Greeceἀρετή
The hoplite
Areté · excellence
To be the best at what is one’s own and win a glory that outlives death. The ideal of Achilles and of those who stood at Thermopylae.
Historian · Author · Lecturer
César Pellicer
“History is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood.”
Carl G. Jung
Gustave Moreau · Saint George
The author
A historian on the trail of the hero
A History graduate of the University of Valencia, César Pellicer studies what the treatises leave out: the spiritual and mythical force that forges peoples and the men who defend them.
A specialist in medieval and early modern Europe and in the history and culture of Japan, his research brings together geopolitics, ancient military tactics and the spiritual and mythical factors that shape national identities.
He has published articles in the Spanish Army’s Revista de Historia Militar and teaches at the Oswald Spengler Academy of Higher Studies. His books, courses and lectures follow a single thread: the heroic values that run through Greece, Rome, feudal chivalry and the Japan of the samurai.
- Degree in HistoryUniversity of Valencia · Medieval and early modern Europe, Japan
- Postgraduate in Military HistoryAncient tactics and strategic thought
- Master’s in Japanese StudiesBushidō, Japanese history and culture
- Revista de Historia MilitarFree-to-read articles on Dialnet (in Spanish) →
César Pellicer · La caballería pagana · EAS
Hespérides collection
“The soul of paganism remained latent and alive in the hidden river of Tradition.”
Editorial EAS
The book · 2025 · in Spanish
La caballería pagana
The Pagan Knighthood: heroic values of paganism in feudal Catholicism
The Middle Ages were not entirely Christian. Beneath the knight’s mail beat the archetypes of the classical world: the Homeric hero, Roman virtus, the warrior’s oath.
César Pellicer follows that underground river from Antiquity to the romances of Chrétien de Troyes, and shows how the chivalric ideal flowered as the synthesis of two worlds.
AretéPagan heroism
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GratiaChristian piety
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ChivalryThe feudal ideal
- Collection
- Hespérides · EAS
- Pages
- 232
- Foreword
- Gonzalo Rodríguez
- ISBN
- 978-84-19359-83-4
Reader reviews Goodreads Amazon reviews
Coming soon
De dioses a santos
César Pellicer’s new book, in preparation.
The four paths
One spirit, four suits of armour
From hoplite to samurai, the warrior’s ethic returns under different names. These are the traditions that César Pellicer’s work explores.
Greeceἀρετή
The legionary
Virtus · Pietas · Fides
Courage in the service of the res publica, duty to the gods and the ancestors, the given word. Julian was its last defender on the throne.
The knight
Honour · Loyalty · Prowess
The Arthurian world inherits the ancient hero and baptises him. Pagan prowess and Christian faith, forged in the same steel.
The samurai
Gi · Makoto · Chūgi
The mirror of the East: rectitude, sincerity and loyalty unto death. Another chivalry, born at the other end of the world.
The code
Six words that uphold a world
The traditional values the knight inherited from the ancient warrior, in their original languages.
Greek
ἀρετή
Areté · Excellence
Becoming fully what one is. The virtue of the Homeric hero, measured in deeds.
Latin
Virtus
Manly courage
Courage placed at the service of the community, not of one’s own glory.
Latin
Pietas
Sacred duty
The devotion of Aeneas: to the gods, to the fatherland and to the lineage one carries on one’s shoulders.
Latin
Fides
Loyalty · The given word
The given word as a sacred bond, root of the feudal oath of vassalage.
Spanish
Honor
Honour · Dignity
A clean name defended with one’s life. The legacy of Greek kleos in the knight.
Japanese
誠
Makoto · Sincerity
That word and deed be one. The upright heart of the samurai.
The soul of paganism remained latent and alive in the hidden river of Tradition.— La caballería pagana
The hidden river
Three thousand years of heroic tradition
8th c. BC
Homer sings the Iliad
Achilles and Hector fix the model of the hero for ever: areté in battle, undying glory.
