A Matter of Honour: What Makes a Hero

By Sophia Z Kovachevich

Honour is a dying virtue. Here we look at what honour means. Not all warrior and conquerors were honourable but many unexpected people were. It traces the concept of honour, looks at some people who fought and died or lived for their beliefs and some who risked all but did not fight physically for them. I

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gotham Books
• Release date: Jan 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798887756257

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A MATTER

OF HONOUR

WHAT MAKES A HERO

SOPHIA Z KOVACHEVICH

Gotham Books

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© 2023 Sophia Z Kovachevich All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by Gotham Books (January 4, 2024)

ISBN: 979-8-88775-624-0 (P)

ISBN: 979-8-88775-625-7 (E)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.

The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Conflagration Documentary of a World in Turmoil

A Book of Plays

Wake Up Dead A Collection of Short Stories

The Raped Earth

Exporting Democracy - Death or Slavery

Nostalgia New Expanded Edition: a book of poems Vol 3

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Directly from the author:

CD format only: Available from author only

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The Three heroes I shall focus on are:

Boudicca who rebelled against the might of Rome in 62 AD. She lost but what a scare she gave Nero the Roman Emperor.

King Lazar who tried to stem the tide of Ottoman incursion into Europe and died on the battlefield.

And Willam Wallace the hero who died a terrible death for his patriotism and standing up against a tyrant, Edward I King of England and Hammer of the Scots.

Statue of William Wallace, Aberdeen by Axis 2002

Foreword

Dulce et Decorum Est,

Pro patria mori

(It is an honour to die for one’s country)

Roman Poet Horace 65-8 BC (Ars Poetica – The Art of Poetry)

Acknowledgements

To all those heroes– males and females down the ages, who have made the world a better place and given us an ideal to live up to by their actions and deeds.

Most of all I would like to acknowledge all the writers, authors, historians who have made it possible for me to access information.

I would also like to acknowledge modern technology especially the web for being able to research and access information as and when needed especially as I am a disabled person.

A big thanks to libraries too, for the use of books in my research.

Dedication

For my husband, daughters, mother, sisters, and those who have inspired me down the years with their commitment to truth, justice, honour, loyalty and a virtuous life.

Part I

Introduction

The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice.

George Washington.

Honour used to be a very important component of a good and successful life. Honour like many other virtues is a concept that cannot be measured but it is an invaluable quality to have. Honour abides within us or it does not. It cannot be learned or taught but if we don’t have honour, if we don’t live by an honourable code, we are less than nothing. We are a disgrace to humanity. Honour is the concept of a bond between individuals, an individual and society and an individual and life itself. It is a code of conduct that identifies our social standing. But more important, I believe, that honour makes us respect ourselves. It is undefinable in a concrete sense but incorporates elements like valour, honesty, chivalry, compassion, high moral values, a just person, worthiness and dependability and so on. An honourable person is in harmony with themselves and the world around them. It is an implicit rather than an explicit concept. Once honour meant a lot and the phrase on my honour carried a lot of value, because the person was ready to pledge everything on that phrase. Now it seems to be a dying concept. People rarely talk about honour.

The concept of honour appears to have declined in importance in the modern world; conscience has replaced it in the individual context, and the rule of law (with the rights and duties defined therein) has taken over in a social context. But in actuality it is scorned. Conscience today, if we are really honest, is the amount of wealth and power we have. If we have that, conscience and honour are nebulous terms. We use the words, but they mean nothing. Honour is dead, replaced by greed, self-interest and ambition. Honour, if found, is more in tradition-bound cultures today like in Pashtun society, South Italians, Poles, Slavs, Persians, Turks, Arabs, Iberians and the American South. It is also more common in agrarian rather than in industrial societies. It was a basic part of Medieval Chivalric society. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) in his Cur Deus Homo posited that sin is what deprives honour that belongs to God. And to deprive a person of honour in a feudal society was a fundamental crime against the social order.

