Ladies of the All Nations Womens Group, the Honorable Milton Adamson, Consul of Greece, and Ladies and Gentlemen in the audience, welcome. Let me express my gratitude to the members of the All Nations Womens Group, and to the Hon. Milton Adamson, for inviting me to make a presentation on ancient Greek culture. My purpose in the presentation is part of a larger lifetime project to "discover" conditions that motivate people to achieve excellence. As an educator, I deal with the issue of how to motivate students almost on a daily basis. What were the social conditions that resulted in what is widely known as the "Greek Miracle?" What motivated the ancient Greeks to excel, especially their young people? Why were others, especially in the west, so bedazzled by the achievements of the ancient Greeks, that they decided to adopt numerous of their beliefs and values? Finally, and more importantly, what can we learn from the ancient Greeks today to help motivate our own people to achieve, or, more broadly, raise our moral and educational standards?  Table of Contents

Influence of ancient Greek Culture

There is veritably no educational, scientific, or artistic stone left unturned in the West under whose hard surface one will not discern some type of ancient Greek influence! In my presentation, I mention several examples of the linguistic influence of ancient Greek culture. There are also similar influences in architecture, the sciences, religion, the humanities, sports, politics, theater, and education, to mention just a few of possible areas of concern. For example, in the field of medicine even to this day newly graduating medical doctors in the United States swear by the principles of integrity and humane treatment that are embedded in the Hippocratic oath. In the humanities, the ancient Greeks laid the foundations for the detached study of humans, such as history and philosophy, instead of merely recording human events as they happened. In fact, much of what we know about many other civilizations, such as, the Egyptian, was for a long time limited mostly to Greek historical writings, since there were few other extant or translatable records. In the field of sports, the ancient Greeks found a physical embodiment of their meritocratic spirit in playful contests and competitions. Winners were those who excelled in competition, as determined by certain pre-established rules, rather than those who could manipulate results through their family's wealth, political connections, or, worse, corruption (such as, bribing officials). This is why Olympic athletes competed in the nude, partly to signify that on the play arena, they are all equal before the judges. In the field of theater, they were not only prolific theater goers, as witnessed by the historical record, and even more vividly by the fact that even the smallest city had a theater built in the center of town, but also invented many forms of theater still used today (such as, drama, comedy, tragedy, and the like). In the field of education, they not only inspired countless generations that followed them to match or surpass their learning, but also instituted a sophisticated system of education from the cradle to the grave that included, among other things, mentor networks, educational competitions, and the design of whole cities as veritable educational institutions.Table of Contents

Contents of Presentation

In my presentation, I review some of the worldwide influences of ancient Greek culture; mention some well known theories regarding the reasons behind Greek achievements; and conclude with a synthesis of all these theories.

Like a hidden treasure that can shine every time one sweeps off the historical dust, ancient Greek culture may serve as a guiding light for those of us today who would like to help ourselves, or others, achieve excellence. Fortunately, a substantial part of ancient Greek culture was saved in written or archaeological form, offering posterity a rare opportunity to study some of the social conditions that lead to excellence, including those that motivate younger generations. To bring closure to this historical study of human achievements, we should have the willingness today to act equally "heroically" as the ancients did, to generate those circumstances in the context of which at least our younger generation will be motivated to excel.Table of Contents

Preliminary Note on "Culture"

I have avoided using the term "cultural excellence" in my presentation when referring to ancient Greek culture, to maintain the respect that is due different cultural groups for their particular achievements, some of which may be unknown to us today due to the lack of written records, or of archaeological evidence. For example, we have comparatively little recorded information on the cultures of Luzon and central Visayan islands prior to the coming of the Borneo datus in the 13th century AD (Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 8th ed., pages 20-26). Furthermore, since from an anthropological perspective cultural values are relative, one cannot ipso facto apply the same standards of excellence to all cultures. Instead, I prefer to use such commonly understood words as artistic, educational, or scientific excellence, or their related fields, which are focused on more precisely defined areas of human achievement.

It is the speaker's belief that all people share the same capacity for thinking, and therefore are capable of great educational achievements. The achievements of one group should not be seen as a tribute only to that group, but to all humanity as represented by that group at that particular time. Consequently, we should all rejoice when any one group seems to have achieved something outstanding, and consider it a tribute to all of us, and try to use its success as a case for further understanding human nature, including human motivation.Table of Contents

Research Studies

Some recent studies on educational achievement have associated the study of Greek and Latin in high school, with success in college (Marva Collins' school is an example). Of course one could easily surmise even without the benefit of knowing anything about these studies that especially in medical and law schools, a knowledge of Greek or Latin could greatly enhance a student's understanding of the subject matter. This is so because numerous words in medical school are etymologically Greek, and therefore easier to comprehend for someone who studied the Greek language. Likewise with Latin in law school. I imagine that other reasons may include the ability to abstract, think cogently, and engage in the discussion of perennial questions that a study of ancient Greek and Latin literatures inspires, especially if read for meaning, as opposed to mere memorization.

When we hear of extraordinary deeds, sometimes we have the tendency to disbelieve them. For instance, how could have an Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, been educated in so many fields, let alone excel in them? Modern research in the field known as "humanistic psychology," pioneered in the United States by Abraham Maslow, has shown that if the mind is not wasted away during our relatively brief lives on trivial pursuits, then we may be capable of unleashing tremendous intellectual, artistic, or physical energies. Some obvious examples of trivial pursuits that contribute little to our development, in the sense that the ancient Greeks might have considered them trivial, may be watching unedifying TV programs for several hours each day (such as, certain soap operas); wasting many hours going shopping without really buying anything necessary; overly concerned with one's personal appearance; or simply doing nothing more constructive than lying down without anything to think about, or, worse, drinking or playing games of chance, or "killing time" through gossip.

On the other hand, research mentioned in the book The Third Force, which is somewhat of an encyclopaedia on research in the field of humanistic psychology, has shown that an average human spending a reasonable number of hours each day studying could receive university degrees in all of the major fields of study within a single lifetime. This doesn't mean that one must receive degrees in a variety of fields to achieve excellence, since he is then more likely to qualify as a "jack of all trades," than a master of any; but only as a sign that many of the great thinkers, artists, scientists, and athletes of the past may not have been too different from you or me, only knew how to prioritize their time more efficiently, and were probably more intent on excelling. Of course compared to this piece of relatively recent evidence, the numerous examples of individuals who have historically achieved excellence even in spite of their innate weaknesses, as did Demosthenes who put pebbles in his mouth to overcome his stuttering, are by far infinitely more convincing testimony to the greatness of our human potential. If our "scientific" evidence within the field of humanistic psychology sounds more convincing, it may be simply because we live in a scientific age that makes such type of evidence more "acceptable."Table of Contents

Preview of Reasons for the Genesis of ancient Greek Culture

As a preview to the last section of my presentation, where I examine in more depth the reasons for the genesis of ancient Greek culture, I list here some of these reasons. I do so for the benefit of those who would like a preliminary preview of the "magic recipe" that according to several writers who examined ancient Greek culture made Greece great. This list may also serve as a compass that may gradually guide you toward the last part of the presentation, if not whet your appetite from the start for learning more about Greek culture. I have thrown all these reasons indiscriminately together without regard to the original recipe or writer, to save time and space, since I intend to make amends in the last section.

Some of the reasons mentioned by those who examined Greek culture, then, include, first, democracy, where free speech and public criticism were openly practiced; and a corresponding hatred for tyrannies or one-man-rule of all kinds. Second, striving for excellence by the public at large. This happened through the internalization over the centuries of the heroic or "aristocratic" ideal by the masses, in the classical sense of "aristocratic" as the rule of the excellent. Third, a corresponding effort at moral excellence, including not only constantly inquiring which life is worth living, but also people practicing what they preached. Fourth, "fighting graft and corruption" at all levels, with a corresponding internalization over the centuries of certain basic civic values. For example, even the slightest infraction by someone entrusted with a public office may lead not only to his dismissal, but also to his exile from the city state. Fifth, trying to overcome personal weaknesses, which may be seen as a corollary to their unusually intense attempts to excel. Sixth, behaving with the highest integrity even in the absence of immediate supervision. Seventh, subscribing to the "agonistic" or competitive spirit, mostly through playful contests and competitions. Eighth, rewarding individuals on the basis of merit, as opposed to wealth, or family or political connections. This led to the birth of the Olympic Games in Greece, which in ancient Greece included not only physical, but also literary, dramatic, and musical contests. Ninth, instituting education through play. Tenth, designing a whole city as the school, by building it for personal effort and refinement, than mere protection from the elements. Eleventh, making public facilities free to the poor, so everyone could abundantly benefit from opportunities for self-development. Twelfth, inviting young people to adult events, where there were amble opportunities for learning through emulation by the young. In such situations, adults usually acted uprightly in their capacity as role models. Thirteenth, exercising neighborhood supervision over the young, similar to the supervision exercised in Philippine barangays, except with many more opportunities for the worthy canalization of youthful energy through sports, and artistic and educational contests. Fourteenth, the institutionalization through art of numerous role models, including lining streets with statues of heroes. Fifteenth, involving numerous adults in a city-wide network of mentors who were not only unpaid, but considered it their honor to pay themselves for the pedagogical expenses of their proteges. Sixteenth, subscribing to an informal educational system of expert itinerant teachers, called "sophists," who provided both an excellent education, and a model of excellence in learning, and were amply rewarded for their professional services. And seventeenth, placing a priority on public service and philanthropy, as contrasted to personal accumulation of wealth at the expense of the common good. For example, the wealthy were expected to pay a large part of the cost of large public projects.Table of Contents

Reason for the Worldwide Influence of ancient Greek Culture

The reason for the world-wide influence of ancient Greek language and culture, mostly in the sciences and the humanities, is not merely aesthetic, for there is nothing so beautiful in the Greek language alone to explain its tremendous influence. Instead, one must ascribe it to the fact that hiding behind Greek terms are vast ideological treasures that help expand enormously the ability of the human mind to understand the world. As a result of the meteoric educational progress that ancient Greeks made, we are no longer "imprisoned" inside only a superficial or superstitious view of the universe, or at best a mythological interpretation, although mythology, too, can serve to enrich our lives; instead, we have vastly expanded the realm of our intellectual possibilities, including realizing our ability to think critically without fear of some divine punishment.

Democracy, itself a political invention of the ancient Greeks, in the sense of being consciously practiced and theorized about, allows us today to have freedom of speech, if not freedom of movement, without adverse personal or political repercussions. This freedom, in turn, opens doors widely for putting to use our newly discovered abilities to think critically, rather than exercise them secretly for fear of antagonizing the political elites that may be in power.

The ancient Greeks in many respects stood as symbols of our commonly shared potential for overcoming artistic, intellectual, and athletic mediocrity. The West acknowledged this by voluntarily borrowing Greek terms and meanings, beginning with the Romans, and for long periods of time organizing its sense of self around certain Greek-like ideas. It is not an accident, then, that Greece is known as the "cradle of western civilization."

Many non-Greek peoples over the centuries adopted Greek concepts in a "voluntary" way. These peoples were either much more powerful militarily than the Greeks, for the Greeks to be able to force them to adopt Greek culture; or so far removed from Greece, that one couldn't use a militaristic or colonialist connection to explain Greek influence. One must rely, instead, on the attractiveness that ancient Greek culture exercised on those who adopted or emulated it. For example, the Romans voluntarily adopted Greek culture, although they became politically and militarily the masters of ancient Greece. In fact, they liked Greek culture so much, that in addition to borrowing several Greek artistic and educational ideas, they also adopted many Greek religious customs, down to the point where there was almost a one-to-one correspondence between Roman and Greek gods! It is for this reason that some historians argue that while Rome conquered Greece with her might, Greece "conquered" Rome with her culture. This proves that a certain cultural influence is not necessarily due to political or militaristic superiority, but sometimes simply to the attractiveness that another culture may exercise on a group of people. Even in the case of Alexander the Great, through whose conquests Greek culture spread over north Africa and the Middle East as far as northern India, Greek culture was largely voluntarily adopted, giving birth to what is known historically as the mixed "Hellenistic" cultures of the age. This was done even in the face of an obstinately non-jingoistic Alexander, who not only insisted on preserving native cultures, but in fact eventually dressed and behaved like a non-Greek himself, and welcomed back the non-Greek elites, and even forced several thousands of his own soldiers to marry non-Greek women in order to begin the creation of a "universal race." (Plutarch, Lives of Noble Greeks, pages 269-349).

In one of his more lyric moments, Lord Byron, the English poet, would declare that "We are All Greeks!" By that he meant that Europeans had become essentially Greek after so many centuries of a Greek education, such as, through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and therefore had an obligation to help modern Greeks in their liberation struggle against the Ottoman Turks. In the east, Aristotle's beliefs influenced Moslem and Jewish scholars, including the theologians that lived in the capital of the early caliphate (Baghdad), Moses Maimonides, and many others. In fact, for a long time the Arab world had a much more complete translation of Aristotle's huge work in their possession, than did western Europeans.Table of Contents

Were they Rich? Examples of ancient Greeks

There are numerous names associated with ancient Greek achievements, too many to list here, most of whom may be found mentioned in the historical introductions to any number of humanistic, artistic, or scientific fields of study. Some people may think that ancient Greeks must have been wealthy to be able to devote so much of their time to perfecting their particular area of endeavour, instead of earning a living. Well, that is not really true. Several of the most outstanding contributors to western civilization were actually very poor even by third world standards, and yet somehow circumstances allowed them to excel, if not made them "poor" precisely because of their primary concern with their artistic, intellectual, or athletic improvement! For example, Socrates is known to have rarely worn shoes (or the corresponding sandals at the time), and not unlike India's Mahatma Gandhi, to walk around barely clad with a simple toga. Diogenes, another famous philosopher, lived in a big barrel, instead of the traditional house. He spent his nights wandering from house to house with a lantern, knocking on peoples' doors to find out if there was "an honest human inside." With his audacious intrusion in peoples' private affairs, he meant to show them that no honest person could be found anywhere in his city. When Alexander the Great went to meet him, he found him sitting in front of his barrel, facing the sun. As a great admirer of Diogenes, Alexander then asked him if there is anything he could give him, which today might be equivalent to being asked whether you would like to win the lottery. Diogenes thought for a while, and then asked politely if the Great King could simply... step aside, because by standing over him with his horse, he was hiding the sun from his face! This answer so impressed Alexander, that he exclaimed that if he were not Alexander, he would have liked to be Diogenes! Archimedes, the great inventor-scientist, died while drawing geometric shapes on the sand, instead of inside an elaborate laboratory or classroom. Instead of fleeing from an advancing Roman soldier that threatened to kill him, Archimedes begged him, instead, to... be careful not to destroy the mathematical circles that he had drawn on the sand: " Mi mou tous kiklous tarate!" (="Don't destroy my circles!"). Unfortunately, the Roman soldier did not quite understand him, and far from sparing his life, or, for that matter, his circles, he did kill him! This is in fact how Archimedes actually died! He is typical of people who achieved excellence in ancient times, who would rather sacrifice wealth, or even their lives, at the altar of perfecting their art. This doesn't mean that ancient Greeks despised wealth, which they did not, but only that a relatively large number among them would as soon spend it as means to an excellent end, than accumulate it for its own sake.

I could write literally hundreds of pages describing for you example after example the amazing lives of individuals in ancient Greece, not unlike many others who were much better at this sort of thing, than I ever could be. Their lifestyles are an obvious testament to their commitment to their work, to the point of not caring about their personal appearance, wealth or fame, not unlike the proverbial professor who forgets to wear socks on his way to a new discovery! Of course, if they were athletes, politicians, or actors, then their personal appearance might have played a role, but again as a means to a further end, than as an end in itself.

The attitude of the ancient Greeks toward wealth may be seen from the fact that of all the people they admired or wrote about, there is barely any that we can say became famous because of his wealth! Instead of wealthy people, almost all the people we know, from Homer to Hercules to Pericles to Euripides and Phidias, were excellent at something, or had received first prize at some kind of contest, including artistic (such as Phidias), theatrical (such as Aeschylus), or oratorical (such as, Demosthenes) contests, or shone through their politically just (Aristides), or militarily ingenious (Alexander) examples. Although there were undoubtedly many who wallowed in the accumulation of possessions, they did not represent the acknowledged ideal at the time, and must have been looked at askance or disapprovingly by their fellow humans (if not forced, as most rich people were, to pay for most of the city's public expenses).

People in ancient Greece did not consider wealth anything to be proud of, but merely to be expended for the benefit of the common good, which was usually co-extensive with one's city state. They considered humans who sought wealth or power for their own sake, as potential tyrants, to be shunned, stumped out, or hated, as the occasion may allow. In fact, this is one of the most salient points that distinguished the Greeks from the Persians. To the Greeks, the Persian love for luxury had a feeling of decadence and superficiality about it. Thus while the Greeks measured their worth primarily through their achievements, including their artistic and intellectual contributions, the Persians were very proud of their conquests. Historically, this ancient Greek-Persian schism, although greatly simplified here, nevertheless may represent a perennial dichotomy in humans between a life of luxury, and a life of great achievements.Table of Contents

Depiction of Wealth in the Modern Media

If our modern view of wealth is anything like what is depicted on TV, then our modern beliefs regarding wealth are considerably different from those of the ancient Greeks. We seemingly glorify wealth for its own sake, as opposed to promulgating it at best as a means to excellence. We love news about the "rich and famous," after whom we even have a popular TV series in the United States, or else it wouldn't make sense that TV producers spend millions of dollars producing unpopular shows! On the other hand, we have no shows promoting inventors or educators, who might have become equally "famous" had we demanded it; or if the producers took a "risk for excellence!" Given our popular orientation, one might doubt the sincerity of our educational announcements regarding excellence, or even criticize them as "excellent lip service."

