Definition: E.R. Dodds wrote The Greeks and the Irrational (1951), in which he made a dichotomy between societies characterized by shame cultures (or honor-shame cultures) and guilt cultures. The evolution of the Greeks from a shame culture to a guilt culture is mirrored in Greek drama. The same movement from shame culture to guilt culture has been used to describe the movement from medieval, religion-dominated western society to the modern individualistic western world. When you publicly admit your sins (and are then absolved) or are put into the stocks, you are shamed. When you instead internalize the shame, it becomes guilt.
In the epic poetry attributed to Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, some of the behavior that seems strange to us is based on the idea of a shame-based culture. To appear magnificent and brave, full of excellence (arete) would confer crowning moments of glory and ever-lasting fame (kleos), which is what Achilles sought. Not winning the award you think you deserve could be a moment of shame, as happened to Ajax.
