The Daily Stoic - Going Beyond The Call

Episode Date: August 4, 2024

Having the courage to make the ultimate sacrifice. Going beyond the call. This is the story of the Battle of Thermopylae. 📕 Grab a signed copy of Courage is Calling at https://store.dailystoic.com/✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the daily Stoic early and ad free right now. Just join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. I've been writing books for a long time now and one of the things I've noticed is how every year, every book that I do, I'm just here in New York putting right thing right now out. What a bigger percentage of my audience is listening to them in audiobooks, specifically on Audible. I've had people had me sign their phones, sign their phone case because they're like I've listened to all your audiobooks here and my sons they love audiobooks we've been doing it in the car to get them off their screens because audible helps your imagination soar. It helps you

read efficiently, find time to read when maybe you can't have a physical book in front of you and then it also lets you discover new kinds of books, re-listen to books you've already read from exciting new narrators. You can explore bestsellers, new releases. My new book is up, plus thousands of included audio books and originals, all with an Audible membership.

You can sign up right now for a free 30-day Audible trial and try your first audio book for free. You'll get right thing right now, totally for free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. for free, visit audible.ca to sign up. Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, audiobooks that we like here or recommend here at Daily Stoic, other long form wisdom that you can chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy and most importantly, that

you're able to apply it to your actual life. Thank you for listening. Hey it's Ryan. Welcome to another Sunday episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. I had this weird experience. So I'm working on the wisdom book now and I wanted to talk about Herodotus. Herodotus is known as the father of history. He's the first sort of travel writer, historian who actually goes and sees these places and he's the source of a lot of the stuff we know

about the ancient world. And so I was writing about him and of course, as I'm going through it, I was like, oh wait, I remember the last time I picked up this book. The last time I picked up this book was in 2020 because I wanted to write about the ancient Spartans and the 300, I wanted to write about the Battle of Thermopylae and Herodotus is one of our best

and earliest sources for this story. It took me back to 2020, which took me back to like 2006 or so because I've had this amazing experience a bunch of times writing books where I go, you know what story I want to tell? I want to tell that story. And then I go, okay, what's like the best source on that? And it's like, oh yeah, I have that book.

And I pull it off the shelf. And in this case, 15 or so years earlier, I had noted exactly, like I'd folded the pages, I'd highlighted the passage. I had prepped to write this chapter years before I even knew I would be a writer, let alone that I would be, you know, in the middle of a pandemic, in my own bookstore,

writing about this thing for my first book in a four book series. It just, it blew my mind. It's like time travel in a way, not just time travel because I'm traveling back to Herodotus, but I'm traveling back to an earlier version of myself or an earlier version of myself is like flashing forward to the future.

It's always a really cool experience. And I'm actually gonna talk about that a little bit in the wisdom book. That's the power of marginalia and notebooks is you're like, you're documenting who you are in the moment that you're reading something, in the moment that you're learning it. All of this is to segue into today's episode,

which I wanted to bring you that chapter. I think it's one of the best things I had written up until that point. It was something I was really proud of. It's so inspiring. Obviously the movie 300 is cool, but the real story is even cooler. And in today's episode, I wanted to bring you that chapter.

This is the story of the Battle of Thermopylae, which happened in 480 BC. I won't spoil it. I'm gonna go into all that in the thing, but it was talking about this sort of how a divided group came together, how people gave the ultimate sacrifice. So basically, courage is calling,

which you can grab anywhere books are sold. We've got signed copies. I'll link to those in the show notes. You can grab it at store.dailystoke.com or come out to the painted porch, where I wrote that chapter before it was the painted porch. But the first chapter is about conquering fear,

then it's about being courageous. And then the last section, the section that opens with the Spartans is about heroism, when people sort of make the ultimate sacrifice, which as you'll see, the 300 Spartans did. So today's episode is about going beyond the call, giving everything. I'm excited to bring that to you.

