The Ancient Greeks were active travelers, despite the dangers of land travel and the fear of highwaymen. Sea travel required ample supplies and means.

A fascinating archaeological find exhibited in the Agora Museum in Athens is rectangular clay tablets with inscribed names and occupations that purportedly served as travel documents in antiquity.

Most travelers were aristocrats and well-to-do citizens who traveled to witness and experience the wonders of the ancient world, and other famous places and sights.

Others traveled for pilgrimage; healing in sanctuaries such as the Sanctuary of Asclepius in Olympia, the Sanctuary of Apollo on Delos Island, or to attend religious festivals and monumental athletic events like the Olympic Games at Olympia or the Panathenaic Games in Athens.

Merchants also traveled to other parts of Greece, or across the Mediterranean and beyond to promote and sell their goods to destinations such as Egypt, Asia Minor, the Middle East, and the Black Sea.

The Ancient Greeks were curious about the world and had a great desire to learn. For that reason, they held travel in high regard. The most famous epic journeys, such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey or Jason’s expedition to retrieve the Golden Fleece, had protagonists who had to travel far and undergo trials to achieve their goals.

In their long journeys. They experienced great adventures, encountered grave dangers, and saw things and, above all, places they would never see if confined in their birthplace all their lives. These epics celebrated heroic adventures through travel.

Then people from all over Greece and beyond would travel far to consult the oracle at Delphi and plan their future.

Also, it was through travel that ancient Greeks discovered places worth exploring and exploiting, such as uninhabited fertile lands or seaside areas with great potential, where they established trading colonies.

Overall, the accounts of travelers provided valuable information about the contemporary world. In modern day, these accounts help us understand the world during that period.

Practical issues of traveling in antiquity

In addition, Greeks who traveled frequently brought back new ideas, Eastern tastes in clothing, jewelry, and foods, as well as architectural trends.

The ancient Greeks discovered new lands and established trading colonies across the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and the Black Sea from the 8th through the 6th centuries. Many of these have evolved into the great cities that still stand today.

The most famous of the colonies were those in Magna Graecia, in today’s southern Italy and Sicily (Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, Syracuse, Tarentum, Sybaris, and Croton), where the Greek element is still alive today, especially in the language.

Other important ancient Greek colonies were Massalia (modern-day Marseilles in France), Cyrene in Libya, and Byzantium on the Bosporus Strait, which later became Constantinople.

Greek philosophers on travelling

Several ancient Greek philosophers valued travelling as a means to gain knowledge and experience. Encountering different cultures and experiencing new environments broadens one’s perspective. Great figures like Thales and Pythagoras traveled to Egypt and other regions to study and acquire knowledge.

Aristotle believed that empirical observation and practical experience are good sources of knowledge. Provided, though, that one had the foundations in reason and virtue through formal education. Otherwise, one could not learn simply by travelling. The philosopher is known as saying, not in the exact words, that travel is education for the young and experience for the old.

For those who are older, Aristotle believed that they accumulate experience and wisdom by travelling. They reflect on their lives, gain new insights into the world, and may appreciate life more profoundly.

“Those who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details,” said Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher from Ephesus. The quote implies that a man should travel to learn about the world with his own eyes. Heraclitus believed that the world is constantly changing: “The only thing that is constant is change,” is one of his famous quotes.

With his phrase “τα πάντα ρεί” (everything flows), Heraclitus said that the world is in perpetual motion; therefore, man should be constantly moving as well.

Plato is known for having traveled extensively, visiting Italy, Sicily, Egypt, and Libya. The reason he traveled so much was his disappointment with Athenian society. He was exposed to new cultures and ideas during his travels, which influenced his philosophical development and his Theory of Forms.

Other philosophers who traveled extensively were Thales of Miletus, who visited Egypt to study science and mathematics. Pythagoras traveled to Egypt, Israel, Babylonia, and possibly India. Democritus traveled in Asia, Egypt, and possibly India and Ethiopia.

Socrates, on the other hand, was against travelling and he never left Athens, his hometown. The father of philosophy, for many, believed that man should only make internal journeys. He emphasized self-knowledge and ethical development, which he believed were best pursued through internal reflection and dialogue.

The recorded history of wine in Ancient Greece begins around the 15th century BC, while viticulture appears to have existed as early as the Neolithic era, 6,500 years ago.

Ancient Greece is also the place where modern wine culture began, as wine consumption stopped being solely a sacred act, as it had been when priests and rulers controlled the vineyards.

