Honor and the Honorable
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document in English
literature
school essay
published 19/10/2007
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SummaryAccording to newspaper headings and television reports, every man and woman who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 is a hero. Even three years later, memorials are still built, hymns are still sung, and candlelight vigils are still held in remembrance of the bravest individuals modern America has ever known. The ancient Greeks would be all too happy to disagree. In fact, they would find the blind sacrifice of life in the name of a social duty to be a waste. Morality as a system of reasoning is a contemporary phenomenon; the extremities of right and wrong did not become a true force in the decision-making process until the influx of Christianity. The “common good” did not matter until the Romans placed society above the individual. The Greece of Homer’s Odyssey is a lawless Greece, and any kind of morality based on lawlessness is not morality recognizable by any ethicist. Greeks, as a reflection of their cultural beliefs, use their literature to stress the importance of two traits common to all epic heroes: the fulfillment of Xenia and Kléos. Xenia, an extravagant form of hospitality, divides the civilized from the uncivilized, while Kléos, an emphasis on death with honor above all, divides the heroic from the ordinary. The Greek hero is ultimately selfish; consequently, the greatest hero in all of epic history, Odysseus, is the most selfish man of all. In the shadow of terrorism, it is hard to admire a man who reputes any sense of humanity. However, Odysseus remains the truest embodiment of epic heroism, not based on any duty to society, but on his strict adherence to the Greek ideologies of Xenia and Kléos.
Table of Contents
- According to newspaper headings and television reports, every man and woman who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 is a hero.
- From the first book of Homer's Odyssey to the last vicious battle, Xenia is a prevailing force behind much of the plot.
- This distinction is made quite literally when Odysseus is faced with the blatant incivility of Polyphemus.
- While Odysseus' dedication to Xenia separates him from uncivil beings, it is his conscious struggle to achieve Kléos that elevates him to the status of hero.
- Odysseus reaches the island of the Phaeacians in disguise, unwilling at first to risk the disclosure of his identity.
- Kléos drives Odysseus to shatter a bond even more sacred than that of friendship: marriage.
- There is no denying that ancient Greek life is primitive when compared with the advances of modern society.
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