nature of the soul or psyche. In the allegory, a chariot (representing the soul) is pulled by a rebellious dark horse (symbolizing mans appetites) and a spirited white horse (symbolizing thumos). The charioteer, or Reason, is tasked with harnessing the energy of both horses, getting the disparate steeds into sync, and successfully piloting the chariot into the heavens where he can behold Truth and become like the gods. We presented the allegory not simply because of the insights it can offer into the nature of man and how we may progress in our lives, but even more importantly, to lay the foundation for a discussion of thumos. While the other components of Platos vision of the soul have ready m odern equivalents, there is no word in our language that truly corresponds to thumos. This is most telling. When a culture lacks the word for something, it is because they lack the concept of it. The Greeks believed thumos was essential to andreia manliness. It is mentioned over seven hundred times in the Odyssey. Harold Bloom called it the central natural passion in mans soul. If we have lost the ability to recognize, appreciate, cultivate, and utilize one of the three main components of our nature, we should not be surprised when negative consequences follow. When one hears of a lack of virility, fight, energy, and ambition in modern men, of a malaise of spirit that has settled over our sex, what is really being spoken of is a shortage of thumos. For millions of men, thumos lies dormant, an energy source left untapped. It is as if each of us had a potential Kentucky Derby-caliber thoroughbred waiting in the stable, ready and eager to run, but we kept him locked away, only trotting him out for pony rides at childrens birthday parties. Recovering an understanding of thumos, and its role as the vital life and energy source of mens souls, will be our task today.
What Is Thumos?
As we mentioned last time, Plato envisioned the three components of ones soul as independent entities. Thumos was thought to be the most independent of the bunch. The Greeks believed it was found in animals, humans, and the gods. Thumos could act separately from you, or in cooperation with you as an accompaniment, tool, or motivation behind some action. Because it was a distinct part of yourself, you could talk to it, tell it to endure, to be strong, or to be young (thumos was associated withthe passion and power of youth, but older people could have it too). In the Iliad, Achilles speaks to his great-hearted thumos when anxious about the fate of Patroculus. He also delights his thumos by playing the lyre. The Greek philosopher Empedocles called thumos the seat of life. If it left you entirely, you would faint, and permanent separation meant death. Thumos likewise constitutes the seat of energy that can fill a person, and serves as the active agent within man. It is the stimulus, the drive, the juice to action the thing that makes the blood surge in your veins. Philosopher Sam Keen got at the idea with his concept of the fire in the belly.
The Romans held a similar belief, equating energy with virtus, or manliness. The whole glory of virtus, Cicero declared, resides in activity. What is the nature of this energy and where does it lead? The Greeks saw thumos as serving several distinct, yet interrelated functions. As with honor, it is a concept that was once so implicitly understood that it did not have to be explained, and attempting to describe it at a great remove makes what was once a natural, lived experienced seem much more complicated. The best we can do is illustrate it from its different angles, and hope that the pieces resonate and come together into a recognizable mosaic. Note: In this post we use phrases like, The Greeks believed This is not to imply that the ancient Greeks were monolithic in their philosophy different ideas on manliness and thumos existed. What we have done here is distilled out the core threads of thumos on which there was a good amount of agreement, and woven them together along with our own interpretation.
Drive to Fight
Thumos not only produces anger, but then channels that anger into the impulse to fight. When Nestor, King of Pylos, recalls his past exploits, he says, My hard -enduring heart [thumos] in its daring drove me to fight. Thumos motivates warriors before and during combat. The Greeks said courageous soldiers had a valiant thumos during war. In Seven Against Thebes, it is said that before battle the soldiers iron-lunged thumos, blazing with valor, breathed out as if from lions glaring with the war-gods might. Valor here is translated from andreia manliness. The warriors thumos blazes with manliness in anticipation of the fight.
A man of thumos glories in a fight whether against others, the elements of nature, or his baser desires as a way to test his mettle and prove himself.
for the suitors. Zeus thinks about events in his thumos as he watches the battle of TroyHermes deliberates in thumos how to take Priam safely from Achilles camp. Circe tells Odysseus to plan in his thumos the course he will take after passing the Sirens. Telemachus tells Penelope that now that he has grown up, he perceives and knows in his thumos good and evil. It is in thumos that Hesiod tells Perses to consider the value of the competitive spirit. Thumos is the place in which you ponder possibilities, and at the same time, it helps you know and understand which of those possibilities to choose. Its related to gut feelings and intuition what Jeffrey Barnouw calls visceral thinking and it also has a prophetic quality giving you a sense of foreboding about where a decision may lead, or something bad to come. I personally believe you can know a decision is right when both your mind and heart agree when your Reason and thumos align. When you feel that swelling of the heart, that course of excitement and inspiration running through your veins, thats thumos telling you youre on the right course.
Unused Thumos
The charioteer may err by failing to hitch the white horse to the chariot at all, or not exercising him to build up his strength. The Greeks said that a mans thumos could be sluggish, and certainly there are a good number of men today who match that description. A man lacking in thumos is the nice guy who cant stand up for himself when others push him around. He is placid. Nothing arouses him. He has no ideals for which he fights and no real drive or ambition in life. He is content with mediocrity, or at least doesnt have the will to figure out how to make things better. Hes the kind of guy who thinks the whole idea of manliness is really rather silly and feels he is above the kind of unenlightened competitions and
jockeying for position that occur amongst men, when really, deep down, hes simply ashamed that he doesnt think he could make the cut and stand among them.
