Virtue And The Ancient Greek Mythological Approach

Theater in ancient Greece was considered the climax of the days long cultural festival of The City Dionysia. At the festival, various types of plays were shown but one of the most popular was tragedy. These tragedies show the main character, usually a god or person of myth, going through human suffering and the terrible sequence of events that followed; and were produced in 472- 401 BCE. In order for a play to be performed at The City Dionysia festival; tragic playwrights would first have to appeal to the state official that was organizing the festival by submitting ideas to him and his committee. The ideas submitted were outlines of main themes and points of interest to be performed in the play. If a playwright was selected by the state official and his committee, then they received a financial backer and a chance to compete in the drama competition of the festival. The state official, or his committee, was likely pushing their own agenda and choose playwrights that matched their ideals. This is just one example of how theater in ancient Greece was used to influence the morality of Greek culture by using the stories of tragedies, like those of Euripides.

The stoic worldview that is presented in The Handbook of Epictetus can be considered a divergence from Socrates’s conception of philosophy. According to Epictetus’s Handbook, he was as a firm believer that emotions would result in errors of judgement which would essentially lead to an unhappy life. Throughout his handbook, he presents the idea of how to be a proper philosopher. He states that in order to live a happy and well life one must be emotionless and should be absent. Epictetus believed that having no emotion would lead to the ultimate Telos, being happiness. Whereas Socrates’s conception of philosophy consisted of only the truth. His ultimate Telos was eudaimonia, which is also happiness, but the way to achieve that is different. Socrates was willing to die in the name of philosophy because of how strongly he felt about it. He also believed that in order to have a good life one had to do good. Although both of their end purpose consisted of happiness, they still differed.

Pericles (494-429 b.c.e.) was a prominent politician and general of the Greek city-state of Athens (McKay 123). Pericles held the dubious distinction of having presided over Athens during its classical period from 461 b.c.e until his death in 429 b.c.e. and also during a portion of the Peloponnesian War (McKay 122, ). Athens’ classical period is attributed with fostering a Hellenic culture that was known for tremendous contributions to Western society, including; the political system known as democracy, the birth of scientific history, philosophy, naval military strategy, and imperial strategy (McKay 117, 122, 123, 141, Park 99, Walling 47). Pericles may best be known for his contributions to political and military strategy, or his endowments to the arts; however, Pericles was also largely responsible for the imperialist ambitions of Athens that led to its eventual downfall at the hands of Sparta.

In ancient Greek society, the ethos, the characteristic spirit of community, played an important role in the overall success of Greek civilization. The “spirit” in both the context of the real people in societies rule and the gods overseeing and influencing actions directly impacted the aspirations, beliefs, and customs of the people. While many of the pillars of the ethos sought to further the positive attributes of society in Greek civilization such as love, reconciliation, and patriotism, the aspects of ethos concerning pride and revenge often corrupted humanity into making selfish decisions for their own self-serving needs, often at a detrimental cost to the overall well-being of the rest. In several Greek literary works its not either pride or revenge

Before the war, Athens was one of the most powerful empires in the world. Not only was Athens a massive empire, but also it functioned as a democracy. The era that preceded the Peloponnesian War is commonly known as the golden age of Athenian culture. It was under the rule of Pericles that Athens was able to flourish in the way that it did. Athens under Pericles’

2.) When we debate about Epictetus and mills work we tend to agree with both philosophers but one of these philosophers ideas are better than the other. When it comes to Epictetus and Mills advice on the way people should live life is quite interesting. Epictetus advise us on the fact that some things are in our power and choice worthy we talk about clear thinking, right choices, right aims, good character traits. Stoics believe that if we develop the habit or disposition of getting our aims, valuations, and thoughts right we can experience happiness and understanding of a better life. Also things such as "opinion, aim, desire, and aversion”. Since aim, desire, and aversion normally lead to action, the action is partly but not entirely in our power. Character depends on upon our opinions and aims, which are in our power; hence character traits virtues or vices are under our control. The presence or absence of violent feelings moreover is in our power. Some things are in our power and to be avoided confused or ignorant thinking, wrong choices, bad aims, and bad character traits. Normally to be selected, but not when doing so would conflict with correct thinking and action. These include but are not limited to health, survival, physical beauty, "good" reputation, freedom from pain. Some things are not in our power. These include but are not limited to illness, an early death, physical homeliness, and physical pain.

