Play is not always freedom, nor is it always joy.

The often-shared quote by Plato — “Life must be lived as play” — encourages us to loosen up, laugh more and take life less seriously. We are told it is an ancient wisdom from a revered philosopher. It is a timeless call for us to delight in the everyday. But the truth is both subtle and strange. Not only was it never meant that way, but it may never have been said by Plato at all.

The words, as we know them, come filtered through more modern scholarship and translations that capture contemporary imaginations and desires, but distort meaning. In the original Greek, what sounds like a celebration of spontaneity was, in fact, an instruction about ritual and duty.

To Plato, humans were not playful creatures by nature, but playthings of the divine. Life was a kind of performance, filled with sacrifice, song and dance. These things were not for enjoyment, but to fulfil obligations and avoid divine wrath. Play was not personal expression. Instead, it was a prescribed act of piety.

This makes the modern reading of play, as being the expression of lightness, liberation and emotional release, appealing, but historically unfaithful. What we want the quote to mean reveals more about ourselves and feelings about the modern world than it does about the advice of an ancient philosopher.

But there is a lesson here.

We regularly mine the past for comfort, searching for ancient voices, ideas and wisdom that will support modern hopes. But philosophy is not therapy, and Plato was not a life coach. To treat him as such is to ignore the context that shaped his words and the reverence with which he approached existence.

Still, there is something valuable, even now, in recognising that not all play is, nor should be, easy and fun. Sometimes what looks and feels like joy is actually structure and restraint. Even in freedom, we can find form and limitations.

So, Plato did not say “life must be lived as play” in the way it often appears in your social media feeds, or mentioned casually at a Sunday brunch or mid-week coffee catch-up. It is not a statement that permits you to take things less seriously.

Instead, Plato reminds us that to live rightly is to live in harmony with something higher. Community and nature are two worthwhile places to start, where we can play our part and live life serving others.

In this way, play is not only how we express ourselves, but it is also how we learn to serve with purpose.