homeric ethics

Homeric Ethics

I have a very short time and a lot to cover, so I will be speaking generally. I have taken this material rather directly from Terence Irwin's book Classical Thought, Oxford Univ. Press, 1989, which is a compendious and excellent introduction to ancient philosophy. Although I have taken it from there, I do not think it is idiosyncratic or simply one side of a controversy. Much of this material is patently obvious and has been pointed out by many: that is appropriate for material intended to cover the basics.

Why is Homer important ethically:

Xenophanes (580-480BC)

"from the beginning everyone has learnt according to Homer"

Homer has:

pre-eminent authority

"pre" temporally
"pre" culturally

not like scripture in important ways:

not the word of God, infallible, etc.
no privileged caste or group of interpreters who are also law- and justice-givers

not a text with religious prescriptions of what to do

religion is sometimes depicted but it is not mandated

like scripture in other ways

everyone knew Homer backwards and forwards

Think of Homer as an ever-present subtext that permeates society: a sort of "default cultural norm"

Is Homer ethically plausible? reasonable?

i.e. should we take the ethics that underly his narrative seriously?

Homeric characters who have names are (almost) invariably virtuous by Homer's standards
What does Homer count as "good"?

First, some interesting characteristics of a good person

Birth: one must be born into a noble family to be good
Wealth: one must be rich to be good
Strength: one must be physically fit or have been in one's prime physically fit to be good

NOTE: not a single one of these is fully in the person's own control
Least of all the most important one, good birth.
NOTE: bad behavior does not make one lose these things, and so does not make one bad!

Consider Paris: he behaves badly, but is not "bad" because of it.

Now, some other characteristics of a good person

He is good in battle

strength (Ajax)
skill (Odysseus and Achilles)
courage (Achilles, Hector)

NOTE: These are things which are more within a person's own control
NOTE TOO: These are highly individualistic things: they do not necessarily involve others (although they may at times)

He has honor

Other people's good opinion
Material goods: trophies, gifts

1.126
I want another prize ready for me right away.
I'm not going to be the only Greek without a prize,
It wouldn't be right. And you all see where mine is going.

Inferiors: number of minions = amount of power

1.285 (Nestor speaks)

And when I talked in council, they took my advice.
So should you two now: taking advice is a good thing.
Agamemnon, for all your nobility, don't take this girl.
Leave her be: the army originally gave her to him as a prize.
Nor should you, son of Peleus, want to lock horns with a king.
A scepter-holding king has honor beyond the rest of men,
Power and glory given by Zeus himself.
You are stronger, and it is a goddess who bore you.
But he is more powerful, since he rules over more. ..

NOTE: These require other people.

Gifts, trophies etc. are given to one by others and are a material measure of something like one's stock market value
One must respect other people to get their good opinion, because they collectively define these values.

He is better than others

Achilles' father sent him "to always be the best and to excel the others"

NOTE: This too requires others.
NOTE: This is highly individualistic

THE HERO AND OTHERS

Heroes are expected to have some concern for others

Hector's concern for Andromache and Astyanax
Achilles' concern for Patroclus
Achilles and Agamemnon are blamed for neglecting the army's welfare

11.709

(Nestor speaks)
But Achilles
For all his valor has no feeling for us.

The basic rule is that one is expected to have concern for one's inferiors

Heroes are expected not to be indifferent to suffering

Achilles' treatment of Hector's corpse is clearly an outrage (the episode with Priam shows us that)
Patroclus moves Achilles by appeal to the suffering of the army b/c of Achilles' absence

Heroes are expected to have sympathy for those who are helpless

Rules of supplication

Cyclops lacks these values
1.61

Nine days the god's arrows rained death on the camp.
On the tenth day Achilles called an assembly.
Hera, the white-armed goddess, planted the thought in him
Because she cared for the Greeks and it pained her
To see them dying.

Those who fail to show such feelings are beasts, not human

BUT, in spite of those expectations, heroes are not praised for their concern for others: Achilles is not less good because he acts selfishly. There is no suggestion that his reputation will suffer from his selfish actions.
BUT if he had been enslaved, he would have lost his good reputation! The day of enslavement, a person loses his virtue.
That reveals priorities.

Many of the other-regarding virtues of a Homeric hero are instrumental

Namely, they serve to enhance the more important aspect of a hero's goodness, namely his reputation and material honor.

