Arete | Excellence

1. Arete

Arete (ἀρετή) is a concept in ancient Greek thought that, in its most basic sense, refers to excellence of any kind. The term may also mean moral virtue.

In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfilment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential.

The person of Arete is of the highest effectiveness; they use all of their faculties—strength, bravery, and wit—to achieve real results. In the Homeric world, Arete involves all of the abilities and potentialities available to humans.

In some contexts, Arete is explicitly linked with human knowledge, where the expressions virtue is knowledge and Arete is knowledge are used interchangeably.

The highest human potential is knowledge, and all other human abilities are derived from this central capacity.

If Arete is knowledge and study, the highest human knowledge is knowledge about knowledge itself.

In this light, the theoretical study of human knowledge, which Aristotle called contemplation, is the highest human ability and happiness.

2. History

The ancient Greeks applied the term Arete to anything: for example, the excellence of a chimney, the excellence of a bull for breeding, and the excellence of a man.

The meaning of the word changes depending on what it describes since everything has its own unique excellence; the Arete of a man is different from the Arete of a horse.

This way of thinking originates from Plato, where it can be seen in the Allegory of the Cave.

In particular, the aristocratic class was presumed, essentially by definition, to be exemplary of Arete:

The root of the word is the same as aristos, the word which shows superlative ability and superiority, and aristos was constantly used in the plural to denote the nobility.

By the 5^th - 4^th centuries BC, Arete as applied to men had developed to include quieter virtues, such as dikaiosynē (justice) and sophrosynē (self-restraint).

Plato tried to produce a moral philosophy that incorporated this new usage, but it was in the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle that the doctrine of Arete found its fullest flowering.

Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean is a paradigm example of his thinking.

Aristotle is quoted as deliberating between education towards Arete ...or those that are theoretical.

Educating towards Arete in this sense means that the boy would be educated towards things that are actually useful in life.

However, even Plato himself says that Arete isn't something that can be agreed upon. He says,

To say that Arete has a common definition of excellence or fulfilment may be an overstatement simply because it was very difficult to pinpoint Arete, much less the proper ways to go about obtaining it.

3. Homer

In Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Arete is used mainly to describe heroes and nobles and their mobile dexterity, with special reference to strength and courage, but it is not limited to this.

Penelope's Arete, for example, relates to co-operation, for which she is praised by Agamemnon.

The excellence of the gods generally included their power, but, in the Odyssey (13.42), Odysseus asked the gods to grant the Phaeacians Arete, which here is generally translated as prosperity.

The term from Homeric times onwards isn't gender specific.

Homer applies the term to both Greek and Trojan heroes as well as major female figures, such as Penelope, the wife of Greek hero Odysseus.

In the Homeric poems, Arete is frequently associated with bravery, but more often with effectiveness.

In regards to the Iliad the way Homer describes Achilles is an example of Arete. Arete is associated with the goodness and prowess of a warrior.

Some believe that the norms and practices of Athenian virtuosity operate within the politics of reputation, whose normative poles are honour and shame:

This means Arete functions as an external phenomenon depending on outside reception and acknowledgement for its instantiation.

Dying in battle or securing a victory in the Olympic Games were considered agathos (good) and, hence, deserving of timē (honour).

So, not only is Achilles a brave and brilliant warrior but also, from the outset, he is destined to die in battle at Troy with the utmost glory—a guarantor of Arete.

4. Athletics

Arete has also been used by Plato when talking about athletic training and also the education of young boys.

It was commonly believed that the mind, body, and soul each had to be developed and prepared for a man to live a life of Arete.

This led to the thought that athletics had to be present in order to obtain Arete:

They did not need to take up one's life, merely exercise the body into the right condition for Arete, just like the mind and soul would be exercised by other means.

5. Personification

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.

Arete and Homonoia were known jointly as the Praxidikai (Exacters of Justice).

As with many minor Greek deities, there is little or no real mythical background to Arete, who is used at most as a personification of virtue.

The only story involving Arete was originally told in the 5^th century BC by the sophist Prodicus, and concerns the early life of the hero Heracles.

The story has become known as Hercules at the crossroads:

At a crossroads, Arete appeared to Heracles as a young maiden, and offered him glory and a life of struggle against evil; her counterpart Kakia (κακία, badness), offered him wealth and pleasure.

Heracles chose to follow the path of Arete.

This story was later used by Christian writers, such as Methodius of Olympus, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and Basil of Caesarea.

6. Paideia

Arete is a significant part of the Paideia of ancient Greeks: the training of the boy to manhood.

This training in Arete included physical training, for which the Greeks developed the gymnasion; mental training, which included oratory, rhetoric, and basic sciences; and spiritual training, which included music and what is called virtue.

7. Examples of usage