Achilles And Socrates

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Achilles and Socrates: Contrasting Embodiments of Human Excellence

Chloë Sells
GTX 2301 H
Dr. David D. Corey
April 2, 2014

Achilles in Homer’s The Iliad and Socrates in Plato’s Republic are both models of human excellence, yet they do not seem to be exceptional in the same ways. This leads to the development of several questions regarding these individuals and the curious differences in their greatness. What is it exactly that makes these characters excellent in such varying and unique ways? How can these distinctive types of greatness be classified? Lastly, with such contrasts between them, is it reasonable for a human being to strive to embody both of these types simultaneously? In the following essay I will address each of these questions, first arguing through evidence derived from excerpts of each of the works that it is military preeminence and the pursuit of lasting honor that makes Achilles excellent while this same attribute in Socrates is largely due to his aspiration to live a life free of injustice and full of knowledge. Next, I will contend that what Achilles embodies can be described as Homeric excellence and Socrates, Socratic excellence, as can be shown through excerpts from each of their respective works. Finally, I will argue that it is unreasonable for man to aspire to both types of excellence simultaneously due to Achilles’s and Socrates’s excellences being rooted in and driven by conflicting parts of the soul.
Achilles and Socrates achieve excellence under drastically different conditions, showing the strength and versatility of human nature. Achilles is consistently referred to throughout The Iliad as the bes...

... middle of paper ...

...pted…will it then be livable when the nature of that very thing which by which we live is confused and corrupted?” With such great fundamental distinctions that directly contrast each other, it would be nearly impossible to balance the types of excellence together within the same soul and the person would be in constant ideological turmoil, struggling to justify the differences between the two contrasting parts of the soul. Since Homeric and Socratic excellence are connected to each of the differing aspects of the soul, it is fundamentally unreasonable for a human being to aspire to embody both types of excellence simultaneously.
Though vastly different characters, Homer’s Achilles and Plato’s Socrates have both come to be recognized as models of human excellence. Their impact over the ages

Works Cited

CRITO
APOLOGY
THE ILIAD
PLATO’S REPUBLIC

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