By the early Bronze Age, vineyard cultivation of grapes was widespread in ancient Greece, and by the time of the rise of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, wine was part of everyday life, for consumption and/or production.

By that time in Greek society, wine was an economically important business.

Wine and commerce in ancient Greece

There was substantial interaction between the Mycenaean and Minoan cultures, based mainly on commerce.

Around 1200 BC, people from northern Greece invaded the southern Mycenaean area, which was a monarchy.

The war devastated the Mycenaean lands, generating thousands of poor refugee families who escaped to fortified cities for protection.

In order to consolidate their powers, the invaders gave more privileges to the common people, thus undermining the power of monarchs and aristocrats.

The new, democratic city-states were slowly created over time with the common people having more freedoms and opportunities.

Gradually, the common people started cultivating plots of land, with vineyards and olive groves being the most plentiful and lucrative.

People could thus own vineyards, cultivate them, and trade and drink their own wine. A new class of merchants, albeit a small one, was born.

At the same time, more and more people in ancient Greece began to drink wine for pleasure rather than as a sacred ritual.

Colonization and trade expansion

The Greek city-states then began to establish colonies throughout the Mediterranean. The settlers, already experienced in vine cultivation, brought grapevines with them and were able to better cultivate already-existing vineyards.

Moving west, Sicily and southern Italy were the first colonies established by ancient Greeks. Greeks even called the southern part of the Italian Peninsula Oenotria (“the land of vines”).

Other Greeks settled in Massalia (Marseille) in southern France while others moved east all the way to the shores of the Black Sea.

The colonies provided more opportunities for wine merchants. The Greeks could now introduce their wines as far as the western part of France and to the Black Sea in the east.

Athens was a large and lucrative market for wine, as the climate in the Attica region was ideal for vines, and production was substantial. Wine from Attica was traded in all the lands along the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Other areas famous for wine in ancient Greece were the islands of Santorini and Thasos. This is especially true in Santorini, where the rich volcanic soil produced exceptional grapes. Ancient Greeks were very particular about the origin of their wines.

Major trading partners for wine in ancient Greece were Crimea, Egypt, Scythia, and Etruria among others, as the Greeks traded their knowledge of viticulture and winemaking.

Indicative of the lucrative trade of wine from Greece is a shipwreck discovered off the coast of southern France that held nearly 10,000 amphorae containing almost 300,000 liters (79,000 US gallons) of Greek wine.

Diluted wine

The wine in ancient Greece was unlike what we know today. It was not left undiluted but was mixed with water in precise proportions in a vessel called a krater.

In certain seaside areas or islands, such as Santorini, Greeks used to mix wine with salt water as a preservative and for the taste it imparted. Honey was sometimes added to sweeten the wine.

The mixing of water and wine was for the drinker to enable him or herself to maintain composure and self-control, traits that were highly valued in ancient Greek society.

In fact, ancient Greeks seemed to believe that only barbarians—in most cases that simply meant non-Greeks—drank unmixed wine, got drunk and behaved like…barbarians.

Modern wine culture begins in Greece

Along with their wine, Greeks had exported their way of life, including vine-growing, winemaking, and enjoying wine, to almost every port in the Mediterranean basin.

Socrates praised wine in the following quote:

“Wine moistens and tempers the spirit and lulls the cares of the mind to rest. It revives our joys and is oil to the dying flame of life.”

Plato also praised the fruit of the vine:

“What is better adapted than the festive use of wine in the first place to test, and in the second place to train, the character of a man, if care be taken in the use of it? What is there cheaper or more innocent?

The ubiquitousness of the word “symposium” in ancient Greece, which literally means “drinking with others”—meant that ancient Greeks loved to get together, eat, drink, and converse during and after the meal.

It was a favorite pastime for well-to-do ancient Greeks to eat, drink, discuss, and, occasionally, philosophize, at these symposia.

Such convivial get-togethers have been illustrated on many types of Greek vases and sculptures. Examples of discussions that took place in symposia can be found in Plato’s Symposium and Xenophon’s Symposium.

Usually, symposia were hosted by aristocratic men for their peers. They would relax in recliners called klinai and drink from terracotta or, depending on how rich the host was, from bronze, silver, even gold, cups.

Wine was also used for medicinal purposes in ancient Greece. The great  physician Hippocrates prescribed different wines depending on the disease.

Ancient Greeks also had a god of wine, the mischievous Dionysus. The god of the grape harvest, winemaking, fertility, orchards, fruit, vegetation, insanity, and ritual madness, he was also the god of religious ecstasy and festivity; overall, it was he who embodied the colorful, vibrant life of ancient Greece.

