Importance Of Kleos In The Odyssey

The Greek desire for kleos, or glory, is a central part of the Odyssey’s narrative. Kleos is an important value of Greek society; it is valued higher than life itself, as many great warrior’s sacrifices have proven. In a universe where our own beings are fragile and transitory, the only way to achieve immortal fame is to have one’s great deeds sung and talked about after death. If a soldier's memory is fondly brought up long after their death one achieves the closest a mortal could get to immortality. To the average citizen, immortality is a distant and elusive concept, reserved for the gods, and antithetical to human existence. As kleos was valued so highly in Greek society, it was also highly sought after. In the Odyssey, Telemachus fears that his father died a pitiful death at sea …show more content…
Kleos and status seeking are similar in the fact that the only value is derived from other’s opinions and the two are also hereditary. This is because status seeking and kleos seeking have the same underlying motivation, the desire for human approval. When selecting a career the old saying “do what you love and money will follow”, uncoincidentally written by a writer, Marsha Sinetar, comes to mind. Variations of this are often repeated by parents or teachers. While, “do what you love” may be good advice, in truth the money does not always follow. For this reason, many people disregard this and end up with a career that they do not enjoy but one that pays well or is prestigious. Humans go to incredible lengths to show off their success to others. In a recent example, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, a Catholic Bishop, known today as the “Bishop of Bling”, spent forty-three million dollars of his episcopal funds on home renovations. Contributing to these costs were a one million dollar garden, pure bronze window frames costing two million dollars