The ancient Greeks believed that a truly whole person is one who understands and unites with nature, recognizing that nature is ruthless and that it is futile to oppose it. The Hellenes knew this better than anyone and derived from nature the measure of all things — morality, justice, goodness, festivity, and every virtue. Though nature is complex in its structure, the principles by which it operates are profoundly simple.
The ancient Greeks saw in nature the source of eternal laws — of harmony, measure, and order. They understood that nature is an indifferent and merciless force, before which human ambition is powerless. The laws they discerned in the changing of the seasons, and the growth of living things they carried into their art, philosophy, politics, and daily life. Virtue, for them, was not an abstract ideal but a natural state — as inevitable as a river’s flow downward or a tree’s striving toward the sun.
