Arête from the Eyes of Homer and St. Paul Arête is a word that was used to describe honor towards the citizens of Greece. This excellence determined a person's status among the city-states and how they are seen to be respected. In "The Greeks" Kitto summarizes on how the ideal man should be if they want to get arête. (Class handout) He also mentions Homer's The Odyssey the poem depicts a man named Odysseus who escaped the Trojan War and mysteriously landed on an Island of Cyclops. During his stay he makes a way to defend himself and his soldiers from the Cyclops who keeps eating them and by using his various tactics he defeated the Cyclops. Soon enough he left the island with a few people from his soldiers to visit the goddess Circe to ask …show more content…
In The Odyssey Homer describes Odysseus as a wily schemer because he lies and uses tricks to weaken others. Homer shows Odysseus being a wily schemer during the time he was on the Cyclops’ island all of his crew were being eaten by cyclops and needed a way to defeat them. Soon enough Odysseus was talking to Polyphemus by persuading him into his lovely charms and getting him drunk in order for him to fall asleep to create an easy access to stab Polyphemus right in the eye to blind him. Second example of Odysseus being a wily schemer was that since he always had a plan under sleeves he hid his men under rams to sneak pass Polyphemus to escape in a safe way. Another way Homer defined arête in the Odyssey was giving Odysseus the aspect of bravery. According to Circe when Odysseus was asking for directions to the safest way back home she called Odysseus, "A daredevil" (The Odyssey) Since Odysseus wanted to take the dangerous route to feel more masculine and to be mostly viewed as a hero when retelling this to his peers back home since Greeks mostly spoke in poems. Lastly Homer gave the characteristic of practicality to Odysseus which is seen when Odysseus gets on the boat and yells, “If someone asks who did this, the name is Odysseus!" (The Odyssey) This is very important part of arête because when a person wants to fight another a person until the death due to revenge they will need to drag their body on the ground to show honor and competition so the people in the city states should fear