Timé And Areté In the Iliad

In book nine of the Iliad, Odysseus emphasizes to Akhilleos the two paramount values of the Grecian warrior society, Areté and Timé, and Akhilleos affirms these values as important to their culture but also states (most clearly in the Fitzgerald version, correlating with lines 400-403 in the Lattimore) that “No riches can compare with being alive”; That in his mind, the greatest way to save face concerning his dishonour is not to die owning a great amount of material goods and social respects, but rather to return home and not fight in a battle where he only stands to lose all that which he gains.

So, Odysseus comes to Akhilleos’s tent bringing a list of compensations Agammemnon is willing to give the warrior if he will only forget his past transgressions. The particular gifts described by Laertes’s son serve to illustrate what is most valuable to the Grecians, which are usually placed into two categories-  Timé and areté, defined loosely in English as honour and excellence. However, these two concepts are much more complex than just those words, as we can deduce from the three page long account.