Kitto relies on two crucial aspects to illuminate his argument: that of the polis and of arete. Frequently translated as city-state, the polis can be more adequately conceived of as community/political arena/social sphere/ state/organizing principle/and ideal of aspiration for each citizen. Whereas our society can be conceived of as an agglomeration of individuals, Athens is rightly thought of as an assembly of heads of families who owed their first loyalty to this all-encompassing sphere of the polis. It was at once where he sought his entertainment, where he paid his taxes, to whom he levied complaints and to which he was expected to serve. Contrary to perhaps feeling overburdened by such an ideal, Kitto tells us that citizens in Classical Greece drew strength and wisdom from this public sphere. In this way their life appears seamlessly integrated.
Driving the Greek ideal, and handed down from Homer, was the notion of arete, or what we straight-jacket as virtue. Rather, Kitto writes, it is best to think of it as excellence in all things, and as duty, though duty conceived towards being the best for oneself, rather than for the sake of others. Heroes of the Homeric age were, such as Hector or Achilles, were thought of as men of surpassing arete; men of excellence in all things. Such a notion ties in to the ideal of the all-arounder, a man who could do best for himself in all ways and thus be the best kind of citizen for the polis.
Kitto succinctly brings these and many other realms of Classical Greek life together in a book that accomplishes a great depth of understanding in the reader for such a slim amount of prose.