And if you haven't read Herodotus, he's always fascinating and it's just crazy to me to be like interacting with a source that dates, you know, not that much later than the actual 300 Spartans. And anyways, let's get into it. Going Beyond the Call The Greeks were not perfect, the Spartans least of all. But they were not bootlickers, and they were better than the tyrannical insatiable king

who bore down on them in 480 BC. Xerxes, the ruler of the enormous Persian empire, sought subjugation and revenge. The Greeks had offended him, rebuffing his emissaries with insolence and foiling his father's invasion a decade before. And now, with an enormous army, he marched into Greece. Some Greek city-states saw the writing on the wall and surrendered. Some took large bribes to switch sides. The already shaking confederacy of Greek nations, from Sparta to Athens, Thebes, Argos, and Corinth, stood on the precipice of collapse and with it rested the entire future of Western civilization, though they could not have fully known this in the moment.

Would Xerxes conquer the West? Would an all-powerful king, worshiped as a god, stamp out the embers of freedom and equality, extinguishing a way of life we are fortunate enough to enjoy today? As the Allies struggled to come together, struggled to prepare, it was decided. A small army led by 300 Spartans and their ruler, Leonidas,

would rush to Thermopylae, the Hot Gates, to hold back the Persians as long as they could. If they could make a strong stand, perhaps Greece could be inspired to fight on. They say that the barbarian has come near and is coming on while we are wasting time, Leonidas told the soldiers. Truth, soon we shall either kill the barbarians

or else we are bound to be killed ourselves. And so they marched, three hundred of Spartans, most elite soldiers, two a man, each one the father of at least one living son, traversing some two hundred and fifty miles to face perhaps the worst odds in the history of warfare. They picked up some reinforcements from a few neighboring states, but it is believed that between 5,000 and 7,000 Greeks eventually stood against a Persian force that some ancient historians have claimed numbered as many as 1 million men. Their only advantage? Thermopylae, a narrow coastal pass near the Aegean Sea, which would

neutralize Xerxes' overwhelming strength. Also, unlike their invader, the Spartans were actually fighting for something. They were prepared to fight and die so that others might stay free. "'If you had any knowledge of the noble things of life,' Leonidas told Xerxes, "'you would refrain from coveting others' possessions. But for me to die for Greece is better than to be the sole ruler over the people of my race." Of course, the insatiable conquerors of history have no understanding of such things. The very first thing Xerxes did was try to bribe the Spartans.

It had worked on some of the weaker city-states, and it was certainly the kind of temptation that Xerxes would have lunged for had he been in the same position. Not Leonidas, not for a descendant of Hercules. To take the easy choice to betray others for your own gain, to advance one's position, but to do so through treachery. The Greeks have learned from their fathers to gain lands not by cowardice, but by valor," Leonidas replied. He chose virtue, he chose courage. This idea of valor, not just courage,

but a commitment to something larger than themselves, was what convinced the Greeks this mission was even worth attempting. "'How could you possibly risk so few against that many? one ally asked Leonidas. If you men think that I rely on numbers, he replied, then all of Greece is not sufficient, for it is but a small fraction of their numbers. But if on men's valor, then this number will do. And so when Xerxes asked the Spartans to surrender their arms, the Lekhanic reply was, when Xerxes asked the Spartans to surrender their arms, the Lekonic reply was, come and take them.

For four days, just the threat of tangling with the Spartans kept the Persians at bay. Sometime on August 18th, the assault began. Line after line of Persian soldiers was thrown against the phalanx of Greeks. There they clashed among the rocks, the Spartans fighting in lockstep, not just for their country, but as true heroes always do, for the man next to them. Toward the end of the first day, Xerxes ordered his most fearsome soldiers, the 10,000 immortals, into the breach. A Spartan remarked to Leonidas that the immortals were near. Leonidas reassured him, yes, and we are also near to them. To Xerxes' horror rising three times in anguished impotence,

even these troops were hurled back at great loss. As the first day bled into the second, Leonidas was not fooled by the victories he had won. He had always known, regardless of the hope of reinforcements, that this was a one-way mission. Yet he had come all the same. He was fighting for time. He was there to prove a point as well.

