both in everyday life and during the war, is guided by certain rules of conduct which do not apply to a simple man, defined as kakos as opposed to agathos. There is a constant competition for the wrath of areté among people called aristoi.25 The fight is a true test of male virtues. The victory is not only a physical defeat of the opponent but also a condition of winning areté.
On the other hand, a description of the noble culture and custom was included by Homer primarily in the Odyssey. The work is a source of information about the conditions in which the older noble culture was shaped.26 It was the ionic culture. The work presents a description of life of the nobles at their courts and in country estates. The author gives a detailed description of the characteristic features of courtly manners and aristocratic custom during peace. The nobility in the Odyssey is a closed state with a strong consciousness of its privileged position, its refined manners and a mode of action. It is distinguished by a certain uniform lifestyle. The relations among the people from this sphere are characterized by a high degree of sophistication. In addition to the knightly valour, the Odyssey displays an understanding for certain spiritual and social values.
The conditions indispensable for the development of the noble culture are: the sedentariness, the land property and the tradition.27 They facilitate the transmission of a certain lifestyle from an older to a younger generation. Thereby, an aristocratic ideal included the environment’s appreciation and some external goods without which it was impossible to practise certain virtues significant for the man of noble birth. The condition for social recognition was the material independence provided by wealth based on the possession and land cultivation.28
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In addition, it is indispensable to consciously implement specific courtly standards among young people, teaching them the specific internal discipline. The conscious education and the transmission of culture was significant for the nobles. The indicated education relied on the development of human personality through consistent advice and spiritual guidance. Specific demands, which could be fulfilled only under the condition of deliberate care given to certain essential qualities of character, were placed on the entire human person. The conviction of superiority and rights to occupy a leading position instilled the need among the nobles to teach the young representatives of their state the recognized patterns of noble conduct. It is in such circumstances that education served for the first time as the culture transmission – namely, shaping the entire personality of man according to a specific pattern. The presence of such a pattern is a core of the development of every noble culture29 Apart from the ideal model of the knightly valour, the importance of spiritual and social virtues is stressed. For a woman, such values included her beauty, as well as the purity of customs and cost-effectiveness.30 The woman was given respect and regards as she was the guardian of good manners and a cultivator of traditions. She had an educative and refining impact on the rough, militant and brutal world of men.
In the two epics, both in The Iliad and in The Odyssey, one can find a description of the education methods used within the noble layer. An inexperienced, young man was in the company of an experienced tutor due to whom he could get acquainted with lofty ideals of male virtues passed on by the tradition.31 The element of particular importance with respect to the noble ideals was an ←23 | 24→educative meaning of an example. Thus, in addition to the impact of the environment, primarily the family, an example constituted the core of the education process. It strengthened the power of persuasion. Appealing to figures of famous heroes and to examples from legends was an inseparable part of the noble ethics and education.
Over time, the ideals included in those two poems acquired the universal meaning. They expressed the fullness of not only the noble features but also of the human nature in general because every man should be able to articulate the wise thought and implement the right objectives32. The human education hinged upon the “bottom up” and not the “top down” principle. It was reflected in the ideal of noble competition. The possession of areté was the foundation of a healthy self-love (philautía) and required the fair respect and reverence from the environment. Thus, although the possession of virtues originally constituted the innate privilege of the noble layer, it gradually began to rely on the education within the framework of tradition and under the guidance of a respected, righteous person, who acted as a guide on the path of learning a definite moral discipline and was able to give good advice and illustrate it with an accurate example.33 Such model of culture and education became a characteristic feature of the Western culture: Greece, Rome and the Christianity.
1.2. DEMOCRACY – THE POPULARISATION OF THE IDEAL
With the emergence of a new socio-political structure – the city-state, called polis, the meaning of the concept of aréte went through certain transformations. Greece was divided into a number of independent small states, governed by their own rules. They were the centres in which the political, social, economic and cultural life of the then man was realized. The relationship between the man and the society started to be more clearly accentuated and a specific understanding of a political community, uniting all citizens, was developed. The framework for the statehood emerged along with the Greek polis (city-state). The polis became the source of all applicable standards.34
The appearance of polis had a fundamental importance for the transformation of ancient Greek court culture into the Pan-Hellenic culture. Under these conditions, the Greek culture reached its classical character.35 Over time, the ←24 | 25→urban culture began to replace the noble culture. The meaning of polis relied, among other things, on the fact that it constituted a social framework for a new, Greek culture and was the source of all forms of cultural life. It impacted the creation of new concepts regarding, among other things, the aims and methods of education and the transformation of the existing ideals. However, it is necessary to stress at this point an element which is typical for the Greek culture – it was developing and it did not destroy its previous forms. The indicated development took place through the transformation of what existed and the adaptation to the new current living conditions.36
With the appearance of a new ideal model of man, who regarded not only the nobility of deed but also the nobility of spirit as the supreme goal, the old chivalrous concept of aréte, signifying the heroic strength and bravery on the battlefield, turned out to be insufficient. As a result of the transformation of old noble traditions, the democratization of the Greek culture took place in the fifth and the fourth centuries BC.37 It became available to the entire society. In the course of the indicated transformations, its two characteristic features emerged, namely, the universalism and rationalism, due to which it became the culture of the whole Greek nation and finally, the universal culture.38 It was refined by ←25 | 26→the fact that it included a certain pattern of a higher form of life – the life consistent with reason. Therefore, the careful and purposeful education of the most talented citizens was paid attention to in the democratic Athens. The rulers were selected and trained to serve for common good.
The expression of the changes taking place at that time was a new – political and military – ideal proclaimed by the Greek poet Tyrtaeus.39 The subject of his poetry was the fight of Sparta with Messenia. The old Homeric ideal of a heroic areté was firmly contrasted by the author with the new ideal of love to the nation.40 He gave the final shape to the ideal model of civic areté, based on the new moral and political order. He perceived it as a readiness to fulfill the social duties of a citizen. He discovered a new concept of valour and perfection. The place of the Homeric ideal of a knight, whose areté manifested itself in the individual fight and personal success, in line with a new civic ethics, was seized by an ideal of undertaking action for the good of the society, the common good (koinon agathon).41 Areté was understood as a warlike fortitude displayed in a particular type of fight. Now, it was not about finding one hero but it was about raising the whole community of heroes, soldiers ready to sacrifice themselves for the country.42 In one of his excerpts, Tyrtaeus writes: “It
