. Here Marrou makes the important connection for us, again:

“Classical humanism was able to lead to – and in fact lead to – a higher kind of greatness, by putting itself at the service of a higher cause, to which the human person was willing to consecrate himself and thus find fulfilment in self-transcendence.’’ 11

We've come to know ancient Roman humanitas in our modern world as humanities. We strive to reach our moral and intellectual potential and achieve wisdom through the humanities. Reading the classical texts of the humanities – such as literature, history, and philosophy – helps us cultivate the love of wisdom, philosophia for the ancient Greeks.

Reading well is a crucial part of living well.

An important tool for moral and intellectual growth in the classical western tradition was literature. Aristotle in his Poetics wrote that an element of good literature was that it “satisfies the moral sense.” In A Defense of Poetry Renaissance author Sir Philip Sidney wrote that the very purpose of literature was 'the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue'' and inflaming a reader with a "desire to be worthy.'' 12

The ancient Greeks realized that literature, and the other topics of the future ''humanities"- such as history, philosophy, poetry, music - can strengthen the moral life of the reader. It's why Plato had mousiki (the art of the muses) as the second part of his leadership growth program.

In the next lesson we will see how Plato used a Greek word for training, askesis, to help us re-orient our minds towards timeless, eternal truths.

Notes

1. H.I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, p. 9

2. H.I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, p xiv

3. H.I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, p xiv

4. H.I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, p. 12

5. H.I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, p.xiv

6. Richard M. Gamble, The Great Tradition, Basil the Great p. 181

7. Basil the Great, ’To Young Men, on How They Might Derive Profit from Pagan Literature.’’

8. Basil the Great, ’To Young Men, on How They Might Derive Profit from Pagan Literature.’’

9. Richard M. Gamble, The Great Tradition, Basil the Great p. 181-182

10. James Hankins, Liberal Learning beyond Liberalism: The Humanities as Soulcraft in the Renaissance and Today https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/06/64818

11. H.I. Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity, p. 226

12. On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books . Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Intro Leland Ryken)

How do we operationalize the wisdom of the ancient Greeks and use it for our own personal growth practice?

We need to remember that Socrates, and the ancient Greeks in general, focused on virtue as the means to flourish. As we’ve seen in lesson 2, the Greeks used the word arete which meant excellence, moral virtue and the goal of life, the highest good.

If we look at the Classical Western Tradition as a whole, we see an integrated approach to virtue and excellence. For the Greeks, virtue was physical and moral/intellectual excellence. The Christians inherited the Hellenic tradition of moral/intellectual excellence, expressed supremely as the cardinal virtues (courage, wisdom, justice and moderation), purified these excellences and added spiritual virtues (known as the theological virtues) of faith, hope and love.

Examining these three types of virtues – physical, moral/intellectual and spiritual – and discovering how they were practiced in Athens and Jerusalem, we can discern the timeless ancient wisdom of human excellence and can begin to apply it to our modern practice for personal growth.

The physical virtues and physical well-being

The gymnasium’s 2,800-year history places it among the oldest human institutions: it predates the foundation of the Christian church by eight centuries and of representative parliamentary democracy by 2,500 years. - Eric Chaline 1

The foundation for Hellenic excellence was physical. We've seen how both Socrates and his student Plato include physical training – gymnastiki – in their leadership training as outlined in The Republic. So it shouldn't surprise us that Plato's famous student, Aristotle, preached the same message. Aristotle was not only a student of Plato’s Academy (a gymnasium) but also mentored the legendary king of Macedonia and arguably the most famous military leader in history, Alexander the Great.

In Aristotle's book The Art of Rhetoric, he shares the elements of happiness:

Let happiness, then, be virtuous welfare, or self-sufficiency in life or the pleasantest secure life or material and physical well-being...also the physical virtues (e.g. health, beauty, strength, size and competitive prowess).'

For a man to would enjoy the greatest self-sufficiency if he possessed both internal and external advantages. The internal advantages are those connected with the soul and those connected to the body. 2

Aristotle goes on to explain that ''the excellence of the body is health, and that in such a way that those using their bodies are free from disease..." He also shares how to achieve strength - ''which must be done by dragging, pushing, lifting, pressing or squeezing,'' and that ''competitive physical prowess is composed of size, strength and speed.'' But he's also wise about the impact of aging on health. "A good old age is a slowness to age and freedom from pain." A good old age ''is a product of both of the excellences of the body and luck.''

Your Civic Duty to Train at the Gym

Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were all members of a Greek society that valued physical excellence. They, and all other elite members of the Greek polis, city-state, were members of gymnasiums. Citizens of the polis’ were expected to go workout. The famous playwrights, poets, politicians and philosophers that created the glory that was ancient Greek culture all were members of a gymnasium.

To say that the city-states of Classical Greece expected everyone within their walls to maintain rigorous levels of physical fitness is an over-simplification. But it is not unrealistic to imagine that many of the ‘big names’ who come to mind from Classical Greek history and culture probably spent some time each day exercising in the precincts of a gymnasium. Sophocles was a successful writer, Pericles a busy politician, and Socrates a committed philosopher – but it is unlikely that any of them neglected his regular workout. 3

Training at the gymnasium was a pre-requisite to be a good citizen. A good citizen was virtuous in body and mind. For the Greeks, training wasn’t a lifestyle choice; it was their civic duty.

