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Glory is high renown, praise, and honor obtained by notable achievements, and based in extensive common consent.[1] In Greek culture, fame and glory were highly considered, as is explained inThe Symposium, one ofPlato's dialogs.
Kleos (Greek:κλέος) is theGreek word often translated to "renown", or "glory". It is related to the word for "to hear" and carries the implied meaning of "what others hear about you". A Greekhero earnskleos through accomplishing great deeds, often through his own death.Kleos is invariably transferred from father to son[clarification needed]; the son is responsible for carrying on and building upon the "glory" of the father.
Kleos is a common theme inHomer's epics, theIliad and theOdyssey, the main example in the latter being that ofOdysseus and his sonTelemachus, who is concerned that his father may have died a pathetic and pitiable death at sea rather than a reputable and gracious one in battle.
The Greek philosopher Plato, in his dialogSymposium devoted to discussing love, digresses into the subject of fame and glory. This comes in the section that concerns the dialog betweenSocrates andDiotima. She is explaining that men search for some kind of immortality, for instance by means of physical and intellectual procreation. She then asserts that the love for fame and glory is very strong, and in fact to obtain them, men are ready to engage in great efforts, and also run risks and sacrifices, even of their lives (self-sacrifice), and will sacrifice still more for this than for their children. She then referencesAlcestis (who died to saveAdmetus),Achilles (to avengePatroclus), andCodrus, as examples of heroes in search of fame and immortal renown.[2]
Plato believed "There's a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself."[citation needed] Plato emphasized thatvictory is self-motivated, while glory is to benefit future victory.
Plato's specific commentary about life's glories that"The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile." has been later referenced by magazines and newspapers such as theAmerican news publicationForbes (in June 1928).[3]
Jorge Manrique was a prominent Spanish poet of the fifteenth century. His most celebrated work wasCoplas a la Muerte de su Padre (Stanzas about the death of his father) that was translated into the English language by poetHenry Wadsworth Longfellow. In it is an explanation of the three lives of men:[clarification needed]
The life of fame is expressed in the following verse:
No se os haga tan amarga
la batalla temerosa
que esperáis,
pues otra vida más larga
de la fama gloriosa
acá dejáis
Think not the struggle that draws near
Too terrible for man, nor fear
To meet the foe;
Nor let thy noble spirit grieve,
Its life of glorious fame to leave
On earth below.