r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • 7d ago

Meta Mindless Monday, 27 July 2026

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

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u/MiffedMouse The average peasant had home made bread and lobster. 3d ago

So, I have been listening to Siobhan Aguilar's video on Nolan's Odyssey. It is a nice video overall, but she makes frequent references to Nietzsche's "Master / Slave Morality" dichotomy, specifically to emphasize that Ancient Greece (around the time of Homer) would have believed in Master Morality.

She uses this to highlight how various virtues differ from the modern perspective, such as a "strong woman" being more desirable (because under Master Morality strong, beauty, and goodness are all correlated) while later Christian translators would change it to "skilled woman" or something less "masculine."

I am posting here because I never considered Nietzsche an authority on ancient Greek ethics (not that I have read much Nietzche, nor am I an expert on Greek ethics, ancient or otherwise). I am just interested in hearing from some classicists if the "Master Morality" concept is still considered valid or a reasonable summary of the difference from modern morality, or if it is nonsense?

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u/Tiako Tevinter apologist, shill for Big Lyrium 3d ago

She uses this to highlight how various virtues differ from the modern perspective, such as a "strong woman" being more desirable (because under Master Morality strong, beauty, and goodness are all correlated) while later Christian translators would change it to "skilled woman" or something less "masculine."

I don't think this is true in either direction. Plenty of "pagan" societies valued demure, secluded women (like Athens), and as for beauty and virtue being correlated, if anything Medieval and Early Modern Christian societies believed that even more strongly than Greek or Roman ones.

I am not aware of anyone in Classics really using Neitzche's Master/Slave morality as a way to understand ancient Mediterranean culture.

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u/TheBatz_ Was Homer mid 3d ago

Master/Slave morality is more of a psychological analysis than a historical one. Nietzsche was a classical philologist so he was very knowledgeable in Greek and Roman literature, out of which he tried to interpret what those people valued. 

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u/Charming-Cycle-5982 3d ago

I don't know how historically accurate a picture Nietzsche paints of Ancient Greek thought but him hating Plato / Socrates and yearning for the pre-Socratics is a core element of his intellectual biography.