The ancient Greeks looked at the gymnasiums very differently than we moderns do. “But perhaps we should begin with an unfamiliar notion. What if gymnasium attendance was deemed one of the normal obligations of citizenship – like paying tax?” asks classicist Nigel Spivey. 4

For us moderns a gym is an optional membership club where we can go to exercise. Only 20% of Americans are members of a gym. And most of those paying members don’t even attend. Research in 2018 showed that “63% of [gym] memberships go completely unused.” 5

Gymnasticus: the only ancient text dedicated to athletics

The Greek sophist Philostratus (AD 170-250) wrote a training manual and athletic history in about AD 220 called Gymnasticus, Latin for gymnastiki, exercise. The book can be translated as On Exercise. His goal was to recapture the art of athletic training and reconnect with the glorious past of the ancient athletes and connect them with the imperial present of the Roman empire.

Gymnasticus is the sole surviving ancient book on training and sports. According to the editors of the Loeb edition of this book, “it reshapes conventional ideas about the athletic body and expertise of the athletic trainer and also explores the history of the Olympic Games and other major Greek athletic festivals.”

This ancient training manual starts with a counter-intuitive point for us modern athletes: training is a form of wisdom comparable to other skills. “Athletic training (gymnastiki)…is a form of wisdom (Sophia) and one which is inferior to none of the other skills (technai).’ (Gymnasticus, p. 335). Philostratus’ training manual includes wisdom on progressive resistance, diet and split training routines.

Here is how Philostratus described the strength training of past Greek athletes:

Some trained themselves by carrying weights that were hard to lift, some by competing for speed with horses and hares, others by straightening or bending thick pieces of wrought iron, while some yoked themselves with powerful, wagon-drawing oxen, and others wrestled. - Gymnasticus, p. 471

The concept of progressive strength and resistance training was known to the ancient Greeks. Notice the reference to ‘weights’ and ‘iron.’ The ancient Greeks were one of the first civilizations to incorporate resistance equipment into their training. “Carrying weights that were hard to lift” included rudimentary equipment made of ‘iron’ and stone. Janice Todd, professor of kinesiology and former record-setting powerlifter, notes the significance of the Greeks’ impact on modern weight training equipment:

Although the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Chinese, the ancient Indians, and many other early peoples practiced resistance exercise, credit has traditionally been given to the ancient Greeks for producing the forerunners of our modern weight training equipment. 6

The People of the Gymnasium

Source: Wikimedia commons. Black figure tyrrhenian amphora in the British Museum, London, depicting athletes competing.

Gymnasiums were an integral part of Greek culture and society. Along with the market-square (agora) and the council-house (bouleutêrion), it was one of the most recognizable features of the city-state (polis). 7

In fact, gymnasia became a fundamental aspect of Greek identity. “Over the course of time, because athletics became so fundamental an aspect of Greek identity, the very presence of a gymnasium would define a city as being Greek or Hellenized,” explains Robin Waterfield. 8 .

The gymnasium is actually one of the first places - physically and culturally - where Athens and Jerusalem first met. The Book of the Maccabees, a series of books contained in various canons (deuterocanonical books) of the Bible, shares the story of the leaders of the Jewish rebellion against the Seleucid Empire. The Maccabees were rebelling against the ruling Seleucid dynasty, which was a Hellenistic kingdom founded by one of the generals of Alexander the Great.

The Maccabees criticized their fellow Jews who wanted to adopt the Greek culture and abandon their faith, symbolized by building a gymnasium: “And they built a place of exercise [gymnasium, in the original Greek] in Jerusalem according to the laws of the Gentile.” (1 Maccabees 1:14). In the neighboring Hellenic kingdom of Ptolemaic Egypt, one of the ways that Greeks were referred to was ‘the people of the gymnasium.’ 9

How do we honor our civic duty and become people of the gymnasium ?

In the next lesson we will take a deeper look at Philosophia – the love of wisdom and channeling the muses.

Notes

1. Chaline, Eric. Temple of Perfection: A History of the Gym (p. 7). Reaktion Books

2. Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric, Chapter 1.5. Happiness

3. Spivey, Nigel. The Ancient Olympics (pp. 32-33). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

4. T Spivey, Nigel. The Ancient Olympics (p. 32). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition).

5. Are gym memberships worth the money?, The Hustle February 09, 2024 https://thehustle.co/gym-membership-cost

6. Jan Todd. “From Milo to Milo: A History of Barbells, Dumbells, and Indian Clubs“. Iron Games History 3 (6) 1995: 4-16

7. Spivey, Nigel. The Ancient Olympics (p. 34). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.).

8. Waterfield, Robin. Olympia (The Landmark Library) (p. 59- 60). Head of Zeus. Kindle Edition.)

9. Waterfield, Robin. Olympia (The Landmark Library) (p. 59- 60). Head of Zeus. Kindle Edition.).

Source: Wikimedia Commons: Body beautiful: Greek amphora, Attica, fourth century BC.

We saw in lesson 2 Socrates preaching to the ancient Greeks about the importance of being good:

‘The struggle (agon) to be good rather than bad is important, Glaucon, much more important than people think. Therefore, we mustn’t be tempted by honor, money, rule or even poetry into neglecting justice and the rest of virtue.’ – Socrates, Plato’s Republic 608b 1

But Socrates taught the Athenians a particular conception of excellence that included a strong body as well as soul:

“Besides, it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.” – Socrates, Xenophon’s Memorabilia 3.12 (Loeb version)

Why is the founding father of Western philosophy lecturing this youth about the benefits of physical fitness?

This may be strange to our modern sensibilities – an old ‘academic’ philosopher lecturing on physical fitness – but was quite normal in ancient Greece. The Greeks were the first people in western civilization to introduce an integrated program of training the body and mind.

Socrates’ goal was the education of virtue – excellence and morality. Through his famous student Plato we see a specific workout program to develop virtue, what the Greeks called arete. In the classic philosophy book The Republic Plato has the following goal for his leaders, the guardians:

Anyone who is going to be a truly good guardian of our community, then, will have a philosopher’s love of knowledge, and will be passionate, quick on his feet, and strong.