Honour used to be synonymous with courage, glory, respect and self-sacrifice. It was the reward of good deeds that boosts our self-esteem and our esteem in the eyes of society. It brings privileges our way. It shows our high value and moral worth. It shows our moral integrity, our character, who we really are. Honour is beyond monetary value. It earns us deep respect and trust. Once, people were more than willing to give up their lives for honour. Now we often sell it for a song. In the fast-paced, modern world it is sadly, severely devalued, often scorned. But honour is always worth striving for, even dying for, more so in today’s world.

Once upon a time there were rules of behaviour. There were strong moral rules. Honour, integrity, courage, loyalty played a very important part in the lives especially of those who were an example to society. It is not that there was no immorality or dishonour at all, but that people cared for such virtues, respected such ideals and commemorated them. And so, in general, people tried to live within and by the precepts of their clans, their society. Breaking the rules might get the perpetrators expelled by the clan or tribe and forced to fend for themselves–usually a death sentence.

Honour, integrity, valour, loyalty and devotion to a cause were as much the woman’s domain as the man’s. In ancient times, women held a much higher place in the scheme of life. They participated in every sphere of life from hunting and as warriors to wives, mothers, priestesses, druids and healers. They were queens and leaders of armies and war bands. There was equality. Honour, courage, greatness belonged to both. With time things changed. Now there is again a shift towards a balance (perhaps).

True honor is an outflow from a heart that fears God.

-John Bevere.

But the question now is: Do we really fear God or even believe–truly believe–in God??? Follow the precepts of the Bible and value morality and humanity??? Our actions posit otherwise. Self-aggrandisement, power and wealth at all costs, exploitation, greed, and injustice seem more to be the order of the day. Justice has become a man-made word to be exploited for self-interest.

What makes heroes?

There is no archetype for a hero. Heroes exist and have existed in every culture, age, continent, society and religion. In fact, in pre-organised religion there were more gods and goddesses often heroic, sometimes unheroic. What is true, is that some characteristics-qualities they possess or cultivate makes them so along with the chance to do some noble deed that gets passed down through the ages, which makes us admire and look up to them.

Heroes have played a critical part in human development. Since thousands of years the heroic concept has defined entire eras of historical achievements, cultural movement, fundamental views of gender, service to others, morality, human values and many other areas of human development and advancement. It has also embodied our ideas of mortality in service to mankind and to humanity.

The hero is the most recognisable symbol in literature, mythology, legends and folktales. Every culture has its heroes. The hero may differ in some of their characteristics as demanded by their culture and social norms, but the basic qualities are shared across the board. A hero goes on a quest which may be one of internal or external enlightenment like the quest for self-knowledge and truth or the quest to right a wrong or do some unusually difficult physical tasks. They are all still heroes like Gautama Buddha seeking knowledge and sacrificing his wealth, and his cosy lifestyle for it or Cú Chulainn who fought for honour and justice and to right wrongs.

Heroism through time

The oldest piece of literature known to humanity about a hero is the Epic of Gilgamesh. This tablet is in the Slemani (Sulaymaniyah) Museum in Iraq. It is over 4,000 years old, from the Sumerian cycle of poems dating back to 2100 BCE. It had a profound effect on the Iliad and Odyssey (8th century BC) of Greek Literature. Literature is replete with heroes both male and female, gods, semi-gods and mortals. Some like Achilles, Hercules, Odysseus, Perseus, Jason, Prometheus, Aeneas, Cadmus (Persian), Atlanta, King Darius (Persian), Miltiades (Battle of Marathon), Leonides (Thermoplyae), Lysander (Peloponnesian War in 407 B.C), Aenaes (founder of Rome), Julius Caesar,(Roman) Mark Anthony, Spartacus and many others are remembered down the ages for their honourable and courageous deeds and their service to mankind. But these were not the only heroes. Every culture, every continent had their own. We are most familiar with the European heroes but in this book, we will come across many non-European heroes too. Some other celebrated ancient heroes are Beowulf, and La Chanson de Roland. Some other heroes of princely class who transcend ordinary men in skill and courage are born to their roles often of semi-divine origin, extraordinary precocity and unusual beauty like the Greek Achilles and Irish Cú Chulainn. A few like the Anglo Saxon Beowulf and Russian Ilya of Murom are slow to develop into heroes.

