#195: How to Live Like an Ancient Greek Hero

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2016

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

During World War II the Greek island of Crete was occupied by the Nazis and was a strategic stronghold. To take back the island, Great Britain created a small band of misfit resistance fighters consisting of poets, historians, and Cretan shepherds. Their job was to muck things up for the Nazis, but one day they decided to do something completely audacious: kidnap a German general and get him off the island. Against all the odds, they accomplished their mission. How’d they do it? My guest today on the podcast went to Crete to follow in the footsteps of these WWII resistance fighters and along the way discovered that they had tapped into the ancient Greek art of the hero. His name is Christopher McDougall and in his book Natural Born Heroes, he takes readers on a whirlwind tour through history, psychology, and fitness to show how these clever, courageous Englishmen emulated Odysseys and other Greek heroes and what regular Joes can do to live more heroically. In today’s episode, Chris and I discuss the mindset, the virtues, and the skills needed to become an ancient Greek hero.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bramocka here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:19.1	So during World War II the mountain island of Crete off the coast of Greece was occupied
0:23.9	by the Nazis and it was actually a very, it was a strategic point during the war.
0:29.3	And there was this small group of resistance fighters that consisted of Brits as well as
0:34.5	Native Cretans that decided to come with this audacious plan to abduct a German general
0:42.0	and take them off the island.
0:44.2	And here's the thing, these resistance fighters, they weren't like, like, seal commandotypes
0:48.1	or paratroopers.
0:49.5	One was a penniless artist, another was a young shepherd, and another was a playboy poet.
0:54.9	Somehow they were able to pull off this amazing feat of strength and endurance and widths.
0:59.6	And my guests they wanted to figure out how did these guys do it.
1:03.1	His name is Christopher McDougall and his book that he retraces the steps of these resistance
1:07.5	fighters as called Natural Born Heroes, how a daring band of misfits masked the lost secrets
1:12.3	of strength and endurance.
1:13.7	And in it, he follows the steps of these resistance fighters.
1:17.2	And along the way finds out and it discovers this ancient art of heroism that the Greeks
1:22.8	developed thousands of years ago that consisted of skills, but as well as virtues that a hero
1:28.3	should develop and that they taught one another.
1:31.3	Really fascinating.
1:33.1	If you love Greek history, you're going to love this podcast.
1:35.5	We talk about pancreation, which is this brutal form of martial arts that the Greeks developed.
1:41.5	We talk about endurance running and fascia and the power of fascia.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Art of Manliness, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Art of Manliness and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.