The Greeks had a word for it -- kalokagathia, which descried a noble human being as one possessing the perfect union of body and soul.The term was also used to celebrate the equality of all citizens and the ideal national unity that transcended any differences in class or wealth.
This concept was central to all that it was to be Greek and explains why gymnasiums were not simply exercise centers but also centers of advanced learning—the high schools and colleges of the ancient world. Indeed many of our terms used in academia, including academia itself, come from Greek gymnasium terms. The akademeia was the gym that Plato taught at!
A well rounded athlete.
Most people today know that the Greeks gave us the Olympics and think that the modern games somehow resemble the ancient ones but the fact is that Ancient Greeks would have been horrified by such a gross and disgusting spectacle. For one thing sports were only one small part of the true Olympics, poetry and music were equally important events and the writer of the best poem or most accomplished armature musician was often far more highly honored than the person who only won a race or wrestling match.
The Greeks admired a strong body but they knew that mules and oxen were far stronger than the best athlete and yet lacked kalokagathia since they were only dumb animals who lacked poetry, music, art and philosophy. In other words they lacked souls.
The most highly respected athletes were all rounder, people who combined in themselves many different, and mutually balancing, abilities which is why the pentathlon (five competitions) was the quintessential Olympic event. These five events were the stadion (a short foot race) wrestling, long jump, javelin throw and discus throw and one had to do well in all or most of them to win. A hulking, muscle-bound freak may have been able to win the wrestling but might not have been as fast as a lean runner or as agile a jumper or as coordinated as the discus thrower and would have been merely a laughing stock. He would also have been a loser if he were out performed in the other events.
This emphasis on mental and physical “balance” is what was celebrated in the athletic sculpture of the Classic era. This was the golden age of the amateur, in the original French meaning of the word which can be translated as "lover of", reflecting the amateur's motivation to work as a result of a love or passion for a particular activity. To compete in an athletic or artistic competition for money was considered something contemptible and utterly lacking in kalokagathia.
All this changed, however when Greek culture was taken up by non-Greeks during the Hellenistic period following Alexander the Great’s conquest of
The results were predictable. Soon money grubbing athletes moved away from kalokagathia where winning was an honor to professionalism where winning was the only thing that counted. Instead of well rounded human beings these sports prostitutes (as the Greeks themselves called them) transformed themselves into single purpose freaks.
The 18th century Enlightenment, which gave us the American Revolution, was based on a revival of Classical ideals and among the values that were revived was amateur sports as a means to achieving kalokagathia and better citizens of the "New Athens" they dreamed of building. But the Classically trained gentlemen of the era knew what had happened to Greek culture once the taint of money touched sports and were determined to prevent this degradation at all costs. One of the chief arguments they made in their battle to have sports made part of the curriculum in high school and colleges was the belief that sports would help build character, that they would help build kalokagathia.
That is why there are rules designed to prevent professionalism in school sports, rules that are today routinely flouted. High School and College sports, or at least the high-stakes, high-profile sports, have become merely a method of training what the Greeks would consider “sports prostitutes.”
The modern professional (and to a very large degree Collegiate) athletes have become single purpose trained, drug enhanced, over specialized freaks who lack in true health or physical fitness and whose artificial lifestyles and training often lead to a post career life of pain, ill health and even early death.
The Classical Greeks considered watching a sport that they could not play or had not played in their youth, pathetic and it was not at all uncommon for a heckler from the audience to be invited to come out onto the field, strip down and show everyone how to do it better. If the person was not at least willing to try he was ejected from the game. Could you imagine that happening with today’s couch potatoes sports fans? The stands would be empty. The simple fact is that modern “athletes” play at a level far beyond the capabilities of all but fellow over specialized freaks.
It is time to admit that the noble experiment of the 19th century amateur sports boosters has failed beyond all hope of redemption. The only reason we have sports in schools at all is because these idealist believed that they would teach kalokagathia (all educated people of the day at least read Greek and Latin). They do not. If some people wish to play sports, or if the sports/entertainment industry wants its employees trained, then both parties should pay for them themselves and not siphon off much needed educational dollars for their own ends.
Although Robert Heinlein was not an Ancient Greek he did understand their concept of kalokagathia and summed it up memorably:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
Specialization is for insects.”
