I have as a matter of fact just reread the Geneaology of Morals, but isn't it kind of obvious? The heroes of the Greeks were practically to a man what we would today consider to be antiheroes. I mean, the Anabasis is the story of a group of Blackwater employees, er, heroic mercenaries. The Iliad is the story of a couple of warlords who have a fight because one of them wants to have exclusive raping rights to a captive woman.
--- On Sun, 10/19/08, Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com> wrote:
> From: Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] It's Teh Bigneth, stoopit
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Sunday, October 19, 2008, 4:11 PM
> On Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:24:06 -0500 Carrol Cox
> <cbcox at ilstu.edu> writes:
> >
> >
> >
> > Chris Doss wrote:
> > >
> > > The "nature" of the Greeks consisted of
> a god living under every
> > rock and in every tree and river, and divine beings
> spinning around
> > the earth, that you worshipped and had to appease or
> they would kick
> > your ass.
> > >
> > > For Homer, something is good if it is powerful
> and noble and
> > inspiring respect, not because it is harmless.
> >
> > I don't have the energy just now to debate this,
> but this is
> > absolutely
> > wrong. The very term, "good," makes no sense
> at all in this
> > context.
> > Something that was powerful was powerful, PERIOD. It
> is absurd to
> > add
> > "good" or "bad" to this
> proposition. The nearest Homer comes to
> > applying
> > such a judgment (and only implicitly, since I doubt
> that the
> > appropriate
> > abstraction existed in his vocabulary) is in an
> episode that I have
> > not
> > reread recently and can't be specific or not, but
> the gods begin to
> > laugh uncontrollably. The gods are powerful and must
> be respected,
> > or
> > elese, but there is essentially nothinng
> "good" about them. Because
> > they
> > cannot die, they cannot have the dignity nor the
> greatness of an
> > Achilles knowing he is going to die, and acting under
> that
> > knowledge.
> >
> > You and I look at the same evidence and come to
> opposite
> > conclusions,
> > so I don't know what can resolve the debate.
>
> It seems to me, if I am not mistaken,
> that Chris' take on this
> draws upon Nietzche's analysis in
> his *The Birth of Tragedy*.
>
> Jim F.
> >
> > Carrol
> >
> >
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