Heitor, o guardião da cidade?: O herói épico sob a crítica filosófica

Abstract

Based on the reading of Plato's Republic, we turn to the identification of the philosophers criticism to the Homeric poetic models that guided the young Greek education, models which, in the philosophers view, were the main cause of the bad soul constitution of the citizen and would endanger the constitution of the good guardian. In a second step we highlight the characterization of the Homeric character Hector, whose composed figure which appears in Homer's Iliad shows a warrior dedicated to the protection of the city and to values similar to those described as characteristic of the good guardian in the platonic work. Our text analyzes the characterization of these two figures, Hector and the guardian of the Platonic city, seeking to verify if the Homeric character could correspond to a possible model that could have inspired Plato or, at least, that could be today a reference to understand the model of the good guardian. Briefly, the goal of this dissertation is to discuss issues related to the poetic models and to the philosophical foundations of the platonic paideia for the constitution of a city that is fair and happy.