Ancient Concept of Heroism
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The "heroic" life: until recently, this was the stuff of legend, epic poetry and philosophers' focus. Most certainly it was in the center of the ancients' view of Life. "Life," here, is purposely capitalized; it is the view of a world-universe-sacred-and-profane existence that does not separate the mythic from the mundane. One might call that a "religious" mindset - and the naming would be correct. In the ancient world, religion and life were more often than not one-and-the-same. As was the concept of "heroism": a person's acts were defined as heroic - or not - based upon one's religious/philosophic approach to Life. In the Western tradition, that approach changed over the centuries of ancient civilization: from the primal heroism of the ancient Greeks, as exemplified in Homer's epic poem The Iliad, through the Stoic conception of the Romans found in Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, to end up with the early Christian mystic interpretation of heroism, as found in such writings as "The Passion of Saint Perpetua." It will be the purpose of this brief essay to examine how the ancient concept of the heroic life changed through time and in those three works - and to see what threads of thought, if any, persisted. Always to be bravest and to be preeminent above others. In the conception of Homer's pre-"Golden Age" Greeks, who lived before the intellectual refinements of men the likes of Plato could give their religious beliefs philosophic
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n impression, the admiration of self, the discontent with your lot (II, 5).
This is a far cry from the Homeric Greek view of heroism, and as such it indicates how much larger a role ethics played in the latter-day concept of Life. The ancient Greeks, probably reflecting their Bronze Age orientation, were more pragmatic about their accomplishments: deeds mattered, little else - whether it was in terms of heroism or whatever. (Again it should be remembered: Homer was writing in a pre-Socratic developmental stage of Greek civilization.) The Stoics that Marcus Aurelius deferred to, in contrast to the views of a millennium earlier, felt there was a "universal Reason" that gave meaning to all acts: "[L]ife itself is but what you deem it" (IV, 3).
This "universal Reason" of the Stoic school of philosophy that dominated intellectual Roman culture approximates a concept of "Deity" - or "deities" - that is, this was the mystic, religious aspect of Marcus Aurelius' beliefs. The Homeric Greek performed heroic acts because his gods were essentially indifferent to a man's ultimate fate - or, even if they cared, their rule did not extend very far into the afterlife: it was only in a man's lifetime that matters such as honor and heroi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1735
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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