arete in the odyssey

In short, if a person, place, thing, etc has an “excess” or a “deficiency” of excellence, then it is not in its “most excellent” state, and thus the term arete does not describe this imbalanced state (although it could certainly describe striving back toward it). and find homework help for other The Odyssey questions at eNotes, Get an answer for 'What is the importance of arete in the Iliad?' too smart for Nausikaa' tricks: she figures out from Odysseus' clothing that Nausikaa has already helped him. Arete was occasionally personified as a goddess, the sister of Homonoia (not to be confused with Harmonia), and the daughter of the goddess of justice, Praxidike. As you may be picking up on already, arete is a broad catch-all concept used by the Greeks of which there is no English equivalent (nor is there one definition in the Greek texts). TIP: If the highest good is justice, and if justice is what brings the greatest happiness to the most people, and if the perfect state and perfect soul embody justice, and if justice requires moderation, then this virtuous mean of justice is the arete of the state and soul. [6] Aristotle considered excellence as a quality of something, or someone, that manifests its unique purpose or telos.[7]. If the soul is in perfect balance, then this is the arete of the soul. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. Learn more about virtue and vice. Here after many trials I come to beg for mercy, your husband’s, yours, and all these feasters’ here. Aristotle. In the Odyssey, Arete appears as a noble and active superintendent of the household of her husband. There are many ways to say this, and perhaps in the end it is just that this term is described best by a myriad of words which touches on the deep questions of moral philosophy like “what is justice,” “what is quality,” and “what makes something excellent?” (if not, why did Plato and Aristotle write so many books on the subject from Politics, to Nicomachean Ethics, to the Republic)? When the Argonauts arrived at the island, Arete and her husband received them and Medea hospitably. [1] In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential. [1] The term may also mean "moral virtue". Athena protected him and treated him well. Arete (Greek: ἀρετή), in its basic sense, means "excellence" of any kind. ", © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. So we can say “arete” encapsulates all these virtues. In Greek it is αρετη stylized ἀρετή. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. It is not a virtue equal to these virtues, it supersedes and implies all other virtues. The term implies this is done altruistically and not begrudgingly, but the Greeks knew there were different tiers of goodness and defined them. Arete and Homonoia were known jointly as the Praxidikai (Exacters of Justice). Examples. The excellence of the gods generally included their power, but, in the Odyssey (13.42), the gods can grant excellence to a life, which is contextually understood to mean prosperity. Nausicaa discovers Odysseus on the beach at Scheria and, out of budding affection for him, ensures his warm reception at her parents’ palace. She's apparently the one who calls the shots in the marriage, since Through her efforts, the two were wed and the Colchians were forced to return to their homeland without Medea.[3]. We can conclude that the potential for arete exists in all things, but achieving arete is an ongoing journey, and the pursuit is itself an achievement of the highest order. Queen of the Phaiakians, wife to Alkinoös, and mother to Nausikaa. Arête (‘Virtue’) Theme in Homer's Iliad Essay Example. So then, arete is a superior virtue, the aristocracy of virtues. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 June 2013. The beautiful daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians. Arete as a moral term doesn’t just mean striving toward excellence, it means avoiding vices (deficiencies and excesses of virtue) and helping others to do the same (as that is a fulfillment of grand purpose). Polis simply means “the people,” but the philosophy surrounding it refers to what we might call the “kallipolis” or ideal city-state and its corresponding politics (the Athenians were very proud of their “pure” Democracy, but Plato went a step beyond this trying to imagine the perfect Republic, while Aristotle went beyond this imagining the art of the ideal city state). Penguin Classics Deluxe Ed, London. When Odysseus arrived in Scheria, he appealed first to Arete for reception and protection, and she treated him hospitably. Another way to describe arete, is “the potential for, and the pursuit of, excellence, the virtues, and goodness”. Please citespecific examples of arete in The Iliad and The Odyssey. It is a word that means none of this specifically, but points to all of these highest states, because it is a term that hints at properties of enlightenment as they relate to any category. Definition of arete: Arete is an idea from Greek philosophy that means "virtue", or "being the best you can be" or "being the ideal form of itself." Arete is honor and excellence. But Arete is We touched on it above, but to offer more detail, the following table is from Nicomachean Ethics and shows Aristotle’s virtues. She is not to be confused with the mythological Queen Arete mentioned in the Argonautica and the Odyssey, whose name in Greek is spelled Ἀρήτη (with a different vowel in the second syllable). and find homework help for other Iliad questions at eNotes. www.theoi.com. Select two characters with which to make your points. For the thin ridge of rock formed by glaciers, see, Homer. Or, it can be understood in Plato’s Republic, where the ends of that whole theory of the ideal state describes “the arete of the state.”. Penelope 's arete, for example, relates to co-operation, for which she is praised by Agamemnon. To Plato arete didn’t just describe the outward heroes journey, but an inward one. In the Odyssey, Arete appears as a noble and active superintendent of the household of her husband. They were in history the Myceneans, the first Greek-speaking people to settle Greece. [2], The Ancient Greeks applied the term to anything: for example, the excellence of a chimney, the excellence of a bull for breeding, and the excellence of a man. He also applied the concept of arete to non-human objects discussing how even an apple or chimney could possess excellence. For the Odyssey, pick a moment where Odysseus does not capitulate into fear and fights through adversity, showing his true courage and his greatness for all to witness. Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean is a paradigm example of his thinking. Neither does the term refer to ethics or one’s purpose in life. Wikipedia. "[6] To say that arete has a common definition of excellence or fulfillment may be an overstatement simply because it was very difficult to pinpoint arete, much less the proper ways to go about obtaining it. Rather, arete is the exercised application of one's highest effectiveness. Introduction and notes by Bernard Knox. [9], Excellence by any name, be it arete, telos, ethos, purpose, mastery, morality, or any other greater or lesser virtue, is roughly the same. Innate essence in any and all things, in its most exalted form, is arete. Today, we can somewhat naively say, that any natural born citizen can become their countries leader or any man or woman can become the next Bill Gates.

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