Essay - Heroes Among Heroes: Aristotle, Homer, and Hector of the Iliad...

Heroes among Heroes: Aristotle, Homer, and Hector of the Iliad

Heroes ***** Heroes in War and the Everyday Life':

***** the Author and Hector ***** the *****: A "Certeaulean" Viewpo*****t

In his book The Practice of ***** Life (1984) ***** French historian and cultural theorist Michel de Certeau introduces the terms 'strategies' and 'tactics' as a point of dep*****rture for explaining his theory of the tension and interplay between overt (i.e., strategic) and covert (i.e., tactical) cultural and other practices ***** everyday life. Stepping back two millennia into the ancient monarchical and martial milieu of Hellenic Greece, land of Homeric legend, one may see within (as a ********** high-born 'strategist' who becomes a war-wounded, ultimately defeated tactician) Homer's ***** of Troy, a deeply virtuous *****lbeit imperfect hero: Homer's Trojan warrior Prince: a mortal who fights and dies while straddling (always une*****ily) the worlds ***** military heroism and domestic devotion; public bravery and private despair; ***** reluctantly exceptional (a dutiful Hector dressed imposingly ***** b*****ttle in full military armor) ***** the yearningly commonplace (wistful Hector drinking in a last poignant view of ***** baby son weeping, scared, at the sight of the father he no longer recognizes, and that the very sight of *****w terrifies.) Hector is Homer's hero, and, by (Homer's design) a most reluctant and w*****tful *****: a high-born princely military strategist ***** birthright and right past battlefield achievement and genius; a brave; poignant; and broken-hearted tactician by circumstance and fate.

Within his The Practice of Everyday ***** (1984), Michel de Certeau further suggests, that the exercise of 'strategies' falls within the narrow pur***** of the (for example) corporate; military; managerial; or cultural elite among a civilization; society, group or e.g., the bosses in charge. *****s Homer's Iliad begins, Hector is clearly a leader and strategist by birthright; ***** ***** military achievement; ***** by current station in life as he departs from his royal visit to Menelaus and Sparta with Paris (and, ***** it turns out, Helen) for home.

Hector is Priam's first-born *****; the embodiment ***** gravitas and duty; a milit*****ry (i.e., *****) genius; the handsome, brave, and much beloved heir to Troy: hardly an ordinary man. Yet Hec*****r the man, off the battlef*****ld and in private domestic life with Andromache and their baby son, ***** somehow touch*****gly human; movingly ***** humanly ordinary in ways ***** distinct from ***** arch-rival and his younger brother alike. Hector's, by contrast, is a gentle and unassuming manner; a clear ***** objective viewpoint, and a deep concern for the common good: his people's.

So Hector is at first shocked, and then ********** troubled, at ***** initial realiz*****ion of his brother Paris's reckless impetuousness at having actually stowed Menopause's runaway bride ***** aboard en route back to Troy. This is a move th***** c*****nnot be afforded, but Paris's practically-minded bro*****er knows this too late. Hector thinks immediately, though, of the inevitable costly ***** painful ramifications of this intra-is***** abduction: for his *****'s vulnerable Kingdom, in particular while Paris cont*****ues staring into Helen's eyes.