Few would deny that at least in certain parts of the western world, such as, the United States, many people regard success to be primarily associated with material possessions. As such, they have given a new twist to the classical view of excellence, turning it upside down to mean something consumable that only wealth can guarantee. To conclude what hopefully will not sound like a short sermon, but a sound comparison between classical and modern times, it may be said that perhaps we are unable to conceive of poor people achieving excellence in ancient Greece because our modern materialistic orientation may have taught us that only rich people can succeed.Table of Contents

The ancient Greeks' View of Democracy and Aristocracy

Since I mentioned the terms democracy and aristocracy in the Introduction, you will permit me a slight divergence here to dispel any possible misconceptions regarding the way the ancients viewed these terms. I will also make a brief comment on the relationship of the ancient view of integrity, to the modern Greek concept of "filotimo."Table of Contents

On Democracy

It is not for nought that the ancient Greeks are widely considered to be if not the first, at least the most systematic, and philosophically self-aware practitioners of democratic theory. Democracy was widely practiced by the ancient Greeks in most of their city states. In fact, given their relatively smaller size than most states today, ancient Greek city states could afford to practice "direct" democracy, which is arguably more democratic, than our modern representative democracies. They allowed the whole citizenry to assemble in the central eklisia, or the equivalent today of the main city hall, to vote on important issues. Aristotle's extensive analysis in his Politics of the different types of democracies in ancient Greek city states may prove invaluable reading even today as we struggle with modern human freedoms. If nothing else, Aristotle's analysis shows the reader the ancient human propensity for greed, graft, and corruption, since in addition to the existing democracies at the time, there were some city-states that were organized around a corrupt or greedy group of oligarchs, or an authoritarian tyrant. Most of these tyrannies did not last very long, due either to military intervention on behalf of the native citizenry by other city states, or intense popular resistance. For example, some tyrannical regimes in Greek city states in Sicily were overthrown through military intervention by their mother city state at Corinth, which reinstated popular democracies there (see Plutarch's account of Timoleon in Lives of Noble Greeks, pages 229-268).Table of Contents

Democracy and Sports

One may advance the theory regarding sports in ancient Greece, such as, the Olympic Games, that they are the ludic equivalent of the democratic society. Sports and competitive events may have been as much the cause of democracy in ancient Greece, as its effect. In both cases, sports and democratic institutions, participants behave on the basis of pre-arranged and agreed upon rules. Furthermore, the Olympic Games summarize in ways that people today can understand the ancient Greeks' love for excellence and achievement.Table of Contents

On the Democratic Paradox

It may seem contradictory to claim that one has a meritocratic system, as did the ancient Greeks to a large extent, while rewarding with the highest public office those who were merely elected. This represents more generally the "democratic paradox" of rewarding individuals who won in the elections, as opposed to strictly a non-political contest. The democratic paradox raises such issues as, are those elected also "excellent?" Since there are no strict meritocratic criteria which one must pass before running for an election, how can we be sure that people elected to an office also have merit? Witness, for example, the election of incompetent judges to the bench, in the United States, as contrasted to more professional, because more closely reviewed, appointees. This is an issue that may be raised when discussing democracy not only in ancient Greece, but anywhere.

How does one balance the popular will, then, against the attempt to institute excellence? These were originally some concerns that led the "philosophes" of the European Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries AD to call for the massive creation of free public schools, to make sure that the electorate is at least literate, if not have the fundamental ability in a democracy to distinguish between good and bad. If nothing else, by teaching literacy and critical thinking, schools that are free to everyone may be "democracy's insurance" against demagoguery, deception, or superstition. Since the democratic paradox concerns more generally the nature of democracy, it is best left for another presentation with a focus on political science. It was briefly mentioned here only because democratic institutions apparently crossed paths with "aristocracy," in the classical sense of the term "aristocracy" as excellence, and must have puzzled thinkers as to how to resolve the dilemma of popular but incompetent leaders. This is, in fact, one of Plato's central concerns in his book The Republic. Suffice it to mention here that most of the elections in ancient Greece were honest, since there are no historical accounts that I am aware of, of "cheating at the polls." If there are, they must have been the rare exception, than the rule, since one gets the impression from reading ancient sources that electoral cheating simply did not occur, or at least was not mentioned in the sources.Table of Contents

On Aristocracy

We come now to an examination of the term "aristocracy." Aristocracy today has almost the opposite meaning, than its ancient Greek predecessor. While today "aristocracy" refers usually to the upper socioeconomic classes, in ancient times it meant the rule of the most merited, or "aristoi," which included those with many relevant achievements in their vitae. In addition to their other achievements, the aristoi were expected at a minimum to be morally upright, civil, and humane. I analyze the term "aristocracy" etymologically in another section, below. Suffice it here to mention that it would be almost unthinkable for an ancient Greek to consider someone wealthy or titled, who nevertheless achieved nothing outstanding in his or her life, as an "aristocrat." This doesn't mean that wealthy people are necessarily unworthy of being called aristocratic, in the classical sense of the term, since they, too, could achieve excellence, but only that wealth alone would not have qualified one for such a name. This is also the reason why in their artistic, athletic, or educational contests, the ancient Greeks made everything possible to exclude irrelevant factors in the competition, such as, wealth or political connections (hence, as mentioned earlier, their competing in the nude in athletic contests, to eliminate even the slightest possibility of hinting at social differences before declaring a winner).Table of Contents

On Ancient Integrity and Modern "Filotimo"

Regarding the emphasis of the ancient Greeks on "integrity," I think over the centuries their idea of integrity crystallized into the modern "filotimo".Table of Contents

Integrity

In ancient times, there was great public pressure to behave uprightly. It would be unthinkable that someone without integrity (honesty, justice, truthfulness) is admired. Occasionally people might have forgiven some of a person's "weaknesses," as in the case of Alcibiades, because of his other outstanding characteristics. This emphasis on goodness is perfectly encapsulated in the ancient inscription "kalos k' agathos" on numerous Greek artifacts. Kalos k' agathos means, literally, "good and good," with one "goodness" referring to the social and personal "beauty" of the person being depicted on the artifact, usually an amphora, and the other to his moral and humanitarian excellence. One is inwardly looking to personal improvement, the other outwardly to the quality of his social relations. Incidentally, this kind of artistic depiction is another example of "responsible art," in the sense of artists underlining moral excellence.Table of Contents

Filotimo

This emphasis on integrity has arguably survived today in Greece as the proverbial filotimo. Almost every Greek will lay claim to possessing filotimo, since it is almost identified with being Greek. Although probably much less discussed, or philosophized about today, than was its corresponding "kalos k' agathos" in ancient times, nevertheless its connotations electrify people just as much. I submit that after centuries of hammering the idea of integrity on the people since ancient times, even during the 400 years of Turkish occupation, "filotimo" finally gained the status of a Jungian "collective unconscious" in modern Greece, where people no longer philosophize about it, or try to impose it on the masses, but simply assume its widespread existence.

The term "filotimo" is difficult to translate literally into English, as are most terms that are pregnant with a variety of meanings that no one English word can capture exactly. Some writers that I have read even claim that it is literally impossible to translate. For our purposes here it may be translated as an internalized inclination to do good, with a strong sense of social responsibility.

Etymologically, filotimo means "love of honor" (=philos+timi), although the honor referred to is not merely external, or for "show" purposes, but a psychologically internalized yardstick of goodness, as in the ancient "kalos k agathos." (see Tegopoulos-Fytrakis, Greek Lexicon, 5th edition, p. 821).

Filotimo places perhaps less emphasis on personal appearance than the ancient kalos k' agathos, probably as a result of the long Christian era that de-emphasized everything worldly or material, including personal beauty. Nevertheless, even in spite of the many centuries during which Christian ideology changed considerably the thinking of the Greeks, in matters regarding the exercise of integrity it seems that on the contrary, the Christian period may have actually reinforced a widespread ancient trend to act with integrity. This is so because of the emphasis that Christianity places on being intrinsically good, if not self-sacrificial, especially regarding aid to the poor. Incidentally, it may be said that Christianity continued the heroic tradition of ancient Greece to the extent that it encouraged self-sacrifice that often bordered on martyrdom. Overall, though, as we shall see when we examine Ulich's theory, below, this type of heroic behavior was usually limited to morally desirable deeds, especially those which followed Christian doctrine, than encompass the whole spectrum of human endeavours.

Few will deny that among modern Greeks, filotimo is not only widespread, but also highly desirable. By now it is considered almost a cliche that if you want Greek men to cooperate with you, then somehow you must appeal to their "filotimo," including their personal worth, or the degree to which what they are about to do is lofty. Modern Greek culture puts inordinate pressure on young people to acquire filotimo, often through their teacher's rhetorical exhortations to "act with filotimo." At others times, anyone may be asked by someone else such embarrassingly castigating questions as, "How could you act that way? Don't you have any filotimo left in you?" By making them confront the possibility of their "afilotimia" (=lack of filotimo, or integrity), they are at once chastised, or, worse, threatened with virtual exclusion from civilized company! It is considered very insulting in Greece to chastise someone as "afilotimo" (=lacking "filotimo"). Furthermore, and perhaps most painful, to be branded as "afilotimos" is sometimes even equated as being dispossessed of your true "Greekness."Table of Contents

INFLUENCE OF ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE IN THE PHILIPPINES

As unbelievable as it may sound, there are many things Filipino that are also Greek! These two countries, Greece and the Philippines, may be geographically a "world apart," but culturally and linguistically they have a world to share. For example, the word "Philippines" itself is Greek! Other Greek words and concepts that play a central role in the daily lives of the Filipino people include democracy, economics, history, and many of the arts and sciences, to which we shall return, shortly. Thus in addition to the partial westernization of the Philippines, several cultural and linguistic similarities between the two countries are due, also, to the globalization of many Greek-derived, or Greek-inspired arts and sciences that Filipinos were educated in, or learned about from the media.

I have heard people say that the Philippines is a western nation with an Asian face. To those who describe the western history of the Philippines as 300 years in the convent under the Spanish, and 50 in Hollywood under the Americans (Mayuga, et. al., Philippines, p. 15), we may add an inestimable amount of timeless Greek influences. Furthermore, while other foreign influences were frequently paid in Filipino blood, in the sense of being violently introduced through conquest, Greek influences were never the result of any imperialistic designs by Greeks to conquer the Philippines! In this respect, at least, the practice of democratic institutions in the Philippines is not only Greek-like in its form, in the sense of the word democracy being etymologically Greek, but symbolically stands for the "democratic" way in which Greek words were peacefully adopted by the Filipino people. Democracy herself was introduced in the Philippines primarily through the voluntary adoption of democratic institutions, albeit with some help by the Americans (Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 8th ed., pages 371-383).

The connection between Greece and the Philippines, then, is more than etymological. For example, several ancient Greek artistic ideas influenced Spanish culture, which in turn influenced Philippine culture. This is reflected in the art and architecture which the Spaniards brought with them, including their church architecture, which was heavily influenced partly by the Roman, and partly by the Byzantine cultures, both of which were heavily infused with classical or post-classical Greek forms and concepts. Witness, also, the neo-classical Greek columns that still stand among the few surviving Spanish buildings inside Intramuros, or the classical design of several public buildings in Manila.

The casual tourist cannot help but notice inside Intramuros, the Spanish headquarters for many centuries in the Philippines, a variety of Greek influences. For example, inside the St. Augustin museum, which was formerly a monastery attached to St. Augustin's Church, one sees pictures, and reads about the extensive influence in the Philippines of the Augustinian Catholic order. This order was inspired, in turn, by St. Augustin, who was in turn a student and admirer of Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher, and even called Plato in his book The City of God, the "first Christian." How could someone like Plato, who lived approximately 400 years before the birth of Christ, and therefore long before Christianity as a religious movement was even born, be a Christian? The reason is that according to St. Augustin, Plato's philosophy is similar to some of the basic tenets in Christianity, and to that extent Plato may be seen as an "early" Christian. For example, the idea of a soul was philosophically legitimized primarily through the works of Plato, which in turn prepared the ground for the spread of Christianity. I mentioned this example to highlight the kind of intellectual continuity between ancient Greek culture, such as Plato's philosophy, and the culture that was brought over from Spain to the Philippines by the conquistadores.

Many ancient Greek concepts travelled world wide by riding inside the cultural baggage of other western nations which, for better or for worse, colonized, conquered, or otherwise invaded the cultural landscape of non-western nations. This is also true in the Philippines, where Greek culture was introduced primarily through Spanish and American influences. As mentioned earlier, many of the architectural, artistic, and religious influences of the Spaniards have Greek origins. The Americans, on the other hand, are known as the flag bearers of democracy, itself an ancient Greek concept in both form and substance.Table of Contents

Linguistic Influences

A linguistic analysis may be used to show the degree of Greek influence in modern Philippine thinking and culture. If it is true that a "picture is worth a thousand words," then an analysis of words may offer us a better picture of linguistic borrowings. Some of the arts and sciences with Greek names include mathematics, economics, geometry, biology, physics, history, philosophy, architecture, and psychology. Underlying this Greek-derived nomenclature of so many of the known "episteme," or divisions of knowledge, is a vast array of meanings that help people grasp, reorganize, or talk about the world. This is why people came under their spell, and decided to study and adopt them for their own use. From a utilitarian perspective, Greek-derived terms in English, Spanish, or Philippine dialects must have corresponded to something useful, because enlightening, or else there would have been no reason ever to use them! Eventually, many people who borrowed Greek words did so sometimes simply to pay homage to the ancient Greeks for being the first known people to have observed or examined a certain issue, or simply because there was no exact linguistic equivalent in the native language with which to express a new concept. This latter process is similar to the borrowing of countless scientific words from Greek into English, or from Greek via English or Spanish into the Philippine dialects, including Tagalog. Suffice it here to offer a few examples to illustrate this point.

Words that end in "logy" in English are usually derived from the Greek language, such as, psychology, biology, histology, immunology, sociology, and anthropology. These words refer to the study of something. For example, bio-logy=the study of bios (biologia), which in Greek means life. Psycho-logy (or sikolohiya in Tagalog)=the study of the psyche, or personality. In ancient Greece, people considered their souls to encompass most of their personal attributes. Over the centuries, the term psyche came to refer to the whole of the human personality. Hence, psychology=the study of personality. Socio-logy=the study of society. Anthropo-logy=the study of anthropos, or humans. Immuno-logy=the study of the immune system, and so on.

Some words are a combination of Latin, or a Latin-derivative, and Greek. For example, let us examine more carefully the term "sociology." In addition to its Greek ending "logy," which immediately gives us the crucial clue that it is about the study of something, its prefix "socio" is derived from the Latin "societas," which means society.Table of Contents

On the Logic of Logos

As amazing as it may seem, there is more to our story regarding words that end in "logy," than a mere linguistic "disintegration" into their component parts. The popular ending "logy" is derived from the Greek word for... "word" (logos=speech, communication, etc.). The ancients reasoned that one cannot say something without also making sense, or else he said nothing, but merely made certain incomprehensible sounds. Consequently, in their minds speaking, or logos, was directly associated with the ability to think, or "logic." This is why they associated "logic" with "logos," and in fact used the same term, etymologically, to refer to both concepts (speaking and thinking). This also explains why they referred to non-Greeks as "barbarians," since they spoke non-comprehensible languages which sounded like "bar-bar," instead of being "logical." Eventually, the meaning of the term "barbarian" in the West changed to mean people without moral values, finesse, or good manners. It is now used to refer to uncouth persons, be they Greek or non-Greek, rather than to non-Greek speaking peoples.Table of Contents

Logical Mythology

Although "logic" in modern times has come to be associated strictly with ways of correct thinking, in ancient Greece it was seen as the natural ability to communicate. In their view, everything someone said necessarily made sense, and was therefore "logical." If it were not, it would not have been "said," in the sense of saying something that one can understand. As an extension of their "logical" view of thinking, the ancient Greeks considered anything that could speak intelligently to be human-like, even if it lacked complete human form. This gave rise to a rich "logical mythology," by which I mean a mythology where a variety of animate or inanimate parts of the universe have the ability to think or speak logically.

Greek mythology is populated by animal like humans, human like animals, and humans that were transformed into inanimate parts of the universe (such as, constellations of stars). Witness, for instance, the countless animate and inanimate forms that humans were metamorphosed into by the Greek gods either to make them immortal, save them from some type of harm, or punish them for their vanity (including humans metamorphosed into a variety of flower yielding plants, such as, Hyacinthus and Narcissus; or constellations, such as, Andromeda and Perseus). Alternatively, animate or inanimate forms are human like to the extent that they can speak, offer counsel, or even teach or outwit humans. For example, the centaurs were depicted as half human and half horse. They were usually described as cruel and inordinately lascivious, but occasionally very wise and friendly. For example, the centaur Chiron was famous for his knowledge of archery, music, and medicine, and even served as tutor to many outstanding Greek scientists and heroes, including Asclepius, Achilles, Jason and Hercules. It is partly in this "intellectual" sense that the ancient Greeks "anthropomorphized" the universe in their playful mythology, meaning, made it human-like, by giving speech to numerous non-human combinations of animal or plant life, or geophysical phenomena. In their view to be human, or "anthropos," meant necessarily to be able to speak meaningfully, instead of having merely the outward appearance of a human.Table of Contents

On the Etymology of "Democracy"

As mentioned earlier, democracy herself, which is widely believed to be the defining sine qua non of modern Filipino politics, is also in both form and substance originally Greek. So is the more generic term "politics."

