Tales of classical Greeks of their plumed helmets and woolen tunics may appear far faraway from at present’s period of prevaricators, persona cults, and political panic. However what appears new and scary has previous roots. And within the case of an Athenian normal — and a contemporary American prototype — named Alcibiades, these roots return so far as the fifth century BC.
Alcibiades (pronounced al-suh-bai-uh-deez) was a good-looking, unscrupulous, rich, boastful, formidable, charismatic, clever, licentious, courageous, traitorous, hot-headed, cultural contradiction of a person born in 450 BC. An unapologetic champion of ego-mad individualism, Alcibiades lived for self-promotion and public consideration. And he reveled within the sorts of controversy and acclaim that, like his modern-day friends, introduced him each.
Alcibiades, an in depth good friend of Socrates and a ward of Pericles, appeared to have understood early that his magnificence set him aside. Certainly because the Roman historian Plutarch wrote, Alcibiades’ “wonderful pure components” made him “beautiful and nice” from youth to maturity.
To additional promote his model, in addition to reveal what we would name his influencer’s clout, Alcibiades emblazoned his warrior’s defend with a picture of Eros armed with a bow and thunderbolt — not a mere arrow. He was additionally reported to stroll “with utter…
