Ideologies of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Culture

For thousands of years, philosophies of honour and shame have been dominant in many societies describing those have led an exemplary life of good moral standing in society oppose to those who have not and have experienced great shame within their cultures. Although the concept of honour in today has been watered down to suit the view of the capitalist society, honour was a highly prestigious title in ancient Greece to be regarded as, and as well as historically only men could be identified with honour. In addition, the importance of honour and shame in their culture is represented by many ancient Greek works. This paper will thus analyse the characters of Apuleius’ Milo and Lucius honourable and shameful acts in his famous novel The Golden Ass, through Halvor Moxnes’s essay of the ideologies of honour and shame in Greek society.

To begin, it is clearly evident that Apuleius’s character Milo is generally depicted as a shameful character throughout the novel as he expresses aspects of negative shame. To illustrate, Milo is born into some degree of ascribed honour according to Moxnes, this means that Milo being a wealthy man he has been born into a preconceived degree of honour based on his family and wealth. This honour is then disregarded as Milo is a very cheap man and will not spend his money under any circumstances, this can be seen when Lucius comes to stay at Milo’s house in Thessaly and must sit on the floor because Milo only has one chair, as well as buy his own food to eat. This contradicts Moxnes look at honour as it is Milo’s job to make his guest as comfortable as possible can be as it is his honour to do so, but instead does not and does not carry out his ascribed honour within his own house let alone society. Furthermore, Milo continues to be seen as a shameful character as he is the man of his household but is unaware of the true nature of the women in his house. To demonstrate, within Moxnes essay, he speaks to the honour placed on the male head of the house hold, as they hold the power and keep those under his power in control and is seen by this quote, “in order to maintain his honour a man had to be able to defend the chastity of women under his dominance and protection”. Milo, fails at expressing his dominant honour within his house hold as his wife Pamphile routinely practices magic and has other lovers depicted by “just now she is dying for love of a very good-looking young Boeotian, and she is furiously brining all the tricks and devices of her art to bear on him” (Apuleius 131), in this quote Photis is speaking to Lucius about her mistress Pamphile and her desires for other lovers. This clearly proves Milo’s negative shamefulness within ancient Greek society as he is evidently unable to keep those under his authority, mainly his wife Pamphile disciplined as she takes other lovers under his household. Therefore, as a result of Milo’s extreme cheapness and lack of masculine authority with those in his house hold, he is a shameful character in Greek society based on the analysis of Moxnes theologies of honour.

In contrast, as a result of his actions in ancient Greece society, Lucius from Apuleius’s novel is considerably a honourable man, but is ultimately plagued by his curiosity for magic and leads him to posses negative shame. In this case, Lucius is a very curious man who stays a Milo’s house in Thessaly, Lucius is also born into ascribed honour as he is known and recognized in Thessaly. Moreover, Lucius expresses masculine honour Milo lacks when faced with supposed robbers Lucius defends his hosts house, although it wasn’t exactly robbers that were trying to break into Milo’s house Lucius still shows his honour to protect Milo’s house and those inside. This can be portrayed by the quote “I saw a number of ferocious brigands trying to affect an entry. They were competing with each other to force the front door by tearing it off by its hinges” (Apuleius 123). Thus, this shows Lucius expressing honour through defending Milo’s house as it is the male’s job to protect those under his dominance based on Moxnes essay on male honour, although Lucius is not the head of the household he is still a male in the house who holds some power. Moreover, Lucius does express negative shame as the novel progress and is continuously drawn to magic, this then runs into conflict with the ancient Greek theology of honour based on Moxnes essay. As it was seen to be very honourable to be masculine and dominant, but during the time of Apuleius’s novel it was considered a feminine trait to practice magic. For example, Lucius is told by photis that her mistress will be preforming a magical ceremony and wants to see, but ends up turning himself into a donkey and is seen when Lucius says this quote to Photis, “show me your mistress when she is actually practicing her supernatural arts? I want to see her when she evokes the gods, particularly when she changes shape” (Apuleius 134). This scene perfectly displays Lucius’s negative shame coming to light by symbolically turning into a donkey as he is drawn to feminine practices forgetting his masculinity and in turn becomes an ass. Consequently, Lucius is introduced to the novel as an honourable character who expresses his masculinity by protecting his host’s family and house but is soon drawn to the feminine practices of magic and in turn loses his male honour and becomes an ass due to his negative shame being expressed.

In conclusion, this essay has analysed both characters Milo and Lucius from Apuleius’s novel The Golden ass through the theologies of Halvor Moxnes’s essay on honour and shame in ancient Greek society. evidently, Milo is a prime example of negative shame within ancient Greek society as he is unable to express his ascribed honour within society but rather is extremely cheap, as well as not being able to place authority on those under his dominance and is unable to express his masculine honour of Greek culture at the time seen in Moxnes essay. Furthermore, Lucius is also unable to maintain his masculine honour throughout the novel, as he is an honorable man who has a degree of ascribed honour and defends his hosts from bandits but is drawn to feminine aspects of ancient Greek culture of magic and thus becomes a shameful character by becoming a donkey. Thus, proving the embedded theologies of honour and shame in ancient Greek society and prevalence in those lives, as well as the literally works created at the time.