Courage and Cowardice in Ancient Greece: From Homer to Aristotle

267 Pages·2020·2.875 MB·English

by  Anrei G. Zavaliy

Andrei G. Zavaliy
Courage and
Cowardice
in Ancient
Greece
From Homer to Aristotle
Courage and Cowardice in Ancient Greece
Andrei G. Zavaliy
Courage and Cowardice
in Ancient Greece
From Homer to Aristotle
Andrei G. Zavaliy
Division of Humanities and Social Science
American University of Kuwait
Salmiya, Kuwait
ISBN 978-3-030-47605-2 ISBN 978-3-030-47606-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47606-9
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Preface
Despite a distinctly historical title of this book, the present work was initially moti-
vated by a concern about the contemporary realities. In general, the modern practice
of attribution (at least, at the popular level) of the ethical categories to individuals
frequently seems haphazard and unjustified. Arguably, the notions of a courageous
agent and a courageous action have suffered the most noticeable damage from
thoughtless ascription and excessive use. The apparent ease of meriting the title of
a courageous person in our days and a tendency to blur the line between cowardice
and circumspection are quite alarming. Radically rectifying the current situation
when the traditional virtues fall prey to the overwhelming inflation of moral values
is an exceedingly ambitious task; yet, even the most arduous journey must begin
with the first step. In the course of further research, it became obvious that any con-
structive criticism of these inflationary modern tendencies regarding instances of
courage and cowardice would have to involve a heavy dose of historical material
with references that go back to the earliest layers of the Western philosophical lit-
erature. Consequently, I decided to go to the roots and to undertake an investigation
of the evolution of these two concepts in Ancient Greece, paying special attention to
the gradual changes in the denotation of the concept of “courageous person” over
the centuries. It was soon apparent that for many contemporary views about the true
meaning of courage and cowardice one could identify direct predecessors among
the poetic, political, and philosophical debates on this topic that were raging more
than 2000 years ago. The ideas, images, and arguments that were first conceived by
Homer and Tyrtaeus, Pericles and Aristophanes, Plato and Aristotle felt particularly
pertinent for the present-day discussions of courage as well. It is with the hope of
demonstrating the continuous relevance of the ancient conceptions of this important
virtue that I submit this book.
American University of Kuwait Andrei G. Zavaliy
v
Acknowledgments
It would not have been feasible to complete this project without the support of many
people. I have discussed the ideas of this book with colleagues and the participants
of the various conferences, where the topics of courage and cowardice were raised,
but it would be plainly impossible to mention all the people who have contributed,
however inadvertently, to the final version of this work. At a bare minimum, I would
want to highlight many thoughtful discussions about the subject with Michael
Aristidou, whose superb grasp of the philosophical issues and acute mathematical
manner of reasoning helped me greatly to find a more precise formulation and to
suggest more palpable solutions to several theoretical conundrums concerned with
courageous actions discussed in the book. The influence of my other colleague,
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, deserves a separate mention as well. Although our fields
of research rarely overlap, Thorsten’s commitment to philosophy as a way of life,
his tremendous acumen, and his unique capacity to identify genuine philosophical
issues even in such unlikely places as architectural details of a modern building has
been a real inspiration for me for the last ten years. Striving to approximate his
overall working efficiency might be a futile task, but simply having him as a living
example of a dedicated researcher has motivated the completion of the present work
more effectively than the editor’s deadline.
I would like to gratefully acknowledge the efforts of David, an anonymous but
highly professional editor at Thoroughedit.com, who took time to thoroughly proof-
read the final version of this manuscript and has suggested a variety of stylistic and
grammatical improvements to the present text. His indisputable expertise and envi-
able patience with the awkward phrasing and questionable lexicon of the initial
version of this book proved to be crucial for giving the text its final shape. Any of
the remaining linguistic blunders should be exclusively credited to my own
carelessness.
On a more impersonal note, I am grateful to the administration of the American
University of Kuwait for facilitating my research efforts in a variety of ways, but
most importantly by granting their approval to several grants which allowed me to
test my preliminary ideas against the informed public at various philosophical con-
ferences, and to polish the final version of the manuscript with the help of the
vii
viii Acknowledgments
professional editors. A special thanks goes to the publishers of the journals for
granting their permission to use parts of the previously published material in a new
book. More specifically, the abridged versions of the sections in Chaps. 2 and 7 have
already appeared in the two earlier articles: “How Homeric is Aristotelian
Conception of Courage?” (Southern Journal of Philosophy, 2017) and “Cowardice
and Injustice: The Problem of Suicide in Aristotle’s Ethics” (The History of
Philosophy Quarterly, 2019). In addition, some material for Chap. 8  was
adapted with permission from a joint publication (with Michael Aristidou) in the
Journal of Military Ethics, “Courage: A Modern Look at an Ancient Virtue” (2014).
I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments as
well as the excellent team of editors from the Social Sciences and Humanities