Absolutely, he said. - The Republic, 376c

And our guardians are, in fact, both warriors and philosophers.’

Of course. - The Republic, 525

Exercising gymnastics and music: getting a physical and cultural workout

So, what kind of training produces virtue: excellence and morality?

'Gymnastics" and "Music.''

Plato devotes a considerable amount of content to the education of the guardians, the leaders of his ideal city. He provides a lifelong education program that transforms the guardians into philosopher-kings, with the foundation being the blend of the physical and the cultural. The ancient Greeks used the words gymnastiki and mousiki. These are sometimes translated as ''gymnastics" and ''music'' but that is not quite accurate.

We certainly get the English words ''gymnastics'' from the Greek gymnastiki. But it had a deeper meaning for the ancient Greeks. The term can be thought of as a broad physical training and health program. The 20^th Century French professor of classics, H.I. Marrou, who specialized in ancient Greek education, explains the deeper meaning.

‘’To the Greeks, sport was not merely a pleasant form of relaxation; it was a highly serious business, involving a whole complex of affairs concerned with hygiene and medicine, aesthetics and ethics.’’ and “Thus physical training remained an essential part of the process of initiation into civilized life – that is to say, of education…’’ 2

The Greek word for music, mousiki, literally means the ‘art of the muses.’ The muses were the goddesses of “music,” not just in our modern understanding of the word but in a broader cultural conception. They were the inspiration for literature, arts, poetry, lyric songs, drama and myths that were for centuries passed down in ancient Greek culture.

Athlete, gymnasium, Olympics, hero, calisthenics, gymnastics, diet and hygiene are all Greek words.

But so are philosophy, psychology, poetry, tragedy, drama, history, rhetoric and music.

And all of these disciplines and practices – the physical ones (“gymnastics") like exercise, combat sports, diet and health and the intellectual and creative ones (“music”) like philosophy, literature and art – were trained at the same location: the gymnasium.

Staring back from the modern academy to the world of Classical Antiquity, it is easy to forget that the ancient Academy was a gymnasium and that Plato was an athlete—a wrestler serious enough to compete at the Isthmian Games—before he became a philosopher. 3

For us moderns these disciplines are totally separate fields of study and training. Working out at the gym and studying the humanities have no formal connection. For the ancient Greeks they were elements of an integrated approach to being an excellent man in an excellent society; to achieve greatness in word and deed.

‘So in my opinion what we find is that, since we have a dual nature, God gave us two corresponding areas of expertise—culture and physical exercise—for our passionate and our philosophical aspects. He didn’t give them for the mind and the body, except incidentally; the purpose was for those two aspects of our nature to fit harmoniously together by being stretched and relaxed as much as is appropriate.’ The Republic, 411 e

‘Yes, that seems to be so,’ he said. ‘Therefore, it isn’t the person who attunes the strings of a lyre to one another, it’s the person who makes the best blend of physical exercise and culture, and who applies them to the mind in the right proportions, whom we should really describe as a virtuoso and as having the most harmony in his life.’ The Republic, 412a

To Plato (here channeled through Socrates) "God gave us two corresponding areas of expertise—culture and physical exercise—for our passionate and our philosophical aspect." The ''virtuoso" who makes ‘the best blend’’ of this balanced program has ''the most harmony in his life.''

Reorienting the Mind through Dialectic

After ''gymnastics'' and ''music,'' Plato's long educational program progresses to mathematics and culminates in dialectic, philosophic examination – with others and yourself. The competitive skills and spirit cultivated through physical training is now applied to philosophical exercises.

Philosophy professor and ex-athlete Heather L. Reid explains the philosophical method of active inquiry created by Socrates mirrors an athlete's actions. “I actually think Socrates’ Socratic Method (a form of inquiry and discussion between individuals based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking) is an athletic way of seeking knowledge,'' she says 4

We shouldn't be surprised that Plato embraced the athlete's way of seeking knowledge and wisdom. According to the ancient biographer Diogenes Laertius, in his book The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Plato is a nickname he received from his wrestling coach meaning ''broad,'' signifying his broad shoulders. In the same passage we are told Plato ''wrestled at the Isthmian games'' (panhellenic athletic competition, similar to the Olympic games), most likely as a boy. 5

Virtue [arete] in Plato's explanation, Heather Reid explains , ''is understood as a kind of health and harmony in the soul, which, like bodily health, requires continual exercise or training (askesis). This exercise can be either physical or intellectual (ideally, it would be both). The issue is not so much the activity as its orientation. It needs to aim at Platonic virtue, which is to say at improvement of the soul, which is to say wisdom, which is to say philosophy." 6

We see Socrates’ lofty goal for training leaders is ''how to lead them up to the light' and the ''re-orientation of the mind'' through ''true philosophy.''

Socrates: ‘So would you like us to consider next how to produce people of this type in our community, and how to lead them up to the light—like the people we hear about who rise from Hades to dwell among the gods?’*

Glaucon (Plato's brother): ‘Yes, of course I’d like us to do that,’ he replied.

Socrates: ‘Now, what we’re dealing with here, it would seem, is not the spinning of a potsherd, [broken piece of pottery] but the reorientation of a mind from a kind of twilight to true daylight—and this reorientation is an ascent to reality, or in other words true philosophy.’ The Republic, 521c

For Socrates the goal of philosophy was not to inform, but form and ultimately transform lives. The ancient Greek philosophers, the students and intellectual offspring of Socrates, weren't concerned with acquisition of abstract knowledge, but transforming one's vision of the world, through the ''reorientation of a mind,'' as Socrates teaches in Plato's Republic.

