Montaigne ranks Epaminondas as the most excellent man of antiquity.
He praises his wisdom-guided courage, his rare combination of deep knowledge and silence, and a moral integrity that, in Montaigne’s eyes, surpassed even that of Socrates.
@Odyssomenos@RealHellenist But give me news about my son; is he gone to the wars and will he be a great soldier, or is this not so?
Achilles still values arete, but people always like to cut off this latter part.
@Jocckej@HomerPavlos make the calculus. Consider the full war before the Iliad itself was a decade-ish long, let's say from the Iliad to the death of achilles we can give some years, let's say 3-5 because of the Amazons and so on (infact Achilles makes a child with one of the baddies), I'll say 15.
One of the first challenges for a great man is to constantly get Ws and honors for your guys, and make it abundantly clear that it's worth their while to continue riding with you.
In his journal, Schopenhauer laid bare a lifetime of imagined dangers. Feeling abandoned by his parents at six, haunted by diseases that never touched him, reaching for his sword and pistol at every sound in the dark. He confessed it left him incapable of dealing with others.