Kalokagathia

The Greek word kalokagathia defined the perfect (physical and moral) excellence of the kaloi kagathoi (the “beautiful and good” men”). As a socio-political notion, the origin of kalokagathia is found after the middle of the fifth century BCE, when the epithet of worth kaloi kagathoi first appeared in sources as well as the noun kalokagathia (Herodotus 1.30; Aristophanes Banqueters fr. 205), associated with well-born individuals of Athenian society. Agathos and kalos had already occurred from Homer to Pindar as separate epithets of worth and self-description by aristocrats, and kalos was associated with patronymic in Athenian inscriptions from the mid-fifth century. However, they only appear combined under the new label in the final decades of the fifth century, emphasizing the qualities of excellence that were felt to raise the Athenian aristocrats above the mass of citizenry. Right to the end of the fifth century, the label was used in Athens as a socio-political notion with reference to the moderate élites associated with Nicia, Alcibiades or Theramenes (Aristophanes Wasps 1256, Frogs 718-37; Xenophon Hellenica 2.3; Aristoteles Athenaion Politeia 28). But meanings and usages differed in different cities and the epithet was used in Sparta, divorced from class consideration, referring to the Spartiates and Perioikoi distinguished for their conduct in battle (Thuc. 4.40). In fourth century Athens, the notion of kalokagathia designated a general (thus, non exclusive) civic excellence, namely the civic virtue which can be achieved by good citizens of any class through upholding truth and justice, according to the “bourgeois” kalokagathia model described by Xenophon.