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Modern Day Government In Homer's The Odyssey

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In Greek culture heroism has always been a sacred ideology through the most eloquent story telling. Greeks believed that heroism wasn’t just limited to triumphs on the battlefield or physical strength but had to do with the concept of “arête”- excellence in all things. The real triumph in The Odyssey is the journey that led to a humbled leader that could use his talents and good moral deeds to embody his country’s values and help them prosper as a whole. A country can only be as good as its leader, governance is only beneficial when the one chosen to govern can represent what his home stands for and that is something that has been carried down for centuries and mirrored in modern day governance. Martha Nussbaum, a professor at Harvard, defines …show more content…

Citizens in America cherish election season because they are looking for an extraordinary human being that possesses arête and can successfully embody American rights and values. Whether voters are looking for a politician who will fight for equality, or lower taxes, or liberal or conservative notions they are looking for a modern day Odysseus, the candidate with the most metis (cunning, craftiness) who would go to great lengths to represent what they and other fellow citizens believe. “Citizens who…have the ability to see themselves not simple as citizens of some local region or group but also, and above all, as human beings bound to all other human beings by ties of recognition and concern” (Nussbaum). Odysseus experienced a journey that made him realize his cunning and strength should not be used for and limited to bragging and selfishness. When a person possesses talents that could help others beyond himself that is exactly what said person should do. “Issues from business to agriculture, from human rights to the relief of famine, call our imaginations to venture beyond narrow group loyalties and to consider the reality of distant lives” (Nussbaum). Citizens long for people like Odysseus who can open their mind to the world and its problems, we strive for a government and more so a leader who has experienced the issues of the world and have the determination and perseverance to change them like Odysseus had the determination and perseverance to return to his country and rule again as a devoted member. Even if America has not fully reached its potential of this type of governance the hope that we do lives on just like Odysseus’s hope to see Ithaca

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