Can the villain become the hero, or at least express traits of heroism? This idea is fearful, for it breaks the boundaries of morality. Joel’s blogpost on Sententiae Antiquae— “A School Massacre and Toxic Heroism”—discusses how actions and traits traditionally held as glorious can be dangerous.

While most heroic characters do not lie on the center of controversy like the example of Kleomêdês in the blogpost, many of them do tend to do harm while being heroic. In keeping his honor, Achilles prays to the deities—his mother and Zeus—to cause more Achaean casualties, which sacrifices his closest friend Patroclus. Achilles’ son Neoptolemus also has qualities associated with toxic heroism. In the Aeneid, he slaughters a Trojan prince in front of the king Priam, and then kills Priam at the altar. According to the warriors’ code, such acts make him a great warrior. But from a moral perspective, Neoptolemus’s acts could be regarded as both ruthless and sacrilegious. While we hail the bravery of Achilles and Neoptolemus, we often forget that their successes were built upon by the blood of victims.

A specific argument Joel makes about heroism I particularly agree on is the emphasis of “excess”. The fact that Greek heroes “kill excessively” makes their actions fall from righteous warfare to immoral slaughter. Today, this excessiveness manifests itself in the commercial market. The goals of many companies are to occupy a huge amount of the market share in order to be “honored” in the market, that is to say having a great amount of control over the prices set in the market.