Caleb shares reflections from a recent pilgrimage to Athens. He walks through the ruins of the Stoa Poikile, the painted porch where Stoicism was born, and finds the irony of a philosophy of impermanence enduring in stone fragments thousands of years later. He visits the Acropolis, the Lyceum where Aristotle taught, and thinks about what makes Athens worth visiting today.

(00:00) Visiting the Stoa Poikile and the Athenian Agora

(05:00) The Acropolis, the Lyceum, and Plato’s Academy

(06:30) Edward Lear and Athens as an imaginary city

(08:40) Athens as a platonic form

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Thanks to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations:

https://ancientlyre.com/

The Stoa Letter

Reflections from Athens