 

 

For the Ancient Greeks, virtue was regarded as the highest quality a person could possess, and living virtuously was considered the ultimate goal of life.

Virtue was not merely a philosophical concept but a moral guide to be followed. Living a virtuous life was the greatest achievement for an Ancient Greek, but beyond moral virtue, the word itself also conveyed meanings of excellence, purpose in life, goodness, and happiness (eudaimonia, ευδαιμονία)—the fulfillment of human nature itself.

Reference to virtue (aretē, αρετή) first appeared in Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and later evolved into a central ideal for Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Aristotle. In the Iliad, Homer exalted the virtue of bravery, placing Achilles at the forefront as the model of an excellent warrior. Achilles fought and triumphed for the sake of honor but accepted the fate destined for him.

In the Odyssey, Homer praised the virtues of intelligence (or cunning) and the endurance of Odysseus. His loyalty to Penelope is also celebrated, reflecting the virtue of loyalty to family and home. Upon returning to Ithaca, Odysseus declared that “there is nothing nobler than a man and wife who share their minds and hearts in harmony.”

The Ancient Greeks, Socrates, and virtue

Socrates, the Ancient Greek philosopher regarded by most as the father of philosophy, believed that knowledge and virtue were inseparable. The pursuit of virtue was of great importance, as Socrates viewed it as synonymous with knowledge of the good: to know what is good is to do what is good. “Virtue does not come from wealth, but wealth and every other good thing which men have comes from virtue, both to the individual and to the state” Socrates said.

By the time of the classical philosophers, the Ancient Greek world had evolved. The city-state (polis) had replaced the heroic household as the center of life, and the question was no longer how to be a great warrior but how to be a good citizen and a good person. Socrates emerged as the first great moral philosopher. “No one errs willingly,” he insisted in Plato’s Protagoras—meaning that moral failure arises from ignorance, not malice. He believed that virtue could be taught.

Socrates’ famous elenchus was a dialectical method of questioning, testing, and refining ideas. Through a series of probing questions, the method sought to expose contradictions in a person’s beliefs and systematically guide them toward a clearer, more consistent understanding of truth. By revealing these contradictions, Socrates led people toward self-knowledge.

When he was arrested and tried for disrespecting the gods and corrupting Athenian youth with his teachings, he famously declared, “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology 38a). For Socrates, the pursuit of virtue was the same as the pursuit of wisdom. Courage, justice, temperance, and piety were not separate traits but expressions of a unified understanding of the good. Thus, Socrates transformed virtue from heroic excellence into a philosophical and ethical ideal grounded in reason and self-knowledge.

Plato and the soul

Plato, Socrates’ most famous pupil and the philosopher who became his master’s voice, once remarked: “Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge.” He developed this vision of virtue further, seeking to define its nature and role in human life. In his dialogues, especially The Republic, he explored the essence of virtue in both the individual and the state.

For Plato, the human soul was composed of three parts: the rational, spirited, and appetitive. Virtue, he taught, consisted of harmony among these elements, with reason guiding spirit and desire. Justice was this inner balance made visible in action. As he wrote, “Justice is doing one’s own work and not meddling with what is not one’s own” (Republic IV.433a). The just person, therefore, is one whose reason governs, whose spirit supports, and whose desires obey.

Plato identified four cardinal virtues that reflected this harmony: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. Wisdom was the virtue of reason; courage, that of the spirited part; temperance, the balance among all desires; and justice, the overarching order of the soul. These four virtues became the foundations of Western moral philosophy and profoundly influenced Christian ethical thought.

For Plato, virtue also had a transcendent dimension. True virtue was likeness to God, aimed at the Form of the Good—the ultimate reality that gives meaning and value to all things. As he wrote, “The Good is the cause of all that is right and beautiful” (Republic VI.517b). The virtuous person, through philosophical contemplation, seeks to align the soul with this divine Good, just as the sun illuminates the visible world. Thus, virtue is not only inner harmony within the self but also participation in a higher cosmic order.

Aristotle and practical virtue

For Aristotle, the concept of virtue was practical wisdom (phronēsis). He believed that ethical virtue, rather than mere self-control, is required for practical wisdom. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defined virtue as a disposition to act correctly, formed through habit and guided by reason. Virtue was not innate, nor purely intellectual; it was something cultivated through action. “We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts” (Ethics II.1), he explained. In other words, virtue is learned by living it. As he also said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Aristotle’s famous doctrine of the mean illustrates the balanced nature of virtue. Every virtue lies between two extremes of excess and deficiency. Courage, for example, lies between cowardice (too little fear) and recklessness (too much). Generosity lies between stinginess and extravagance. “Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean,” he writes, “this being determined by reason and as the prudent person would determine it” (Ethics II.6).

