Volume 62, Issue 2, 2015
Matúš Porubjak
Pages 21-31
Moderate Fury (new role of thouridos alke in Tyrtaeus)
The archaic poets were the first witnesses and also intellectual generators of processes led to the constitution of social-political structures of classical Greek poleis. Tyrtaios (1st half of 7th century BC) is one of the oldest. In his elegy (fr. 12) he set thouridos alkē (furious valour) as an ultimate virtue. This phrase can be already found in Homer who uses it as a name for one of the many warriors’ aretai. The aim of the paper is to give a complex analysis of fr. 12, explore the meaning of the phrase used by both poets, and show a new context in which it was set by Tyrtaios. Consequently, we try to grasp one of the origins of the “new rational-political order” and show the way, how the lyric transformed the old epic values into the new political ones.