But not all are purely instrumental: nonetheless, they are clearly secondary to the big boldfaced ones above.
A hero is never expected to sacrifice his reputation or material honors for others

That would diminish his honor
Which would diminish his ability to protect and further his followers

When Achilles returns to battle, he returns because as much because he failed to protect Patroclus and that made him look weak as because of love for Patroclus
Consider Hector, the most other-regarding of the heroes

Twice he chooses his honor over protecting his family and city

He chooses to fight Achilles
He admits that withdrawing in battle would serve Troy's interest better, but does not do so because of honor

THE UPSHOT OF IT ALL IS THAT OTHERS ARE IMPORTANT BUT SECONDARY

Problems with this sort of ethics

Because reputation and material honors are the prizes to be won, a person must adjust his goals to the opinions of others to win the prizes his society holds most important. More than other systems, in spite of the system's individualism, there is paradoxically little room for one to hew one's own path of virtue. High social control factor.
Example: Achilles and Agamemnon conflict

Agamemnon wins the first bout: he gets the prize
Achilles could win the second bout by taking what's offered by Agamemnon.

1.220
(Athena speaks to Achilles)
Now come on, drop this quarrel, don't draw your sword.
"Tell him off instead. And I'll tell you,
Achilles, how things will be: You're going to get
Three times as many magnificent gifts
Because of his arrogance. Just listen to us and be patient."

He refuses.

1.175
(Achilles speaks) "No, I do all the dirty work with my own hands,
And when the battle's over and we divide the loot
you get the lion's share and I go back to the ships
With some pitiful little thing, so worn out from fighting
I don't have the strength even to complain.
Well, I'm going back to Phthia now. Far better
To head home with my curves ships than stay here,
Unhonored myself and piling up a fortune for you."

16.55

(Achilles speaks)
I take it hard when someone in power
Uses his authority to rob his equal
And strip him of his honor. I take it hard.
He claims he will be happy living an obscure life without honor, which he calls transitory and unstable and would be irrelevant if he died:

9.324
(Achilles speaks to the embassy of Greeks sent to persuade him to fight)
"It doesn't matter if you stay in camp or fight -
In the end, everybody comes out the same.
Coward and hero get the same reward:
You die whether you slack off or work.
And what do I have for all my suffering,
Constantly putting my life on the line?
Like a bird who feeds her chicks
Whatever she finds, and goes without herself,
That's what I've been like, lying awake
Through sleepless nights, in battle for days
Soaked in blood, fighting men for their wives.
I've raided twelve cities with our ships
And eleven on foot in the fertile Troad,
Looted them all, brought back heirlooms
By the ton, handed it all over
To Atreus' son, who hung back in camp
Raking it in and distributing damn little.
What the others did get they at least got to keep.
...
Why did Agamemnon lead the army to Troy
If not for the sake of fair-haired Helen?
Do you have to be descended from Atreus
To love your mate? Every decent, sane man
Loves his woman and cares for her, as I did,
Loved her in my heart. It doesn't matter
That I won her with my spear.
...
I will sacrifice to Zeus and all the gods tomorrow,
Load my ships, and launch them on the sea.
...
Nothing is worth my life, not all the riches
They say Troy held before the Greeks came,
Not all the wealth in Phoebus Apollo's
Marble shrine up in craggy Pytho.
Cattle and flocks are there for the taking;
You can always get tripods and chestnut horses.
But a man's life cannot be won back
Once his breath has passed beyond his clenched teeth.
My mother Thetis , a moving silver grace,
Tells me two fates sweep me on to my death.
If I stay here and fight, I'll never return home,
But my glory will be undying forever.
If I return home to my dear fatherland
My glory is lost but my life will be long,
And death that ends all will not catch me soon.
As for the rest of you, I would advise you too
To sail back home..."

But he is ashamed to have let down Patroclus and so goes back into battle: 18.95

More generally, each individual hero has an incentive to do things that are bad for society as a whole.
A hero's inferiors can expect protection from a hero ONLY IF it does not conflict with that hero's honor.
Consider Penelope's suitors:

their actions are bad for the whole community

but they are heroic, for they are striving for the material prize of honor: Penelope

But still, perhaps this sort of system is good for a society exposed to attacks from outside.

BUT the heroic code itself creates a situation where protection from such attacks is needed: it feeds upon itself
Why could not some other means of defense be found?

The Homeric hero must choose between security and contentment or precarious honor, and Homer makes it clear that honor is the choice one should make.

As for the broader picture in Homer

The gods

The gods possess honor securely and inalienable
They also possess security
They are the ideal resolution of the problem of a human hero: how to retain honor and yet be secure.

But they do that thru the magic of immortality
There are, however, threats to their dominion: giants, etc.

Zeus

Zeus is represented at times as a force of moral order who presides over the world which is ordered according to Zeus' reason
But at other times, he is subject to the Fates, who bring in an element of arbitrariness and chance to which even the gods are subject

The upshot is that the Homeric world-view is one in which order and its imposition are not the full story: there are forces immune to order and control

Why is Homeric ethics reasonable?

Wealth, honor, status, power are all achievable.
It is clear and intelligible
It is not clear that it is wrong
It is not clear that our society today does not follow it in many ways

A somewhat clear example: the mafia