DEMOCRACY, or  "dimokratia" in Greek, is translated as "demokrasya" in Tagalog (Merriam Editorial Staff, New Vocabulary English-Tagalog, p. 93). Demo-cracy is a compound word in Greek that is derived from two words, "demos," which means people; and "cratos," which means power. To be more exact, "demos" in ancient Greece referred to one of the civil subdivisions where people resided, similar to a Philippine barangay. Now putting the two together, demos and cratos, we have "democracy," which means people-power, or "power of the people." It may not be too far fetched to claim that every time anyone in the Philippines uses democratic terminology, he or she is not only engaging in an ancient dialogue regarding individual rights, and the like, but is also inadvertently speaking a little bit of Greek. In the same vein that Lord Byron considered all Europeans to be Greek, due to the influence of ancient Greek culture on Europeans, we may also hypothesize that every time a Filipino uses any Greek derived word, he or she has become partly Hellenized.Table of Contents

Politics

Regarding the etymology of the term "politics," it is derived from the Greek polis, which means city; and polites, which means citizen, or an inhabitant of polis. Hence politics=the administration of the polis (=city). Now since in ancient Greece most states were actually independent cities (or "city-states"), politics over the centuries came to refer to the administration of not only cities, but also whole states, including the citizenry. Hence politics=the administration of the state.Table of Contents

Other Greek-derived terms

Other Greek derived terms include many mathematical and scientific terms, some of which were mentioned earlier in the presentation. Thus Greek is also "spoken" as a result of borrowing Greek, or Greek-like words by almost all the modern sciences, which inevitably have become the common spoken and written lexicon of scientists around the world. As a result of the predominance today of the scientific paradigm on almost a world-wide scale, these scientific terms have entered, in turn, the linguistic subconscious not only of scientists, but also of the general public that come across such words in newspaper articles, magazines, schoolbooks, and other forms of oral or written communication. Thus today we have the phenomenon of a Tagalog or Visayan doctor inevitably learning some Greek in medical school, although in their conversations with patients they probably use less esoteric ways to describe a medical condition.Table of Contents

Mathematics

Within the field of mathematics, Greek-derived terms include mathematics itself ("mathematika"); geometry ("geometria"); arithmetic ("arithmitiki"); and trigonometry ("trigonometria"), and many others. The term geometry is derived from the Greek words "geo," which means earth; and "metron," which means measurement. Hence geometry=measurement of earth-like objects. Arithmetic, from the Greek word for number, arithmos. Hence arithmetic=the science of counting numbers. Trigonometry, from metron (=measurement); and trigonon, which means triangle. Hence trigonometry=measurement of triangles.Table of Contents

Sciences

In the sciences, the term physics is derived from the Greek word for nature, or "physis". Hence physics=the study of nature. The term astronomy ("astronomia"), from the Greek terms for star, or astir/astro; and law, or nomos. Hence astronomy=the study of laws that govern the stars. Architecture ("architektoniki"), from "archi," or chief; and tecture from the Greek "tecton," or builder. Hence architecture=designing the archetypes or foundations of buildings. Economics ("oikonomia"), form the word for house, or "oikos;" and the word for law, or "nomos." Hence economics=the laws governing the organization of the household, which later was extended to mean the laws governing the use of money.Table of Contents

Political terms

There are also many political terms, such as, in addition to democracy, aristocracy ("aristokratia"), plutocracy ("plutokratia"), timocracy ("timokratia"), monarchy ("monarchia"), and oligarchy ("oligarchia"), all of which played a hugely significant role in shaping political institutions on a worldwide scale. We already analyzed the etymology of the term "democracy." Aristocracy, whose meaning we discussed earlier, is composed of the Greek words "aristos", which means excellence; and cratos, which means power. Hence, aristocracy=the rule of the excellent. Plutocracy is composed of "plutos," which means wealth; and cratos (=power). Plutocracy, then means rule by the wealthy. Timocracy, from "timi,"or honor, and cratos. Hence, timocracy=rule by honor-lovers, or those who value honor more than other attributes (wealth, wisdom, etc.). Monarchy, from "monas,"or single unit; and "archi," which means power at the top. Putting the two together, monarchy=rule by one person. Oligarchy, from "oligo," or few; and archi. It follows that oligarchy=rule by the same few people, or a non-democratic clique.Table of Contents

Other terms

Numerous other examples include artistic, popular, and mythological words, spanning the whole spectrum of words ranging from theatrical terms, such as, "theater," "drama," and "comedy," all of which are etymologically Greek, to historical and mythological, including the term "mythology" ("mithologia"), itself! Interestingly in connection with our forthcoming analysis of the term "Philippines," another group of Greek derived words associates the term "philos," which means friend or lover, with a certain subject. Most prominently among them is the term philosophy ("filosofia"), which means love or great affection for wisdom.Table of Contents

Philos- terms

Philosophy is derived from the Greek terms for love and wisdom (philos and sophia). Philos also refers to friendship, or feelings of friendship toward another person, or even another animal, or inanimate object. I submit that the term philos was originally intended to signify friendship. The term that referred strictly to love was "agape." Sexual love was referred to as "eros." I submit that the term philos (or its verb equivalent "phileo") came to mean also love because of the strong bond that characterized friendships in ancient times.  In ancient Greece, there was a very strong bond between friends, especially as they may be faced one day fighting an enemy in hand-to-hand combat, and needed the support of their immediate comrades. This bond of friendship on the battlefield eventually came to characterize all friendly relations, with friends feeling great affection, or "love," for each other. Witness, for example, the loving way with which friends are being addressed in Plato's dialogues, especially the Meno and the Symposium.

There are several passages in Plato's writings where people are said to "love" their friends, without necessarily maintaining a sexual relationship. This is why we refer today to very affectionate, but non-sexual relationships, as "Platonic:" two people may have a very strong affection for each other, especially through their mutual thoughts and preferences, but remain simply friends. In that case, we say that they have a "platonic relationship." For example, I heard a daughter tell her worried mother regarding her new male acquaintance, "Dont' worry, mom, our relationship is strictly platonic."

Modern Greece almost lost contact with her ancient past due to 400 years of brutal occupation under the Ottoman Turks. This may explain why some concepts that were widespread in the past, remain either as a faint memory in Greece today, or have simply entered people's "collective unconscious" without much further "philosophical" ado. We already analyzed in this regard the relationship of the ancient emphasis on integrity, to the modern Greek term "filotimo." Another tenuous connection may be found between the ancient and modern views of "philos."

Unlike the ancient view of philos, which also meant "lover" (usually only in the "platonic" sense), the term "philos" today is translated mainly as simply friend, while another word is used for "lover" (="erastis" in modern Greek). Interestingly, we have today the phenomenon of non-Greek scholars of ancient Greek culture understanding the term "philos" to mean also lover, as in ancient Greece, while in their daily vernacular modern Greeks have almost totally "forgotten" its ancient double meaning. This may illustrate how an ancient term may be better understood by "cultural outsiders" who nevertheless studied intensely both ancient Greek culture and language, than by the original speakers themselves.

Due to certain historical circumstances, native speakers may keep in their vernacular the same phonetic or syntactical structure of certain terms, but over time change slightly their meaning. Nevertheless, if my memory of my childhood and adolescent years in Greece serve me right, friendships are invested with probably equally strong attachments in Greece today, especially among men, as in ancient times. Again, if I am allowed to make another generalization, this may illustrate that certain "emotional trends" that are deeply ingrained in a certain culture may outlast overt linguistic changes (as in the continued emotional significance attached to friendships in Greece today, even in spite of certain changes in meaning in the corresponding term "philos").

As we shall see, our discussion of the term "philos" may throw additional light on our forthcoming analysis of the term "Philippines," a Greek word derived partly from just such term (philos). Suffice it here to include the disclaimer that my "generalizations" regarding the nature of language, above, are obviously intended as an intellectual entree to further "testing and investigation," than as an ipso facto credo.

Other terms with the "philos" suffix include philo-logy=love of logos or language, which eventually came to signify the study of language; phil-anthropy=love of humans (from philos and "anthropos," which means human); phil-ately=love of stamps (from philos and "ateleia," which means freedom from charges by virtue of attaching a stamp on a letter); and so on. As just mentioned, the word "Philippines" also falls under this category, since it is a Greek derived term composed of the terms philos (=lover or friend); and ippos, which means horse.Table of Contents

On the etymology of the term "Philippines"

Let us turn, at last, to a more in-depth linguistic analysis of the term Philippines. As mentioned near the beginning of the presentation, the term "Philippines" itself is etymologically Greek. As anyone who ever bothered to consult the etymology of the word "Philip" knows, "Philippines" means the country that loves horses. Was the name Philippines given to the country because historically the Philippines has had a lot of horses? Or perhaps because her people are known to engage in horse breeding, or the like, which may qualify them as great horse lovers? Well, not really. The truth is that historically, the islands were given the name "Philippines" in 1543 by a commander of one of the ships during the Villalobos expedition (1542-1546 AD) in honor of Prince Philip of Spain. The captain's name was Bernardo de la Torre, also known as "Capitan Calabaza." Capitan Calabaza called "Las Felipinas" (=Spanish for "The Philippines") a group of eastern Philippine islands, including most likely Leyte and Mindanao. Later, the term "Philippines" was used as a blanket term to cover all of the Philippine islands (Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 8th ed., p. 74). Prince Philip of Spain, after whom the islands were named, got his name, in turn, as a result of a common custom among European royalty to borrow names from admired leaders of Greek and Roman antiquity. Among these, the names of the Greek Macedonians Philip and Alexander occupied a prominent place, especially as their ancient adventures were widely known and very popular among western Europeans at the time. These two ancient kings symbolized certain values that European royalty wished to project to the public, such as, statesmanship, valor, and glory. This brings us back full circle to the original Greek word for Philip, to which the Philippine islands ultimately owe their name, if not directly, at least indirectly through the legacy that ancient Greeks left behind.

Our linguistic unraveling of the term Philippines does not end here. The word equivalent for the name Philip in Greek is "Philippos." Philippos is a compound Greek word composed of the words philos, which as we know means friend or lover (or to be friendly toward or to love); and ippos, which means horse. It stands to reason, then, that philippos (philos + ippos), or the anglicized version Philip, means lover of horses. This is why Philippines is translated in Greek as the country that loves horses! At least etymologically, then, the Philippines is more Greek than one might at first imagine! If only there were as many horses in the Philippines at the time the Spanish arrived here, as there were, let us say, carabaos, or people loved them as much, her name might have more accurately reflected the reality of her historical circumstances. In that sense, at least, Philippines might have been truly horse-loving, or... "phil-ippino!"

A historical analysis may reveal that King Philip of Greek Macedonia, in turn, got his name from a common practice at the time of calling people after a certain human-like attribute, such as, liking horses. This is similar in English to using last names that correspond to certain traditional professions or characteristics, such as, Carpenter or Smith. King Philip of Macedonia was probably equal to his name, since in real life he actually did love horses, especially if they happened to be his own! For example, one of his proudest moments was when he learned that one of his horses won first prize in the Olympic Games (Plutarch, Lives of Noble Greeks, pages 271-272)! Interestingly, Alexander's famous horse, Buccephalus, was originally intended for his father Philip, but only Alexander could tame him, prompting his father to exclaim that Macedonia was way too small for his son.

The number of Greek terms, and their corresponding meanings that have infiltrated English and Philippine languages, and by extension the thinking of the people that use them, are so many, that it is better left for another, more focused presentation. Suffice it here to mention that all one has to do to verify the vast infusion of Greek words in English, Spanish, or Visayan or Tagalog, is to consult dictionaries that offer an etymological analysis, such as Webster's, and will be amazed to find how many times the "Gk" symbol appears, indicating the Greek origin of the word.Table of Contents

Anecdote Regarding the Presence of ancient Greeks in the Philippines

On a more anecdotal level, I became aware almost by accident of the existence of some words in Visayan that sound almost exactly like ancient Greek! For example, the word for "ant" in Visayan is "ormegas," which sounds like the Greek "mirmigi," or "ormigi," or the classical "mirmix." Could it be that Alexander's troops reached the Philippines, after all, as a couple of my Greek friends who work in the Philippines claim? Well, a more level-headed analysis may reveal another reason for this similarity. The Visayan word for ant is almost identical to the corresponding Spanish word, "hormiga," which is probably why it is used today, as are numerous other Spanish derived terms (including several numbers). The Spanish, in turn, may have borrowed it indirectly through the Romans from the Greeks. In any event, my linguistic analysis regarding the Spanish origin of the word for ant probably puts to rest my friends' ambitious theory regarding the coming of the Greeks to the Philippines! If they did, it can't be proved merely on the basis of the common phonetic sound for describing the ant, especially given the influence that the Spanish exercised on Philippine culture for over 300 years! The Spanish are the more likely culprit for the popularization of many Greek-sounding words in the Philippines. If anything really ancient has travelled directly from Greece to the Philippines, it is probably this ancient Greek belief in the omnipotence of Alexander!Table of Contents

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great reached only as far as Northern India. His soldiers divided his empire into many kingdoms after his death (323 BC), but never ventured much beyond the Indus river, or perhaps the Ganges! Anthropologically, my friends' theory regarding the coming of Alexander's soldiers to the Philippines may reveal more about ancient Greek folklore that has survived in modern times, than about ancient Greeks in the Philippines! My Greek friends are associated with the shipping industry, and therefore may have fallen under the spell of the proverbial "Mermaid of Alexander!"

There is an ancient Greek folktale still very popular in Greece today that there is a mermaid that constantly plows the wide seas and asks every captain whether Alexander the Great is still alive. If the captain dare answer "No, he died long time ago," the mermaid immediately raises a storm and sinks the ship. Of course, I don't mean to imply that my friends really believe in the existence of the mermaid, only to use the occasion to highlight some possible mythological factors deeply ingrained in the modern Greek subconscious.

If Alexander had persuaded his troops after they had defeated a northern Indian king to continue with his ambitious eastward campaigns, or his plan for the creation of a cosmopolitan race, it is not unlikely that he might have reached the Philippine islands themselves, thus arriving at a country that by a strange twist of historical circumstances was given a Greek name 1,800 years later! But even if he had come here, he would have probably found a totally different population, especially if he arrived at Panay or Luzon islands, since at that time the Filipinos of Malay stock had not yet ascended from the south either to Luzon, the northernmost Philippine island; or to the central or "Visayan" islands. By the time the first Malay datus arrived from Borneo with their "balangays," or boats, in the early 13th century AD, Alexander would have been dead a total of approximately 1,500 years!Table of Contents

The Negritos

More likely, if Alexander had come to the Philippines, he would have found the islands populated by the original "negritos," a black or "negroid" people, some of whom still survive in the Philippines. Personally, I had the opportunity to see only one negrito in his native dress and spear, and his family, outside Surigao City, and a few others in "civilian cloths" in metro Manila, all of them indistinguishable from Subsaharan blacks. Some of these "atis," or negrito, may be of mixed malay and negrito stock (Jans Peters, Philippines, 5th ed., pages 36-37).

According to some historians and anthropologists, the negritos were the original inhabitants of the central Philippine islands (Agoncillo, History of the Filipino People, 8th ed., pages 25-26; see also Harper & Fullerton, Philippines Handbook, 2nd ed., pages 20-21; and Evelyn Peplow, The Philippines, p. 15). According to these historical accounts, preserved also in folktales, such as the Maragtas, the negritos peacefully gave up their coastal residences to the first Malay "datus," or chiefs, in exchange of some token gifts. This magnificent show of cooperation with the newcomers is still celebrated today in the Philippines in what is described by some observers as the most popular festival, the Ati-Atihan festival, during which Filipinos paint themselves pitch black, dress up like the negritos, and dance with revelry and music in the original negrito way in the streets (Mayuga, et. al., Philippines, 7th ed., p. 255). In any event, even in the absence of Alexander himself, the Philippine islands were given a name partly as a result of the historic influence exercised by his father, Philip, thus at least in this respect, confirming Alexander's youthful fears that he may fail to match his father's glory.Table of Contents

Psychological Common Grounds Between Greeks and Filipinos

There are inescapably certain psychological common grounds between modern Greeks and Filipinos, as they both suffered from long periods of foreign domination. Long periods of domination have a way of instilling in people a certain attitude toward authority, foreign influences, and interpersonal relationships. On a political level, it is not surprising that both Greeks and Filipinos should commonly emphasize, among other things, the value of liberty.Table of Contents

On the Ottoman Turkish (Moslem) Occupation of Greece

Greeks and Filipinos suffered under culturally and religiously widely different types of conquerors: the Filipinos under the Spanish and the Americans for almost 400 years; and the Greeks for almost the same number of years under the Ottoman (Moslem) Turks, between the mid 15th and early 19th centuries AD. Greece's conquest by the Turks was especially brutal, since in addition to the economic hardships imposed on the Greek people, and the loss of numerous privileges, they were forced to close down their educational institutions. Fearful of what the Greeks might do if they were inspired or enlightened, especially given their glorious past, the Turks "padlocked" the gates to enlightenment. This suppression of education in Greece is similar to the Spanish disregard for educating the native population in the Philippines, although there were some important differences. Thus while in the latter case there was an intentional disregard for introducing education to the native population, in the former there was brutal prohibition against the continuation of a rich educational heritage.

Greek schools were forced by the Turkish overlords to go "underground," usually hidden inside churches, where they operated strictly at night. This gave rise to a popular song still sang in Greece today about children attending school secretly at night "under the moonlight" ("feggaraki mou labro, fegge mou na perpato, na pigeno sto scholio, na matheno grammata, grammata spoudamata, tou Theou ta pragmata"= "My dear shining Moon, light my way so I can walk (at night), to be able to go to school, to learn letters, letters and studies, which are God's things"). Thus while other nations were inadvertently hellenizing the rest of the world through the dissemination of Greek terms and ideas, Greece herself was "left in the darkness," as is partly symbolized by this children's lullaby about "night school."

The Turkish invaders were not only linguistically and culturally different, but also fanatically Moslem, thus double-suppressing the daily lives of the Christian Greeks. This is partly why many Greek customs and beliefs almost "froze in time" during the 400 years of Turkish occupation, since they were not given a chance to "evolve." For example, while the western Catholic Church continued to progress relatively free from outside interference, and built even universities where considerable freedom of speech was exercised, the Greek Orthodox Church was forced to fight a battle for the sheer survival of her people. This may partly explain why following the Greek War of Independence in the early 19th century many modern Greek intellectuals became disheartened by what they considered to be the "conservative," or even "anti-intellectual" attitude of the hierarchy of the Greek Orthodox Church, not realizing that it is historically unfair to compare western European churches, or, more broadly, achievements, spanning several centuries of progress from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, with native Greek attitudes at the time of the Greek War of Independence (1821). This is so because while for 400 years western Europeans continued to evolve educationally, the Greeks under the Turkish occupation were generally locked out of the European educational and enlightenment movements.Table of Contents

Using ancient Greek Culture as an excuse for Conquest

To add insult to paradox, some colonial powers, including Spain, often used classical Greek culture as their excuse for dominating others, even while Greece herself was dominated! This whole idea of dominating others who were presumably uncivilized because they lacked "culture" (meaning also ancient Greek culture) may be seen as a parody of Rudyard Kipling's famous "white man's burden" philosophy, which unfortunately gave Greek culture in the eyes of some post-liberation scholars a bad name. In fact, the idea of dominating others contradicted some of the most admired concepts of the ancient Greeks, such as, democracy, not to mention the logical fallacy of using the lack of a certain culture by certain groups of people as an excuse for conquest, instead of seeing it as an opportunity for cultural exchange and peaceful coexistence (which was in fact how ancient Greeks themselves established most of their colonies around the Mediterranean).Table of Contents

GREEK CULTURE FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE PRESENT

Before we examine the different theories on the genesis of Greek civilization, let us briefly review Greece's history from ancient times to the present. We may divide Greek history into four periods, ancient, medieval, post-medieval, and modern. Ancient Greek history began approximately 3,000 years BC, and ended approximately 400 AD (including the Hellenistic era). Medieval Greece spans the same historical time as the European Middle Ages, from approximately the 4th century AD to 1453 AD, and includes the Byzantine Empire. In 1453 Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, and serves generally as a historical landmark signifying the end of the Middle Ages. Post medieval Greece, which coincides with the Turkish (Moslem) occupation of Greece, includes the period from 1453 AD to 1821 AD. Finally, modern Greece includes the period from 1821 to the present. As most historians and anthropologists who studied ancient and modern Greece agree, there has been an unbroken linguistic continuity in Greece from ancient times to the present, presenting us with one of the few ancient cultures in the world today with an uninterrupted, albeit evolving, linguistic history (see, for example, Dimaras, A History of Modern Greek Literature; and Politis, by the same title).Table of Contents

