This past week, I had the pleasure of traveling to Athens, Greece on a faculty lead field trip with Dr. McFarland. While in Athens, our group went on tours of the Ancient Agora, the Acropolis, and many other places, where we not only got to hear the history of each location, but also tie ins to global leadership from Dr. McFarland.
Our first stop in Athens was the Ancient Agora, which I, along with my other group members, had been assigned to do research on prior to the trip. However, researching a place so much history behind it can never prepare you for what it’s like to stand in the middle of said history. The Temple of Hephaestus was especially memorable, as it was somehow still standing after all these years, with beautiful marble carvings barely washed away by time. Dr. McFarland placed an emphasis on how the Agora was once a marketplace, where business went down every day. The Agora also served as a sort of community center, where leaders of the past, such as Socrates, could go and deliver their message where everyone could hear it.
On the second day, we got to tour the Acropolis. On our way up the Acropolis, We got to see what was probably my favorite sight in Athens, the roman theater that has been somewhat recently refurbished, and is still in use today. We got to look down into the theater from behind a gate at the top. Once we got to the top, where the Parthenon is located, I was amazed at just how much larger than life the structure is. I found myself wondering just how much effort it must have taken to build such a structure so high up a mountain back then. I was also surprised to learn that there used to be a gold and ivory statue of Athena in the center of the Parthenon, and wished it was still around to see today. Our tour guide told us nobody knows what really happened to the statue, but it is theorized that another European country stole it and took it apart for scrap.
Throughout the trip, we toured the ruins of the Lyceum (Aristotle’s School) and Plato’s Academy. In both locations, we had class and discussed the impact of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle on Global leaders today. I was shocked to learn just how much of an impact these philosophers had on what a leader is today. I never really considered Philosophers to be leaders, but in our discussions, I realized that while not all philosophers are leaders, these three were leaders in thought, considering things that man had not considered before. Concepts such as the Socratic Method, the Cave Allegory, and the Golden Mean are imperative to our current understanding of leadership as a whole.
