Western thought and culture grew out of Greek ideals. Since “there is nothing new under the sun,” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) many of the ideals expressed by Homer, Sophocles, and Hesiod ring true for Westerners today. Part of the myth of a tragic hero includes a leadership position of some sort: often noble birth, kingship, or military leadership. Tragic plays like Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and the Iliad served as worship, entertainment, examples of virtue, and cautionary tales. Modern Americans can look back at such works and apply the ideas to selecting and serving as leaders on a national, community, or family level. Some of desirable qualities illustrated in Archaic and Classical Greek works include self-control, fairness, respect for moral law, service to one’s community, courage, and honor. “The Greek maxim ‘Nothing in excess’” (Hollister 131) illustrates the need for self-control. Every tragic hero ended up committing an act of hubris based on his own fatal flaw. Many of those fatal flaws could have served the man and his country if tempered with self-control. “In the field of ethics, [Aristotle] advocated moderation in all behavior, arguing that emotions and actions (anger and love, eating and drinking) are themselves neither good nor evil and should be neither suppressed nor carried to excess: virtue is the avoidance of extremes, the ‘golden mean’” (Hollister 130). In the Iliad, many characters lack self-control which causes war, strife, and death. Paris’s Paris’ lack of self-control regarding Helen started the Trojan War which kept the soldiers away from their homes for years. Achilles’ lack of self-control in his rage added to the loss and pain for both the Greeks and the Trojans. The Iliad begins: Rage: Sing, Goddess, Achil... ... middle of paper ... ...ailure to remember the past allowed him to sin against the gods and cost him both his position and his sight. Creon possessed many good qualities, but overstepped his bounds and through pride and found his decree at odds with the gods’ laws. Antigone inherited her father’s rashness and lack of self-control as evidenced by her suicide which she committed so quickly that even Creon’s change of heart could not save her. Some decisions just cannot be rectified. In choosing modern leaders, one can take a lesson from the Greeks in how a person’s character can affect his leadership abilities and his constituents. Even positive traits without self-control can lead to devastating ends. Hesiod’s words hold true through the ages, …Also good Is he who takes another’s good advice. But he who neither thinks for himself nor learns From others, is a failure as a man. (Works, 68)
The choices we make define the destiny of our lives. Since the beginning of time, man has always been an imperfect being full of flaws. Man is faced with different situations that can end up bringing disgrace to himself and his family if the situations are not well handled. In the texts Book II of the Aeneid by Virgil, Antigone by Sophocles, Oedipus the king by Sophocles, and Book XXII from the Iliad by Homer; Creon, the Trojan people, Hector, Achilles, and Oedipus embody what can lead to a man’s downfall through their own choices. Through these texts we are able to learn from the mistakes people made in the past and lead good moral lives. The texts illustrate how pride, lack of empathy, and ignorance lead to the destruction of man.
" This indicates Creon’s decision to punish Antigone was not taken kindly by the gods, but his ego wouldn't allow him to solve that as shown by Haemon, which, again, contribute to his nemesis. This proves by how Creon’s stubbornness isn't liked by the gods establishing him as a tragic
Inevitably, when you are talking about leaders, the questions arise: is he or she good or bad? What is the metric and what is your method of evaluation? In this case, we’ll look at Odysseus’ performance through a modern leadership lens, while keeping in mind that Homeric Greek culture might have motivated him to act differently than he would have today.
It has been shown again and again throughout history and literature that if there is a perfect human he is not also the perfect ruler. Those traits which we hold as good, such as the following of some sort of moral code, interfere with the necessity of detachment in a ruler. In both Henry IV and Richard II, Shakespeare explores what properties must be present in a good ruler. Those who are imperfect morally, who take into account only self-interest and not honor or what is appropriate, rise to rule, and stay in power.
The hero stands as an archetype of who we should be and who we wish to be. However, the hero has inherent flaws which we do not wish to strive towards. In literature, these flaws are not used as examples of what we should be but rather as examples of what not to be. This is especially dominant in the Greek hero. While the Greek hero follows his fate, making serious mistakes and having a fairly simple life, the Anglo-Saxon "super" hero tries, and may succeed, to change his fate, while dealing with a fairly complex life. The Greek hero is strong and mighty while his wit and intelligence are highly valued. In the Greek tragedy, the hero struggles to avoid many flaws. Among these flaws are ambition, foolishness, stubbornness, and hubris-the excessive component of pride. He must overcome his predestined fate-a task which is impossible. From the beginning of the tale, it is already clear that the hero will ultimately fail with the only way out being death. In Oedipus, the hero is already confronted with a load of information about his family and gouges his eyes out. At this point, when he tries to outwit his fate he has already lost and is sentenced to death.
