The epic defines heroism by refusal to strike a sleeping foe, not by victory

Evidence

‘It is not honorable,’ he said, ‘to strike a sleeping man, even a tyrant. Let him wake and arm himself and face me, and let the battle be fair.’ He woke his enemy. He even gave Msra Melik the first three blows, by the old code of single combat — and stood unharmed. Then David struck, and the tyrant fell, and Sasun was free. … The Armenians have treasured this moment for a thousand years — not the victory only, but the pause before it. David could have won by stealth and called it wisdom. Instead he risked everything, even his people’s freedom, rather than win by a dishonorable blow. That, the epic says, is the difference between a hero and a tyrant: not how hard they strike, but whether they will strike a sleeping man. — , A Year of World Stories, 11873

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the author’s interest in decorum toward corpses/opponents; the honor-before-victory code parallels ethical constraints in martial codes from other epics. — connects to: Cowardice and heroism are deeds, not inborn temperaments. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 19