How Real Is Your Creator Ethos

… and what the Ancient Greeks have to say about.

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… and what the Ancient Greeks have to say about.

Image of Author’s Own Note.

Today, ethos is often defined as credibility, character, or persona, but this is an impoverished view of an ancient idea. Ancient Greek has at least three words related to ethos.

Habit (or ethos) is what gives form to our character (êthos) which creates a place to stand (êthea) within tradition (nomos). (Jarrat and Reynolds, pp. 44–45)

Ethos isn’t just the persona we create for different audiences.

True ethos is cultivated daily through persistent everyday actions … or habits. We can polish up or disguise our ethos all we want by creating an online mask, but our core character is still what we do every day.

Habits (or ethos) are the daily actions and interactions that continually shape our character. If you do something often enough, that action becomes a part of you.

Character (or êthos) results from these persistent everyday actions. Our moral character has little to do with our words or what we believe … our core being is constantly becoming through our daily habits.

Êthea (place to stand) is the relationship between our habits, character and the surrounding community. Character by itself means little without others.

Nomos (or tradition / culture) is the environment where all these interact. Tradition (nomos) is the sum of those habitual actions that create and maintain culture within our community. We can create or re-create traditions through our actions.

So, yes, when you write, you need to consider how you portray yourself and where your credibility comes from, but to truly be heard requires considerable cultivation of the self.

We reveal our true core in how we live and act every day. This is the character that defines us as unique individuals, not some vapid image we have created for public consumption.

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