The women in this parable are Vice and Virtue, and I’m sure you can guess which path Hercules chose, given how awesome he became. Has this story ever happened? Probably not. But is it still important? Yes, because it’s a story about us . At least, that’s what Ryan Holiday thinks — and why he opens his book Discipline Is Destiny , the second of four in a series about the cardinal virtues of Stoicism (courage, discipline, justice, wisdom), with this metaphor.