The Responsible Hero: The Evolution of the Greek Hero from the Epic to the Tragic and Historic

Abstract

To illustrate the history and evolution of personal responsibility in the Greek world, and the Athenian polis in particular, and the impact this concept of responsibility had on the definition of a "hero," I shall concentrate on three distinct literary genres: the epic, the tragic, and the historic. Focusing on both the moral and political dimensions of responsibility, I shall examine prominent Oreek figures from each literary genre, who I believe illustrate the evolution of the Greek hero from the semi-divine, unconstrained warrior, to the civic minded, dutiful leader. In this introduction it is significant to note that the appearance of the heroes covers a very brief period in Greek history. The Heroic age, the time in which these heroes lived, can be easily defined; it was "a period in the distant past, two or three generations only, the age of the Theban and Trojan wars, ending around the fateful date of about 1200 B.C., . . . the moment when purely human history began."[5] In fact, the age of the heroes was brief, overcrowded, and cruel. The myth of the heroes, however, would remain firmly entrenched in the Greek psyche and would become the defining age for generations of later Greeks. [From introductory section]