The very first hero in the world was Gilgamesh of Uruk written in the second century BC, who was an actual king. Then about 3,000 years ago, the classical hero was born in Greece. That led to the creation of myths of origin that in turn gave birth to classical heroes, like Hercules, Jason, Perseus, Achilles and so on. It had six centuries to develop. The idea of the ideal hero was very much bound up with military prowess and the ability to kill the opposition against all odds. A hero was someone who died in the pursuit of valour, of righting wrongs, exhibiting great courage and endurance. But they often had a fatal flaw (Hubris) that ultimately led to their destruction.

The appearance of heroes in literature marked a revolution in human thought as they turned away from the divine to the mortal. These men suffer pain and death but are defiant in the face of it and die gallantly, courageously. They leave behind fame and glory in the face of overwhelming odds and die a heroic death that we must admire. They are the first human heroes and win our admiration for all time. With these heroes we enter a new phase of heroism–human heroes who live, suffer and die in ways that we can relate to, to a degree, but which we cannot really participate in except in admiration.

Following from heroes like Gilgamesh, Beowulf, La Chanson de Roland, Cú Chulainn and Achilles, we now also have fully mortal men whom we must admire more as they are on their own. They are not part progeny of gods. These heroes like Hector and Priam and Odysseus exhibit mortality in all its forms and fallibility but their exploits are still primarily military and their fights proved their military prowess and their defense of honour. But they had a fatal flaw. Heroes now started to represent different areas of morality. Heroes are now more human. They are mortal like us, live suffer and die like us.

The heroes of antiquity in other parts of the world like Slavic and Eastern Europe had similar heroes with similar tales. However, their lifestyles were more Spartan. They were excellent warriors with a strict code of warrior ethics, among them honour being the foremost, closely followed by brotherhood forged in battle and a feeling of family, of belonging to that brotherhood above all else. And one other unusual characteristic was hospitality to all including the conquered/defeated/even enemies.

Unlike many Western heroes Slavic bogatyrs are more human in the sense they have failings and are aware of them and try to overcome them. They are relatable. There are two cycles of bogatyr tales–the elder and younger cycles. The former relates to pre-Christian times and have more god-like qualities. The latter are very strong humans who lived in the time of Vladimir I (980-1015), the Kievan Rus ruler. To this period belong heroes like Sviatogor, Mikula Selianinovich, Ilya Muromets, Dobrynia Nikitich, Alyosha Popovich, Mikhailo Potyk and others. Most of these heroes are relatively unknown in the West European world.

Some well-known human heroes down the ages who battled terrible odds were: General Hannibal of Carthage, who took his elephants across the Alp mountains to take on the might of Rome, Queen Zenobia of Palmyra who also fought the Romans–the mightiest empire of the times, Alexander the great who conquered a large portion of the known world; Genghis Khan before whose might none could stand, Spartacus and his enslaved compatriots who also fought the mighty Roman Empire and others of the ilk.

Heroes often became cultural icons and served to bind cultures over issues like morality, patriotism, integrity and unity. But with time their roles again changed and they developed the fatal law–the Achilles heel–flaws like pride, lust, overweening ambition. Later heroes again changed to become selfless, who fought for causes rather than for personal reasons and most of all for honour and country.

Anyone can become a hero if they have the mindset to do so. There are heroic qualities dormant in many of us. We need the incentive to nurture them, develop them. We need to put the wellbeing of our brethren, our country, before selfish, self-centred desires, ambitions and greed. Greed, lust for power and ambition are dangerous human failings.