Genesis of Ancient Greek Culture

We come now to an examination of the reasons for the genesis of Greek civilization. A study of history without relevance to our living experience offers no more consolation or answers to our problems, than does a plastic flower to an aestheticist, or the mere picture of a wine bottle to a connoisseur. It is for this reason that I made an effort to make ancient Greek culture come alive, so we can better understand it, especially the reasons for achieving excellence. Below I review some of the theories for its genesis, and end my presentation by offering a synthesis of these views. My analysis should be seen as merely an introduction to a wider dialogue regarding the birth of excellence, than as a definitive or exhaustive analysis of ancient Greek culture.Table of Contents

Plato's Aristocratic Model

Many people until recently considered Plato (427-347 BC) to be an advocate of democracy, when in fact, as he made it clear in his Republic, he advocated a form of aristocracy, or the rule of the "best." Plato was never the extreme conservative, though, that Karl Popper made him in his book, The Open Society and Its Enemies. In Plato's view, education is of paramount importance in raising a new society literally "from the ground up." He would like all leaders to have the best education possible, preferably musical, athletic, mathematical, and philosophical. This gave rise to the time-worn concept of the "philosopher king," or well educated leader, described also in Plato's Laws, which subsequently influenced many leaders and political writers. It follows from his admiration of the aristocratic ideal, and his emphasis on education, that he would ascribe the achievements of many of his ancestors and contemporaries to their efforts to earn an excellent education.Table of Contents

Aristotle's Theory of Democratic Politics as the Basis of Culture

Aristotle was an advocate of controlled, or "constitutional" democracy. Given his admiration for "measured" lifestyles in the Nicomachean Ethics, and his preference for democracies in the Politics, he would probably assign a large part of his ancestors' success to their numerous democratic institutions. In his view, democracy allows collectively for the release of enormous energy and creativity, while channeling this energy to constructive pursuits.Table of Contents

Henri Marrou's Historical Interpretation

In his classic work A History of Education in Antiquity, which has been widely read and translated from the original French, Marrou weaves together from original sources an amazing portrait of ancient Greek achievements. Marrou attributed the achievements of the ancient Greeks to their widespread adoption of ideals of excellence; the institutionalization of contests; the implementation of role-modeling on a massive scale; formation of strong mentoring networks that touched the lives of almost all young people; building of beautiful cities that served also to educate the young; adults practicing what they preached, thus educating by example; hiring expert teachers, or "sophists;" and making all public functions free to the poor.Table of Contents

Homer's Influence

Originally, ancient Greeks formulated their heroic ideals on the battlefield, where bravery, honor, and distinction were highly regarded, if not amply rewarded. Later, these "aristocratic" ideals, in the original sense of the term "aristocracy" as the rule of the excellent, were internalized by the masses even inside democracies, where people were free to choose, instead, a more mediocre lifestyle. This represents a historically uncommon adaptation of "heroic" ideals within politically democratic milieus, where people could have chosen another code to live by, but instead chose the uphill route of constant self-improvement. This phenomenon may be partly attributed to the influence exercised by two well known epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. These poems were composed around the 9th century BC by Homer, and refer the former to the Fall of Troy around the early 13th century BC; and the latter to the adventures of Odysseus on his return home. The fact that they describe the heroic deeds of the protagonists is why they are considered to be "heroic epics." That whole era is historically known as "heroic" due to so many individuals' efforts at the time to "outlive" their mortal limitations, or achieve the highest possible glory through extraordinary acts of courage, comradeship, or justice.

Read or recited from generation to generation, Homer's epics both educated and entertained at the same time, thus instilling in the young the heroic or "aristocratic" psychology of their ancestors. Homer's poems not only offered the ancient Greeks an encyclopedic account of their progenitors, but also provided heroic role models for the young, a pantheon of human-like gods, and a historical code of conduct. Moreover, in addition to the heroic deeds of their protagonists, they described several athletic contests that were later incorporated in the Olympic Games, thus at the same time providing a peaceful alternative to bloody competition. There are also the first recorded accounts of chivalry and fair play, including allowing your opponent in a duel equal time and tools to defend himself, instead of "cowardly" killing him when he is inattentive, unarmed, or unaware of your approach. The reason for this, again, was to crown the true victor in a contest, as opposed to allowing one to "cheat," and therefore win undeservedly. This whole idea of respect for rules of conduct, and for the equal rights of others under such rules, led eventually to the development of international law. Extended beyond the battlefield, rule-abiding behavior also led to designing laws that protect law abiding citizens from the law-breaking or predatory.

Homer's extensive influence on ancient Greece is why historians since ancient times refer to him as the "Educator of Greece." His poems were overwhelmingly popular. To draw an analogy to the popularity of another well known book, they were sang or recited probably as avidly, as the Bible was read or preached about in the so-called "Bible belt states," in the United States (or more broadly, in Protestant countries following the Protestant Reformation).

By writing these two poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer immortalized a certain aspect of the "elan vital" of the ancient Greek world, which included, among other things, their love for excellence. A popular credo among ancient Greeks, which the young heard often enough, was the classical "Hein Aristevin," which means "Always try to Excel." This is why we observe the phenomenon of the ancient Greek people striving constantly to improve themselves in order to achieve excellence in their work, whatever their line of work may be. A typical example of this trend in ancient Greece is the importance that Alexander the Great attached to Homer's poems. He not only identified with Achilles, the main dramatic hero in the Iliad, which might also explain his astounding bravery in battle, but also always kept a copy of the Iliad under his pillow (Plutarch, Lives of Noble Greeks,"Alexander," p. 276).Table of Contents

Aristoi

According to Marrou, Homer's heroic role models psychologically transformed many generations of Greeks into "aristoi," or advocates of the life of excellence. It might not be far fetched to claim that as a result, Homer's poems may have either instigated, or reinforced an already existing movement in ancient Greece by a whole people to constantly strive for excellence. It is not surprising, then, that eventually they should achieve it. As we commonly say in English, "where there is a will, there is a way."Table of Contents

Role of the Wealthy

The wealthy or the powerful have always been in a better position to create favorable "educational" circumstances for themselves or their families, such as, hiring athletic trainers, teachers, or trade-masters, and therefore give themselves a "jump start" through early or expert training. There are no "statistical data" to substantiate this, except numerous sociological studies in the field of sociology of education that correlate "socioeconomic status" (or SES) with educational achievement (Sarane S. Boocock, Sociology of Education, 2nd ed.). Such data may offer us a clue to the relationship between wealth and achievement. Unfortunately, like the whole field of sociology itself, they are historically so recent that they do not cover the thousands of years that historically preceded the sociological (scientific) study of human groups.

It is not unlikely that even during classical Greek times, the wealthy should have garnered a disproportionate number of competitive awards. Witness, for instance, the ability of wealthy kings to hire as private tutors for their children the most renown, and proportionately "expensive," educators. For example, Philip hired Aristotle to be the private tutor to his son, Alexander. Nevertheless, even in spite of this economic advantage, Greek city states were so well endowed with public educational facilities, which were free to every citizen, that by virtue of their "public wealth" they almost "neutralized" the advantage that the rich held over the poor. Thus inside the walls of their city, which in ancient times was considered as almost an extension of one's own family, even the poor could partake of numerous opportunities for self-improvement. This is similar to the public facilities provided in some cities today. For example, everyone has access to public libraries, usually free of charge, although their quality or public service varies greatly from place to place. Compare, for instance, the public library in my city as a child, where there were barely a few tables, books hidden from public view, and an unfriendly librarian, with the huge and well designed Chicago Public Library, in Chicago, in the United States, where there are vast areas of literary, documentary, and technical information available to the public for free, collected in all types of freely available media (from books and films, to computers and international newspapers).Table of Contents

Hereditary Privilege

Over the centuries, the wealthy eventually made their privileges hereditary, as in medieval Europe, where titles and wealth were transferred, instead of earned. They became the new, hereditary "aristocrats." Thus aristocracy lost its original meaning, and no longer meant necessarily the rule of the best, in the sense of having won victories in theatrical, artistic, oratory, or mathematical contests, or the like, but merely of the wealthiest, or the most titled.Table of Contents

City as the School

In addition to the widespread heroic or aristocratic beliefs that pervaded the ancient Greek world, which motivated many people to "reach for the stars," Marrou attributed their achievements to equally pervasive educational networks. To start with, their cities were literally "built to educate." They were the desirable version of a "street education," where the streets were so well cared for that they were altogether unlike any modern "school of hard knocks." Complete with public theater, stadium, parks, athletic centers, public baths, fountains, and statues, and combination marketplace-debate arena (or "agora"), they were almost "made in heaven." Now, how more "holistic" could education become, than through one's daily contacts in the city? The ancients understood this, which is why they not only embellished their cities architecturally, and were equally careful city planners, but enlivened them with all types of mentors, tutors, and "expert teachers." These "academic professionals" criss-crossed their cities every which way the young lived, played, or exercised.

Given the amount of education that went on even outside the formal classroom in ancient Greek city states, it may not be far fetched to describe their cities as literally their "living schools." And just as parents today would want their children to attend the best school possible, so did the ancient Greeks design their cities in the best possible way. Some of the remnants of their cities remain standing to this day, as in Athens, albeit substantially destroyed or looted over the thousands of years that have elapsed. Nevertheless, perhaps symbolizing their eternal value for humans, they continue to provide their modern Greek hosts with a very large source of revenue from tourism! It is ironic that Greece today would maintain her financial vitality to a large extent thanks to the legacy her ancient inhabitants left behind!

Their public buildings reminded the young of those social values which the society considered important, such as, harmony, beauty, cleanliness, humane treatment of others, generosity, patriotism, and religiosity. Other interesting combinations, which incidentally were bound to occur in a city that functioned also as a "school," included the marketplace, or "agora," which usually functioned as combination "shopping center" and public speaking forum. There is strong historical evidence that all kinds of political, oratorical, and philosophical debates took place in the agora. In fact, a whole school of philosophy known as "stoicism," which later greatly influenced Roman law and institutions, including the emperor Marcus Aurelius, originated inside just such an agora.

Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium (336-261 BC), who held his meetings with his students in the Athenian marketplace, inside a covered portico, or "stoa," hence the term "stoicism" to describe his philosophy. There are several other examples of such "free wheeling" public philosophers and politicians, including Socrates himself. Socrates "held" many of his "classes" where most people were likely to go, including the agora, partly because this is how teachers found students, and partly because it probably gave him some pleasure to be able to reroute people's energies away from "conspicuous consumption." After all, it was Socrates who said that an "unexamined life is not worth living."

Symbolic of the integration of their spiritual with their physical "being" was the fact that frequently they exercised while they were educated. For example, they might hold intellectual discussions with their "paidotribe" (=teacher-trainer) even while stretching or exercising inside a gymnasium, not unlike the "socializing" that goes on inside modern athletic clubs (except some of the athletic clubs I know don't even allow children inside). I don't think there is anything more representative of their widespread belief in having both a strong and healthy body, and a well educated mind, than this combined "education-exercise" policy! Their popular credo of "healthy mind in a healthy body" ("Nous igiis en somati igie") has survived to our own day, and is even now frequently dangled as an oral incentive for young people to strive for both physical and intellectual excellence.

The statues of heroes that lined their streets served to constantly remind the young of their own potential for rightful glory. Compared to our often dirty or seedy streets today, theirs were a veritable open classroom in heroism! Early environmentalists, they supplemented their natural theology with artificial "green environments" on the edges of their already bountiful "green earth." For example, they built beautiful parks, replete with fountains and gardens and "people-friendly" passages and porticos, thus instilling in the young not merely a love for nature, but even its incorporation in their "urban identity."

Being open and easily accessible, their cities lent themselves easily to a system of apprenticeship, whereby the young had the opportunity to observe, and learn the different trades from the myriad tradesmen and technicians that worked in the city. This is how many aspiring artists and "professionals" were given the rare opportunity to observe the masters, and thus continue their tradition of excellence. Politicians not only tolerated the curious stares of the young, but like all good politicians, even encouraged them to "get involved."Table of Contents

Mentor Networks

If one were to cut a "slice" of their cultural life in the city, he would find layers upon layers of "educative stuff," from mentoring and teacher networks, to "gymnasia" and "palaistras" (educational and athletic centers), to public contests and games, to streets with statues of exemplary heroes. Let us take a closer look at these policies. Their citywide network of adult mentors was similar to the Big Brother, Big Sister projects practiced in some American cities, except the mentors in ancient times were not only unpaid, but even considered it their honor to be allowed to pay themselves for the educational expenses of their proteges. They showed children, usually boys, how to do this or that, initiated them gradually into adult values, or helped them win in contests.

Today it would be almost unthinkable in any large metropolis to allow an outsider have so much "power" over one's children. For one thing, one cannot be sure of the character of strangers, especially when living in such large, and socially mobile urban centers. This issue of trust was not such a big problem for the ancient Greeks because almost everyone lived in a relatively stable city environment, where people usually inherited their forefathers' house, and therefore both their residence and their characters were well known. Their cities were much smaller by comparison, with usually 10,000 citizens, and thus much easier to get to know everyone, if not be able to pinpoint through the city's "grapevine" the whereabouts of their children.

Now imagine what impression on a young child's mind the feats of a loving adult must have made! The child was by comparison much smaller and weaker than his adult mentor, and relatively inexperienced! Not unlike children's perceptions of adults today, or their wish to grow up quickly so they can be "like dad," so in ancient times they must have viewed their adult mentors with admiration and awe. The adult probably seemed like a "superman" in their eyes, albeit one whose achievements they tried to equal or surpass, especially since they were relentlessly encouraged by the adult to do so. Since they were friends, the child was probably highly motivated to emulate his adult friend, giving new meaning to our concept of "socialization." At the same time, adult mentors took further precautions to behave uprightly, to both prove equal to their protege's expectations, and provide desirable role models.Table of Contents

Contests

To stimulate their thirst for self-improvement, adults allowed the young to observe their adult contests, of which there were many. Furthermore, young people themselves participated in contests appropriate for their age, where hopefully they would emulate some of the adult virtues, as history proved that, indeed, they did for quite a long time! For example, Marrou mentioned how young children would eat in a separate table, but allowed to observe adults perform their after dinner oratory contests, which at the time were the standard intellectual staple that accompanied dinner. Now ask yourself, what would the young like to do when they grow up? Obviously, they would also like to win in these nightly dinner contests, which meant they better start early to read and recite all those great poets and philosophers whose names they heard every night, from Homer on down. More importantly, since they heard so many adults compose original poems, they were also motivated to compose poems themselves, and become articulate and erudite speakers.

Literally, then, the ancients did not waste any time educating their youth, not unlike the graduate student who brings a book to read during lunchtime, except somehow they managed to do it while also having a lot of fun! This ancient custom of after-dinner intellectual contests and conversations has been since captured in the term "symposium," a form of meeting that is still popular today, to which I shall return following the description of the other factors that Marrou mentioned.Table of Contents

Sophists

Finally, as if subscribing to all of the above policies, including the aristocratic ideal; building a whole city as a "school;" implementing a citywide network of mentors; and building statues, and participating in contests, were not enough, ancient Greeks allowed a regular "army" of expert itinerant teachers, called "sophists," to "invade" their cities in search of ambitious students. Sophists were private teachers who claimed to know almost everything, and some of them were, indeed, amazingly erudite. They usually trumpeted their entrance to a city with demonstrations of their oratorical skills. Popular with everyone, they particularly attracted the attention of young people aspiring to become politicians (or, just as likely, parents with ambitious plans for their children). This is so because to win a political office at the time, one had to learn how to speak convincingly in public. In the charged public arena of a non-electronic age, one's voice, poise, and oratorical skill were invaluable "manipulators" of public opinion. As a result, ambitious students searched for the best teacher of oratorical skills that they could find. They were usually willing to sacrifice financially in the short run to achieve their long term goal, which also explains why sophists were generally very well off financially, if not wealthy, especially if they were well known.Table of Contents

On the term "Symposium"

Let me now briefly describe the historical and etymological background of the term "symposium." In ancient Greece, symposium referred to dinners where adults drank lightly together. In spite of their convivial "small talk" during dinner, they intended all along to engage in after-dinner literary contests, complete with prizes for the winners, which were part of the larger game-like competitive spirit of the age. Etymologically, symposium means "drinking together," from "syn," which means together; and "pino," which means drinking. The ancients believed that light drinking may help them "loosen" their tongues for their anticipated after-dinner revelries! Notwithstanding this ancient association between drinking and oratorical delivery, in later ages the "drinking" was generally dropped, and only the intellectual conversations remained. I am not sure as a result whether our after-dinner intellectual conversations have gotten any "smarter." In any event, if you participate in a "dry" symposium today, where there is no drinking allowed, you might remind the organizers of the ancient version where drinking was, in fact, not only allowed, but encouraged (albeit never in excess)! To substantiate your claim, you might mention that even the term "sym-posium" was named after that particular alcoholic allowance! To end this discussion with a lighter note, if I see my own lectures getting nowhere, then out of desperation I might consider switching to a light alcoholic beverage myself!Table of Contents

Conclusion

According to Marrou, then, the ancient Greeks attacked the issue of excellence from numerous angles, including not only internalizing heroic ideals over several centuries, but also building their whole cities "educationally," and manning their "urban ships" with networks of mentors and expert teachers. Marrou also mentioned the role that contests played in catapulting the young to excellence, whose legacy may be partly glimpsed today from our modern Olympic Games. We shall return to the role of contests in ancient Greece when we examine both Friedrich Schiller's and Johan Huizinga's theories of play, where the extent and significance of ancient contests are more fully analyzed.Table of Contents

W. Jaeger's Model of Culture as Education

In his voluminous work Paideia: Ideals of Greek Culture, which is a veritable treasure chest of excerpts and observations from ancient sources, Jaeger attributed the educational achievements of the Greeks to their "educative" culture.Table of Contents

Friedrich Schiller's and Johan Huizinga's Theories of Play

Several theorists attributed the achievements of the ancient Greeks to their numerous opportunities for play and contests. I shall now examine two of the best known of these theorists, Friedrich Schiller and Johan Huizinga.Table of Contents

Friedrich Schiller's Theory

In his classic work On the Aesthetic Education of Man, Friedrich Schiller, the famous German poet and philosopher, advanced a groundbreaking theory of play and excellence. Without play, wrote Schiller, in the sense not only of games, but also of the "play" of ideas and imagination, humans couldn't possibly advance to their highest potential. In his view, if the ancient Greeks reached such ethereal educational heights, it is because they played! One might then say that Schiller would wholeheartedly agree with the common saying that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." He might even add that Jack couldn't possibly become "civilized," in the sense of getting an excellent education, without making his life in school playful.