Self-control can be defined as the ability to control oneself, in particular one’s emotions or desires, especially in difficult situations. Comparatively, self-image is the idea one has of one’s abilities, appearance or personality. Often self-image and self-control are thought of as separate entities, but in the case of the tragic play “Oedipus Rex,” Sophocles demonstrates the connection between the two through the tragic events that occur. Integrated in the plot is the growth of the character of Oedipus, for it is he whom indices the investigation to stop the current plague in his kingdom of Thebes, his personal rashness and ignorance of the past come back to haunt him. Oedipus’ incautiousness when discovering the true state of Thebes is
In Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles commends the ergon of Athenian heroes, which has placed them in the realm of logos, while directing the Athenians to follow these ideals of logos. The maintenance and continued success of Athens' political establishment relies on the prevalence of polis, rationality and discourse over family, emotion and reckless action. However, the indiscriminate turns of fate and fortune, often place logos in opposition with the base, primal nature of ergon. Both Thucydides and Sophocles recognize that when logos conflicts with the unexpected ergon, the preservation of rationality and unanimity among the citizens of the polis depend on the leadership of a single honest leader. In the History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides presents Pericles as a man of logos, whom Athens needs to achieve its full potential as an empire and later to rescue her from disaster. Likewise, Sophocles presents Theseus, in Oedipus Colonus, as the perfect successor of Pericles, who returns Athens to its former glory before the end of the war. In these two examples, we see that the dominance of logos over ergon within a polis lies in the ability and logos of the city’s current leader.
Both Antigone and Oedipus, written by Sophocles, use character’s opinions and approach to leadership to show Sophocles’ ideal leadership style for a king.
...d no wrong. Antigone needs no redemption because she has committed no great misdeed. Creon, however, comes to see his grave mistakes after he has fallen from grace. Creon repents, and is even brought to the verge of suicide. Like all tragic heroes, he can only realize his vice once everything has been taken away from him.
In the beginning of the play Creon is portrayed as King and a leader unwilling to bend the rules in order to protect the city. The way Creon responds to Antigone, “While I’m alive, no woman is going to lord over me”, shows he is stubborn and also his pride. (593-594) While the play continues Creon’s pride grows, and he thinks he can never be wrong and punishes Antigone by locking her up in a cave. However, things turn a different way when the Prophet tells Creon that he must free Antigone or face the wrath of Gods. After hearing this Creon changes his mind, “I shackled her, I’ll set her free myself. I am afraid it’s best to keep the established laws…” (1236-1238) But, as Creon tries to set Antigone free, he is faced with suicides of Antigone and Haemon, and followed by the suicide of his wife, Eurydice. This moment in the play serves as the downfall of Creon. But unlike Antigone, Creon reaches anagnorisis, which is the moment in the play when the tragic character realizes his hubris has led to his downfall. “And the guilt is all mine- can never be fixed…god help me, I admit all!”(1441-1445) Ultimately, Creon is more of a proper tragic character than Antigone because of he has an epiphany, a moment when he realizes his hubris has caused conflicts and deaths in the
Antigone utilizes her moral foundations, her religious roots, and the events of her past to form a sophisticated argument. Despite being unable to convince Creon to reverse her punishment, Antigone is able to convince the people of Thebes that she was right in her actions. After Antigone’s death, and the deaths of several others, Creon reflects on this monologue and realizes the honest truth behind Antigone’s actions and words.
What often is overlooked is that the demands on today’s leaders have become incredibly complex broad in scope. Contemporary society is less responsive to the appeal of great man leaders and is less willing to play a docile follower role,...
Greek Mythology ingeniously enforces many important life lessons in its stories. For example, a great moral is presented in the story of Baucis and Philemon: “Good people… ask whatever you want and you shall have your wish” (Hamilton 153). At that point in the story, Jupiter is rewarding Baucis and Philemon for being excellent hosts and punishing all the other single-minded citizens in the country. This story portrays two distinguished morals: love lasts forever and karma. People might not believe in karma, or even in love, but believing in karma leads people to assist others more than causing inconvenience, which is beneficial to the society. In a more informal method, myths present stories “about relationships… [And] especially stories that explore and evaluate the behavior of their principal characters” (Kromholz and McCarter 4). Not only does Greek Mythology present magnificent ideals, but also exploits the true nature of humans. From these kinds of stories, people will become aware of malicious behavior in humans and advise caution toward that behavior. Directly or indirectl...
What is leadership, and how do we attain the best and most effective leaders? These are questions that are as old as civilization itself. Bass (1974) wrote that, “from its infancy, the study of history has been the study of leaders” (as cited in Wren, 1995, p. 50). Since the study of history in the West is commonly held to begin with Herodotus of ancient Athens, it is not surprising that we should examine the historical views of leadership through the eyes of two titans of Greek thought: Plato and Aristotle.
As Yukl (2010) indicates, such factors (e.g. personality, values and capacities) attributed to a leader. Normally it is widespread acknowledged that someone is born to be a lead...