Those Who Exalt Themselves The Pride Of Hektor Essay

Those Who Exalt Themselves: The Pride of Hektor I. Introduction While pride is a vice that is often frowned upon in modern cultures, it occupied a vastly different place in ancient Greek culture. Indeed, it was often inextricably tied to their concept of glory and heroism. Be as that may, Homer, in The Iliad of Homer, despite it being one of the most well-known pieces of ancient Greek literature, portrays pride in a more negative light than was the norm of his time. Pride in the Iliad most often causes much destruction and ends up being the downfall of many key characters, including Achilleus and Agamemnon. When the pride of Agamemnon is such that he misappropriates one of Achilleus’s war-won concubines, which ignites Achilleus’s pride to the point of refusing to fight in the war, they nearly singlehandedly hand over the victory to the Trojans. Given that these two eventually reconcile, however much they personify pride, it is Hektor whose hubris ultimately brings about his downfall. Homer uses Hektor’s storyline to exemplify the dangers of excessive pride and warn against allowing it to govern your actions. In his pursuit of pride and glory, Hektor shames himself by bringing about the deaths of his men and is killed after realizing his mistakes and seeking to restore his honor. It is only when Priam abandons his pride and humbles himself that Hektor’s storyline is resolved. II. Opposition Greek culture heavily stressed the importance of material goods as a status symbol. In