In the next lesson we will take a deeper look at gymnastiki, the Greek physical program of health and exercise.

Notes

1. The Republic quotes are from Waterfield, Robin. Republic (Oxford World's Classics) OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition

2. H.I. Marrou A history of education in antiquity. Translated by George Lamb. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.

3. Reid, Heather; Palumbo, Lidia; Smith, Nicholas; Moore, Christopher; Dova, Stamatia; Evans, Matthew; Kenyon, Erik; Dombrowski, Daniel. Athletics, Gymnastics, and Agon in Plato (p. 9). Parnassos Press - Fonte Aretusa. Kindle Edition.

4. Morningside prof sees beauty in ancient games reborn https://siouxcityjournal.com/special-section/siouxland_life/morningside-prof-sees-beauty-in-ancient-games-reborn/article_e6dbef57-be55-572d-bafb-41945d9923b6.html

5. Diogenes Laertius, The Lives of Eminent Philosopher, 3.1.5

6. Reid, Heather; Palumbo, Lidia; Smith, Nicholas; Moore, Christopher; Dova, Stamatia; Evans, Matthew; Kenyon, Erik; Dombrowski, Daniel. Athletics, Gymnastics, and Agon in Plato (p. 27). Parnassos Press - Fonte Aretusa. Kindle Edition.

Source: Wikimedia Commons; The Statue of Socrates at the Academy of Athens. Work of Leonidas Drosis (d. 1880)

Socrates taught the ancient Greeks about excellence and virtue. The Greeks had one word to describe this – arete. For the Greeks arete was a unique word that combined being great (excelling at your field, such as in the military or sports) and being good (being virtuous and caring for your soul). Socrates embodied this and can become a role model for us.

Even with a basic knowledge of Socrates, we are not surprised to see him preaching to the ancient Greeks about the importance of being good,

The struggle (agon) to be good rather than bad is important, Glaucon, much more important than people think. Therefore, we mustn’t be tempted by honor, money, rule or even poetry into neglecting justice and the rest of virtue.

– Socrates, Plato’s Republic (10.608b)

and exhorting the importance of caring for one’s soul:

Good Sir, you are an Athenian, a citizen of the greatest city with the greatest reputation for wisdom and power; are you not ashamed of your eagerness to possess as much wealth, reputation and honors as possible, while you do not care for nor give thought to wisdom and truth, or the best possible state of your soul?

- Socrates, Plato’s Apology (29d–e)

Socrates focuses on morality and virtue

Socrates has been called the founding father of Western philosophy. But he wasn’t the first ancient Greek philosopher. What makes Socrates unique is that he was the first Greek philosopher to focus on morality and virtue. Before Socrates philosophers were focused on the natural world. To historically mark this important demarcation philosophers before Socrates have been classified as ‘pre-Socratic.’ This change in focus from the physical to the ethical realm marks a crucial turning point in Western thought.

Socrates’ concentrated on moral questions and the pursuit of virtue. Compared to the pre-Socratic focus on natural science he narrowed his focus on how one should live a good life. This ethical emphasis became a cornerstone of all future Western philosophy.

The Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero summarized Socrates’ impact well when he said Socrates:

“was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens, transfer it to society and even introduce it into people’s homes, and compel it to inquire about life and morality—about what things are good and bad.”

- Cicero, Tusculan Disputations 5.4.10.

Aristotle’s summary of Socrates’s work and impact is also helpful for us.

“Although he confined his inquiry to ethics and did not study the nature of the universe as a whole, he still sought within the moral sphere for the universal and was the first to concentrate his attention on definitions.”

- Aristotle, Metaphysics 987b1–4

So other great historical philosophers, like Cicero and Aristotle, acknowledged Socrates' immense influence on things ‘’good and bad,’’ the ‘’moral sphere’’ and ‘’ethics.’’ These are the domains of virtue.

But virtue has an expansive history in the ancient Greek world. It’s important to understand what virtue meant in Greek society before, during and after Socrates' life. This wider view and understanding of virtue will help us to better understand why the original meaning is a crucial concept for our personal growth.

The most articulated value in ancient Greek culture

The ancient Greek word arete is the best expression of achieving the highest form of excellence and reaching your highest potential.

Arete is a complex word that has deep meaning in the world of ancient Greece. It’s been translated as excellence, virtue, valor, skill, goodness and nobility. It was a central concept for warriors and athletes and equally used by philosophers and poets. It was used to describe the warrior-heroes of Homer and the athlete-heroes of the ancient Olympics. At the same time, it was an integral part of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle.

Arete’s history sheds light on why this multifaceted word is an ideal concept to embrace for our personal performance. Arete has been called ‘’the most articulated value in Greek culture.” 1 With that kind of cultural impact, we want to have a better understanding of this word and concept.

There is no real understanding of the epics of Homer, the original athletic contests (Olympic games) or the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, without an understanding of arete.

Our cultivation of arete has to start with Homer. Arete shares the same root as the word ‘’aristeia” – where we get our word aristocracy. In Homer’s Iliad, aristeia meant ’‘being the best and outperforming others.” German classicist Werner Jaeger explains that arete was the “quintessence of early aristocratic education. A noble's arete in Homer, is specifically indicated by his skill and prowess as a soldier in war, and as an athlete in peace” 2

The military leaders fighting near the walls of Troy, Achilles being the most famous, were expected to show superior ability and nobility.

And Peleus the aged was telling his own son, Achilles

to be always best in battle and pre-eminent beyond all others.

– The Iliad, 11.784 (Lattimore translation)

For Homer, arete primarily meant the skill, strength and other virtues of a warrior. Another character of the Iliad was Glaukos. This warrior, who had a smaller part, was a leader in the Lycian army, an ally of the Trojans. He tells us of his father’s instructions when he sent him to Troy:

he sent me to Troy, and urged upon me repeated injunctions,

to be always among the bravest, and hold my head above others.

