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Dio Chrysostom gives several different examples of virtues that the perfect man should possess. According to Chrysostom, a man should be able to face and withstand many different challenges, such as hunger, thirst, cold, pain and torture, all the while “disclosing no weakness” and having no fear (16). He must also keep a distance from “pleasures” (24). I found it interesting that Chrysostom here refers to pleasure as a female when he says “it is impossible to dwell with pleasure or even to dally with her for any length of time without being completely enslaved” or that “pleasure, after overpowering and taking possession of her victims, delivers them over to hardships” (24-26). This shows that Chrysostom thought that a man won over by pleasures had given up his masculinity and had been won over by a feminine characteristic. Chrysostom says that “the perfect man is often…sportive” (16). He also seems to think that a “man of wisdom should” be able to recognize the faults in others and should go out of his way to help set them straight (5).
Philostratus emphasizes his belief that men should be willing to die for what’s right. These things include the liberation of “his city or” for the protection of “his parents and children and brothers and other kinsfolk, or…for his friends” (12). Any man not willing to do so deserves death and should be branded a traitor.
Through Euripides’ story of Iphigeneia it can be said that women were expected to take on “masculine” qualities in the face of death. This was especially important when their death was necessary in the form of a sacrifice. In this story Iphigeneia changes her state of mind “from that of a childish girl who begs her father to save her life into an independent woman who realizes that” the fate of her city “depends on her decision” to allow herself to be sacrifice (31).
Dio Chrysostom gives several different examples of virtues that the perfect man should possess. According to Chrysostom, a man should be able to face and withstand many different challenges, such as hunger, thirst, cold, pain and torture, all the while “disclosing no weakness” and having no fear (16). He must also keep a distance from “pleasures” (24). I found it interesting that Chrysostom here refers to pleasure as a female when he says “it is impossible to dwell with pleasure or even to dally with her for any length of time without being completely enslaved” or that “pleasure, after overpowering and taking possession of her victims, delivers them over to hardships” (24-26). This shows that Chrysostom thought that a man won over by pleasures had given up his masculinity and had been won over by a feminine characteristic. Chrysostom says that “the perfect man is often…sportive” (16). He also seems to think that a “man of wisdom should” be able to recognize the faults in others and should go out of his way to help set them straight (5).
Philostratus emphasizes his belief that men should be willing to die for what’s right. These things include the liberation of “his city or” for the protection of “his parents and children and brothers and other kinsfolk, or…for his friends” (12). Any man not willing to do so deserves death and should be branded a traitor.
Through Euripides’ story of Iphigeneia it can be said that women were expected to take on “masculine” qualities in the face of death. This was especially important when their death was necessary in the form of a sacrifice. In this story Iphigeneia changes her state of mind “from that of a childish girl who begs her father to save her life into an independent woman who realizes that” the fate of her city “depends on her decision” to allow herself to be sacrifice (31).