To articulate what it is to live life through the code of true Hellenism, I need to take you to Delphi and the Temple of Apollo, the home of the Oracle. Under the temple’s colonnade can be seen carved into the remnants of a majestic portico the words gnothi seauton – know thyself.
The most extraordinary challenge that faces us in life is to achieve self-knowledge. This challenge captures one of the most central tenants of being a Hellene. That is – an almost visceral need to question, to probe, to debate, to turn accepted opinion on its head – whether the subject of the inquiry is the human heart or the nature of justice.
To think like a Hellene is to shape and organize one’s thoughts and beliefs through poetry, music and drama, philosophy and history, culture and politics. To mould oneself into an Ancient Hellene is to give generously of one’s time and energy to contemplation and discussion about right and wrong, about the nature of beauty, goodness and knowledge; the way one conceives of what it is to be mortal amid the immensity of the universe, the way one talks about the past, and our relationship to and responsibility for the future, for war and tragedy, politics, civics, love and purpose. To be a Hellene is like writing a love-letter to the act of thinking about the world.
The idea of thinking like an Ancient Hellene is to live one’s life in a realm where the imagination as a creative force, the emotions and the intellect are allowed to roam free. The writing of Plato offers further understanding – not so much what he wrote but the way he wrote. Plato did not write in the form of treatises, he did not propound theories in a straight forward doctrinaire way.
Plato’s philosophy is written as dialogues between two or more speakers; it’s very stylistic form encapsulates conversation, debate, provisional answers, rather than dogmatic responses or diatribes of thought. To live life as a Hellene is to engage with people, with the world and to do so in a way where there are no definitive answers and where the art of living is to tread diligently on the path of questioning.
C.P. Cavafy aptly describes this quest for the true ‘Hellene’. The Modern Greek poet put this ides forward beautifully in his poem Ithica, which takes on the idea of Odysseus’ homecoming. When you set out on the journey to Ithica, Pray that the road be long, Full of adventure, full of knowledge. And as a Hellene, I have taken up the responsibility of setting out on that long and arduous but rewarding journey towards Ithica, and in doing so, come closer to answering the ancient challenge that has been set before me – gnothi seauton.