A Study Of The Sports Heroism In Homer

The Sixth Plenary Session of the 17 th CPC Central Committee passed Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Major Issues Pertaining to Deepening Reform of the Cultural System and Promoting the Great Development and Flouring of Social Culture. The report of the 18 th CPC National Congress said "Developing a Strong Socialist Culture in China". The Third Plenary Session of the 18 th CPC Central Committee also stressed the importance of cultural development. Clearly, the state has a profound understanding of the culture, as the country’s soft power, will play a key role in the development of China. Culture is a common name, which is composed of many different cultures. Sports culture is an important part of a culture, it contains material culture, spiritual culture and institutional culture. Sports spiritual culture is an intrinsic reflect of sports culture. It is the soul and essence of sports culture, it shows the spiritual quality of the athlete in the fierce competition, the harsh training and brutal showdown. It reflects the pursuit of human’s ideals, and plays a great educational and reformatory role. The in sport spirit has been promoted and praised during the whole of human history. The heroic complex, which is advocated by human through the ages, was reflected in the Western literary work Homer. The study chose Homer as the research object, not because of its position in the history of Western literature and its great influence to Western literature, but because the characterization of the heroes in Homer has a striking resemblance to the image of the contemporary competitive athletes. According to the image comparison between the heroes in Homer and the contemporary athletes, we found that both the contemporary competitive athletes and the epic heroes have the identity of heroes; they are entrusted with the task of nation; in order to gain honor, they have tasted the bitterness of defeat; they step forward to face challenges; they outdo themselves all the times; they build self-worth by doing competitive sports, and show the spirit of such as keep battling on, muster their courage and fight in the vanguard, never say die at the critical moment.The study analyzed the sport in Homer from the following aspects: firstly, the sense of survival in competitive sports. The background of Homer is the slave society in Mycenaean era. At that time, people felt hard to live on for the serious social exploitation and frequent wars. Brave heroes had the strong desire to break the threat of death, so sports reflected a strong sense of survival at this time; secondly, the manifestations of competitive sports in Homer. There are lots of descriptions of sports events or sports scenes in Homer. Homer is divided into two parts, the manifestations of sports are different in different part. According to the manifestations of sports, Iliad can be classified as funeral competitive sports, Odyssey can be classified as athletic performances; thirdly, the spirit of sports in Homer. In Homer, athletic heroes showed the at funeral athletics and athletic performances in four ways: 1, reflected in the hero’s behavior; 2, embodied in the tragic consciousness; 3, embodied in the fusion of sports and tragedy; 4, embodied in the aesthetic of athletics tragedy; fourthly, the characteristics of sports spirit in Homer. The characteristics are fearless, noble excellence, freedom, equality and indomitable; fifthly, the spiritual value of competitive sports in Homer. The study analyzed six values in competitive sports, highlighted the effect of the hero’s main role and the to the society, and confirmed the value of competitive sports; sixthly, the behaviors of competitive sports. Through the analysis of the behaviors of Homer, Western Knight, modern contests and sports, the study discussed the similarities and differences of the behaviors of competitive sports at different times.In short, the study had a depth of understanding of sports competitions and the in Homer, confirmed the value of in history and the effect of spiritual culture in promoting sports culture building, also showed the reflection to the alienation in the contemporary sports.