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BELL AND HOWELL INFORMATION AND LEARNING FOREIGN TEXT OMITTED (...)
MANHOOD in archaic and classical Greece-as in modern times-is generally manifested not so much in relationships with women as in relationships with other men, especially in the relationship between father and son. The Greek male is expected to produce sons who will continue his oikos (e.g. Soph. Ant. 641-45; Eur. Alc. 621f, 654-57). Further, as Hesiod makes clear, sons should resemble their fathers in both looks and conduct, especially the latter (Op. 182, 235; cf. II. 6.476-81; Theophr. Char. 5.5). Such resemblance earns the father public esteem and proves his manliness; the lack of it may be cause for disparagement and calls his manliness into question.1 We learn from Ajax and Philoctetes that Sophocles follows the Hesiodic imperative that sons should resemble their fathers in their natures and their accomplishments. Ajax sees himself as an unworthy son, having lost Achilles' arms to Odysseus, and prefers to commit suicide rather than face his father, Telamon, who took part in Heracles' expedition to Troy and got Hesione, the best part of the booty, as a reward (Aj. 430-40, 462-65, 470ff, 1300-303; Diod. 4.32.5). At the same time, he expects his son, Eurysaces, to be like himself in nature, valor, and in everything else ((...), Aj. 545-51).
Sophocles' Philoctetes, on the other hand, presents the struggle between Odysseus and Philoctetes for the paternity of Neoptolemus, as each tries to mold the young man in his own image. Philoctetes aims to return him to the heroic ways of his biological father, the dead Achilles; Odysseus aims to draw him away from all that Achilles was and stood for. The essential trait of Greek masculinity, a father's relationship with his sons, here takes the form of a relentless rivalry in which how well each transmits his line through physical resemblance, character, and conduct is potentially as much a source of competition as military prowess and social and political position.
Although scholars often note in passing that the relationships between Neoptolemus and the other older participants recall those of fathers and sons, they ultimately focus on the opposition between the arete (excellence) of ergon (action) and the arete of logos (word or rhetoric) that comes to play in the tragedy, rather...