ex cathedra: Childless man as hero

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Childless man as hero

The three fundamentals of masculinity --fathering, fighting and feeding-- do admit of exceptions, by way of either metaphor or virtuosity. By metaphor I mean the translation of these three very concrete activities into three traits of character in post-hunter/gatherer societies: power, courage and skill. By virtuosity I mean that if a male shows outstanding achievement in one or two of the three, he will be accounted a man even if he is lacking in fulfilling the whole.

Beowulf is a consummate warrior and a successful king, but he never marries and he dies childless.
Yet he is undoubtedly a hero, an archetypal man in a combination of concreteness, metaphor and virtuosity.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: What are you driving at here? You're implying that we should stop with all this respecting Immanuel Kant?
jpm; 2:41 PM, February 20, 2011
OreamnosAmericanus said...: Once again, jpm, you pierce the veil of ignorance!; 5:19 PM, February 20, 2011

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