Thucydides and Homer: Cultures

Thucydides and Homer: Cultures

Thucydides and Homer, though they lived a relatively short 300 years apart, wrote about very different Greek cultures. While the Greeks who Homer wrote about in The Iliad were, in many respects, dissimilar to the Greeks in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, this stands in marked contrast to the profound similarities that exist between contemporary cultures and those that Thucydides wrote of. There are, however, similarities between modern cultures and those in Homer’s writing, as well as differences between modern ones and those in Thucydides’ writing. Thucydides’ history is, therefore, a relational bridge between the cultures of ancient Greece and modern ones.

One of the most recognizable differences in the cultures written of by Thucydides and Homer is what people are respected for. In the world of The Iliad, areté determines an individual’s merit, and it is largely determined by physical triumphs over opponents. The importance of victory to these people’s honor is indicated in Hector’s defeat of Patroclus. “Hector… seeing [Patroclus] trying to stagger free,… came rushing into him right across the lines and rammed his spearshaft home, stabbing deep in the bowels… Down he crashed—horror gripped the Achaean armies.” (Homer, 439) Patroclus’ fall not only represented Hector’s superior might, but the publicity of areté; for every Achaean soldier became demoralized by the death of Patroclus.

Whereas in the aforementioned culture a person’s status was public and largely based on strength, Thucydides wrote about a culture that valued beauty through the intellect and art forms. When Corcyra and Corinth are poised to go to war with each other...

... middle of paper ...

... Peloponnesian War is neither romantic nor poetic; rather, it is an (relatively) objective account of what he considered to be the most devastating war. Based on his observations, Thucydides used logic to infer things about human behavior and historical events. It could well have been this abandonment of romanticism that allowed Thucydides to so accurately explain history in terms of human nature, which is based very much on the human condition. If this is the case, then it is certainly not surprising that Thucydides describes many familiar ideas and is able to relate values and principles from cultures older than his own to modern ones.

Works Cited

1. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. Trans. Rex Warner. New York:

Penguin Books, 1954.

2. Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin Books, 1990.