{"id":179249,"date":"2023-10-17T09:37:39","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T14:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=179249"},"modified":"2026-01-15T20:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T02:25:36","slug":"the-stages-of-a-mans-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/leisure\/history\/the-stages-of-a-mans-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stages of a Man’s Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ever since we did our in-depth series about the seasons of a man’s life<\/a> (truly some of the most interesting articles we\u2019ve written \u2014 I highly recommend reading them!), I’ve continued to think about human development, particularly in adulthood. Most books and articles on development focus on the transition between childhood and adolescence and adolescence to adulthood. People act as if no development happens after age twenty-five, which is weird. And certainly not the case!<\/span><\/p>\n

We continue to grow and change in our 20s, 30s, 40s, and beyond. Researchers like Daniel Levinson have discovered that from birth through old age, individuals go through qualitatively different stages of life. Each season brings unique opportunities and challenges, and understanding what they are can help you navigate the landscape of mortality.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I’ve researched more about the topic, I’ve discovered that humans have been dividing the human lifespan into distinct stages or steps across time and cultures. Depending on the culture, certain expectations and norms were established for each stage to help people know how to direct their lives. These stages of life, which ran from birth until death, served as a rough roadmap on how to live a good life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Below, we highlight different ways writers, sages, and philosophers have divided up the lifespan. They\u2019re interesting to contemplate and will perhaps give you some things to consider about the season you\u2019re in now and the one you\u2019ll transition to next.<\/span><\/p>\n

Solon’s Stages of Life<\/h2>\n

Solon was the founder and lawgiver of ancient Athens. He was also a poet, and in one of the fragments we have of his verse, he divided human life into seven stages of ten years each. Seven and ten were intentional, as both were considered “perfect” or “complete” numbers in ancient Greece.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

0-7: A boy at first is the man; unripe; then he casts his teeth; milk-teeth befitting the child he sheds his 7th year;<\/span><\/p>\n

7-14: Then to his seven years God adding another seven, signs of approaching manhood show in the bud;<\/span><\/p>\n

14-21: Still, in the third of the sevens his limbs are growing; his chin touched with a fleecy down; the bloom of the cheek gone;<\/span><\/p>\n

21-28: Now in the 4th of the 7’s ripen to greatest completeness the powers of the man and his worth becomes plain to see;<\/span><\/p>\n

28-35: In the fifth he bethinks him that this is the season for courting, bethinks him that sons will preserve and continue his line;<\/span><\/p>\n

35-42: Now in the 6th his mind, ever open to virtue, broadens, and never inspires him to profitless deeds;<\/span><\/p>\n

42-56: [Two stages combined] Seven times 7, and 8; the tongue and the mind for fourteen years together are now at their best;<\/span><\/p>\n

56-63: Still in the ninth is he able, but never so nimble in speech and in wit as he was in the days of his prime;<\/span><\/p>\n

63-70: Who to the tenth has attained, and has lived to complete it, has come to the time to depart on the ebb tide of death.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ptolemy’s Life Stages of Man<\/h2>\n

The ancient Roman astronomer Ptolemy divided human life into seven stages. Interestingly, he described ages 41-55 as a time of unhappiness, and modern researchers have found that human happiness reaches its lowest point around age 47 or 48<\/a>. The guy was ahead of his time!<\/span><\/p>\n

Ptolemy described each stage of life as being marked by certain characteristics, which were influenced by different celestial bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1-4: Inarticulate state of the soul. Governing celestial body: Moon<\/span><\/p>\n

4-14: The logical part of the soul is formed. Governing celestial body: Mercury<\/span><\/p>\n

14-22: Youth. Impulse toward the embrace of love. Governing celestial body: Venus<\/span><\/p>\n

22-41: Soul masters action, seriousness. Governing celestial body: Sun<\/span><\/p>\n

41-55: Unhappiness, desire to accomplish. Governing celestial body: Mars<\/span><\/p>\n

56-68: Thoughtfulness, dignity. Governing celestial body: Jupiter <\/span><\/p>\n

68-death: Cooling, slowing down, dispirited. Governing celestial body: Saturn <\/span><\/p>\n

Horace’s Four Seasons of a Man’s Life<\/h2>\n

The Roman poet Horace depicted a man’s life going through four stages in his poem \u201cArs Poetica.\u201d While he doesn’t give specific ages, his descriptions of the characteristics of each of the four life stages are interesting. (The words in brackets are original to the translation.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Boyhood<\/b><\/p>\n

The boy, who is just able to pronounce his words, and prints the ground with a firm tread, delights to play with his fellows, contracts and lays aside anger without reason, and is subject to change every hour. <\/span><\/p>\n

Youth<\/b><\/p>\n

The beardless youth, his guardian being at length discharged, joys in horses, and dogs, and the verdure of the sunny Campus Martius; pliable as wax to the bent of vice, rough to advisers, a slow provider of useful things, prodigal of his money, high-spirited, and amorous, and hasty in deserting the objects of his passion. <\/span><\/p>\n