480 BC
Thermopylae
Leonidas and his Spartans turn sacrifice into example. The λ on the shield becomes a symbol.
1st c. BC
Virgil writes the Aeneid
The Roman hero no longer seeks glory alone: he carries pietas, duty to gods, fatherland and lineage.
361 – 363
Julian, the last pagan emperor
He tries to restore the ancient cults in an empire that is already turning Christian.
c. 1170 – 1190
Chrétien de Troyes
Lancelot, Perceval, the Grail: in his romances the ancient hero is reborn as a Christian knight.
12th – 19th c.
The way of the samurai
In Japan, another warrior aristocracy forges its own code: Bushidō.
1954 – 1955
Tolkien publishes The Lord of the Rings
The epic returns to twentieth-century literature: Aragorn, heir of Achilles, Siegfried and Arthur.
1966
Mishima writes Voices of the Heroic Dead
The dead cannot rest when their people no longer understand the sacrifice they made for them.
Courses & lectures
The word, spoken aloud
César Pellicer teaches courses and gives lectures at the Oswald Spengler Academy of Higher Studies — live, online and with recordings available. All sessions are in Spanish.
All courses and lectures take place at the Oswald Spengler Academy, where you can enrol and watch the recordings.
Enrolment open
Course · Oswald Spengler Academy
The Great Epic of Europe: From Homer to Tolkien
- 23 September – 23 October 2026
- Live · 10 two-hour sessions
- Online · in Spanish
A journey through the great heroic tales that have shaped Europe’s cultural identity for more than three thousand years: from the Iliad and the Odyssey to the Arthurian cycle, the Nibelungs, the Grail and the work of J. R. R. Tolkien. How the archetypes of the hero were born, and why they still live in our literature and imagination.
The video loads from YouTube only when you press play.
Trailer · Lecture
Knights and Samurai. Two ideas of the heroic ethos
Europe and Japan, two warrior aristocracies with parallel destinies: from 11th-century feudalism to their eclipse by gunpowder at Pavia and Nagashino.
Also at the Academy
The Age of Heroes: From Troy to Middle-earth
Lecture
LectureSep 2026 · Free access
The Age of Heroes: From Troy to Middle-earth
The legendary lineage that links Achilles, Odysseus, Siegfried, Arthur and Aragorn: how heroic archetypes outlived the centuries, were transformed by medieval chivalry, reborn in Wagner and given new life in Tolkien’s mythopoeia.
View at the Academy →The Survival of the Pagan World in European History
Course
CourseApr – May 2026 · Available on demand
The Survival of the Pagan World in European History
From Indo-European roots to contemporary culture: the conflict between paganism and Christianity, the polemic of Celsus, Julian’s restoration, the continuity of heroic motifs in the Middle Ages and the modern recovery of myth in Spengler, Jung, Eliade and Tolkien.
View at the Academy →The Voices of the Heroic Dead
LectureTrailer
LectureTrailerJul 2026 · Available on demand
The Voices of the Heroic Dead
Starting from Yukio Mishima’s «Voices of the Heroic Dead»: what happens when a civilisation loses the beliefs that gave meaning to its heroes’ sacrifice? A reflection on decline, memory and historical continuity in the light of Oswald Spengler.
View at the Academy →
Lectures & interviews
Bringing the heroic tradition to any audience
Beyond the Academy, César Pellicer accepts invitations from cultural associations, universities, bookshops and the media.
LecturesKeynote talks followed by discussion.
Book presentations«La caballería pagana» at bookshops and book fairs.
InterviewsPress, radio and podcasts.
Lineage
Perecer pero no huirTo perish, never to flee
Newsletter
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New courses, lectures, books and presentations, straight to your inbox. No noise: only when there is something to announce.
Contact
Summon the knight
For lectures, presentations, interviews or collaborations, write a few lines and César will reply. Messages in English are welcome.