Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/235821
The Art of Manliness Continued 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 ofvirtus," 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. The Functions of Thumos Seat of Emotion JOBS for TEAMS | Thumos is both the source of emotion and the emotion itself.The agent and the function are fused.Thumos births and embodies things like joy, pain, fear, hope, and grief.Thumos is also tied up with love.The Greeks would say you could love someone "out of your thumos." Thumos is most closely associated, however, with anger. In Greek writings thumos "seethes,""rages," and "boils." It is a special kind of anger – activated when a man's honor is violated, when his reputation is on the line, when his family and property are threatened. It drives a man to stand up for himself, for his country, for his loved ones. The anger of thumos can not only be 18 JobsForTeams0114_manliness.indd 2 directed at others and external enemies, but also towards oneself.Thumos makes you angry at yourself when you fail to live up to your principles and code of honor. Plato uses the example of a man who sees a pile of corpses, looks away, and keeps on walking, but then returns to gaze upon it again. He is angry with himself for giving into a base inclination. Thumos can make you indignant of your own desires, if those desires compel you to do something contrary to the dictates of Reason. 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-god's 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. Courage, Steadfastness, Indomitability Once a man is in a fight, thumos spurs him on, motivating him to stay in the arena and continue fearlessly striving for victory.This "gameness" is a quality of thumos man shares with the beasts. In Sam Sheridan's exploration of The Fighter's Heart, he observes the centrality of gameness in dogfighting."We almost don't care how good the dog fights," he notes,"the fight is just an elaborate test to check his gameness."Adds a dog trainer Sheridan www.jobsforteams.com 12/4/13 11:37 AM