An Imperishable Crown of Glory

Ancient Greek society revolved around the concept of κλέος, a word which can be translated as “glory.” In The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours, Gregory Nagy explains how this word he translates as “glory” derives from the verb κλύειν, meaning “to hear,” and can be more literally translated as “that which is heard” [1]. That which is heard about a person includes rumors and stories told about that person, specifically the stories told about heroes in epic poetry. Epic heroes sought lasting glory by attempting to secure their names in the narratives heard by people for generations after their death. What remains when you die, the stories people tell of your life, the impact you made, that which is heard about you in conversation, your reputation all make up your κλέος. Religious, artistic, and athletic aspects of Greek culture were structured around the idea of earning one’s worth through competition.

The concept of κλέος can be better understood by looking at whom the Greeks looked as exemplars of this glory they sought with such tenacity — heroes. Greeks told the stories of these heroes through epic poems like Homer’s Iliad which recounts the events of the Trojan War hundreds of years after the fact. According to Nagy, these stories about the past represent the values of the times in which they were composed: “As if the Iliad, in mirroring for the Greeks of the present an archetypal image of themselves in the past, served as an autobiography of a people” [2]. Achilles was one such hero who exemplified the quest for κλέος and thus served as a model for the ideal ancient Greek man. At one point in the narrative, Achilles must decide between journeying home — which comes with the hope of safety — and continuing to fight in the war — likely leading to his demise. As he weighs his options, Achilles considers the κλέος at stake in his decision: “If I hold out here and lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my glory [κλέος] never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory [κλέος] dies” [3]. To Achilles, death in battle has comparable benefits to a safe journey home because “in death the hero wins the ultimate prize of life eternal in song,” as Nagy wrote [4]. The original hearers of this epic would have praised Achilles for his decision to stay in the battle, and their praise hundreds of years later only reaffirms that that which is heard about Achilles leads to his glorification. Achilles chose to seek glory in life, and songs of his praise were sung well after his death.

The common person in Greek society pursued recognition nonetheless despite not being a hero. This pursuit came in the form of a society structured around competition. Performing arts, athletics, and even religious practices involved some sort of competition in the pursuit of renown and glory. The ancient site of Delphi provides an illustrative example of how competition in the pursuit of glory soaked into many aspects of Greek life. Michael Scott in Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World explains how the Greeks held Delphi as a site of common importance between city-states, and people would travel to Delphi to compete in musical and athletic competitions, to seek counsel from the famed oracle, and to establish the name of their city-state by building treasuries and other monuments to the wealth and power of their people [5]. In providing so many outlets to earn and display glory, Delphi exemplifies the importance of this pursuit not just to the Greek hero but also to the commoner. Athletes and musicians were not necessarily motivated to compete for any sort of prize, as, according to Richard Neer in “Delphi, Olympia, and the Art of Politics,” sometimes “these games had no reward but prestige” and allowed victors to make a name for themselves, a name sometimes made permanent by the erection of a statue in their honor [6]. Ultimately, a Greek competed because this pursuit of κλέος reflected their view of divinity, which according to Plutarch, consisted of power, virtue, and immortality [7]. The way for an athlete to live past their mortal life was to become renowned through the pursuit of athletic greatness. In “The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece,” David Lunt established that heroes made divine by their culture, heroes like Achilles and Heracles, were held in high esteem by the people who sought to imitate them and, “by imitating the lives and adventures of these mythic heroes, successful and powerful athletes in ancient Greece could aspire to achieve a like measure of heroic honors after death” [8]. The Greeks reflected so much of what they valued in life in their view of the immortal, and their imitations of the immortal allowed them to seek that same immortality. As seekers of divinity, Greek athletes “hungry for κλέος” achieved quasi-immortality by gaining “a heroic, superhuman status that enabled them to lead their cities to victory in battle or to continue to exert influence over earthly affairs after their deaths” [9]. That both heroes and mortals sought athletic renown by pursuing glory and honor that outlived their names reflects the values instilled in them by their view of the nature of divinity.

Human nature remained much the same from the period of classical Greece to the foundation of the Christian church in the first century AD despite changing cultural values and norms. People still sought glory and competed amongst each other, while those competitions may have looked different. Even so, there was a continued emphasis on athletic games as a way to earn this recognition. This idea finds its way into the letters of Paul to young Christian churches around the Mediterranean and Near East (some of these letters are included in the Christian New Testament). Writing to predominantly Greek audiences, Paul uses athletic metaphors to convey his points. In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul uses the analogy of a runner in a race to urge his audience to run the race of life with discipline and focus on pursuing a life set apart from the rest of the world. Drawing on his knowledge of the games, Paul promises as a prize for winning this race a laurel wreath that does not bring temporary fame but a prize that is imperishable [10]. Running this race in a certain way is not what guarantees the prize (in this case salvation). Paul states this explicitly in his letter to the Romans by saying that all people “fall short of the glory of God,” meaning no one can earn this prize of their own efforts [11]. Rather, because no one measures up to the glory of God, the prize Paul refers to must be given as a gift. To further understand Paul’s metaphor of an imperishable prize humans are called to run after but cannot achieve, one must look to the book of Hebrews, written by an unknown author to early Christians of Jewish background. Hebrews offers a similar picture of running a race as the one Paul offers but with a slight difference. The author of Hebrews, like Paul, encourages readers to “run the race that is set before [them]” but adds that they should run “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” [12]. God sent his son Jesus to live the perfect life and die so that those who put their trust in him may receive this gift of salvation. Nothing a human does earns this salvation. As Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, this imperishable crown is “the gift of God” and “not your own doing” [13]. The invitation is open to all to look to Jesus and receive this free gift of eternal glory that all desire but none can earn. 

What God offers through Christ satisfies the deepest longings of the human heart. From those who sought after the κλέος and renown of Achilles to those of us in the current age who pursue any number of avenues in an attempt to make our names great, the glory Christ offers differs significantly from the glory we so often seek in our own lives. It is not one that gives us fame, wealth, or comfort in life nor is it one that will make people remember us after we die. The glory Jesus promises is the glory of eternal life in communion with a loving God and the hope that one day all of creation will be restored to the full measure of glory it was intended to possess. The ancient Greek sought vainly after immortality by pursuing κλέος and dominance in competition (all to no avail) all while God freely offers this imperishable crown of glory. The only question that remains is what you will do with that invitation.

1. Nagy, Gregory. The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours / Gregory Nagy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013: 51
2. Ibid, 18
3. Iliad, Homer IX line 413. Translated by Robert Fagles
4. Nagy 23
5. Scott, Michael. Delphi: A History of the Center of the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014: 4
6. Neer, Richard T. “Delphi, Olympia, and the Art of Politics.” In The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece, 225–64. Cambridge University Press, 2007: 230
7. Plutarch, Life of Aristides 6.3
8. Lunt, David J. “The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece.” Journal of Sport History 36, no. 3 (2009): 376
9. Ibid, 388
10. 1 Corinthians 9:24-26, ESV
11. Romans 3:23, ESV
12. Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV
13. Ephesians 2:8, ESV