Greek Culture Reflected in Literature

In almost every known society in history, there have been heroes and there have those who have been labeled villains. Heroes have been defined in many ways. In some cultures it is heroic to remain in solitary reflection and devote oneself to personal devotion to God. In other cultures, this is seen as cowardly and the only means of being labeled a hero is to put oneself in the front of the battle foray and hope that you die a glorious death. Still, in other cultures to be a hero is to die giving yourself for the sake of another. Heroics were part of the backbone of Greek culture as moral and ethic fiber that stirred the Greek men and women to become those heroes. The heroism of these people and the nature of their existence was cause to give them place in the great works of philosophy and literature and be remembered for all time.

The Greeks believed that heroism and virtue (arête) went hand in hand. Their was also the pursuit for the “kleos” or “glory.” To be heroic was to honor ones family and be held in esteem. And to have honor was a virtue. To be courageous was also a virtue as well as to show gratitude to those who had done you a service. These virtues made up the code of what defined a hero.

In the war epic The Iliad by Homer, heroes are woven amongst quests for eternal glory, and military duty over family obligation – both traits of Greek culture. Greeks defined Heroes as someone who was endowed with courage and had a strong sense of purpose as well as someone who was celebrated by the gods. He was someone who was spoken of in stories and talked about because of what he has accomplished, especially when he had risked his life in battle. We see this in Achilles, as he seems to always escape death. “No mortal man can fight Achilles head-to-head: at every foray one of the gods goes with him, beating back his death” (Aeneas to Apollo, Homer, pg 506).

Homer uses the character of Achilles to depict the concept of the tragic Greek hero in exceptional form. Much of The Iliad focuses on Achilles and his struggle to obtain eternal glory and fame, which is what all Greek warriors yearned for. Achilles is driven by his thirst for glory. Part of him yearns to live a long, comfortable life, while the other part of him wants to be infamous. Ultimately, he is willing to sacrifice everything so that his name will be remembered. As Achilles states himself, “Two fates bear me to the day of death. If I hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies…. True, but my the life that’s left me will be long, the stroke of death will not come on me quickly” (pg. 265).

Hector is another example of Greek heroism. Perhaps even more so than Achilles. Because while Achilles fights for fame and his own pride, Hector fights for his homeland and his family. This allows Homer to develop him into a more tender humanlike hero. Hector shows deep love for his wife and child and is one of the only ones who does not shun his cowardly brother. Despite the consequences he knows he will face going into battle, he knows it his duty and thus he goes. He faces Achilles despite his wife’s and father’s pleas because he knows it is right. He tells his wife,, “I would die of shame to face the men of Troy and the Trojan women …. if I were to shrink from battle now, coward. Nor does the spirit urge me on that way. I’ve learned it all too well. To stand up bravely, always fight in the front ranks of the Trojan soldiers, winning my father great glory” (pg. 210). Thus, it is Hector who is ultimately given a hero’s funeral, which is justly due since he acted in a heroic like manner.

Patroclus is also another example. His heroism is reflected in the opinions of his fellow soldiers and particularly of Achilles, who shared a deep camaraderie with him. Patroclus was never afraid to fight, never afraid to pick up a sword. As he states, “The proof of battle is action, proof of words, debate. No time for speeches now, it’s time to fight!” (pg. 433) He constantly yearned to make a name for himself. His death results not only in Achilles reawakening to a new, and fresh fury, but also reveals the opinions of how his fellow soldiers felt about him.

Clearly the Iliad paints a vivid portrayal of Homeric ideals as to what Greek heroism was. And as the Iliad is a brilliant example of what Greek’s thought to be heroic, Meno by Plato is an excellent example of how the Greek’s defined virtue and in doing how both heroism and virtue are intertwined.

The Meno is a dialogue between Socrates, one of Plato’s students, and a man by the name of Meno, who asks Socrates if virtue can be taught and to define what virtue really is. They then spend the rest of the dialogue discussing the later of the two questions in depth. Socrates says that virtue cannot be defined and then Meno says he believes that Sophists, men who offered to teach wisdom and virtue, could teach it. Socrates then tells Meno to try and define virtue in it truest form.

Meno suggests that virtue is simply the desire for good things but Socrates argues that this cannot be the case. Since different human beings are unequal in virtue, virtue must be something that varies among them, he argues, but desire for one believes to be good is perfectly universal, since no human being ever knowingly desires what is bad. Differences in their conduct must be a consequence of differences in what they know (Meno 77).

Socrates raises a serious dilemma: how can we ever learn what we do not know? Either we already know what we are looking for, in which case we don’t need to look, or we don’t know what we’re looking for, in which case we wouldn’t recognize it if we found it (Meno 80). The problem with knowledge is that, in the most basis questions about our human nature, it seems impossible for us to gain understanding. The only answer, Socrates proposed, is to acknowledge that we already know what we need to know.

The example offered in this dialogue is discovery of an irrational number, the square root of 2. Socrates shows a slave boy a complex geometrical demonstration with careful questions, showing that the boy somehow already knows the correct answers on his own. Such experiences lend some credence to Plato’s claim that recollection may be the source of our true opinions about the most fundamental features of reality (Meno 85).

The first question of the dialogue that was asked, whether or not virtue can be taught, is then brought up again. On the one hand, it seems that virtue must be a kind of wisdom, which we usually assume to be one of the acquirable benefits of education. On the other hand, if virtue could be taught, we should be able to identify both those who teach it and those who learn from them, which we cannot easily do (Meno 96).

By the end of his dialogue with Meno, Socrates has made it clear to Meno that he does not know the nature of virtue. They are not quite so discouraged though. For they know that virtue can be possessed it simply cannot be taught or learned. While there is no direct answer to the question, there still is some sort of resolution to the conflict in the dialogue. This is the Socratic state of aporia – which is the state of uncertainty when one realizes on is ignorant of what one thought they knew. They at least know what they do not know.

As the Iliad illuminates the importance of achieving eternal glory to the Greeks, Meno reveals the importance of virtue and their quest to discover and understand what it truly was. But, as mentioned above, to be heroic was to be virtuous, though perhaps in writing these two great works the authors had different ideas in mind. Homer’s purpose in writing the Iliad was to convey the deep sense of honor and pride the Greeks had in achieving their eternal place among their people. It was about fame and glory, despite the consequences. In Meno, Plato seemed to be trying to convey the importance of a quest for knowledge, whether than a quest for personal glory. He was a firm believer in the polis and its values which were harmony, order and justice. Within the virtue of justice he believed that every person was meant to do one thing and one alone (Textbook, Chapter 3, pg. 93, paragraph 1). Thus, there were two different quests presented by Homer and Plato. Each had its own set of values. Homer’s visions of eternal fame, and Plato’s ideals of perfected goodness and virtue. Yet while each was vastly different from the other, each was embraced by the culture that birthed these two great men.

The Greeks were a great people. Not because they were wise and learned philosophers, not because they were some of the best soldiers of their time. Instead, it is because they were both that have lived in the memory of teacher and warrior alike down through the ages. Their all encompassing thirst for all of life and not just halves of it has made them a name in every history book, and made them all heroes, warrior and philosophers in their own right.