Enkrateia


Enkrateia + κράτος. Enkrateia comes from the adjective enkratês which means possession, power over something or someone else + κράτος ). It results in the meaning of power over yourself, power over your own passions and instincts, self-control and self-mastery.
During Socrates' life three of his disciples, Isocrates, Xenophon and Plato, transformed the adjective enkratês to the noun enkrateia and gave it a different meaning: with them, enkrateia meant not power over something or someone else but power over yourself, power over your own passions and instincts, self-control.
For Aristotle, enkrateia is the antonym of akrasia which means "lacking command ". In this sense, enkrateia is the state of performing what is known to be a positive choice because of its positive consequences as opposed to akrasia, which is the state of performing what is known to be not a positive choice, but nevertheless performing it because of its immediate pleasures.
To Xenophon, enkrateia is not a particular virtue but "the foundation of all virtues".
Enkrateia is mentioned thrice in the New Testament, in the lists of virtues in Acts 24:25, Galatians 5:23, and 2 Peter 1:6. The King James Version renders the word "temperance."