Two important characteristics for warriors are honor and virtue. Virtue is deemed to be the most important to a warrior’s life and it means achieving your greatest potential as a human being. “The reward for great honor and virtue is fame (kleos), which is what guarantees meaning and value to one's life. Dying without fame (akleos) is generally considered a disaster, and the warriors of The Iliad do the most unimaginable deeds to avoid dying in obscurity or infamy. Other components of a warrior’s heroic code is courage, loyalty, generosity, mercy, dignity, decency, honor, stoicism and strength.”This is the heroic code of honor that the warriors are taught throughout their life. It is the code that all warriors live and die for to achieve greatness. A warrior is fierce, savage and merciless which attributes to their virtue and honor.The four codes that a warrior lives by are “always to be the best and bravest and to be distinguished above others. To stand fast and firmly while in battle. To be a speaker of words and a doer of deeds. And the final code is to help one’s friends, while harming one’s enemy.” The stereotypical warrior would be with prestige, which he must defend. A great warrior is goal oriented to the point of being narrow minded with the goal of becoming the best. A warrior’s greatest fear is to fail, if a warrior fails he no longer has virtue or honor. A warrior must be ready at any given notice that an enemy wants to publicly humiliate him at anytime. A warrior is responsible for the close friends and family members he may have. The harsher and most barbaric way an enemy is able to slain his foe gives the warrior more prestige within his army. The more ridicule and public humiliation that is done to your enemy shows everyone else what kind of warrior you are. A great, fierce and most of all honored warrior. A warrior without honor does not have meaning ...