The reason according to Schiller play is so educative is because it gives humans the necessary "lightness" for generating "creative pursuits." In play, humans balance the spiritual against the physical, thus neutralizing the perniciously tyrannical effects of either. Through this "neutralization" of weighty passion and dictatorial reason, the mind is allowed to roam freely to new heights of creativity.Table of Contents

Modern Views of Play

Schiller's view of play is distantly echoed in the modern empirical investigations on the role of play in child development. Several psychologists, from Vygotsky to Piaget, consider play to be the child's "language." Friedrich Froebel, the founder of kindergarten, made play an integral part of a child's early education. Now imagine how enthusiastic life must seem to a child who lives in a "playful society," as did children in ancient Greece, where apparently there was an abundance of contests for almost everything. If play is children's language, then certainly ancient Greece spoke a language they could appreciate and understand! Small wonder, then, that children in ancient Greece should be highly motivated to participate in their world, so they can "play." Even today one observes young people who would rather spend hours past dinner time playing basketball, or some other type of game, than come home to eat! How much more inspired young people must have been in a society, like ancient Greece, that put a high premium on contests of all types, from literary and artistic, to physical and mathematical, and not just your neighborhood basketball game!

Given the heroic or "aristocratic" spirit of ancient Greece, the young were not only encouraged "always to excel" ("Aein aristevin"), but provided with corresponding play opportunities to do so! This explains why in ancient Greece, there were rarely any young social "dropouts." Since there was so much for them to do inside a playful world, they didn't wish to leave it! On the contrary, we have the opposite phenomenon of the young in ancient Greece knocking "down" on adult doors, so they may be allowed to play in their games, too! Witness, for instance, the impatient anticipation today of younger players who can't wait to graduate into the "adult leagues" so they can finally win the approval of their adult peers.Table of Contents

Johan Huizinga's Theory

Johan Huizinga formalized the cultural impact of play activities in his book Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. The terms "Homo Ludens" in Latin mean "Man the Player." His choice of words for a title contrasts with the traditional view of modern humans as "homo sapiens," or man the thinker, perhaps to underline the priority that Huizinga assigned to the play element in the genesis of civilization. According to Huizinga, great "cultural" achievements are based on the agonistic or competitive spirit, without which humans would be at best "mediocre." As people compete for first place, they simultaneously force themselves to improve their skills, thus in the end reaching a higher plateau of educational achievement. Just as an impending athletic event forces athletes to prepare by intensifying their training, so are people striving to win finally achieve excellence. This is even more true when a whole culture adopts the agonistic or "competitive" spirit, instead of merely a few institutions within that culture.Table of Contents

Competitions

The zeal with which the young in ancient Greece participated in contests, if not the agonistic spirit of their age, may be surmised from numerous individual stories of young adults literally "going out of their way" to "measure up" to adult expectations, to the point, sometimes, of literally dying for it. Thus in addition to the numerous annual, biannual, and quadrennial contests that dotted the ancient Greek landscape, which produced whole armies of competing young people, there are the young "known" heroes who literally gave up their lives to meet adult expectations. Witness, for instance, the young boy in Sparta who would rather have a fox that he had hidden under his shirt literally "eat" his entrails, in an adult-sanctioned "stealing contest," than utter even the slightest sound. Afterwards, the boy died. Or the young runner who ran over a long distance as fast as he could to announce to his Athenian compatriots their victory over the invading Persians, and exclaim the magic word "nenikikamen" (=we won), only to expire immediately afterwards from exhaustion. It is in this spirit of intense competition, mixed with civic pride, fair play, and Homeric chivalry even in battle, that, according to Huizinga, the ancient Greeks managed inch by inch to climb to the highest levels of educational excellence.

On the other hand, competition can get out of hand if engaged in so seriously, as to be willing to "kill" for it, as, for example, during the cold war, or any other conflict of this type. Although Huizinga did criticize modern warfare in the last chapter of his book, he did so because in his view war had lost all sense of decency, or "chivalric" code of honor. Today, thought Huizinga, instead of merely attempting to prove to the other one's superiority, as in the medieval duel, the ends justify the means, including our willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against innocent civilians.Table of Contents

War

I think that in spite of his criticism of modern warfare, Huizinga failed to fully realize the dangerous dynamic of the agonistic spirit. If left unchecked, inter-personal rivalries that are not based strictly on a peaceful contest of skill can explode into open warfare. This is probably the reason why the founders of the Olympic Games decreed that there will be universal peace among Greek city states during the games, to underline the importance of a peaceful contest. Nevertheless, the ancient Greeks were so overtaken by the agonistic spirit of their age, that they engaged not only in their numerous local or intercity contests of skill, which were peaceful, but also in frequent inter-city warfare that cost many people their lives. Finally, as a result of the Peloponnesian War between the Athenian and Spartan groups of allies (431-404 BC), and their incessant plotting and intercity warfare against each other, Greek city states were so militarily weakened, as to make it possible for the Macedonian Greeks from the north to finally subdue them, and ultimately for the Romans to conquer them.

Perhaps the apogee of the competitive spirit in ancient Greece may be glimpsed, aside from the Olympic and other contests of skill, from a Spartan mother's common saying to her son on the way to battle "I Tan I Epi Tas," which literally means, "either with, or on it." This "laconic" saying meant that she wanted her son either to come back a winner with his shield; or, in the event of defeat, dead on the shield, which was the usual way they carried the dead back to their homes after a battle. She would simply not accept him back defeated, but still "shamefully" alive. The sad side to this story is that instead of limiting their heroic spirit within "peaceful" contests of skill, ancient Greeks engaged in constant violent struggles for political hegemony.

We can learn a lesson from this failure of the ancient Greeks to keep their rivalries within bounds, or to compete merely within the peaceful arena provided by their contests of skill. Clearly, the lesson is never to allow our differences become the basis of violent disputes, but "at worst" channel them into athletic, artistic, or intellectual contests; or "at best" learn how to live peacefully with each other, for example, by subscribing to a universal philosophy of brotherhood, so that even our contests are not generated by our earlier hostilities.

I shall return again to an examination of this polemic side to competition (from the Greek term "polemos," which means war) when we examine the Byzantine empire, below.Table of Contents

Cooperation

Some people may think that competition necessarily means abandoning cooperation. This is not so, since experience has shown that the two can be symbiotic. To win, the majority of competitive events require that players within the same team learn how to cooperate. Hence the term "team spirit," which refers to learning how to work well with others, which was originally derived from just such "competitive" events.Table of Contents

Rules

Others may think of contests as necessarily sacrificing decorum, or, worse, game rules, at the altar of a victorious result. In fact, the opposite may be true, since one cannot win unless he or she actually "plays by the rules." By definition, if players "break" the rules to win, they haven't really played that game, unless for some reason they superimposed on the game rules, another one that says that in order to win, one must constantly break all or some of the game rules. In that case, one is again playing by the "rules" of another game.Table of Contents

Civic Values

Contests, which for our purposes here may also be called "games of skill," may the best place yet for the young to learn civic virtues, if not become "law abiding citizens." Eventually, given their enthusiasm for games, and therefore their corresponding need to play "fairly" in order to be allowed to play, let alone win, the young are likely to internalize certain game-related values after participating in so many games, including respect for social rules. Values learned from contests, according to Huizinga, form the basis of organized living. These may include playing by the rules; respecting the rights of others; appreciating the results of team or individual effort; and learning how to live on the basis of merit.

The first of these values, playing by the rules, is intrinsic in the contest itself. Unless players abide by them, they can't possibly participate. The second, respecting the rights of others, is partly a corollary to playing by the rules, since one must abide by them even if one is losing; and partly the result of learning how to coexist peacefully with other people, including your opponents on the other team. On a more utilitarian level, one may come to realize through participation in contests that without an opponent, he or she may not have been catapulted to actualize his potential as efficiently, and therefore begins to see other people as part of his own self-improvement. The third, appreciating the results of team or individual effort, are the result of realizing what one can do not only in victory, which is exhilarating enough, but also in defeat, merely by making the whole contest "come to life." The fourth, learning how to live on the basis of merit, is also a corollary of playing by the rules, which means that winning is based on a fair evaluation of skill, perhaps with some luck thrown in, than of acting unethically, taking shortcuts, or bribing officials.Table of Contents

Merit

Regarding this last point, learning to live on the basis of merit, one may advance the theory that because of their game-like psychology, ancient Greeks learned early to appreciate law-abiding behavior, while simultaneously detesting corrupt or unethical practices. In ancient Greece, there was comparatively little "graft and corruption" at the official level. At the level of the people at large, one is surprised to find that in spite of often intense jealousies, people quickly rewarded those who were just or honest. Alternatively, they punished either through their laws, or stinging appellations, those who were mean or unfair. Witness, for instance, the appellations given to some of their leaders, such as, "Just Aristides;" or, alternatively, the castigating title "Diogenes (of Syracuse), the Tyrant."Table of Contents

Joseph Peiper's Theory of Leisure as the Basis of Culture

In his book on Leisure: The Basis of Culture, Joseph Peiper went even further in seemingly contradicting our modern "work ethic" by advocating that leisure, rather than work, is the basis of "culture." By culture he meant primarily the additional artistic and educational achievements of humans as a result of their conscious effort to embellish their lives with art, or understand their world through study. Peiper would probably attribute the achievements of the ancient Greeks to their ability not only to avoid trivial pursuits, but also to "organize" their public resources so they don't have to work hard for the sake of working alone. For example, by building their cities so beautifully and well endowed with public facilities, and making public functions free to the poor, they made it easier for someone to live happily, if not "aristocratically," with only a meager source of income. Naturally, their publicly oriented city made it easier for its citizens to maintain a relatively happy lifestyle without "back breaking work," which left them free to follow more satisfying or creative pursuits. In fact, many well known artists and intellectuals found it possible, if not desirable, to live very poor so they can devote more of their time to cultivating their artistic or intellectual interests (a topic which we discussed more extensively earlier in the presentation).Table of Contents

Slavery, Leisure and Excellence

Someone might object that the reason ancient Greeks had so much "leisure" is because they kept numerous slaves. In fact, it may be argued that without slaves, the ancient Greeks might have been unable to find the time to pursue their individual interests, let alone achieve excellence in so many fields.

Before I describe the institution of slavery in ancient Greece, I might mention in response to this argument regarding slavery and excellence that almost all the non-Greek peoples that ancient Greeks came in contact with also maintained slaves, sometimes to a much greater extent than they, and yet not all of them reached the same heights of educational achievement. Even among the Greeks, there is hardly anyone who reached artistic, scientific, or intellectual excellence who is also known to have been either very wealthy, or to have maintained slaves. Instead, as I mentioned earlier in my presentation, most of them were either absolutely devoted to their craft (as was Thales of Miletus, the astronomer, who was made fun of by his fellow citizens for occasionally falling inside an open pit in the ground while observing the stars, and was poor until his historic prediction of the sun's eclipse); or constantly tried to hone their skills (as did Demosthenes, the great orator, who, as I mentioned in the Introduction, put pebbles in his mouth to overcome his stuttering).

We may surmise, then, that having slaves, as did the ancient Greeks, is not a sufficient precondition for greatness, just as wealth alone is not, although it can "buy" both labor and leisure. Witness, for example, the countless wealthy people in the past or present, who have not achieved educational or "cultural" greatness, even in spite of their wealth, or, sometimes, precisely because of it. For example, some wealthy people may worry so much about losing their wealth, or expanding their financial empire, that they devote little time to self-improvement, or to the perfection of a certain art or intellectual pursuit. In fact, ancient Greeks frequently referred to those who pursued wealth for its own sake, as "slaves" to wealth! More likely, especially if they were self-made, their earlier routine of hard work or "smart" financial investments, or profits, may put wealthy individuals on a certain track away from educational pursuits, or what I would like to refer to as "early materialistic socialization." By the time they are wealthy, they may feel relatively incapable in later life to begin a new career, let alone excel in it.

Additional proof of the priority of motivation or orientation in achieving excellence, over wealth alone, may be provided by those who became wealthy following their intellectual success. For example, in ancient Greece there are several examples of people who became "successful" long before they became wealthy, such as, Thales, whom I mentioned above; or Benjamin Franklin in the United States, who even made it his trademark to advise people who are not born wealthy how to become so; or countless other inventors, scientists, or athletes, whose life history of intellectual or athletic excellence prior to becoming wealthy is itself proof of the possibility of gaining such excellence without necessarily being wealthy. Of course in situations where neither your family, nor your city provide for the fulfillment of at least some of your basic needs, as happened to several "struggling artists," philosophers, and scientists in the past, then some source of independent income merely to live, so you can continue to work at your craft, may be absolutely necessary. For example, Baruch Spinoza, the great medieval philosopher, was forced to shine glass for a living, and partly lost his eyesight as a result.

In spite of the relatively "humane" treatment of slaves in ancient Greece, the fact remains that many people in ancient Greece, both Greeks and non-Greeks, worked for free for the benefit of whole city states, as in the mines outside Athens. This additional source of wealth probably contributed to the ability of city states to construct public facilities for their citizens, which made it possible, in turn, even for poor citizens to lead relatively "aristocratic" lifestyles. In that limited sense, there is some truth to the criticism that slavery in ancient Greece may have contributed to the rise of Greek civilization.Table of Contents

Slavery in ancient Greece

Although there were slaves in ancient Greek city states, they were never numerous, and definitely nowhere near the number of slaves inside either ancient Egypt, Persia, several other near eastern states, or the Roman Empire. The highest number of "slaves" ever employed by a Greek city state was in the silver mines at Laurium, outside Athens, with about 10,000 slaves. This compares relatively favorably to the hundreds of thousands of slaves in ancient Egypt, where slavery had become almost hereditary; or the numerous slaves in the Roman empire, where for a time slaves outnumbered the native population. Secondly, slaves in ancient Greece were never treated so miserably or inhumanely, as were "hereditary" slaves in, let us say, the United States, nor were they as degraded or demeaned, or personally or culturally made to feel subhuman. Compared to the African slaves in the United States, who were indiscriminately treated often worse than animals, slaves in ancient Greece fared immeasurably better (see, for example, Stumpp's classic analysis of slavery in the United States, in The Peculiar Institution).

Slaves were usually the defeated soldiers after a battle, or literally a "captured army of slaves." At the time, there were hardly any "prisoners" kept, although not all prisoners necessarily ended up as "slaves." Soldiers went to battle with the understanding that if captured, they or their families may end up as "slaves," or, more correctly, "servant-prisoners." Not unlike ants, which have a surprisingly similar process of enslaving other ants, the losing side in a battle was put to work for the benefit of the victors, or sold. Most of these slaves could be freed, provided that their families paid a specified ransom. They usually had rights protected by law, except the right to vote, escape, or revolt. Occasionally, they would even be assigned administrative or police duties, as in ancient Athens, where for a time all police duties were assigned to slaves. The reason for this is because Athenian citizens considered it an act of admission of their incapacity to behave legally if they were to employ a native Athenian police force, and therefore, out of aristocratic pride, assigned the duty of policemen to slaves. Likewise, there are many other examples in the ancient Greek world of even prominent individuals becoming temporarily "enslaved" as a result of being on the losing side in a battle, although soon enough such individuals were usually freed by their families. During the early period of the Roman conquest of Greece, when obviously many Greek soldiers ended up on the losing side, it was fashionable to "hire" Greek slaves as tutors for children in Roman families, who were in turn treated with relative admiration for their erudition.

Ancient Greeks often applied the term "slave" figuratively to those who were engaged in menial occupations, but were not in fact enslaved; or, as mentioned earlier, even to wealthy people, who were so driven or overwhelmed by their wealth, that they couldn't behave like free citizens; or became rich as a result of their subservience to a another powerful person. For example, they detested oriental despotisms not only because of their materialistic excesses, as in Persia, but also because their citizens were behaving almost like "slaves" in front of their leaders, or, more correctly, forced into a life of unnecessary flattery and servile obedience. In fact, this became one of the bones of contention during Alexander's campaigns, since the Greeks resented being forced by Alexander to "bow" in front of Anatolian princes, something which they considered below the dignity of a "free" person, and which they rarely did in their own city states. One wonders how they might have characterized many of us today, who are legally free, but are often engaged in alienating or "subservient" types of work relationships. In any event, one should be careful when reading the classics that he or she does not confuse the figurative from the factual use of the term "slave."Table of Contents

Failure of ancient Greeks to Abolish Slavery

In spite of numerous political treatises on the nature of democracy, and occasional calls for complete equality among humans (especially among the Stoics and Epicureans), the ancient Greeks did not in fact abolish slavery. Unlike their other achievements, which required that they rise above the common practices of their contemporary world, which they often did, in regards to slavery they failed to quickly bring their democratic temperament to its logical conclusion. They have been bitterly criticized for that failure, perhaps because in this area they failed to meet the expectations of their modern admirers. If they were alive today, they might have witnessed the flowering of their original democratic ideals into slave-less societies that are more truly "democratic." Today slavery is at least on paper, if not in practice, almost universally condemned, although there are reports of children or young adults being sold to slavery even to this day in parts of Asia and Africa. Apart from national constitutions, statues, and laws that prohibit slavery, and international anti-slavery agreements, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights espoused by the United Nations also categorically condemns slavery.Table of Contents

Conclusion regarding Slavery

As I think my earlier analysis shows, one cannot possibly attribute the achievements of the ancient Greeks merely, or even mainly, to their "peculiar institution," just as one cannot attribute it to wealthy individuals. On the other hand, ancient Greeks at a minimum benefitted from using slaves in designing well endowed cities, which in turn allowed even the poorest of their citizens to meet some of their basic needs, if not live relatively comfortably. Their cities stand as a reminder to us today to design them equally beautiful, humane, and well endowed, especially since with the advent of the technological age we are capable of building them much larger, quicker, and efficiently even without the use of slaves.Table of Contents

Leisure

By "life of leisure" Peiper meant not only freedom from work, but knowing how to use your free time creatively toward positive pursuits. Obviously, no amount of free time will guarantee that people will spend it creatively or constructively, instead of wasting it away in some trivial or unedifying pursuit. Witness, for instance, the millions of people who watch sometimes for several hours each day programs of little value on television, instead of spending their time to improve their skills. This prompted Newton Minow, ex-chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, to describe TV in 1961 as a "vast wasteland," something which most of the ancient Greek "aristoi" would probably wholeheartedly agree with.Table of Contents

Work as Play

To the extent that one's work is more amenable to personal tastes or desires, to that extent it is no longer work for the sake of working, or "work" in the strictly conventional sense, but more like play. In such a situation, work is transformed partly into a "leisurely" activity, in the sense that one would have done it "gratis" even if he or she is not required to. This doesn't mean that a life of leisure is totally devoid of effort, but merely that one who leads a leisurely lifestyle is not required, or refuses to "work" at something that is not interesting, or has no relation to her skills or love for something. In fact, as John Dewey, the American philosopher, repeatedly underlined in his books on education, it is not unlikely that someone engaged in something that interests him may actually put forth much more effort, than someone who merely "works" at it (See Dewey's seminal little book, Interest and Effort in Education).Table of Contents

Work ethic

Some people may feel psychologically worthless if they are not always busying themselves with something, even if it means doing something totally boring or mechanical. This may be especially true in countries with a strong "work ethic," where the worth of the individual is usually identified with the kind of wealth-producing activity that he or she is engaged in. Moreover, if Max Weber's analysis of Protestantism in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism is true, then even religion may have a role to play in so shaping people's personalities, as to feel almost guilty for not working. According to the protestant ethic, especially the puritanical version that shaped the early colonial experience in North America, work is "blessed" because by keeping people busy, it draws people's attention away from "evil thoughts or pursuits," including those that are usually associated with "sin."Table of Contents

The Puritans

Sometimes when I see people engaged in inordinate drinking, or other activities of this type during their free time, without doing anything that might be considered culturally or socially constructive, let alone excellent, I wonder whether the puritans might not have been correct in requiring that people almost always occupy themselves with honest work. In fact, the early puritans in North America were so intent on fighting evil, which they thought inheres in people from birth, that they built their first elementary schools precisely for that purpose, and called the corresponding law that established them "The Old Deluder Satan Act" (1647). As unbelievable as it may sound, given the fact that the title of the law has nothing in it that may betray an educational connection to the modern ear, that law actually was historically the first education law in colonial North America!

