Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander

Remaking Greek Civilization

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4.7. IV. The Male Ethic

The primary characters in the Homeric poems are aristocrats, who are expected to live up to a demanding code of values. The men are mainly warriors, like the incomparable Achilles of the Iliad. This poem tells part of the famous story of the attack by a Greek army on the city of Troy, a stronghold located in northwestern Anatolia. Although it is commonly assumed that the Trojans were a different people from the Greeks, the poems themselves provide no definitive answer to the question of their ethnic identity. In the Iliad's representation of the Trojan War, which the Greeks believed occurred about four hundred years before Homer's time, Achilles is, in the language of the poem, “the best of the Greeks” because he is a “doer of deeds and speaker of words” without equal. Achilles' overriding concern in word and action is with the glory and recognition for all time that he can win with his “excellence” (the best available translation for Greek arete, a word with a range of meanings). Like all aristocrats, Achilles feared the disgrace that he would feel before others if he were seen to fail to live up to the code of excellence. Under the aristocratic code, failure and wrongdoing produced public shame.

• Achilles: Hom. Il. 9.325ff [Text]; Achilles on vases [Browser]; References to Achilles [English Index]
• Troy: Troy [Atlas]; Photos and description of Troy [Site]; Select references to Troy [Encyclopedia]
• the best of the Greeks: Hom. Il. 1.244 [Text]; Hom. Il. 1.412 [Text]; Hom. Il. 16.271 [Text]
• doer of deeds and speaker of words: This quote in context [Text]
• arete: Example of Arete [Text]; Dictionary entry [Greek-English Lexicon]; Instances of 'arete' in Homer [Greek Word Search]; References to arete [English Index]

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OCLC: 33900145
ISBN: 0300069561

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