His act of devotio was meant to call to the courage of the Greeks who wavered on whether to surrender or resist. They fought on the second day as brutal as the first. By the third day, it was clear that the Persians had found a way to attack from the rear. A warning came about the enemy's strength. Xerxes archers would fire enough arrows to block out the sun. Then we shall fight in the shade, Leonidas said. Then he ordered his men to dine well because they were most likely to die next in the afterworld. He attempted to select three injured men to return to Sparta

with news, hoping secretly to spare their lives as well. To a man they rejected this golden ticket, I came with the army not to carry messages, but to fight, the first replied. The next, I should be a better man if I stayed here. The third, I will not be behind these, but first in the fight. With nothing left to say the Spartans stood in silence. Who among them was not bearing wounds from the previous day's fighting? Who was not exhausted? Who was not thinking of their children, of the country they had left behind? I'm Afua Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankipan.

And in our podcast, Legacy, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history. This season we're exploring the life of Bob Marley. He managed to rise from a childhood of poverty in colonial Jamaica to global stardom, becoming an influential pioneer of reggae and Rastafari. His music was and is extraordinarily popular but who was the man behind the amazing music and lyrics? Peter I love Bob Marley I feel so connected to his legacy in multiple ways I really can't wait to get into

his life because I feel like he's one of those people that everybody can sing along to but very few really know who he was. His music I grew up with but I want to know more about what formed him and how did he manage to fit so much into such a tragically short life. Follow Legacy Now wherever you get your podcasts or binge entire seasons early and ad free on Wondery Plus. Go deeper and get more to the story from Wondery's top history podcasts, including American Scandal, American History Tellers, and Black History for Real. By nine o'clock the sun was up and the heat with it. They sweated in their armor, their bodies coarsed with whatever reserves of adrenaline

and patriotism remained. They would never see Sparta or their families again. Leonidas gave the order to march forward. They stepped outside the protection of the rocky gates to meet the enemy in the open, inflicting extra damage as they took their final stand. The Persians hit them with the fury whipped from behind by their slave drivers, backed by so many soldiers that they could afford to trample the wounded or fallen comrades as the endless waves of men followed, one after another. The Spartans dispatched them methodically, as fiercely as before,

at times even feigning to have broken ranks, letting the Persians rush forward and then reforming to slaughter them. Each time a cry of exhilaration would go up. For this brief moment, uncommon valor was common virtue. The men passed beyond themselves, fighting and performing with almost otherworldly excellence. But the Spartans knew. They knew. This was it. They would not grow old to a man they would fall and soon. Leonidas was killed in the middle of the final day, fulfilling a prophecy he had long believed, that a Spartan king would have to die lest Greece be destroyed by an invader. His men rushed out in one, two, three attempts to

retrieve his body on the fourth they managed, then right back to the fight. Their spears broke off from use, no reinforcements came. Now the word spread through the ranks, it was time they retreated back to the gates. Here they fought with only their swords and upon losing these, they resorted to their hands and teeth. Eventually, inevitably, they were overwhelmed. It had been three days of battle, plus the four before.

They bought their country one week. It cost Xerxes countless men, but mostly time he did not have. More, it shook his confidence. How many more Spartans are there in Greece? He asked one of his advisors. Do they all fight like this? There are thousands more, came the reply. None are equal to these fallen men, but all are just as good at fighting."

Greece also understood what was at stake. No one could deny the gesture the Spartans had made. No one could deny the call to do their part. Centuries later, Churchill remarked of the RAF's incredible defense of Britain during the Battle of Britain, that never before have so many owed so much to so few. This was not quite true, for even the stand of those few owes a debt first to the 300 Spartans. It's not a stretch to argue that all the accomplishments of Western civilization, from the Renaissance to the American Revolution, would not have happened

were it not for the sacrifice at Thermopylae. And so those 300 soldiers who sacrificed, as the soldiers at Gettysburg did, as the RAF did, they became more than men. They became almost like gods. It's almost offensively cliché now to use the phrase, freedom isn't free. It's almost offensively cliché now to use the phrase, freedom isn't free. Nonetheless, it is true. Purchased there in the glorious defeat at Thermopylae were the victories that the Greeks were able to achieve at Salamis and Plataea. The Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the United Nations, all of it rooted there in the fight at the Hot Gates.

