21 March 2011

The reputation of the Greek hero

The flaw in the ancient world's Greek system of values was in the application of honor to the individual, the hero, rather than to the community. 
Thus was public and private met in irreconcilable ways. Private honor, the reputation of the Greek hero, was anathematic to the whole notion of what the society needed to believe to be the case for the sake of its own ability to maintain coherence. 

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