[German version]

(καλοκἀγαθία; kalokagathía). ‘Excellence’, a combination of kalós k(aì) (‘and’) agathós, where kalós means ‘beautiful’, and agathós ‘good’. Because since Homeric times Greek aristocrats had been defining themselves with these two adjectives [1. 8f.], kalokagathia was thought to be an expression of aristocratic self-representation in the Homeric tradition (cf. e.g. [2]). However, this has proven to be false [3. vol. 1, 611ff.]: kalokagathia is not recorded as a set expression until the 2nd half of the 5th cent. BC (evidence: [4. 1054ff.; 107…