- The Iliad, 6.207 (Lattimore translation)

Here is how Stephen Miller, the late professor of Greek archaeology and athletics, describes arete:

The Greek word arete comes down to us inextricably connected to the athletics of ancient Greece and laden with a plethora of meanings. A definition of arete would include virtue, skill, prowess, pride, excellence, valor, and nobility, but these words, whether taken individually or collectively, do not fulfill the meaning of arete. Arete existed, to some degree, in every ancient Greek and was, at the same time, a goal to be sought and reached for by every Greek. 3

Excellence of mind and body

As Stephen Miller mentions above, and dedicates an entire book to, arete is “inextricably connected to the athletics of ancient Greece.’’ In drama, sculpture and poetry, the victorious athlete has a prominent place in ancient Greek culture and society. The lyric poet Pindar of Thebes (518-438 BC) specialized in praising the performances of victorious athletes. He wrote victory odes (epinikion, literally ‘’on victory’’) which were usually commissioned by the athletes themselves or by someone on their behalf. These odes attested to the excellence of the athletes:

The race of men is one thing, that of the gods, is another. There is a total difference in power, so that we are nothing- while the bronze heaven remains the gods' secure seat forever. But, nevertheless - we can become something like the gods, through excellence - excellence of mind or of body; even if we don't know from day to day - or night to night- what finish line fate has marked for us to run.'

– Pindar, Nemean 6:1-7 [my emphasis] 4

These ancient Olympic athletes weren’t aristocratic warrior princes, like their predecessors in Homer. They were everyday citizens who achieved their heroic stature through arete in skills like running, wrestling, boxing, discus and javelin. And the prizes they received represented a public recognition of their arete.

One of the best expressions of the arete of these ancient Greek warrior-athletes is an anecdote from the Greco-Persian wars as told in Herodotus’ The Histories. The Persians were questioning some deserters from Arcadia (ancient Greek tribe from Peloponnesus) about the celebration of the Olympic festival. A Persian reacted with amazement and disbelief at the Greeks’ motivation:

for when he heard that their prize was an olive wreath rather than money, he could not bear to keep quiet, but cried out to them all, “Good grief, Mardonios, what kind of men did you lead us here to fight, who compete not for money but for excellence [arete] alone?”

- Herodotus, The Histories, 8.26.3, (Strassler edition)

The second famous ancient Greek historian, Thucydides, also illustrated the importance of arete, this time in a political setting. In his famous work called The History of the Peloponnesian War he told the story of the war between the most powerful Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta (431-404 B.C.)

One of the most famous passages of the book was the so-called Funeral Oration of Pericles, the leader of Athens. “Our forefathers, who have always inhabited this land, by their arete handed it down in liberty from generation to generation.” Danish historian David Gress, author of From Plato to Nato, explains Thucuydides interpretation of arete:

...the essential quality of the free man was arete, that most characteristic and untranslatable of Greek terms, which connoted skill, strength, personal courage, and the pursuit of excellence in all activities. 5

Reaching your highest potential and the pursuit of excellence

This notion of arete as the pursuit of excellence may be most helpful to us modern high performers. Arete has been commonly translated by modern scholars as excellence or virtue but it had a deeper meaning for the ancient Greeks. It was considered something closer to "being the best you can be," or "reaching your highest human potential." 6 It’s more akin to the former US Army recruiting slogan (from 1980 – 2001), when Tom served as an Army officer: Be All You Can Be.

In his lecture “The Pursuit of Arete,’’ Dr David T. Porter explains the integrated training approach to arete as the quest for excellence in mind, body and soul:

Arete, the pursuit of excellence, was a significant part of the paideia, the ancient Greek process of training boys to become men. This training in arete included: physical training, for which the Greeks developed the gymnasion; mental training, which included oratory, rhetoric, and basic sciences; and spiritual training, which included music and what is called virtue. The paideia sought a balance of physical, mental, and spiritual training all pointing toward arete, excellence, becoming your best; reaching your highest human potential. 7

He goes on to explain that arete was not about competition, winning or even a quest for superiority:

It is about intellectual, physical and spiritual excellence. It may be demonstrated in a competition, but it is not about the outcome as much as it is the process. Arete is a matching of practice and potential and should not be limited by the nature of the task. It is the realization of a man's total potential. 8

So why should we care about arete?

Isn’t this just an obscure ancient Greek word?

Just like modern psychologists have discovered that one of the best ways to describe the deep meanings of happiness – flourishing and well-being – is to re-discover Aristotle’s ideas of eudaimonia, we modern high performers need to embrace arete as the best concept of excellence.

Let’s summarize the components of arete:

• Both warriors and athletes displayed arete

• Both poets (Homer) and philosophers (Socrates, Aristotle and Plato) exhorted arete’s virtues and defined its meaning

• Arete means excellence – with skill and virtuosity

• Arete also means virtue – character, goodness, valor, nobility

• Arete is about the pursuit of excellence, reaching your highest potential; ‘’being all you can be.”

• Arete was a significant part of the training and education (paideia) of ancient Greeks. This was a quest for excellence in body, mind and soul.

Is it any wonder arete has been called “the most articulated value in Greek culture,’’ and “ a goal to be sought and reached for by every Greek.’’

In the next lesson we will see how Socrates’ most famous student - Plato - actually created an integrated training program to develop arete.

