Areté In The Iliad And The Odyssey

298 Words2 Pages
Areté was important to the Greek culture because it allowed them to be all they can be from fighting in battle, to making statues, and to architecture. Areté was shown through the arts by sculptures, pottery, and temples. Many pieces of art were even made for public display so the artists would put a marvelous amount of pride in it for the citizens. The ancient Greeks put lots of areté into architecture like the Parthenon, which is considered the finest example of Greek architecture. The author Homer is a great example of what virtue looks like in his poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, which tell the story of the Trojan War and the Greek hero Odysseus journey after the fall of Troy. One example of areté in the Iliad is when two soldiers “…one