Blog Post #2 – Kleomêdês
I do find the author’s argument persuasive. His claims that the story of Kleomêdês is a cautionary one that was meant to explain the dangers of ‘heroism’ seems meritorious, considering the contents of the tale. The last of the heroes is clearly not someone to be looked up to considering the murder of innocent children was a crime in Greek society. We see this same view of toxic heroism elsewhere in the ancient Greek mythos. Achilles causes many Greeks to die by refusing to fight while standing by his ‘heroic’ ideals of honor. Odysseus attempts to murder Diomedes to gain more honor for stealing the Palladium. The second greatest Greek warrior, Telemonian Ajax, falls on his sword after his actions go counter to the heroic ideals due to his anger of being dishonored. Throughout the Trojan War and Greek mythology in general, we repeatedly see heroes act in ways that we would consider far from heroic in an attempt to maximize their own honor or defend their own honor. Their behavior goes well beyond the norms of society straying into what we might consider villainous in their pursuit of heroism. Today we can see the same toxic heroism in the armed forces. Soldiers are sent to faraway lands and expected to act like robots, following commands without a thought and with the stresses of deployment not touching them. When these stresses do in fact manifest, the soldiers do not know how to act and then when they return home face high rates of unemployment, mental illness, and homelessness.