According to the puritans, one of the ways to fight Satan, who is referred to as the "Deluder," would be to establish schools, where children gain basic literacy, so they can then read the Bible, so they can overcome the "Deluder." Apparently, they saw literacy as a means to overcoming sin, than as anything to be cultivated for its own sake, let alone rise to literary excellence. It follows that in order to really allow oneself to have leisure without guilt or anxiety, one must also subscribe to a philosophy of constant self-improvement, as did, to a large extent, the ancient Greeks. Such "philosophy" may both guide people in the constructive use of their free time; and require some type of "leisure," or freedom from mechanical or "alienating" work, to achieve excellence.Table of Contents

Ancient Greeks' Views on Employment, Sin, and Christianity

The heroic ideals of the ancient Greeks made it more important that one achieve perfection, than that one is always "employed." Regarding their view of sin, although certain philosophical-theological movements in Greece, such as Orphism, to a certain extent predated Christianity's dogma of the "original sin," overall ancient Greeks were too busy enjoying themselves with all kinds of contests, perfecting themselves in this life, than constantly worrying either about Satan, their life after death, or some in-born sinful trait. Although they were seriously concerned with virtue and ethical standards, and certainly invoked their gods to help them, save them, or punish their enemies, as the case may be, theirs never reached the extreme lifestyles of the self-deprecating Puritans, or, more broadly, the polemic anti-sexuality, religious mysticism, or disdain for the body of the Christians that succeeded them. Had they done so, as, indeed, they did later by adopting Christianity, they might have found it rather difficult to reconcile their heroic ideals, which required a certain excellence in this world, with the other-worldly and often self-deprecating dogmas of early Christianity.

Alternatively, one might convincingly argue that Christianized Greeks channeled their earlier struggle to constantly improve themselves almost exclusively toward the pursuit of moral or religious excellence. In that respect, at least, they may have felt their earlier shortcomings, such as, the vanity of polemic competitions, or the inhumaneness of slavery, and attempted to overcome them partly by embracing the Christian alternative. Thus on top of a relatively simplified theology that promised them immortality, they also found a practical solution to their agonistic dilemmas. It is these underlying connections between the ancient "pagan" and Christian worlds which might explain how one (ancient Greece) was almost overnight transformed into something seemingly completely different (Christian Greece). Ironically, humans do not hold exclusive rights to this kind of metamorphosis, since similar processes are commonplace everywhere else in nature (such as, the metamorphosis of chrysalis into butterfly).Table of Contents

Computers

Obviously, without any time left over from "earning a living" to hone one's particular interest, it seems very difficult to reach excellence. In certain countries in the West, we may have created employment opportunities that are not only mechanical or "alienating," but engaged in merely for the sake of a paycheck. Although for many people, this may be preferable to no work at all, this trend may change with the advent of the computer, which is gradually replacing many previously mechanical tasks. For example, the automobile "assembly line" has already gone the "way of the dinosaur."

Whether computers will generate additional leisure time, may depend on the degree to which we reorganize, or, to use a more controversial term, "redistribute" wealth to benefit the common good, as opposed merely for personal aggrandizement. Although the "computer revolution" has resulted in the decrease of monotonous or alienating work, this doesn't necessarily mean that it has increased leisure time for the masses. Unless the wealth generated from computer use is partly spent for the fulfillment of the basic needs of the public at large, including building safe and aesthetically satisfying living environments, the conditions for the creation of leisure for most people, in the Peiperian sense of the term "leisure," will probably never be realized. Aside from the danger of the creation of a technocratic plutocracy, the majority of the people may become so destitute, that they may rarely see their "free" time as an opportunity for leisurely pursuits, but more likely as something they must "kill" (as in the expression, "killing time").

Even if employment rates increase, it doesn't necessarily mean that work will become correspondingly "creative." Witness, for instance, concomitantly with the introduction of the computer, the astounding expansion of service industries in the last twenty years, which for many people signal a shift from mechanical work in factories, to either custodial or service work in public or private operations. These service industries put emphasis on "getting along," instead of "getting better," let alone adopting on a massive scale the heroic ideals of artistic or academic excellence.Table of Contents

Robert Ulich's Theory of Medieval Reorientation

During the Middle Ages, which lasted for almost a thousand years, from approximately 400 AD to 1453 AD, Greece changed from its classical polytheistic stage, to its Christian monotheistic otherworldliness. Under the eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, the classical Greek chrysalis metamorphosed itself into a Christian butterfly. The two Greeces, ancient and medieval, were in many ways antithetical to each other, especially regarding the classical emphasis on worldly excellence. Where before even their gods occasionally competed for a glorious prize, not to mention their constantly taking sides in favor of this or that contestant, during the medieval period, God seemingly replaced all such trivial contests for personal excellence with a low key lifestyle. As Robert Ulich noted in his book The Education of Nations, where before ancient Greeks wanted to be god-like, albeit with some dramatic self-restraint thrown in, during the religious Middle Ages they emphasized obedience to God.Table of Contents

Agon as Contemptible Anathema

The old agonistic ideals of excellence were severely compromised during the medieval period by a theology that emphasized self-effacement, if not self-deprecation, religious public service, and unmitigated humility. A contest of strength, either physical or mental, made no sense in the context of a new reality that considered the poor and downtrodden, instead of the excellent, as the "chosen people of God." What place would statues of nude athletes have in a "new world order" that saw the human body with suspicion, if not outright disgust? The anti-sexual emphasis of the Christian Fathers, along with a dominant theory of sin that linked all humans to their "downfall," made it necessary, instead, that they concentrate on saving their souls.Table of Contents

Banning of Contests

Not surprisingly, most contests were eventually banned in medieval Greece, including the Olympic Games, which were shut down by the Christian Emperor Theodosius in 394 AD. No matter how good they got, the "aristoi " (=excellent) could never be good enough in the context of a religious order that did not consider earthy achievements as important as religious belief. This explains the cyclical controversies over doctrine, from Iconoclasm to Monophysitism, that not only replaced the agonistic rhythms of ancient Greece, but also defined the inner soul, literally, of a medieval personality concerned with salvation. Except for horse racing in the capital, in Constantinople, which maintained at least a semblance of the old aristocracy, many Greeks found refuge in the cloister of Christian monasteries, such as those on Athos and Meteora, that strained their religious spirit, instead of energizing their competitive skills. Ironically, these monastic conditions were apparently an excellent environment for creating some of the best Byzantine iconography, perhaps as a tribute to the monks' altogether "symbolic" existence.

In medieval Greece, instead of the outwardly rewarded contests of classical times, people rerouted their competitive energies toward theological "debates," some of which evolved into bloody civil wars. If nothing else, this may stand as proof that although the agonistic spirit should not be allowed to get out of hand, as it did in ancient Greece, where city states started competing violently against each other, it shouldn't be completely excluded, either, from peaceful contests of skill. Anything short of such peaceful outlets risks channeling the agonistic spirit violently under another mantle, such as, "religious faith." In fact, it was precisely because of the numerous religious conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, from the Crusades, to the Protestant-Catholic wars, that caused the Framers of the United States Constitution to advocate "religious freedom," to avoid a similar experience in the New World (see the First Amendment to the US Constitution).Table of Contents

Citizens of the Empire

Under the Byzantine Empire, Greece gradually became an "empire." Its ancient city state mentality was weaned out by her long tutelage under imperial Rome. By the time the eastern Roman Empire had become Byzantine, the Greeks were no longer citizens merely of a city, with its relatively provincial, albeit democratic ideology, but of an extensive empire with a correspondingly autocratic government. What is even more significant regarding their new political attitudes, the empire finally embraced them as equals, if not her rightful rulers. This must have certainly made an impact on a people that earlier despised all types of despotic rule, but after a humiliating defeat in the hands of the Romans, were now offered the crown and the cross on a silver platter.

Medieval Greeks poured enormous amounts of energy toward saving the eastern Roman Empire from the "infidels" or "barbarians" that seemingly constantly wished to devour it. Their enemies ranged from the Huns and northern German tribes, to their traditional enemies the Persians, to the rising tidal wave of Moslem expansionism at first represented by the Arab conquests, and later by the deadly zeal of the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks. It is in this sense of becoming staunch defenders of the empire they inherited from Rome that one might say that Greeks became the best Romans the Romans could ever have! Even to this day Greeks frequently refer to themselves as "romans" (="romioi"). This is testimony to the degree to which a victory, as was the cultural victory of the Greeks over the Romans, may later return to "haunt" the victors!

If ancient Rome first conquered Greece militarily, and Greeks in turn "conquered" Rome culturally, the Roman ghost returned with vengeance to usurp the Greeks' pre-Roman identity. The conquered Greeks now felt obligated to protect the Roman empire. This is partly because Rome itself had eulogized their culture, which in the east was never even challenged. Other examples of the lasting Roman legacy include the re-emergence in the West of the "Holy Roman Empire," a German state, whose title alone is worth a thousand words regarding the sway that Rome held over the minds of the "barbarians" that decimated it!

Even without her formidable armies, the "glory that was Rome" still held valuable psychological currency for new nations that were for a long time overshadowed by her glory. Thus the German tribes that dismantled the western half of the original Roman Empire also decided, like the Greeks in the East, to become Roman, albeit through military, rather than cultural "conquest." This stands as another example of the shared glory that humans wish to bestow on themselves, even if it means adopting the name of the conquered, including acknowledging, in the process, his educational (Germans) or political (Greeks) superiority.Table of Contents

Role of Christianity in Shaping a New Greek Identity

It may not be far fetched to suggest, given the medieval Greeks' aversion toward their pagan antiquity, that perhaps by converting to Christianity, Greeks conveniently found a religious reason never to have to emulate Greece's heroic past! This doesn't mean that Greeks lost their ethnic identity, only that they fought hard under a legalistically "roman" mantle to preserve their medieval blend of Christian, Greek, and Roman cultures. After all, they were now no longer fighting a huge empire, as did the ancient Greeks the Persians, but rather defending their own! If their autocratic ruler resembled the Persian despot of the past, they could easily justify his political excesses as the Will of God who was, after all, not very different from an autocratic ruler Himself!

Although politically under Roman domination, the eastern half of the Roman Empire was Greek in language even before Rome fell victim to its imperial weight, and decided to split itself into east and west in 395 AD. Even without the continuous cultivation of "pagan" ideals, which the world later called by a better name (such as, "humanism"), the empire became "Greek" at least psychologically. Christianity became the official religion of the empire only a century before the German tribes destroyed the western half, as if the "eastern Romans" had a premonition of their western brothers' downfall, and rushed to make themselves immune from their impending doom. Greece under the Byzantine Empire became virtually identified with the empire herself after the 6th century AD, perhaps rightly so since the empire used Greek as its lingua franca, and "Greek Othodoxy" as its official religion. This might explain why eventually even the term "Byzantine" was dropped, and westerners referred to the Byzantine Empire merely as the "Greek empire." Over the centuries, the Byzantine Empire came to represent for the Greeks the universalization of their Hellenism, albeit at least outwardly now overwhemingly Christian, and therefore to a certain extent anti-classical.Table of Contents

Byzantium as the Curator of Ancient Greece

Byzantine Greece became an excellent curator of classical civilization, rather than a living manifestation of "pagan" excellence. It still maintained numerous classical artifacts and documents that survived from ancient times, if not a living memory of her glorious past, even in spite of the early Christians' zeal for destroying them. Nevertheless, instead of reinventing the classical ideals of excellence, as did the Europeans beginning with the Renaissance in the 14th century AD, she kept them safely at a distance as curious artifacts to be preserved, as in a museum, than ideals to be adopted from generation to generation. She became a veritable living university of a past that historical circumstances led her to abandon, although never forget.Table of Contents

Byzantine Epic

The closest approximation to the ancient aristoi during the Christian era were the "border fighters" or "akrites," who were defending the Byzantine empire from ominously real external threats. As such, they were no longer displaying their personal excellence through a publicly witnessed contest, nor representing their city states, nor even acknowledged as "aristoi," but at best as heroic defenders of a faithful state. In their capacity as warriors, they returned to their properly Homeric role of the primeval hero, albeit in the context of an ideology which, as mentioned earlier, allowed them only so much worldly glory. The survival of such heroic epics as "Digenis Akritas" in the written literature, if not popular imagination, is witness to the hold that heroic acts can have on people even in the context of an otherworldly orientation that makes such acts seem trivial by comparison.Table of Contents

Ancient Influences

The medieval Greek had a love-hate relationship with his ancient Greek predecessors. He loved to bask in their glory, as do most modern Greeks, but at the same time denigrated their achievements as "pagan," and therefore altogether contemptible. In spite of this seemingly "anti-Hellenic" spirit of the Byzantines, in the sense of denigrating the classical world as "pagan," they supported "classical scholars," if not become a living testimony of ancient influences themselves. Underlying their Christian mantle there are certain discernible "cultural pipelines" that connected them with their predecessors, from the Orphic mysteries that presaged the mysteries of death and resurrection in Christianity; to Plato's "immaterial" ideas that were metaphysically similar to the Christian soul; to the views of the ancient Stoics regarding the inferiority of the body, which reverberated much louder in the context of a Christian eschatology that considered the body sinful, than in ancient Greece where the body was venerated. Although these may have been "minority opinions" in ancient Greece, where even the gods were playful, if not "sinful," in the Christian sense of "sin," they certainly became part of the ideological lexicon of the majority in the Byzantine empire.

On the other hand, certain dominant trends from ancient Greece were not only preserved, but even "intensified." For example, ancient Greece's assignment of women to secondary public roles was even further amplified under a Christian policy that did not allow women to the highest religious posts. Furthermore, while ancient Greece's view of women may be partly attributed to the widespread ideal at the time of the male Homeric hero that achieves excellence on the battlefield, or his corresponding athletic feats, in Christian Greece the "inferiority" of women was also dressed with the "original sin," and therefore almost impossible to overcome.

Another "link" between Byzantine and classical Greece may be the slipping of the ancient "hubris," or insolent behavior, into the Christian bridal gown of humility and sin. I refer to this almost nominal change as the "Christianization of Hubris." Hubris, which literally means "insult," referred in ancient Greece to the immodest behavior of humans whose actual or imaginary achievements had literally made them feel arrogantly superior to other people, or even to their gods. As we commonly say in English, their achievements had "gotten to their heads." For example, braggarts became insulting, or hubristic. In fact, the term "hubristic" even today means insulting, and betrays through its incorporation in the English language the extent of its ancient influence. The hubristic attitude of arrogant or "braggartly" insolent people aroused the jealousy of the gods, who hated humans that bragged about their achievements, and usually "punished" them. This ancient emphasis on self-restraint is similar to the Christian concept of "humility," along with its associated entourage of confessions, prayers, and feelings of guilt. No longer beset by the same classical dialectic of "restraining excellence," which is seemingly a contradiction, hubris was transformed into humility in the context of a religious doctrine that was relatively free of contradictions. While the ancients constantly tried to balance the heroic against the hubristic, or the achievement of excellence against insolent pride, the Christians simply tipped the scale almost totally in favor of humility.

It is in this sense, then, of heroic defenders of the faith; the amplification of certain ancient trends; and the preservation of the Greek language, and of numerous living memories and artifacts from ancient times, that the Byzantine empire was as much the rightful successor to the Roman empire, itself to a large extent Hellenized, as to ancient Greece.Table of Contents

Keeping the Balance: "Pan Metron Ariston"

Realizing their inability to overcome death, no matter how "excellent" they became, the ancient Greeks spiced their victories, if not all of their important experiences, with a strong dose of the dramatic. They were repeatedly forced by the "force of evidence" to draw a clear dividing line between human and divine, mortal and immortal. Aside from their numerous theatrical productions depicting the vanity of life's successes, as if to counsel the "aristoi" (=excellent) never to take themselves too seriously, they also promulgated the seemingly contradictory advice to take the middle, or "measured" road to everything. Along with "Hein aristevin", which means try always to be excellent, they also subscribed to the equally popular saying "Pan metron ariston," or "all measured things are excellent." This contemplative advice may have prepared the ground during the Christian era for the next psychological "leap sideways" to a life of self-effacing humility, if not total renunciation of earthy "success." Instead of unbridled success, pan metron offered a more philosophical alternative that warned people of the vanity of trying to do too much.Table of Contents

Unbridled Contest against Peaceful Coexistence

Ancient Greeks may have began to feel vulnerable to their own destructive tendencies to turn a peaceful contest of skill, such as, any of their musical or athletic contests, into a violent war of pride, as during the Peloponnesian War. By subscribing to "pan metron ariston," they withdrew into a more speculative view of contest. This, in turn, could have led them to an overriding peaceful philosophy of coexistence, as, indeed, Alexander the Great faintly began to do through his attempt to create a universal race. It is not unlikely that they may have moved to a more cosmopolitan and peace-oriented view of contest, had they not been lifted to another plane of "imperial" reality by the storm raised by the Roman conquests. It is ironic in this respect that by imitating Greek culture so faithfully, the Romans may have done it altogether more harm than good, in the sense of retarding its natural progress toward moral excellence, such as, through the implementation of equal political rights for all.