Notes

1. Arete, virtue, goodness, excellence https://hathawhag.weebly.com/uploads/6/6/0/3/6603650/r._hooker_re_aret_copy.pdf

2. Aristocratic Life and Values in Homeric Greece http://www.ancientdigger.com/2011/10/aristocratic-life-and-values-in-homeric.html

3. Miller, Stephen G.. Arete . University of California Press. Kindle Edition

4. M. Gregory Kendrick. The Heroic Ideal: Western Archetypes from the Greeks to the Present (Kindle Locations 902-905). Kindle Edition

5. Gress, David. From Plato to Nato: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents, p. 55, Kindle Edition

6. Arete, virtue, goodness, excellence https://hathawhag.weebly.com/uploads/6/6/0/3/6603650/r._hooker_re_aret_copy.pdf

7. The Pursuit of Aretê, Dr. David T. Porter https://speeches.byuh.edu/david-o-mckay-lecture/the-pursuit-of-arete?utm_source=pocket_mylist

8. The Pursuit of Aretê, Dr. David T. Porter https://speeches.byuh.edu/david-o-mckay-lecture/the-pursuit-of-arete?utm_source=pocket_mylist

Head of Plato at Plato’s Academy in Athens, Wikimedia

Welcome to the Plato Protocol Series.

Our goal is to help you integrate ancient wisdom and modern practice to achieve excellence. Our holistic program will help you flourish, experiencing a deep well-being that enables you to excel morally, intellectually, spiritually and physically.

Think of this as a modern training plan for high performance, health and happiness inspired by Plato and the entire Classical, Western Tradition.

At first, this may sound like a counter-intuitive idea. One of the most famous western philosophers in all of history as a role model for our personal growth and leadership development?

Plato may seem like a strange example for us modern practitioners of personal development to emulate. But stick around to see how combining the insights from ancient Greek wisdom, Christian spirituality and modern health practices is the best approach for your personal growth.

You probably know Plato for his impact on philosophy. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that ‘’Plato is philosophy, and philosophy is Plato.’’ And the 20th century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead famously commented: “The safest characterization of the history of Western philosophy is that it is a series of footnotes to Plato.”

But consider the following:

• Plato created the original Academy. Today we consider Plato’s school the first university and education institution. The word Academy has become associated with elite institutions and training programs due to its rich historical background and connotations of excellence, all inspired by Plato.

• Plato’s famous school of philosophy was actually a gymnasium. The original ancient Greek gymnasiums were sports complexes and facilities which included wrestling schools, running tracks, a park for walks, baths and other buildings.

• Plato’s Academy was part of the ancient Greek educational tradition (paideia) that integrated body and mind. Paideia was a comprehensive Greek educational concept that focused on the cultivation of the ideal citizen through a holistic approach to learning and personal development. This ancient Greek system of education aimed to create well-rounded individuals who embodied the highest virtues of their society. Plato’s Academy was part of this tradition.

Plato’s gymnasium was designed to train beautiful souls in strong athletic bodies, and to dedicate them to a civic ideal of unity rather than strife. – Heather Reid, Scholar in ancient Greek philosophy

• Plato’s philosophical vision was about a ‘’real union of philosophy and power.” Plato’s Seventh Letter (one of 13 surviving letters) is autobiographical in nature. It addresses his attempted involvement in the politics of the Greek city-state of Syracuse. Plato advocates for the combination of philosophy and political power; the idea which famously became known as the ‘’philosopher king.’’.

At last I came to the conclusion that all existing states are badly governed and the condition of their laws practically incurable, without some miraculous remedy and the assistance of fortune; and I was forced to say, in praise of true philosophy that from her heights alone was it possible to discern what the nature of justice is, either in the state or in the individual, and that the ills of the human race would never end until either those who are sincerely and truly lovers of wisdom come into political power, or the rulers of our cities, by the grace of God, learn true philosophy. - Letter VII 326b

• Plato was an athlete before he was a philosopher. He trained in his youth as a wrestler and was serious enough to compete at the Isthmian games, one of the four prominent ancient Greek athletic festivals (which included the Olympic games).

• Plato was a nickname given by his wrestling coach that actually meant ‘’broad shouldered.’ Plato is not his original name. The famous philosopher was called Aristocles. Plato was a nickname given to him by his wrestling coach which means ‘’broad shouldered.’’

• Plato's philosophy significantly influenced the development of Christianity. His philosophy provided a philosophical framework that early Christian thinkers used to articulate and interpret their beliefs. Plato’s ideas on the Theory of Forms, the immortality of the soul and the importance of virtue all significantly influenced the early Church.

Plato made me know the true God, Jesus Christ showed me the way to Him. - St. Augustine

The Birthday of Plato Celebrated in the Villa di Careggi by Lorenzo the Magnificent, 1862, Wikimedia

Is it any wonder why Plato is a great guide and inspiration for us as we exercise our body, mind and spirit?

The question Plato inspires us to ask is: How can we become beautiful souls, in strong bodies, struggling to be Good?

In the next lesson Socrates teaches us about the importance of the most articulated value in ancient Greek culture

Socrates: Anyone who is going to be a truly good guardian of our community, then, will have a philosopher’s love of knowledge, and will be passionate, quick on his feet, and strong.

Glaucon: How shall we educate them, then? Or is it hard to improve on the educational system which has evolved over a long period of time? This, as you know, consists of exercise for the body and cultural studies for the mind.

Socrates: Yes

Glaucon: And shall we begin the cultural programme before the physical one?

Socrates: Of course.

- Plato, Republic, Robin Waterfield Translation, 376c-376e

I thought I had a good daily workout routine. But Plato challenged my thinking and habits.

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“Every cadet an athlete” - Physical Training Ethos at West Point

When I transitioned from the military to the civilian world I tried to build upon the good habits of exercise that I learned in the military. I prioritized physical training (PT) in the morning like we did when I was an Army officer.

