A short podcast micro-chapter by Brian Johnson that links the ancient Greek sport of pankration (an early mixed-combat Olympic event) to Stoic lessons about resilience and preparing for life's hardships. Johnson cites historical facts (pankration first in 648 BC, Olympic for ~1,400 years) and Stoic writers (Epictetus, Seneca, via Ryan Holiday) to argue we should train for adversity and enter life’s arena ready to grapple.
Questions this episode answers
648 BC
About 1,400 years
Brian Johnson
November 28, 2023
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another arete plus one degree. Another micro chapter from arete. Activate your heroic potential. 451 ideas like this pankration equals full strength. What kind of boxer are you? Let's talk about the sport of mixed martial arts. We may think it's a new thing and of course the way it's currently marketed is new. But the essence of the sport is has been around for over 2,500 years. In fact, in 648 BC the Greeks made something they called pankration an Olympic sport. Get this. According to Wikipedia, pankration was an empty hand submission sport with scarcely any rules. The athletes used boxing and wrestling techniques, but also others such as kicking and holds, walks and chokes. On the ground, the only things not acceptable were biting and gouging out the opponent's eyes. Now the word pankration literally means all strength. It was an olympic sport for 1400 years. Now why is that relevant for us? As Ryan Holiday tells us in the Daily Stoic, these days we use baseball and basketball and football metaphors to bring philosophical points home. In ancient Greece and Rome, our wise philosophers liked to use boxing, wrestling or pankration metaphors. In fact, Epictetus puts it this but what is philosophy? Doesn't it simply mean preparing ourselves for what may come? Don't you understand? That really amounts to saying that if I would so prepare myself to endure, then let anything happen that will. Otherwise it would be like the boxer every exiting the ring because he took some punches. Actually, you can leave the ring without consequence. But what advantage would come from abandoning the pursuit of wisdom? So what should each of us say to every trial we face? This is what I've trained for. For this. My discipline. I like that a lot. What kind of boxer walks into a ring, gets hit and then walks out? Likewise, what kind of philosopher walks into the arena of life, gets knocked about a bit and then walks out? That makes no sense. The whole point of our training is to learn how to deal most effectively with life's challenges. And as much as we may sometimes wish that life was more like a beautifully orchestrated dance, it's often much more like grappling than ballet. In the Daily Stoic, Ryan also tells us that, and I quote him, Seneca writes that unbruised prosperity is weak and easy to defeat in the ring. But a man who has been at constant feud with misfortune acquires a skin calloused by suffering. This man, he says, fights all the way to the ground and never gives up. Let's be that man or woman. Let's dare greatly. Let's enter the arena and let's be willing to grapple with life's challenges. If, or should I say when. You get a bit knocked around by life today. Remember Epictetus and Seneca and Pankration. Remember, this is what we've trained for. Close the gap. Live with Arete. Give us all the strength you've got.