Manhood<\/b><\/p>\n

[After this] our inclinations being changed, the age and spirit of manhood seeks after wealth, and [high] connections, is subservient to points of honor; and is cautious of committing any action, which he would subsequently be industrious to correct. <\/span><\/p>\n

Old Age<\/b><\/p>\n

Many inconveniences encompass a man in years; either because he seeks [eagerly] for gain, and abstains from what he has gotten, and is afraid to make use of it; or because he transacts every thing in a timorous and dispassionate manner, dilatory, slow in hope, remiss, and greedy of futurity. Peevish, querulous, a panegyrist of former times when he was a boy, a chastiser and censurer of his juniors. Our advancing years bring many advantages along with them. Many our declining ones take away. That the parts [therefore] belonging to age may not be given to youth, and those of a man to a boy, we must dwell upon those qualities which are joined and adapted to each person’s age.<\/span><\/p>\n

Confucius’ Stages of Life<\/h2>\n

In the <\/span>Analects<\/span><\/i>, the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius provides one of the earliest examples of the stages of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The Master said, at 15 I set my heart upon learning<\/span><\/p>\n

At 30, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 40, I no longer suffered from perplexities.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 50, I knew what were the biddings of heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 60, I heard them with docile ears.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 70, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Native American Seasons of Life<\/h2>\n

In many Native American tribes, the Medicine Wheel served as a map for an individual journeying through mortality. Life is represented as passing through its four quadrants. Each quadrant represents a season of the year and an ordinal direction. The qualities of those environmental seasons (e.g., fertile\/fallow) and directions (e.g., rising\/setting) paralleled the mood of that stage of life. <\/span><\/p>\n

Childhood<\/b><\/p>\n

Season: Spring<\/span>
\nDirection: East<\/span><\/p>\n

Adolescence<\/b><\/p>\n

Season: Summer<\/span>
\nDirection: South<\/span><\/p>\n

Adulthood<\/b><\/p>\n

Season: Fall<\/span>
\nDirection: West<\/span><\/p>\n

Elderhood<\/b><\/p>\n

Season: Winter<\/span>
\nDirection: North<\/span><\/p>\n

William Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man<\/h2>\n

Perhaps the most famous description of the life cycle of humans comes from William Shakespeare\u2019s play <\/span>As You Like It.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n

All the world’s a stage,
\nAnd all the men and women merely players;
\nThey have their exits and their entrances;
\nAnd one man in his time plays many parts,
\nHis acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
\nMewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
\nThen the whining school-boy, with his satchel
\nAnd shining morning face, creeping like snail
\nUnwillingly to school. And then the lover,
\nSighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
\nMade to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
\nFull of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
\nJealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
\nSeeking the bubble reputation
\nEven in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
\nIn fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
\nWith eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
\nFull of wise saws and modern instances;
\nAnd so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
\nInto the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
\nWith spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
\nHis youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide
\nFor his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
\nTurning again toward childish treble, pipes
\nAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
\nThat ends this strange eventful history,
\nIs second childishness and mere oblivion;
\nSans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.<\/p>\n

The Steps of Life<\/h2>\n

Beginning in the 15th century, writers and artists in the West started depicting the life course as going through 10 stages \u2014 each stage being a decade of life. Life was often depicted in a pyramid of ascending growth and subsequent decline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each 10-year span was associated with a different animal that described the characteristics of a person during that decade. The verse below accompanied a 19th-century depiction of the Steps of Life (pictured above).<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Age 5 \u2014 Until the first five years be spent, a child is lamb-like, innocent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 10 \u2014 At ten, goat-like, he skips and joys in idle sports and foolish toys.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 20 \u2014 At twenty, love doth swell his veins, and heifer-like, untamed remains.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 30 \u2014 With ox-like strength to smite his foes, at thirty to the field he goes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 40 \u2014 At forty, naught his courage quails, but lion-like by force prevails.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 50 \u2014 Strength fails at fifty, but with wit, fox-like he helps to manage it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 60 \u2014 At sixty repine, fraud and stealthy ways, wolf-like he tries his wealth to raise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 70 \u2014 At seventy, news he\u2019ll hear and tell, but dog-like loves at home to dwell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 80 \u2014 The cat keeps house and loves the fire; at eighty we the same desire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 90 \u2014 Weak donkey backs were made to bear; at ninety we must suffer everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age 100 \u2014 If we should reach the hundredth year, tho\u2019 sick of life, the grave we fear.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since we did our in-depth series about the seasons of a man’s life (truly some of the most interesting articles we\u2019ve written \u2014 I highly recommend reading them!), I’ve continued to think about human development, particularly in adulthood. Most books and articles on development focus on the transition between childhood and adolescence and adolescence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":179257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42383,218],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-179249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-leisure"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/10\/stages-feat-538x280.png","aom":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/10\/stages-feat-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2023\/10\/stages-feat-320x228.png"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179249"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179266,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179249\/revisions\/179266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179249"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=179249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}