It’s a habit that I learned at West Point. The United States Military Academy (USMA) has cultivated a holistic training philosophy for over two centuries that revolves around one central maxim: “Every cadet an athlete.” This phrase reflects West Point’s belief that physical competence is inseparable from leadership, character, and the profession of arms.

Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, upon other fields, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory.

- General Douglas MacArthur

These are the Physical Program Components of West Point, which have continued to improve since I’ve graduated:

• Daily Physical Training (PT): Cadets develop aerobic fitness, muscular endurance, and combat readiness.

• Mandatory Physical Education (PE): Courses include boxing, wrestling, military movement, survival swimming, and lifetime sports.

• Competitive Sport Requirement: Each cadet participates in varsity, club, or intramural athletics. This ensures competitive spirit, sportsmanship, resilience, and teamwork.

• Fitness Testing: The Indoor Obstacle Course Test (IOCT), Cadet Fitness Assessment (CFA), and Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) benchmark cadets against demanding standards.

Now as a civilian my routine wasn’t as comprehensive or structured as at West Point. But I was combining strength training with some running, biking and a weekly pick up game of basketball, where possible.

I thought I was training well.

Then I re-read Plato.

Plato’s Cultural Workout

As I was reflecting on my West Point experience, I was re-reading a book I hadn’t picked up in years. Having studied Humanities and Public Affairs (H&PA) at West Point I was a deep fan of the classic books of the Western Tradition. I hadn’t read the Republic since my political philosophy class. As is usually the case with the Great Books, my second reading revealed deeper insights that I missed, or wasn’t ready for, during my first reading.

A good book gets better on the second reading. A great book on the third. Any book not worth rereading isn't worth reading. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I was struck by two things upon my second reading of the Republic. One, Plato’s book may be known as a great work on philosophy and politics but he spends lots of time on education and training of leaders. Two, this leadership training program prioritized not only physical but also cultural training.

I was moved by Plato’s vision of a harmonious blend of culture and physical exercise. In Plato’s telling, through his favorite speaker Socrates, we become a ‘’virtuoso’’ and have the “most harmony” in life, if we apply the physical and the cultural in ‘’the right proportions.’’

Socrates: ‘So in my opinion what we find is that, since we have a dual nature, God gave us two corresponding areas of expertise—culture and physical exercise—for our passionate and our philosophical aspects. He didn’t give them for the mind and the body, except incidentally; the purpose was for those two aspects of our nature to fit harmoniously together by being stretched and relaxed as much as is appropriate.’

Glaucon: ‘Yes, that seems to be so,’ he said.

Socrates: ‘Therefore, it isn’t the person who attunes the strings of a lyre to one another, it’s the person who makes the best blend of physical exercise and culture, and who applies them to the mind in the right proportions, whom we should really describe as a virtuoso and as having the most harmony in his life.’

Glaucon: ‘That’s hard to deny, Socrates,’ he said.

Socrates: ‘So, Glaucon, we’ll always need someone of this type to oversee our community, if its political system is to remain intact, won’t we?’

- Plato Plato, Republic, Robin Waterfield Translation, 412a-b

I understood physical exercise but what did Plato mean by ‘’culture?’’ The original Greek word was “mousiki’’ so most modern translators call it ‘’music.’’ But that’s not quite accurate. Mousiki meant all the art of the Muses. It was the whole moral and intellectual training through literature, poetry, myths, history, philosophy and yes, music.

We see this cultural impact through ancient Greek history. Plato called Homer the educator of Greece. In The Republic he wrote about ‘’those who praise Homer and say that he’s the poet who educated Greece,’’ (Republic 606e). There were many testimonies that every cultivated Greek had Homer next to their bedside, like Alexander the Great did during his campaigns.

The importance of reading classical books continued in the Christian era. The famous Christian Bishop St. Basil of Caesarea (AD 329 - 379), remembered as one of the “Cappadocian Fathers,’’ gave specific advice on the importance of reading for the care of our soul. He wrote a sermon called ‘’To Young Men, on How They Might Derive Profit from Pagan Literature.’’ As evident in the title, this famous church father of the Greek East instructed how Christians should respond to classical, pagan culture and learn from it.

So we also must consider that a contest, the greatest of all contests, lies before us, for which we must do all things, and, in preparation for it, must strive to the best of our power, and must associate with poets and writers of prose and orators and with all men from whom there is any prospect of benefit to the care of our soul.

The ultimate contest for Basil, what the Greeks called agon, [the same word used for battle, struggle and athletic competition] was the ‘’care of our soul.’’ Basil exhorted ‘’let us not fail to derive advantage” from ‘’passages in literature which contain an admonition of excellent things’’ in which ‘’the virtuous deeds of men of old have been preserved for us.’’

So this ‘’cultural workout” was an important part of the Classical, Western Tradition in cultivating wisdom and caring for our soul.

But how could I apply these insights into my personal growth routine?

The Marine Corps’ Reading Lists - a “30 Year Old Body and 5000 Year Old Mind”

Professional reading has long been seen across the U.S. military as a crucial way to sharpen intellect, cultivate judgment, and connect warfighters to the tradition of their profession. While individual commanders had long stressed the habit—George Washington ordered the study of military history, and officers at West Point were encouraged to read widely in the 19th century—the practice was formalized much later. The U.S. Marine Corps was the first to institutionalize it in 1989 with General Al Gray’s Commandant’s Professional Reading List (CPRL), requiring every Marine to read works on history, leadership, and strategy as part of their professional military education.

