Tragedy: Struggling Against Something We have No Control

In Greek tragedy, ad hominem fair play is central to the character of the hero. It is displayed in its unassailable constitute in Homer's Iliad in the Achilles of the final chapters, and it can be seen as the fulfillment of the precept, "Know thyself." Self-knowledge for the many heroes portrayed in the Iliad means a recognition of one's limitations as a psyche, "ignorant of the future, perspicacious only what can be learned or seen, doom to decay and death, weaker than many beasts, helpless before the elements" (Vellacott 8). In other sense, self-knowledge also entails a recognition of those powers conferred by mortality alone. The gods permit no need of bravery nor loyalty, and the sympathy and grief displayed by the gods in Homer and elsewhere in Greek books and philosophy are superficial imitations of mortal reality: "The hero's self-knowledge tells him that a god whitethorn kill him but cannot defeat him; the worldly concern thus displays a harmonious balance of immortal and mortal" (Vellacott 8).

Integrity is described by Philip Vellacott in terms of the impartiality and of the need for a control and an order beyond the law. He notes that in the Greek period, the mass of mankind has prescribed laws and measure for the law, but he further notes that no law covers every case. A law may be defective, and there may be offenses which are not mentioned in the law. Looking once more to the h

Halfon, Mark S. Integrity: A Philosophical Inquiry. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.

To a degree, the Greek scheme cast off even greater responsibility on the individual, which contributed to the sense of integrity as self-knowledge and reliance on self-awareness. The Greeks did not expect their gods to be merciful, and they knew that propositions about divine justice were not conclusively irrefutable or refutable. It was not clear to the Greeks that their sins would be punished in the next world (Dover 156-157).

The Greeks worked within the laws of the city-state, and they had no more rights than were accorded by their city. Aristotle held that moral virtue is a state of character that is placed by a balance amongst rational normal on the one hand and by that principle which would be applied by the man of practical wisdom. Aristotle says the problem rests with learning and that the individual's good judgment of particular situations is the measure of those situations: "This indicates that it is not normal principles but the judgment of persons with practical wisdom that determines what we ought or ought not to [sic] do" (Halfon 99). Halfon states that there is a fundamental difference between compromising one's principles and revising one's principles and that this distinction is fundamental to an understanding of the personality of integrity (Halfon 100).

ero, Vellacott finds that the hero is faced with a dilemma requiring courage: "If he acts on his own judgment, ignoring the cost, he has to face the design that his judgment may be wrong, and overcome his doubt with an absolute faith in his mortal se
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