The freedom that everyone loves, but so many tend to abuse. It was won there, too, by the fathers who fought side by side, knowing for certain that they would not live to see the fruits of their labor, just as the tree you sit under was planted long ago by a man or woman who cared about the future. Theirs was not to reason why. Theirs was to do and to die. As the ancient inscription at the battlefield reads, tell the Spartans, passerby, here obedient to her laws we lie. Their example of courage and selflessness stands eternal. None of them survived, yet they turned

out to be far more immortal than the Persian troops who killed them. Gates of Fire, the epic historical novel of this battle by Stephen Pressfield, is today passed from soldier to soldier, person to person as a kind of tribute to that example. The central question of that book is, what is the opposite of fear? It's not enough to simply conquer or quench fear. In writing the book, Pressfield wanted to know, as the Spartans did, what lay beyond it. If fear was the vice, what was the virtue? It's not just courage, because you can be courageous for selfish reasons.

You have to override fear to jump out of an airplane, sure. But if you're doing it for fun, is it really that meaningful? It wasn't just the men and their arms that made feats at Thermopylae possible. It was also the wives who not only allowed their husbands to go, but whose courage and iron self-discipline was the backbone of the country. The toughness and selflessness of Spartan women is legendary. When one Spartan king was killed in a vicious coup, his mother rushed to his body, and when the killers offered to spare her if she kept quiet, she stood up and defied them. Her last words as she offered her neck was, May this only be in service of Sparta. We are mistaken to see the Spartans as mere warriors, just courageous fighters.

As Pressfield concludes, the opposite of fear, the true virtue contrasted with that vice, was not fearlessness. The opposite of fear is love, he says. Love for one another, love for ideas, love for your country, love for the vulnerable and the weak, love for the next generation, love for all. Is that not what hits us in the solar plexus when we hear Leonidas' final tearful words to his wife as he leaves? Marry a good man who will treat you well,

bear him children and live a good life. And it is this profound, narrow deep love that allows one to rise above the logic of self preservation and achieve true greatness. Whether that's shielding someone from a bullet, risking your job to speak out in defense of the common good or fighting against all hope for a cause you know is right. Florence Nightingale cared tenderly for the suffering of the sick in her country.

De Gaulle fought exasperatingly hard to preserve France. The Spartans at the hot gates were something beyond this, truly selfless, giving the most a person can possibly give. Sure, not all selflessness requires the ultimate sacrifice, but there is no selflessness without sacrifice. The sacrifice they made was incredible, all the more so because it had not been for themselves or their own people that they had made it. Leonidas could have survived if he chose. He and the Spartans could have ruled all of Greece. Nevertheless, he went and died so that all those other Greeks could be free, so that we could be free. If courage is rare, then this kind of heroism is a critically endangered species.

If courage is by itself unreasonable, then love in this higher form, the truly selfless kind, is insane. It's baffling in its majesty. It is real human greatness. It is us transcending logic, self-interest, and millions of years of our own biology to find quarter, however briefly, in a higher realm. The Spartans are the heroes we recognize as the embodiment of that idea, but we should remember that they are stand-ins. They represent the anonymous courage of countless resistors for all time, for people who testified in trials and faced reprisals, people who registered to vote and were beaten for it. Union organizers who went up against robber barons, pioneers who sent out rescue

parties, athletes who played through career ending injuries to keep their team in the game or their families fed. These were moments of true greatness, a soul. What we're willing to give, that full measure of our devotion to the effort, to the stranger, to what must be done, that's what takes us higher. That's what transforms us from brave to heroic. Maybe for a moment, maybe just to one person, maybe to be enshrined in the history books for all time.

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