The Greco-Roman Tradition - Essay Example

3 June Assignment There are a number of elements in history that has undergone a vast amount of change right from the Greek Myth-o-poetic tradition to the late stoicism period of Roman imperialism; these very elements may be identified by understanding the aspects that have undergone change and altercations. Once comprehended, one will be able to certainly understand the implications of the heroic citizenship and the very essence that lies within the question of understanding the heroic ideal.

The heroic ideal refers to an aspect of a hero that any culture upholds in order to represent its personal cultural ideal. Every hero also has his own personal characteristics that help to make him the kind of person he is, and these are the aspects of the hero that people around him witness and perceive. Homer’s Odyssey talks about how Odysseus laments the death of Achilles and wishes for humility and trust within humanity rather than the achievements he had wished for at war. Here it has been explained how a hero’s quality has a necessity towards his life and those of others around him; how he must be able to stand away from the general jibes and finally, how the present culture depicts a part of him.

Thus, through this tragedy, Greek Myth-o-poetic tradition has been able to help people understand the kind of idealism heroes must contain. Stoicism on the other hand is an aspect of life that involves a person to withdraw from any kind of frivolities and fun; it is helps a person to retain himself from the pursuit of adventure and happiness that life brings about, and in turn, teaches one to remain calm and composed despite any kind of circumstance that he may be thrust within. This is very opposite of most Greek tragedies and dramas because they help to portray the vision of a hero with the help of his emotions and feelings.

Roman imperialism talks about taking life in one’s stride unlike Greek literature and poetry where a vast amount of emotions are involved. According to Greek classical times and dialogues of Plato, the heroic have been described as having a divine form of a body or a soul, spiritual outlook towards life, physically strong, may also have been a suffering servant, having an appearance being a transcendence of nature or art, and being an object, among many other characteristics. Aristotle’s heroes just like Socrates’ and Plato’s, have been also described as tragic heroes; those that undergo the revelation after a major life changing incident has occurred.

(Ambrosio, Francis J) In conclusion, one can easily witness a change in the heroes depicted from Plato to the time of Socrates; even though their characteristics might remain the same in this development of the ideal, the elements that do undergo a change are their outlook towards the society and how much they are able to influence the people around them with their thoughts and power. Stoicism thus helps a great deal in carrying this out because through Roman imperialism and literature on the basis of this, it is clear that only those that are able to maintain a grasp over their emotions, are able to convince and subdue society along the same lines and thus emerge heroes.

Works Cited Ambrosio, Francis J. "Philosophy Religion and The Meaning of Life." The Teaching Company(2009). Print.