What Homer Teaches to the Contemporary Philosopher. In Homer, aidôs cannot be translated exactly, because it oscillates between conflicting emotions (courage and fear). Then which mechanism prevents this heterogeneity from diluting ? Explanations have been proposed but it has been objected that aidôs resists beeing theorized and Homer ssems to gives a rather problematic picture of aidôs, going so far as suggesting that aidôs has a power of self-refuting, what makes it an equivalent of consciousness. Aidôs engages trust and faith in a way different from oath. It is a performative which differs from the performative you find in oath which Homer shows to be deceptive. While oath tends to exercise some control, aidôs proves itself capable of generating trust because it is disinterested. The Homeric aidôs opens the way to a culture of scruple that challenges the contemporary philosopher.