Christianity offered a religious solution to the dark side of brutal competition for political eminence in the form of another type of "excellence" that seemingly did not require worldly "competition," namely, religious or "moral" excellence. Its rewards could no longer be acquired through material possessions, although in the end its followers measured their spiritual worth in terms of earthy possessions, such as, cities or countries that came under Christian influence. This is not a characteristic particular to Christians, but of almost all religious movements, especially since by definition such movements involve people with all of their basic vanities, or inevitably misinterpretations of religious doctrine.

In some cases, such as, Islam, human vanity or misinterpretation may be supplemented by a consciously more aggressive policy toward the infidels, which seemingly makes religious war against the "infidels" almost inevitable, as in the proverbial "holy wars" of the Moslems. In any event, at least at the doctrinal level the ancient agonistic spirit was replaced by Christianity by a spirit of love that required the right emotion, than exhilarating excellence of skill. Contest had apparently degenerated in the eyes of many people at the time to brutal warfare for political supremacy, causing many to lose their homes, dignity, freedom, or family, and therefore to run into the arms of another "promise" that offered them salvation from the tyranny of a misplaced "excellence."Table of Contents

Saints as the new Heroes

To so many ancient aristoi, the Christian church paraded so many saints. Most of the saints were known not merely for their artistic, scientific, or athletic skills, some of whom didn't have any, but more importantly, for their presumably excellent philanthropic deeds. While the ancient aristoi looked up to emulate those who were skillfully better than themselves, Christian saints often looked down to the downtrodden that needed help.

The Byzantine empire bestowed sainthood on military heroes somewhat more lavishly than the "Latin west," which by the 6th century AD had also become largely Christianized. The Roman West had already been conquered by German tribes, who adopted many Roman laws and traditions. Due to its geographical location, it was in less fear of another conquest from outside, at least for the time being, than the Byzantine empire, whose location right at the crossroads of three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa) stood like a cork barely holding the restless hordes of people from the north, east, and south ready to devour it. Consequently, the west did not need to defend its borders during the Middle Ages as urgently against invaders, such as, the advancing Moslem Arabs or Turks, as did the Byzantines.

In the Byzantine empire saints are often a combination ancient hero and Christian saint, in the sense that frequently they are not only morally good, as Christianity at the time defined morality, but also the military defenders of the empire. In that sense, they exhibited the ancient combination of individual with public goodness, or "kalos k agathos," by combining individual morality with public service. It is also in this sense that under the Byzantines, Christianity was to a certain extent "hellenized," by making Byzantine Christians more conscious of the heroic deeds of military defenders of the state.Table of Contents

Equality

The ancient Greeks never committed the political excesses of the Romans that succeeded them, such as, enslaving large parts of their population. The widespread presence of slaves in Rome offered Christianity, which taught a form of equality and justice before God, a ripe following at least among the poor, not unlike the willing conversion to communism of the poor in modern oppressive regimes. On the other hand, by diverging their attention away from the aristoi, or the rule of secular excellence in the arts and sciences, Christians at the same time opened themselves to criticism that they harbor anti-intellectual beliefs. Hence the appellation "Dark Ages" to describe the Middle Ages, particularly in the non-Hellenic West, a term with which I take issue for its unnecessary severity, but which historical circumstances made it "stick." The true character of the culture of the Middle Ages aside, it is interesting here to note that the rejection by Christians of secular excellence as a goal may demonstrate the human propensity to abandon almost overnight endeavours which a new ideology rejects; or, alternatively, to run to ideologies that will relieve them precisely from the apparent weight of their earlier endeavours, such as, the tremendous effort required by the heroic ideal to constantly strive to overcome one's human limitations; or, finally, to avoid the risks inherent in unbridled competition that may result in the enslavement of man by man.Table of Contents

Toynbee's Thesis

The well known historian Arnold Toynbee advanced the theory, in his monumental opus A Study of History, that educated elites often fail to change society to become more like themselves due to popular resistance. Seen from that angle, one may advance the theory that Byzantine Greeks refused to follow the path to glory of the aristoi, even pulling them back into the fold. If there is some drama in this Toynbean cycle, it is the cycle of birth and destruction of heroes by the masses. While originally heroes arose out of the same type of "humble mass" that Christianity made exemplary, along with a theogonic mythology in ancient Greece to address this miracle, they were ultimately sacrificed at the altar of a public opinion that considered them not only unnecessary, but even "dangerous." Given Rome's "might is right" policy in enslaving many weaker peoples, they may not have been totally unjustified in hesitating to adorn with laurels of glory any but their own saints. After all, the masses could now bask in the promised light of the afterlife that proved more glorious, than any of their earthy heroes could ever imagine!Table of Contents

Humanism

Unfortunately, neither the promise of eternal bliss, nor Christian love were apparently enough to keep people from killing each other. Although told that this is only a temporal life that weighs very little by comparison to the afterlife, people did not patiently wait to die, but rather "itched" for a fight against heretics, let alone "infidels." Even love in its exemplary Christian form of "loving your enemy like yourself" did not deter them from fighting their perceived enemies. This failure may explain why people eventually felt the need, from the time of the Renaissance onwards, to unearth the ancient model of popular or "democratic" excellence, albeit this time imbued with a strong dose of love for every individual, as in a synthesis of ancient and Christian ideals. This movement has since been dubbed "humanism," albeit not without verbal attacks recently by "conservative Christians" who seem to feel uncomfortable with the perceived "pagan" connotations of the term "humanism."Table of Contents

Conclusion

If there is a lesson to be learned from the ancient and medieval "biographies" of excellent deeds, it is that as we pursue excellence, we should also emphasize moral excellence, including the ideals embedded in Christian philanthropy, humility, and love. This is so our best achievers, which will hopefully one day include everyone at least in the amount of effort expended, will not become insolent, or, worse, use their skills to dominate or denigrate others. There are enough "bad" examples today of high achievers, as in the world of sports, who behave insolently in public even while we admire their skills. Perhaps as an additional antidote to the tendency to degrade others who are not as "better off," or even to dominate them, might be the systematic promulgation of a universal philosophy of love, mutual help, self-determination, and peace, and respect for the inherent rights of all humans to certain basic freedoms and privileges, even as we strive for excellence.Table of Contents

Nikos Kazantzakis' Theory of Freedom

The post-Byzantine Greeks were excluded from the "humanistic" movement in the West partly as a result of the conquest of the Byzantine empire by the Ottoman Turks. Western Europeans were constantly rediscovering the achievements of the ancient Greeks, even while Byzantine Greeks seemingly "paid the price" for their stubbornly Christian defense of their way of life. This became particularly apparent during the Moslem (Turkish) occupation of Greece, during which they clung to their faith even with greater zeal in order to maintain some semblance of personal dignity. While the Turks closed down Greek schools, they allowed the Greeks to coexist as a religious "minority," albeit constantly pressured to change faith, and thus at least formally become full fledged Turkish citizens. In the context of a Moslem empire that did not systematically crucify them for maintaining their faith, they built their hopes around a seemingly obvious religious crack inside an otherwise insurmountable Turkish bureaucracy. Eventually, they used what religious and ethnic cracks the empire did not heal, to splinter it apart, and become free.

Far from exercising an enlightened type of despotism, the Turks practiced widespread brutality against the people, from wholesale stealing of young Christian children to convert them to Islam, to the enslavement of women into harems, to the arbitrary punishment of Greeks who dare differ from their Turkish overlords, let alone carry weapons, forget to pay their taxes, or ride on horseback. While the Greeks were submerged under the heavy Turkish yoke, western Europeans, who were commonly referred to as "Franks" by the Greeks, were progressively becoming the "new" Greeks.

Western Europeans wasted no time in rediscovering ancient Greek writings and artifacts both over the ground in monasteries and museums, and under the ground through new archaeological excavations. Gradually they assumed the same roles, if not in fact, at least in spirit, of the ancient Greeks, even learning the ancient Greek language in the process. Following the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, in 1453 AD, which caused many Byzantine scholars to emigrate to the west, Western Europeans often ended up knowing several classical Greek dialects much better than their contemporary Greeks could understand. Post-Byzantine Greeks, now "enslaved" by the Turks, were barely given a chance to choose what kind of lifestyle to follow, let alone build the necessary infrastructure, such as, libraries or contest arenas, for honing their literary, artistic, or scientific skills.Table of Contents

Freedom

At best, life under the tyrannical Turks presented many Greeks with an altogether different type of "contest," the contest to be free from foreign domination. This was especially true given the unwillingness of the conqueror to allow the Greeks over time to shape their own destiny, other than some degree of religious autonomy. Even the conqueror's religious form of "generosity" was used as a means of more efficient tax collection, if not a safety valve to prevent violent revolutions, than out of a sense of sincere love for the people. This "contest to be free" eventually led many Greeks not only to become excellent guerrilla fighters, but to value freedom more than other worldly "goods." The struggle for freedom of the post-Byzantine Greeks lasted for almost 400 years, from around the mid 15th century, until the early 19th century. By the time of the official declaration of the Greek War of Independence, in 1821, the Turkish occupation had sown deeply inside the souls of most Greeks almost a fanatical love for liberty.Table of Contents

On the modern Greek terms Leventis, Palikari

The repressiveness of the Turkish regime led Greeks to develop a certain type of "manly excellence," frequently identified as "leventia" (from leventis); or "palikaria" (from palikari). These two terms, like filotimo, are difficult to translate, but altogether refer to the responsibility of the individual under great duress to behave bravely and honorably. The development among modern Greeks of "leventia" may signify the ability in humans even under oppressive conditions to achieve a corresponding type of excellence in overcoming oppression, such as, the necessary personal attributes to endure all types of hardships and humiliations, or eventually to "defeat" the oppressor.

Occasionally one hears a modern Greek call another one "leventi," as a show of unqualified admiration, or, if coming from an elderly person, approval of one's action, or encouragement to achieve the type of excellence in one's life that is associated with a leventi. Palikari, on the other hand, connotes a preliminary stage usually associated with younger people who have so far shown all indications of becoming a leventi, but whose physical and mental prowess is not conclusively matched by an equal determination of the heart to fight for what is right. My explanation of the possible differences between the two terms should be considered with great caution, since frequently they are used interchangeably. I am only describing here what seem to me to be some slight differences in emphasis, although in practice Greeks may use one or the other almost indiscriminately. In any event, at least as far as the term palikari is concerned, it is usually associated with a "budding" young male with a "straight back" that at least exudes a leventi like air about him.Table of Contents

Nikos Kazantzakis' Theory

The Greek love for liberty is not only correctly encapsulated inside the modern Greek national anthem, which is an ode to liberty, but also in modern Greek literature. The modern Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis, considered by many the greatest modern Greek writer, considered freedom in his numerous novels and philosophical and peripatetic writings to be the single most salient characteristic of Greek culture, from ancient times to the present. According to Kazantzakis, the Greek love for freedom explains not only ancient Greek democracy, Byzantine "spiritual" freedom, or the heroic struggles of the Greek revolutionaries, but also the love for freedom of unexpectedly simple people: the shepherd descending the mountain to ask about the struggle for freedom in another place, in Kazantzakis' Travels in the Morea; the "rajia," or Greek "subject" (slave) fighting the Turks knowing that he will die, in his novel Freedom and Death; or the rugged foreman of a mine in Zorba the Greek asking philosophically "why some people don't want to be free?"

Even in his allegorical epic Odysseus: A Sequel, Kazantzakis depicts Odysseus as the prototype Greek hero who refused to remain satisfied on his return to Ithaca, and preferred, instead, to become free even from his own traditions or country. In this sequel to Homer's original epic, Kazantzakis shows Odysseus leaving Ithaca behind again. Odysseus traverses through new worlds and experiences, continuing to grow as some type of modern "digenis akritas" (Byzantine border fighter) that now must protect the whole human race from ignorance, and finally from death itself.

In Kazantzakis' works, freedom has its own inner logic, leading his heroes to new existential grounds that transcend even the self, let alone common legalistic constraints. Finally, in his philosophical work Spiritual Exercises, Kazantzakis wears the hat of the philosopher expressing in pre-Socratic, allegorical terms his inner existential convictions. For example, in one passage humans are represented as the lonely "worm" at the edge of the universal abyss charting its own path into the unknown.

Hegel's historical dialectic of thesis and antithesis may be read in Greece's case to mean that the "worse" the thesis, in terms of the repressiveness of the Turkish regime, the "stronger" the antithesis, in terms of the enthusiasm for complete freedom of the oppressed Greeks. It is in this "forced" context of the struggle for freedom that modern Greeks gave the world ideals of extreme heroism, some examples of which even the ancient Greeks could barely match! These heroic deeds collectively reintroduced in modern Greece the ideals of ancient Greece, albeit mainly in their rugged form of a revolutionary struggle. The examples are numerous, from Athanasios Diakos' being roasted alive by the Turks without uttering a sound, to Greeks of Souli and Crete blowing themselves up, rather than surrender, to the "natural" bravery of the strategic Maniots, who thought nothing of dying for their country.

Their accumulated expertise as mountaineering freedom fighters over many centuries of resistance to the Turks probably contributed to the Greeks' routing the Italian imperialists during World War II. This feat at a time when almost everyone else in Europe was falling victim to the Axis (fascist) forces probed Sir Winston Churchill, the British prime minister at the time, to exclaim with some flair for the dramatic that up to now we used to say that Greeks fought like heroes, but now we must say that heroes fight like Greeks! The question that remains is whether these heroic deeds of modern Greeks on the battlefield will gain the same momentum in motivating Greeks to excel in their civilian lives, as, according to Marrou, the heroic deeds of Homeric heroes during the battle for Troy inspired the civilian lives of ancient Greeks. This question may represent the dilemma for all humans who behave bravely at war, but whose civilian endeavours may not necessarily reflect the same zeal for excellence.

Given his philosophical and novelistic views, such as, his view of humans as self-determining, we may surmise that in Kazantzakis' view, humans must not only be free so they can achieve excellence, as were for the most part the ancient Greeks; but will become "excellent," in the sense of overcoming the hardships that surround them, so they can be free! For example, by becoming excellent resistance fighters, they became free from invading forces. Seen from that angle, some of the heroic struggles of modern Greeks may represent for Kazantzakis an even higher plateau of excellence, than the ancients', at least in terms of fighting for their freedom. Nevertheless, given also Kazantzakis' awareness of the numerous uphill struggles that humans must pass through to improve themselves in all the human arts and sciences, and not just on the battlefield, as he recounted them in his book Spiritual Exercises, and strongly implied in his autobiographical Report to Greco, I am not sure overall whether he would consider the achievements of modern Greeks as altogether "better" than the ancients'. This is also evidenced from his frequently expressed admiration in his works for the "ancients" ("oi archaeoi"), who seemingly serve as role models for some of the heroic deeds of many of his protagonists.Table of Contents

SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSION OF REASONS FOR THE GENESIS OF EXCELLENCE IN ANCIENT GREEK CULTURE

We come now to a brief synthesis of all the theories regarding the genesis of ancient Greek culture. Given its numerous educational achievements, from the arts and sciences, to the humanities and the field of sports, ancient Greek culture may be taken almost synonymously to mean "the pursuit of excellence." Hopefully, my examination of ancient Greek culture has helped shed some light on the conditions that motivate people to excel. Ancient Greek culture may serve as a mirror of our possibilities as humans, albeit by now somewhat dusty, if not cracked in certain places due to certain moral weaknesses that may inhere in unbridled political contests for supremacy. I already discussed these weaknesses, and the possible adjustments that first Christianity, and later the movement known as "humanism" may have brought about.

I mentioned in the Introduction, and in the section on Marrou's theory, most of the key ingredients in the "recipe for greatness" that was apparently used by the ancient Greeks. There is no need to reiterate them here. Suffice it to mention only some of them. The ancient Greeks were followers of the "aristocratic" ideal, in the heroic sense of a culture based on what is best (as opposed to merely good or mediocre). They lauded and cultivated excellent achievements, as much today as we may admire popular music, professional sports, or the accumulation of wealth. What is even more surprising, this ideal of excellence was not limited to a select few, but at least as an ideal was shared by the public at large, supplemented by numerous opportunities for direct participation in competitive events.

Unless they were talented by birth, most of those who achieved excellence did so by struggling inch by inch up the steep hill of self-improvement. For example, the famous orator Demosthenes became well known for overcoming his stammering as a young man by trying, among other things, to talk with pebbles in his mouth. As Plutarch put it, "the ways he [Demosthenes] made use of to remedy his natural bodily infirmities and defects were such as these; his inarticulate and stammering pronunciation he overcame and rendered more distinct by speaking with pebbles in his mouth; his voice he disciplined by declaiming and reciting speeches or verses when he was out of breath, while running or going up steep places; and... in his house he had a large looking-glass, before which he would stand and go through his exercises." Intent on overcoming his deficiencies, Demosthenes built an underground compartment for himself where "he would come constantly every day to form his action and exercise his voice," often without intermission "two or three months together" (Lives, p. 355). Indicative of his relentless effort to improve himself, occassionally he would shave "one half of his head, that for shame he might not go abroad, though he desired it ever so much," and remain, instead, in his underground study (Lives, 355-56). He found the time to meticulously review all of his past or forthcoming speeches in his study, examining all the possible arguments for and against. As a result, he was known to exemplify someone who "owed all the power and ability he had in speaking to labour and industry" (Lives, p. 356). Others tried to hone their inborn skills or talents, as did the legendary Hercules, whose triumphs over many seemingly insurmountable obstacles symbolized the ability of all humans to turn even the most severe adversities to their advantage, by using them to achieve excellence.

The ancient Greeks designed a reward system that conspicuously rewarded excellence, from the awards given to young people, usually in the form of laurel branches, to a democratic social substratum that allowed people to expel from their cities those who selfishly denied others the opportunity to excel. The young wore their awards on their heads with pride, as a sign of earlier achievements, not unlike boy scouts today that wear theirs on their shirtsleeves. Their view of wealth as a superfluous good that is at best a means to excellence, if not dangerously tyrannical if pursued for its own sake, may be partly seen from their distaste for a life of excessive luxury, which they considered vain, if not insulting; and from rewarding victors with usually worthless laurel branches to signify their belief in the symbolic superiority of ethereal excellence, over the drowning weight of silver or gold.

Their lives were as much political, in the sense of personally identifying and caring for their "polis," or city state, as they were educational, since their polis was designed largely as a "school." This might partly explain their love for beauty, since by making their cities beautiful, they taught their young to love beauty through their deeds, rather than merely their exhortations. Their sense of beauty extended well beyond the physical to include excellent deeds and personal attributes, as is shown from their numerous inscriptions "kalos k agathos" signifying the two kinds of internal and external beauty. They refused to give even their statues a mere "realistic" appearance, to underline the importance of perhaps "unrealistic," but not necessarily unrealizable human ideals.

