INSERT QUOTES (AT LEAST ONE PER SECTION)WORKS CITED PAGEAchilles and Socrates: Contrasting Embodiments of Human ExcellenceChloë SellsGTX 2301 HDr. David D. CoreyApril 2, 2014Achilles in Homer's Iliad and Socrates in Plato's Republic are both models of human excellence, but they do not appear to be equally exceptional. This leads to the development of several questions regarding these individuals and the curious differences in their size. What exactly is it that makes these characters excellent in such different and unique ways? How can these distinctive types of greatness be classified? Finally, with such contrasts between them, is it reasonable for a human being to strive to embody both of these types at the same time? In the following essay I will address each of these questions, arguing first, through evidence from excerpts from each of the works, that it is military pre-eminence and the pursuit of lasting honor that makes Achilles excellent while this same attribute in Socrates is largely due to his aspiration to live a life free from injustice and full of knowledge. Next, I will argue that what Achilles embodies can be described as Homeric excellence and Socrates, Socratic excellence, as can be shown through excerpts from each of the respective works. Finally, I will argue that it is unreasonable for man to aspire to both types of excellence at the same time because the excellences of Achilles and Socrates are rooted in and driven by conflicting parts of the soul. Achilles and Socrates achieve excellence under drastically different conditions, showing the strength and versatility of human nature. In the Iliad Achilles is constantly referred to as the best... center of the card... will it then be livable when the nature of the very thing we live for is confused and corrupted? "With such great fundamental distinctions that are directly at odds with each other, it would be nearly impossible to balance the types of excellence together within the same soul, and the person would be in constant ideological turmoil, struggling to justify the differences between the two contrasting parts of the soul. Since Homeric and Socratic excellence are connected to each of the different aspects of the soul, it is fundamentally unreasonable for a human being to aspire to embody both types of excellence simultaneously Plato's Socrates have both become recognized as models of human excellence over the centuries