Heroic Qualities

Some common heroic qualities across the board are:

Honour: is a highly prized quality. It makes us someone worthy of respect. When we lose honour, I think, we lose an essential part of ourselves. It is the ability to rise above our limitations, to be our best selves. When we fight and die for our country or a cause, we are giving the most precious gift that we can–our lives. Honour has had different meanings at different points in the passage of time to different people. But honour is something to be proud of. Honour and integrity go together. They are two sides of a coin. And when we discharge our duties with honour there is immense satisfaction. We feel we have achieved something. When we don’t, it festers or used to. In our modern world, honour is becoming unimportant, perhaps even a weakness. Wealth, power and pride have taken its place. We still sometimes talk about honour, but it appears we do not really value it. And those who really do and live by it are anachronisms.

Integrity: is having strong ethical, moral principles and following those principles at all times, no matter the consequences. A person with integrity is honest, honourable and consistent in their actions and deeds. This means trustworthiness and dependability; it is what draws others to them and give their trust to them including trusting them with their lives. McGill, Queen’s University Press, 2010 describes integrity in the following way: Integrity is a personal choice, an uncompromising and predictably consistent commitment to honour moral, ethical, spiritual, and artistic values and principles. English Dictionaries (Oxford and Cambridge) describe it as: the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. For me, personally, integrity is being the best of me - honestly and truly in the image of the divine.

Loyalty: Devotion and faithfulness to a cause, a person, a faith, an idea, belief in its rightness is a quality heroes have in abundance. They are fierce in their loyalties and faithful to their undertaking. They are totally committed to their cause and their single-minded devotion makes them appear invincible or if not invincible above the ordinary in loyalty and endurance. Loyalty is also a much-prized offering even today but extremely hard to find. For many today, loyalty is bought with money or some other inducements for as long as those inducements, payments are available. A very, very small percentage of people are loyal because they gave their word and truly meant it. That is true loyalty.

Strength: more important than physical strength, it is the mental and moral strength one possesses in order to face very dangerous situations and against overwhelming odds, even in the face of failure, death or torture. It is also the strength to choose right from wrong in very difficult situations. Moral strength is the moral fibre of a person and often is even more difficult to achieve than physical strength. It is the ability to keep faith with one’s beliefs and stay true to it against all odds, all hardships, physical, emotional, moral, psychological. This endurance makes one into a real hero. Physical strength can only make us into bullies but moral strength can make us heroes. That keeps us true to our ideals.

Courage: Courage is not, not to be afraid, but to be able to face our fear and overcome them or deal with the situation in spite of that fear. It is to be afraid and still confront that fear and try and overcome it. It is a classic characteristic of heroes, dating back to the very first heroic manifestations in global, cultural history. Gilgamesh and Hercules and the pantheon of heroes of all times, ages and climes showed themselves to be the unflinching warriors to a cause whether it was fighting for freedom, against a monster or dragons, or an invincible empire like the Roman empire at its zenith, or a cause like the Civil Rights Movement, or the Suffragette Movement in later years. Courage has long been a cornerstone of heroism. Courage is the ability to overcome our fear against all odds even at the risk of death, torture and defeat. Courage is the strength in the face of pain or grief. Valour is courage in battle against great odds. It is the ability to do the right thing even when the end seems foredoomed.

Patriotism: can be to a country or loyalty to a cause or clan. In Celtic Britain it was really loyalty to the clan that came foremost whereas in Scotland and Serbia, it was to countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotism explains it as: national pride, the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to a homeland or the country and alliance with other citizens who share the same sentiment to create a feeling of oneness among the people. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one’s own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects. It encompasses a set of concepts closely related to nationalism and mostly liberal nationalism.

But patriotism is often used to exploit the masses too. That is the negative component when governments use it as a goad to get the populace to do what they want the populace to do. If you don’t submit or have a different opinion, you are unpatriotic, like it was under McCarthyism in the USA in the 1940’s and 1950’s–the Second Red Scare; or under Hitler or Stalin to name only a few. History is replete with leaders who have exploited and murdered masses in the name of ‘patriotism’.

The Gift of Inspiring: A hero shows us how to take care of each other, whether through a one-time act of bravery or a lifetime of fighting for the greater good. A hero knows how to inspire others to greater deeds to be the best they can be, not simply through their words but more through their actions. When life gets hard, you look at the examples of heroes to give you the strength to carry on, to strive for a better world. When life is bleak and meaningless, heroes (and saints, another type of heroes) offer you comfort and the courage to move forward–no matter the cost.