Ancient Greece was a civilization of the Greek history commenced around the 8th century B.C.. Rested southward at the end of the Balkan peninsula, the dry land of Greece lies within the Mediterranean Sea. The rough lands caused travels and cultivation to be difficult, and Greece’s geography forced the Greeks to become fishers and sailors. As the new centering system, city-state arose, many nations were formed, and a series of warfare emerged. The battles stretched from the Persian Wars, where the Sparta, the Athens, and the other city-states of Greece united to defend Greece from the Persians, to the Peloponnesian War, how Spartans ended Athenian and the Democratic government, to the Hellenistic Age, after Alexander the Great conquered an

These works illustrate the struggles with human morality that plague both the Athenians and Achilles. During crises, they lose their humanity and compassion for others. Humanity is complex, and one aspect of it is the human capacity to empathize with other creatures. Not being able to empathize with others is a sign of a lack of humanity, and in the modern world is associated, when dramatic enough, with psychopathy. This can be applied to the mental states of the people in these works as well. Achilles loses his connection with his people and struggles deeply with the knowledge of his multiple moirai (fate or destiny). The Athenians also disconnect from the people in their empire, boasting of their mercy in the beginning of the text, but

Classical Greece and Western Civilization Following the defeat of the Persians in 479 BCE, Athens became the focus of the Greek political, cultural, and military world. The Classical Period of Greece (480-324 BCE) was initiated by the need to rebuild the city that had been destroyed by the Persians, and was fuelled by the wealth of the Delian League (Wallace, 2010). This was an era of war and conflict existing first between the Greeks and the Persians, then between the Athenians and the Spartans, but most importantly it was also an era of unprecedented achievement in all aspects of the developing civilization (Staff, 2010).

In the Republic of Plato, the philosopher Socrates lays out his notion of the good, and draws the conclusion that virtue must be attained before one can be good. For Socrates there are two kinds of virtue; collective and individual. Collective virtue is virtue as whole, or the virtues of the city. Individual virtue pertains to the individual himself, and concerns the acts that the individual does, and concerns the individual’s soul. For Socrates, the relationship between individual and collective virtue is that they are the same, as the virtues of the collective parallel those of the Individual. This conclusion can be reached as both the city and the soul deal with the four main virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice.

The trial of Socrates took place in 399 B.C.E., five years after the Peloponnesian War ended and at a time of great turmoil in Athens. A scapegoat for the loss in war was needed and Socrates was the prime candidate. However, Socrates’ “apology” is far from apologetic, rather; he defends his actions. At one point, Socrates even implies that he is a better person than most because he possesses self-knowledge, whereas many of the high-ranking members of society do not. Socrates believes self-knowledge makes him a better because he neither ignorant nor arrogant when having self-knowledge and he is also serving the gods when he attempts to have others see their lack of self-knowledge.

In the Meno, Socrates and Meno discuss the nature of virtue, the process of acquiring knowledge, and also the concept of the teachability of virtue. Throughout the text, Meno suggests many varying definitions for virtue, all of which Socrates is able to dismantle. The point is also raised that it may be impossible to know about something that was not previously understood, because the searcher would have no idea what to be looking for. To dispute this, Socrates makes a point that all knowledge is innate, and the process of “learning” is really just recollecting knowledge that is buried deeply within the human mind. The issue of the teachability of virtue is an important theme in this dialogue because it raises points about whether virtue is knowledge, which then leads to the issue of knowledge in general.

In Ancient times, there were three Virtues that the Greeks thought had great importance in the way they lived their daily lives, and on how they fought on the battlefield, and they were Metis, Heroism, and Respect. Greeks believed that with Metis, or wisdom, was a necessity for winning on the battlefield. They even had a god dedicated to this belief, the god being Athena. Heroism, the second virtue, was important because Heroes were revered almost as much as the gods themselves in ancient Greece. The final virtue, Respect, was important to them in differentiating between social statuses and Army ranks. Together, these three virtues molded Greece into what it is known for today.

The whole war started because Athens supported the Ionian Greeks when they were rebelling in Anatolia against the Persians. That made the Persian king Xerxes mad, so he led two major campaigns against the Athenians, and the Athenians enlisted the help of all the other Greek city-states. In the wake of their shared victory, the city-states began to see themselves as Greeks, rather than Spartans, or Athenians. Leading into the Golden Age, Athens emerged as the de facto capital of Greece. The defeat of the Persians in 479 BC left a long-standing self-importance on the Greek society and its civilization. With the Athens domination of Greece in every way, it 's not surprising that the Athenian influence is plain to see in art. Many great things happened during the Golden Age, including the Parthenon, the Parthenon was a temple that became a church, then a mosque, and then an armory before finally settling into a ruin.

“Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war” President Donald Trump once said. Pericles saw that the Athenians were losing a battle when it comes to accomplishments in the arts, citizenship, and democracy. When he gained power, he led Athens into a Golden Age. A Golden Age is when high level of accomplishments is reached in a society. Pericles help create Athenian Golden Age because of how he brought brought the idea of citizenship, the arts reaching it’s highest peak, and created the basic principles of democracy that we use today.