For Aristotle, the goal of life was eudaimonia, often translated as “happiness” but more accurately “flourishing.” This state is achieved not through pleasure or wealth but through the full realization of one’s potential as a rational and social being. “The good for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue,” he said (Ethics I.7). Virtue, then, is not a single act or rule but the lifelong practice of living wisely, courageously, and justly within a community. It requires both intellectual virtues (like wisdom and understanding) and moral virtues (like courage and moderation), harmonized under the guidance of practical wisdom.

Aristotle’s conception of virtue was purpose-driven. He believed that everything in nature has an end (telos). The eye’s purpose is to see, the seed’s to grow into a tree, and the human’s to live rationally and ethically. Virtue is the perfection of this natural purpose. Hence, for Aristotle, ethics was not about obeying rules but about fulfilling one’s nature as a rational being in society.

Quotes on virtue from Aristotle

Aristotle’s work on virtue and knowledge is unparalleled. A student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great, he established his own school, the Lyceum, where he explored topics ranging from biology to metaphysics. His reflections on virtue and the cultivation of character remain influential. Below are some of his most notable insights:

• Aristotle emphasized the importance of educating both mind and character, stating that “educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” He highlighted self-knowledge as the foundation of wisdom: “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom,” and courage and freedom were intertwined in his thought as is evident in his statement, “He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
• Aristotle also emphasized the role of habit in shaping virtue: “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.” For Aristotle, wisdom involved understanding life beyond immediate pleasure: “The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.” Cultivation of the mind and spirit was central to a flourishing life: “The energy of the mind is the essence of life,” and “The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace.”
• Aristotle also reflected on honor, leadership, and moral excellence: “Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them,” and “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.” Finally, he distinguished the cultivated from the uncultivated, stating that “the educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.”

Through these statements, Aristotle encapsulated his enduring vision of virtue as a combination of wisdom, moral character, and practical living.

The Stoics, moral worth, and virtue in Ancient Greece

The Stoics believed that the goal of all philosophical inquiry was to provide a mode of conduct characterized by tranquility of mind and certainty of moral worth. Flourishing during the Hellenistic period after Aristotle’s death, Zeno of Citium founded Stoicism around 300 BC, building on and radicalizing the moral insights of earlier philosophers. For the Stoics, virtue was not merely the highest good—it was the only good.

All external things—wealth, pleasure, health, even life itself—were morally indifferent. What mattered was the state of one’s soul: one’s rational and moral integrity. As the Stoic philosopher Epictetus later observed, “It is not things themselves that disturb men, but their opinions about things” (Enchiridion 5).

The Stoics saw virtue as living in accordance with nature, which meant acting in accordance to reason and accepting fate. Since the universe was governed by divine reason (logos), the wise individual aligns with it, remaining tranquil amid the changes of fortune. Courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom remained the core virtues, but now they were expressions of a single rational attitude toward life. As Seneca, the Roman Stoic, wrote, “Virtue is the only good, and vice the only evil; everything else is indifferent” (Letters 76). Even suffering or poverty could not harm the virtuous person because virtue itself was self-sufficient.

In this way, Stoicism universalized the Greek idea of virtue. It was no longer the privilege of citizens or philosophers but the potential of every human being. The Stoic sage, like Socrates before him, embodied moral freedom through inner mastery and reason. Marcus Aurelius, emperor and Stoic, summarized this ideal succinctly: “A man’s worth is measured by the things he pursues” (Meditations VII.3). To pursue virtue was, therefore, to live fully in harmony with the divine order of the world.

Influence of the Ancient Greek conception of virtue

The ancient Greek concept of virtue has had a profound influence on Western civilization. Ideas of moral inquiry, a virtuous life, practical wisdom, and moral worth were later adopted by Christian theology and continue to resonate today. Thomas Aquinas, for example, integrated Aristotle’s virtues with Christian faith in his writings.

In their exploration of virtue, the Ancient Greek philosophers offered no simple answers to questions such as, “How can I become virtuous?” Yet they left behind a framework for thinking, questioning, and appreciating the importance of a moral life for Western civilization.

For the Ancient Greeks, to live a virtuous life was to live well, to become the best version of oneself, and to align human nature with the rational order of the cosmos. They believed that this path led not only to moral goodness but also to true happiness.