Department of Springer, namely, Miranda Dijksman, Diana Nijenhuijzen and Neil
Olivier, for their expert assistance and guidance throughout the publication process.
Finally, my parents deserve a special mention for the uncountable ways in which
they keep encouraging me throughout life by their example. To my loving wife,
Oksana, I owe the debt of gratitude for tolerating my mental absence throughout the
writing process even when I was physically present. This book is dedicated to her
and our children.
Abbreviations
DK Diels, Hermann and Kranz, Walther. 1948. Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic
Philosophers.
Eccl. The Book of Ecclesiastes.
EE Aristotle, The Eudemian Ethics.
Il. Homer, The Iliad.
LSJ Liddle, H.  G., Scott, R. and Jones, H.  S. 1953. A Greek-English
Lexicon. Oxford.
NE Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics.
Od. Homer, The Odyssey.
PMG Page, Denys L., ed. 1962. Poetae Melici Graeci.
W West, Martin L. 1992. Iambi et Elegi Graeci 2.
ix
Contents
1 Introduction: Discovering an Ancient Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Courage and the Common Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Moderns and the ‘Species’ of Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Between Homer and Aristotle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Methodology and the Plan of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2 Archaic Greece: Courageous Hero in the Homeric Epics . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1 Introduction and Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 The Role of Thumos in Homeric Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Courage as an Aristocratic Duty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4 Shame and Glory as Two Fundamental Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.5 Courage and the Gender Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.6 The Signs of Courage and Cowardice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.7 Courage and Recklessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.8 Summary and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3 Martial Valor in Post-Homeric Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.1 Admirers and Dissenters: A Brief Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2 The Faithful Followers: Tyrtaeus and Callinus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.3 The Postmortem Rewards of Courage: Why Should We Fight? . . . 55
3.4 Close Range Fighting and Endurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.5 The Survivor’s Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.6 The Beauty of Death on the Battlefield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.7 The Question of Loyalties in Homer and the Poets . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.8 Simonides on the Heroes of the Persian Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
3.9 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
xi
xii Contents
4 The Bold Challengers: Cowardice, Irony, and Mockery . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.1 Dethroning Homer: The Early Attempts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.2 The Lost Shield and the Love of Life: The Case of Archilochus. . . 88
4.3 More Shields Lost: Alcaeus and Anacreon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
4.4 Courage and Hedonism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.5 War and Peace in Aristophanes and the Danger of Courage . . . . . . 103
4.6 A Courageous Playwright: Beyond the Traditional Limits . . . . . . . 115
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5 Courage in Real-Life: The Historians’ Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.1 Fiction and Reality in Greek Historians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.2 Herodotus and His Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.3 A Rare Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.4 The Value of Choice: Forced and Voluntary Courage . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5.5 The Epitome of Martial Valor: The Battle at Thermopylae . . . . . . . 144
5.6 Courage in Non-martial Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
5.7 The Great Divide: An Athenian Variety of Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6 Courage and Cowardice in Plato’s Dialogues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.1 The Many Faces of Plato and the Philosophers’ Take . . . . . . . . . . . 167
6.2 Courage, Wisdom and Confidence in the Protagoras . . . . . . . . . . . 173
6.3 The Quest for Non-martial Courage in the Laches . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
6.4 Taming the Guardians’ Thumos in the Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
6.5 The Demotion of Courage: Confronting Tyrtaeus in the Laws . . . . 198
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
7 Aristotle’s Revisionism: A Return to Homeric Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
7.1 A Restoration Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
7.2 Aristotle’s Criteria for a Courageous Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
7.3 The Noble Goal of Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
7.4 The Deficient Forms of Courage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
7.5 A Case-Study: Is Suicide an Act of Cowardice? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
7.6 Homer and the Courage of the Citizen-Soldiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
7.7 Thumos and Spirited Courage: Where Did Homer Go Wrong? . . . 238
7.8 Vindication of Homer and Final Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
8 Conclusion: The Fate of Courage in the Modern World . . . . . . . . . . . 247
8.1 From Battlefield to the Philosopher’s Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
8.2 What We Owe to the Ancients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255