The Marines knew that mental preparation was just as important as physical conditioning to succeed in their profession. In fact, another Commandant, General Amos, in a 2012 letter to the Marine Corps succinctly explained the purpose of this reading program: It was about attaining a “30 Year Old Body and a 5000 Year Old Mind.’’ General Amos further explained:

As it was once wisely put, reading provides a “better way to do business.. it doesn’t always provide all the answers.. but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.” Any book thoughtfully read sharpens the mind and improves on an individual’s professional potential.

The Marine Corps Professional Reading Program underwent a significant shift in its structure, moving from a rank-based system to one organized by subject-based categories. This change, which became more pronounced around 2020, aimed to make the list more relevant, current, and conducive to broader professional discussions among all Marines.

Here is an overview of the latest Marine Corps reading list (as of 2025): You’ll find the list divided into the following subject-based categories:

• Heritage

• Innovation

• Leadership

• Strategy

• Foundational

• Commandant’s Choice

In essence, the Marine Corps moved from a prescriptive, rank-specific reading requirement to a more flexible, thematic approach that empowers individual Marines to take greater ownership of their professional development through reading.

I was fascinated by the idea of a large, organized professional reading list that helps develop character and professional excellence.

It got me thinking: how can I channel the Marines’ idea for my own use?

How do I create my own life-long reading list that supports my moral and intellectual growth?

In other words, how do I develop my own ‘’5000 year old mind?’’

A Daily Workout of Wrestling with Great Books

“When evening comes, I return to my house and go into my study. At the door, I take off my clothes of the day, covered with mud and mire, and I put on regal and courtly garments; and decently re-clothed, I enter the courts of ancient men, where, received by them lovingly, I feed on the food that alone is mine and that I was born for… For four hours I feel no boredom, I forget every pain; I do not fear poverty; death does not frighten me.”

- Machiavelli’s (1513 letter to Francesco Vettori)

At first I imitated the ancient Greeks intellectual priorities and started reading Homer. To complement my morning physical training I picked up the Iliad to add some stimulating evening reading. I then continued with the Odyssey and added other Greek classics like Herodotus’ Histories and some of Plato’s dialogues.

What I discovered was no casual, relaxed reading experience but a real workout in wrestling with the ideas and concepts of these Great Books. Reading these classic books was a real mental & intellectual workout like exercising my body was a physical workout. I began to channel Machiavelli’s wisdom above and made my evening reading an experience where ‘’I enter the courts of ancient men, where, received by them lovingly…’’

I now have a lifetime reading list of 300 Great Books of the Western Tradition. It’s a list of classic books that I have collected - and am collecting - over the years. I use it as a source of reading to add to my cultural workout. See this post here where I share the complete list and how I came up with the culturally significant number of 300.

Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.” — John Waters

Alternating Old and New: Lewis’s Rule of Life for Readers

Plato gave me the “cultural workout.” C.S. Lewis gave me the cadence.

In his essay “On the Reading of Old Books” (originally an introduction to St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation), Lewis argues that we should meet great minds face to face, not only through modern commentators. Firsthand reading is usually clearer and more delightful than secondhand summaries, and—crucially—old books correct our era’s blind spots. Modern books are “still on their trial” and need to be tested against the long tradition.

Lewis’s practical rule became the rhythm of my evening reading:

“It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.”

Why? Because every age is brilliant at some truths and blind to others. We need voices from other centuries to challenge our assumptions:

“Every age has its own outlook… We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.”

And then the image that sealed it for me:

“The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds… People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes.”

For me, the most important thing about reading these classic books wasn’t the book itself but the Great ideas, Great men (and women) and Great events that represented the best (and sometimes the worst) in virtue and human excellence. These ideas and lessons are timeless and appear in contemporary books as well.

I had fun implementing C.S. Lewis’ reading advice, alternating between old and new books, looking for contemporary books to complement the classic ones. Here are some example pairings I have used:

• The Iliad by Homer followed by Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. This title of Tillman’s biography features 2 references to Homer (“Where Men Win Glory” is a line from the Iliad)

• The Odyssey by Homer followed by An Odyssey: A Father, A Son and an Epic, about a classics lecturer, Daniel Mendelsohn (and now translator of Homer) and his relationship with his father.

• Histories by Herodotus followed by Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield’s classing re-telling of the Spartan last stand battle against the Persians, first told in Histories.

These books all show the timeless importance and relevance of classic virtues.

Putting it all together - Plato’s Workout

Plato’s approach to virtue-based leadership offers guidance and inspiration to my entire approach to working out. A student of Socrates and teacher to generations through his Academy, Plato designed a holistic curriculum to cultivate wise, virtuous leaders—those capable of blending power with philosophy.

We reviewed the importance Plato held for cultural development but his training protocol involved three essential disciplines:

• “gymnastics” for physical excellence

• “music” (the art of the Muses) for cultural refinement and wisdom, and

• “dialectic” for philosophical examination and spiritual development.

This combined approach was Plato’s program to cultivate virtue. And it can serve as a model for our daily workout:

• “gymnastics” - exercise, diet, movement

• “music” - reading books on literature, poetry, history, philosophy

• “dialectic’’ - spiritual practice and self-mastery through meditation, contemplation, prayer and self-awareness

Plato’s Workout seeks to operationalize this ancient wisdom. I draw from Greek philosophy, Western literature and history, Christian spirituality, and modern science to help you flourish in body, mind, and spirit. Through physical training, disciplined habits, contemplation, and pursuit of virtue, we offer a modern path to ancient greatness.

Here is a summary of my approach, combining ancient wisdom and modern practice.

Join me in reviving the original integrated workout: one that strengthens the body, educates the mind, and saves the soul.

What to read next?

The Great Books: The lifelong reading list of the 300 best books from the Western Tradition

Plato’s Protocol Series, part 1: Why the famous ancient philosopher Plato is a great modern guide for personal growth.