Unbridled Thumos
A man may also run to the other extreme of failing to rein in his thumos at all. The Greeks called this yielding to thumos, or letting ones thumos run beyond measure. The consequences of letting ones white horse run wild vary. When the Greeks used thumos in a negative sense, it was most often in the context of the emotions, which they thought of as
passions. Being ruled by ones passions could be dangerous if it usurped the role of Reason and overruled a mans rational faculties. Of the emotions, anger was the most important to check and channel, and restraining anger and restraining thumos were closely connected. One type of man with unbridled thumos is he who wants to fight everyone about everything. The guy at the bar who starts a shoving match if he simply thinks you looked at him funny. Hes filled with anger, but it has no specific target its just boiling inside him all the time, and the littlest thing can set it off. Thumos is much like fire control it and it becomes an enormous power, handle is loosely and it can burn you and consume everything you touch. For the Greeks, Achilles was the archetype of a man who yielded too much to his thumos. Achilles thumos imparts many good qualities to this consummate warrior; he is strong, brave, aggressive when wronged, driven to success, and nearly invulnerable. But his white-hot anger and concern for honor sometimes lead him to stubbornness and dishonor. The Iliad describes him as being moved by menos[anger] and overweening thumos, and its first two lines tellingly read: Sing, Goddess, of the rage of Peleus son Achilles/the accursed rage that brought great suffering to the Achaeans. When Agamemnon robs Achilles of his war prize and lover, Briseis, Achilles bristles at this dishonor and refuses to fight or lead his troops. Before he slays Hector, his nemesis pleads for an honorable burial, but Achilles roars in reply: my rage, my fury [thumos] would drive me now to hack your flesh away and eat you raw such agonies you have caused me! He then kills Hector, ties him to a chariot, and shamefully drags his lifeless body around the gates of Troy. Because of such acts, Ajax says that Achilles has let his thumos become savage, implacable, and even straightforwardly bad, and Apollo labels his thumos as arrogant. The Greeks also warned that unbridled thumos could be foolish and flighty, carrying a man after one flash of inspiration after another. They were speaking to the second type of man who leaves his thumos unbridled he who gets a new idea, burns with excitement for it for a few days or weeks, but doesnt have the drive to keep it going. He quickly gets bored and moves onto the next thing hes super passionate about. His thumos is always chasing after one thing or another without clear aim or purpose.
penchant for partying hard. Thumos wants to really live, and the appetites convince him that nights out getting smashed at the same bars, repeated on an infinite loop, is real living. Part of this man bemoans the fact that he never really seems to go anywhere or see anything, but the dark horse quiets that concern, saying he really is living it up, while encouraging him to get another drink.
Thumos, properly trained and harnessed, can be one of mans greatest allies inspiring and guiding him, stirring him up, and driving and urging him on towards the peaks of greatness. It can perceive his possibilities and make them real. The Greeks believed that a man experienced true happiness in thumos. The way to best make use of thumos is simple: directing it towards its natural aims that which is noble and fine, honorable and excellent. Plato believed that thumos was made to fight on behalf of what seems to be just, and the Greeks saw this force of the soul as essential in making moral choices. In the poetry of Bacchylides, Apollo declares that the way to delight thumos is by doing holy actsfor this is the highest of gains . In order to get thumos to pursue noble aims, Plato argued, you had to teach it to respond to Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. This can be done, I believe, by learning to use, and finely tuning your innate radar for such things. When you encounter what is Good, you can feel it resonate in your soul and swell your heart. Interestingly, one of the functions the Greeks assigned to thumos was the producer of reverent awe. The proof that something is Good is that it helps make you a better man it bears good fruit. The more your thumos picks
up on these signals, and responds to them, the better it gets at doing so, and as this virtuous cycle continues, your thumos grows ever stronger and you progress as a man. Thumos does not simply draw you to that which is good, it inspires you to fight for it. Thumos natural home is the battlefield. Its most essential nature is that of an aid to courage, strength, and indomitability for the warrior in combat. But its spur to fight operates off the battlefield as well. It drives a man to stand up for his ideals, cherished causes, and moral choices. It also fuels his desire for recognition, honor, and status the drive to become the best of the best in any arena of competition whether sports, profession, or even simply life itself. In any situation where you choose not to back down from your beliefs and goals despite opposition, and refuse to give in when others try to crush you, thumos is by your side. Thumos is also what drives a man to fight for a life less ordinary one filled with more risk and adventure. Thumos is that source of vitality that pushes a man to live life as fully as possible, to drink deep from it, to choose the strenuous life over self-indulgence and mediocrity.
Thumos Neutered
Why is it that many men seem so lacking in thumos today? Thumos is a potent force left wild it destroys, but harnessed it creates. The thumos of man is responsible for the lions share of societys progress. Yet in our modern day, instead of helping men to harness their thumos for positive ends, society has decided it is better to neuter the force altogether. To protect some people from getting hurt, weve tried to breed it out of men, even if it means its positive effects will be sacrificed along with the negative. It is like getting rid of electricity, and all the benefits that have come with it, because some people get electrocuted. From an early age, boys are taught to sit still, to be quiet. Physical fighting of any kind results in suspension. Competition is frowned upon because it means some will be left out and feel bad. Rewards and recognition are distributed equally; everyone is given a prize to avoid hurt feelings. As a result, boys feel less motivated to fight to rise to the top.
Weve unfortunately come to think of elements of thumos, like anger, as entirely bad. Instead, what we need is an understanding that anger is neither bad nor good its all in how its directed. There is such a thing as righteous indignation. The anger that drives one to stand up for that which is just and right. If you snuff out the force that makes bad men hurt the weak, you also eliminate the force that moves good men to protect the vulnerable. Plato argued that you didnt breed fierceness out of men, you trained it. Men of the warrior class, he argued, should be trained to neither be watchdogs who barked at everything even innocent noises nor watchdogs that only whimpered and rolled over when someone invaded the house. They were gentle with those they knew, and fierce with strangers of ill-intent. Their thumos was ready, if needed, to fight.