Homeric Code Analysis

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That Socrates searched for a way to immortality different than the status quo of his time has been established by scholarship. But what is missing from the conversation is how to define what the Classical Greek philosopher had attempted to implement as a replacement for the Homeric code, before being executed. For the ancient Greek man, this code, with its masculine-nihilistic qualities, emphasized individualism and even egoism. And as the path to immortality, Socrates saw in it the following flaws: a) its confirmation only through recognition, b) its materialism through gifts and monuments, and c) the lack of a fecund cycle through which the attainment of the good could be achieved. In its stead, Socrates wanted to inculcate on Athenian youth…show more content…
One may surmise that with Alexander as the prime example, that Homer’s heroic ideals were steadfastly followed throughout Antiquity. But was truly so? Was this masculine-nihilism strictly adhered to, with no competition against Homer? Was there anyone who flouted heroic conduct before Socrates made his stand? A few centuries before the Socratic rebellion, the mercenary Archilochus casually (?) wrote about abandoning his shield in the middle of battle; another could be easily acquired. The soldier endured his critics, but must not have posed such a credible threat given the survival of his fragments, and the persistence of the masculine-nihilistic. Realistically speaking, not every aristocratic male of the ancient Greek world could have truly followed the Homeric path to immortality to the letter. Scholarship discovered that Archilochus had avid followers in his native land, and that he may have offered a more pragmatic approach to heroic deeds. And it is not as if Archilochus was absolutely attempting to break new ground by himself. He knew his Homeric literature just as well as Alexander may have. Instead of following it unquestioningly, he appears to have cited it in a light favorable to him in rationalizing his pragmatic view of fighting, and thus questioning the masculine-nihilistic in Homeric poetry. “She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbor, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order; a neighbor vies with his as he hurries after wealth. This strife is wholesome for men. And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of
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