They adorned their cities with statues of heroes to encourage the young to emulate them. On top of their numerous opportunities for public life, such as, public theaters, contests, and religious festivals, they threw over their cities a visible network of mentors that made sure no youngster fell through the cracks of public life without internalizing the heroic ideal. Inadvertently through their numerous games they taught the young to respect justice and integrity, partly the result of learning how to play by the rules. Games require that in order to win, one must act fairly, instead of cheating, or using undue political or financial influence.

Without the freedom to pursue their interests, they couldn't possibly improve their skills, let alone stretch their personal potential to its maximum. This may explain their widespread love for democratic institutions, if not freedom herself. Democracy presumably allows people free rein to excel, as opposed to a single minded oligarchy, or, worse, tyranny, that wishes to keep the people in a state of weakness so it can rule over them. Supplemented by a public thirst for excellence, these two characteristics alone probably make a sure "recipe" for success anywhere they may be applied.

Finally, to raise their love for excellence to the conscious level required for systematic communication of their goals, they instituted a complicated network of numerous tutors and expert teachers that stitched together the old tradition of excellence that can be traced back at least to Homer, with the future possibilities of the younger generation for combining moral with physical and intellectual excellence.

The ancient Greeks made many abominable errors, such as, among other things, failing to rise above their contemporary world, as one might have expected them to, and abolish slavery. Examined under the microscope of critical biographical analysis, many of even their most admired heroes failed to maintain throughout their lives an equally excellent keel, often descending very low with feelings of jealousy for others, excessive pride, intercity warfare, or political maneuvering behind the scenes. If we could map the ancient Greek cultural landscape, it might look more like the rugged mountaintops of a distant past, sometimes ascending and sometimes descending, than an equally high mountaintop of unbroken excellence. Nevertheless, altogether they climbed much higher on many more mountains than most of us, sometimes so high as to pierce through the clouds above, but certainly higher than the plain valley of mediocrity below. By doing so, they have since charted for the rest of humanity the uphill trails to excellence that all of us are capable of, if only we try.

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Bibliographic References

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Dimaras, C. T. History of Modern Greek Literature. Tr. Mary Gianos. 1972.

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Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1950.

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Politis, Linos. A History of Modern Greek Literature. 1973.

Popper, Karl. Open Society and Its Enemies. 2 vols.

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INDEX

Note to the Reader: This is a General Index of Key Concepts, Names, Sources, and Writers cited in the original text, followed by the corresponding page numbers. Unfortunately, such page numbers may not be the same as those which may be printed out on your printer. 

1. A Study of History 53
2. Achievement 29
3. Achilles 16
4. Actors 8
5. Adult Events 5
6. Aeschylus 8
7. Afilotimo 13
8. Africa 52
9. African Slaves 41
10. Agon 46
11. Agoncillo, Teodoro 13, 21, 23
12. Agora 30
13. Akrites 49
14. Alcibiades 11
15. Alexander the Great 6-8, 21-22, 28-29, 42
16. Alienation 45
17. Andromeda 16
18. Ant 22, 41
19. Anthropology 15
20. Anthropomorphic 16
21. Anthropos 15, 20
22. Apprenticeship 31
23. Arabic Civilization 47, 52
24. Archi 18
25. Archimedes 7
26. Architecture 1, 13, 14, 18
27. Aristides 8, 39
28. Aristocracy 4, 10-11, 18, 26-27, 33, 58
29. Aristoi 11, 28, 43, 46, 51-53
30. Aristos 18
31. Aristotle 3, 6, 9, 26, 29
32. Arithmetic 17, 18
33. Arithmos 18
34. Art 1, 5, 11
35. Artists 31
36. Asclepius 16
37. Asia 52
38. Assembly Line 45
39. Astir/Astro 18
40. Astronomy 18
41. Ateleia 20
42. Athens 30, 36-37, 40-41
43. Athletic Centers 30-31
44. Athletics 27
45. Ati-Atihan Festival 23
46. Augustinian Catholic Order 14
47. Aurelius, Marcus 30
48. Axis Forces (WWII) 57
49. Baghdad 6
50. Balangay 23
51. Barangay 5
52. Barbarian 15, 47
53. Battle 27
54. Beauty 12, 30, 59
55. Best 58
56. Bible 28, 44
57. Big Brother/Sister 31
58. Biology 14-15
59. Bios 15
60. Boocock, Sarane S. 29
61. Borneo 23
62. Bribing 38
63. Buccephalus 21
64. Byron, George Gordon, Lord 6, 17
65. Byzantine Empire 14, 25, 46, 49, 52
66. Byzantines 53
67. Capitan Calabaza 20
68. Carabao 21
69. Catholicism 24
70. Centaurs 16
71. Chicago Public Library 29
72. Children 32
73. Chiron 16
74. Chivalry 27, 36
75. Christian Fathers 46
76. Christianity 12, 14, 44-46, 48, 50, 53-54, 58
77. Churchill, Sir Winston 57
78. City 2
79. City as School 4, 27, 29, 33, 59
80. City of God 14
81. City State 8-9, 17, 32, 36-39
82. Coexistence 51
83. Collective Unconscious 12, 19
84. Comedy 2
85. Communism 53
86. Competition 10, 35-36, 45, 53, 59
87. Competitive Spirit 4
88. Computers 45
89. Comradeship 27
90. Confession 50
91. Conquest 25
92. Constantinople 25, 47, 55
93. Constellation of Stars 16
94. Consumption 3, 30
95. Contest 2, 4-5, 11, 27, 29, 31-33, 36, 46, 51
96. Cooperation 37, 54
97. Corinth 9
98. Corruption 4, 9, 38
99. Courage 27
100. Cratos 17-18
101. Crete 57
102. Critical Thinking 5, 10
103. Crusades 47
104. Culture 2
105. Dark Ages 53
106. Datus 23
107. Defeat 38
108. Democracy 4-5, 9-10, 13-14, 16, 27, 54, 59
109. Democratic Paradox 10
110. Demokrasya 16
111. Demos 17
112. Demosthenes 4, 8, 39
113. Dewey, John 43
114. Diakos, Athanasios 57
115. Digenis Akritas 49, 57
116. Dimaras, C. T. 26
117. Diogenes of Athens 7
118. Diogenes of Syracuse 39
119. Divine Punishment 5
120. Drama 2
121. Drinking 33
122. Dropouts 35
123. Duel 36
124. Eastern Roman Empire 46
125. Economics 13-14, 18
126. Education 1, 2, 24, 26, 34, 43
127. Education of Nations 46
128. Egypt 1, 41
129. Eklisia 9
130. Empire 47
131. Employment 44
132. Emulation 5, 27, 32
133. Enlightenment, Age of 10, 42
134. Epic 27
135. Epicureanism 42
136. Episteme 14
137. Equality 53
138. Euripides 8
139. Europe 25, 52
140. Europeans 6, 17, 21, 55
141. Excellence 26-28, 39, 53, 58, 60
142. Fair Play 27, 36
143. Faith 47
144. Fame 7
145. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 43
146. Filipino People 13, 17, 24
147. Filotimo 9, 11-13, 19
148. First Amendment (US Constitution) 47
149. Flattery 42
150. Fountains 30
151. Freedom 55, 58
152. Freedom and Death 57
153. Freedom of Speech 5
154. Friendship 20, 32
155. Froebel, Friedrich 35
156. Games 3, 31, 34, 38, 59
157. Gandhi, Mahatma 7
158. Ganges River 22
159. Gardens 31
160. Generosity 30
161. Geo 17
162. Geometry 14, 17
163. Germans 47, 52
164. Gk symbol 22
165. Glory 21, 23, 27
166. Gods 27
167. Graft 4, 9, 38
168. Greece 5, 20
169. Greece, Ancient 21, 25, 36, 38, 44
170. Greece, Medieval 25
171. Greece, Modern 25
172. Greece, Post-medieval 25
173. Greed 9
174. Greek Civilization 1, 5, 25-26, 58
175. Greek Colonies 25
176. Greek Empire 49
177. Greek Folklore 22, 23
178. Greek Language 49
179. Greek Lexicon 12
180. Greek Orthodox Church 25, 49
181. Greek Slaves 41
182. Greek Speakers 20
183. Greek Subconscious 23
184. Greek Studies 3
185. Greek War of Independence 25, 55
186. Greekness 13
187. Greeks, Ancient 7
188. Greeks, Christian 24
189. Greeks, post-Byzantine 54, 55
190. Guilt 50
191. Gymnasia 31
192. Harmony 30
193. Harper and Fullerton 23
194. Hegel, Georg 57
195. Hein Aristevin 28, 51
196. Hellenistic Period 6
197. Hercules 8, 16
198. Hereditary Privilege 29
199. Heretics 54
200. Heroes 31, 49-50, 52-53, 59
201. Heroism 12, 27, 34, 57
202. Histology 15
203. History 1, 13, 14
204. History of Education in Antiquity 26
205. History of the Filipino People 13, 21, 23
206. History of Modern Greek Literature 26
207. Holy Roman Empire 48
208. Homer 8, 27, 28, 32, 36, 50, 57, 60
209. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture 35
210. Honesty 10-11, 38
211. Hormiga 22
212. Horse Racing 47
213. Horses 20-21
214. Hubris 50
215. Huizinga, Johan 34-36
216. Human Body 44, 46
217. Humanism 54, 58
218. Humanistic Psychology 3, 4
219. Humanitarianism 11
220. Humanities 1
221. Humility 51, 54
222. Huns 47
223. Hyacinthus 16
224. Iconoclasm 47
225. Iconography 47
226. Ideas 34
227. Iliad 27, 28
228. Imagination 34
229. Immunology 15
230. India 6-7, 23
231. Indus River 22
232. Infidels 47-54
233. Integrity 11-12, 19, 59
234. Interest and Effort in Education 43
235. International Law 27
236. Intramuros 14
237. Intrinsic Goodness 12
238. Inventors 8
239. Ippos 20-21
240. Islam 6, 25, 47, 52
241. Italian Fascists 57
242. Jaeger, Werner 34
243. Jason 16
244. Jewish Scholars 6
245. Judges 10
246. Jung, Carl 12
247. Justice 11, 27, 38
248. Kalos k' Agathos 11, 59
249. Kazantzakis, Nikos 54, 56, 58
250. Kipling, Rudyard 25
251. Language 14
252. Las Felipinas 20
253. Latin 3, 15
254. Laurium Mines 41
255. Law School 3
256. Law-abiding behavior 38
257. Laws 26
258. Leisure 39, 43, 45
259. Leisure: Basis of Culture 39
260. Leventis 56
261. Leyte 21
262. Liberal Arts 13
263. Liberty 24, 56
264. Libraries 29
265. Linguistic Influence 1
266. Literacy 10, 44
267. Lives of Noble Greeks 6, 9, 21, 28
268. Logic 15-16
269. Logos 15, 20
270. Logy Terms 15
271. Love 19, 54
272. Luzon Island 2, 23
273. Macedonia 21
274. Maimonides, Moses 6
275. Malays 23
276. Manila 14
277. Maniots 57
278. Marketplace 30
279. Marrou, Henri 26, 27, 29, 32-33
280. Martyrdom 12
281. Maslow, Abraham 3
282. Materialistic Socialization 40
283. Mathematics 14, 17
284. Mayuga, Sylvia, et al 13, 23
285. Media 8, 13
286. Medicine 1, 3, 17
287. Mediocrity 5, 27
288. Mediterranean 25
289. Meno 19
290. Mentors 2, 5, 27, 30-33, 59
291. Merit 1, 4, 10-11, 38
292. Mermaid of Alexander 22
293. Metron 17, 18
294. Military 6
295. Mindanao Island 21
296. Minow, Newton 43
297. Mirmigi/Mirmix 22
298. Monarchy 18
299. Monas 18
300. Monasteries 47
301. Monophysitism 47
302. Morality 4, 12, 45
303. Mysticism 44
304. Mythology 5, 16, ,18, 53
305. Narcissus 16
306. Nature 31
307. Negritos 23
308. Neighborhood Supervision 5
309. New Vocabulary English-Tagalog 15-16
310. Newspapers 17
311. Nicomachean Ethics 26
312. Night School 24
313. Nomos 18
314. Obedience 42
315. Odysseus 27, 57
316. Odysseus: A Sequel 57
317. Odyssey 27
318. Odyssey 28
319. Oikos 18
320. Old Deluder Satan Act 44
321. Oligarchy 9, 18, 59
322. Oligo 18
323. Olympic Games 1, 4, 10, 21, 27, 34, 36, 46
324. On the Aesthetic Education of Man 34
325. Open Society and Its Enemies 26
326. Oratory 32-33
327. Ormigi 22
328. Orphic mysteries 44, 50
329. Pagan 48, 50
330. Paideia: Ideals of Greek Culture 34
331. Paidotribe 31
332. Palaistras 31
333. Palikari 56
334. Pan Metron Ariston 51
335. Panay Island 23
336. Parks 30
337. Patriotism 30
338. Peace 36-37, 51, 54
339. Peculiar Institution 41
340. Peiper, Joseph 39, 43, 45
341. Peloponnesian War 37
342. Peplow, Evelyn 23
343. Perseus 16
344. Persian Civilization 8, 12, 41-42, 47-48
345. Personal Appearance 3-4, 12
346. Personal Weaknesses 4
347. Personality 15
348. Peters, Jans 23
349. Phidias 8
350. Philanthropy 5, 20, 54
351. Philately 20
352. Philip 20
353. Philip, King of Macedonia 21, 23, 29
354. Philip, Prince of Spain 20, 21
355. Philippines 13-14, 18, 20-21
356. Philippine Dialects 15
357. Philippines Handbook 23
358. Philippos 21
359. Philology 20
360. Philos 18-19, 21
361. Philosophers 32
362. Philosophes 10
363. Philosophy 1, 14, 19
364. Physics 14, 18
365. Physis 18
366. Piaget, Jean 35
367. Pino 33
368. Plato 10, 14, 19, 26, 50
369. Platonic Relationship 19
370. Play 4, 34-35, 43
371. Plutarch 6, 9, 21, 28
372. Plutocracy 18
373. Plutos 18
374. Poetry 32
375. Poets 32
376. Polemos 37
377. Polis 17, 59
378. Polites 17
379. Politicians 8, 31, 33
380. Politics 9, 26
381. Politics 1, 6, 9, 17, 33
382. Politis, Linos 26
383. Poor 4, 9, 12, 27, 39
384. Popper, Karl 26
385. Porticos 31
386. Professionals 31
387. Protestant Reformation 28
388. Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 43
389. Protestant-Catholic Wars 47
390. Protestantism 43
391. Psyche 15
392. Psychology 14-15, 27
393. Public Facilities 4, 5, 8, 27, 30, 40
394. Public Official 4
395. Public Opinion 33
396. Public Service 5
397. Punishment 38
398. Puritans 44
399. Rajia 56
400. Religion 1, 6, 43, 45-46, 59
401. Religiosity 30
402. Religious Freedom 47
403. Renaissance 54
404. Renunciation 51
405. Report to Greco 58
406. Republic 10, 26
407. Rights 38, 54
408. Role Modeling 5, 27, 32
409. Roman Civilization 5-7, 13, 21, 30, 41, 51, 53
410. Rules 1, 10, 28, 37-38, 59
411. Saints 52-53
412. Salvation 47
413. Schiller, Friedrich 34
414. Schoolbooks 17
415. Schools 10, 24, 44
416. Sciences 1, 13
417. Scientific Age 4
418. Scientists 17
419. Self-determination 54
420. Self-development 5
421. Self-improvement 27
422. Self-sacrifice 12
423. Service Industries 46
424. Sexuality 19, 44, 46
425. Sicily 9
426. Sikolohiya 15
427. Sin 44, 46
428. Slavery 39-41, 53, 60
429. Socialization 32
430. Societas 15
431. Society 15
432. Socioeconomic Status (SES) 29
433. Sociology 15
434. Sociology of Education 28-29
435. Socrates 7, 30
436. Sophia 19
437. Sophists 5, 27, 33
438. Soul 14, 46
439. Souli 57
440. Spain 13-14, 21-22, 24
441. Spanish 22
442. Sparta 36-37
443. Speaking Forum 30
444. Speech 16
445. Spinoza, Baruch 40
446. Spiritual Exercises 57, 58
447. Sports 1, 5, 9
448. St. Augustine 14
449. St. Agustin Museum 14
450. Stadium 30
451. statesmanship 21
452. Statues 30-31
453. Stoa 30
454. Stoicism 30, 42, 50
455. Students 32-33
456. Stumpp 41
457. Superstition 5
458. Symposium 19, 33
459. Syn 33
460. Tagalog 15, 17
461. Teachers 12, 27, 30-31, 60
462. Team Spirit 37
463. Technicians 31
464. Tecton 18
465. Tegopoulos-Fytrakis 12
466. Television 3, 43
467. Television 3, 8
468. Thales of Miletus 39
469. Theater 1, 30, 59
470. Theodosius, Byzantine Emperor 46
471. Time 3, 45
472. Timi 18
473. Timocracy 18
474. Torre, Bernando de la 20
475. Tourism 30
476. Toynbee, Arnold 53
477. Tragedy 2
478. Travels in the Morea 56
479. Trigonometry 17, 18
480. Trigonon 18
481. Troy 27, 57
482. Trust 32
483. Truthfulness 11
484. Turkish Occupation 12, 19, 24
485. Turks 52
486. Turks, Ottoman 19, 24-25, 48, 54-55
487. Turks, Seljuk 48
488. Tutors 30, 60
489. Tyranny 4, 8-9, 59
490. U.S. Constitution 47
491. Ulich, Robert 12, 46
492. United States 9-10, 13-14, 24, 41
493. United Nations 42
494. Universal Declaration of Human Rights 42
495. Universal Race 6
496. University Degree 3
497. Urban Identity 31
498. Valor 21
499. Values 4
500. Values 30, 38
501. Villalobos Expedition 20
502. Visayan 17, 22
503. Visayan Islands 2, 23
504. Vygotsky, Lev 35
505. War 36, 58
506. Wealth 1, 7-9, 11, 28, 39-42, 58
507. Weber, Max 43
508. Western Civilization 1, 5, 6, 13, 15, 48, 52
509. Work 43
510. Work Ethic 39, 43
511. World War II 57
512. Young People 5
513. Zeno of Citium 30
514. Zorba the Greek

1. This monograph is based on a lecture by  the same title presented at the All Nations Women's Group of YWCA of Manila, Inc. The lecture was given on Nov. 15, 1995, at the Greek Consular Residence of  The Hon. Milton Adamson, Consul of Greece, Makati City, Philippines. Return to the Top

(Revised 10/15/98; revised 11/23/99-- Mr. George Theodossopoulos, retired  Greek university professor and presently CSU student, contributed in correcting the grammar and etymology of a couple of classical Greek expressions; rev. word 05/12/08)

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