Heroism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what defines a hero and what place they had in classical society. On the fields of Troy a fallen soldier pleaded with Achilles, the great hero of the Greeks, to spare his life. According to Homer, Achilles replied, “Do you not see what a man I am, how huge, how splendid.And born of a great father and the mother who bore me immortal?Yet even I have also my death and strong destiny, And there shall be a dawn or an afternoon or a noontime,When some man in the fighting will take the life from me alsoEither with a spear cast or an arrow flown from the bow string”.With that, he killed him. Heroes have special attributes, but not necessarily humility or compassion. How did the Greeks define their heroes? What place did the hero have in classical society and what do modern ideas of heroism owe to the heroes of the golden age?

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Angie Hobbs 25 episodes
  Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick
• Anthony Grayling 10 episodes
  Reader in Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London
• Paul Cartledge 23 episodes
  Professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge

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Programme ID: p004y282

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004y282

Auto-category: 938 (History of ancient Greece)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. On the fields of Troy, a fallen soldier pleaded with Achilles, the great hero of all the Greeks, to spare his life.