When failure is inevitable, heroes show us the struggle was worth it, the sacrifice counts, by their own examples like William Wallace who died most gruesomely for a cause. And even in humility their glory, their greatness remains intact, perhaps becomes even higher in our estimation for they died for our cause, to help free us. When the road is very difficult and the journey rough, the hero gives us the impetus to go forward.

Selflessness and Self Sacrifice: is another heroic quality. It is the ability to sacrifice oneself to a greater cause. The three heroes I’ve chosen to write about all exhibited all these qualities. In more modern times, heroes who come to mind are Nelson Mandela, Dr Martin Luther King and all the unsung heroes who fought and died for a cause like the heroes of World War I and II and those who worked in the Resistance or who lived and died for a cause. Self-sacrifice is one of the noblest qualities when you put your life at the behest of a cause and are willing to surrender all for it without counting the cost to yourself. It is, I think, the highest form of altruism and the noblest of deeds.

Sacrifice is a quality that stands unique from all the other virtues which makes a hero noble in his deeds. He or she is always quite willing to cast off the predilections and personal comforts whenever they become indispensable for a higher cause or for the welfare of others. But sacrifice is something most unsung, uncelebrated people also do. We, the ordinary person, often sacrifice in our daily lives to make those we love live better. Still with heroes it is on a major scale as they often sacrifice the most important possession of all–their lives. But sacrifice, big or small makes the world a better place and us better human beings.

Compassion: is another important quality in a hero. It is a form of altruism that makes the hero risk his life for others often instinctively to help others without expecting any return. Compassion is what motivates us to go out of our way to offer comfort to someone in need–physical, mental, emotional or psychological. Sometimes just a listening ear makes someone else’s day much better, to know that a person cared to listen to them. Compassion is also a way to overcome negative emotions that we have, like hate and anger by putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes. It is also to show compassion to the losers, your opponents, or even enemies, in a struggle.

Conviction in a cause: without this it is impossible to give your all to a cause. This is unshakeable belief in the rightness of your action, often for the greater good, for the betterment of humanity immaterial to what it might cost you. It is what martyrs and terrorists–two sides of the same coin, depending on where you stand–do. For example, you might fight for freedom and justice and be regarded a martyr by one side and as a terrorist by the other side who does not want to grant you your freedom e.g., the Irish problem IRA and Sien Fein versus the English backed Ulster Unionist Party; or the British Americans and British Army in the American War of Independence and all others who do not agree with the mainstream media and the powerful countries in modern times. The Americans regarded their people as fighting for a just cause and if they fell, it was a martyr’s death. The British considered them rebels, agitators at best. Or people around the world, who have fought and still fight for their freedom, their right to live a good, normal free life. To the exploiters, they are terrorists but to most others they are martyrs to a cause. In today’s world this has become a major issue–martyr or terrorist. But we should remember: a martyr fights for a cause, a terrorist fights for a personal issue.

Wisdom: is a much-desired quality for a leader to possess. It gives purpose to what must be done and how best to do it. It is because many lives and livelihoods are in their care and they must be judicious how to use their power and always be aware of their responsibility. Whatever risks are to be taken must be taken with forethought and on balance. A wise person never rushes blindly into danger and a hero has to be wise and always be aware of their responsibility for their actions that will impact on many.

Fortitude: is being able to encounter obstacles that are dangerous and be able to deal with them without losing faith and courage. It goes with resilience, which is the ability to recover from setbacks and inspire others to do the same. Leaders especially should have this quality and they must know how to keep hope alive for the many in the face of all dangers and possible failures. A hero must take on the burden for all and shoulder it with fortitude.

Responsibility: heroes must take responsibility and see an action to its logical conclusion. It is also to take responsibility for one’s own actions and outcomes and be responsible for the welfare of those others who have put their trust in them. If he (the hero) wavers, he must never show that for it is his