Arête

Shalom, friends.

So, I've gotten some comments from people at school and at home, asking me, "What is this word arête that you keep throwing around and saying 'Seek arête, seek arête'?" Now you get to find out.

Arête was defined as virtue or excellence by the Greeks, specifically Aristotle, in whom the word found a high usage. Wikipedia defines it as the fulfillment of purpose or function; the act of living up to one's full potential. I came to define it as the highest form of living that humans can aspire to. Gerard Manley Hopkins has another word for basically the same thing--inscape. He derived the concept to mean the distinctive design that constitutes individual identity. He also thought that every object has an inscape, and we can perceive this through instress, but only through divine intervention or assistance. This seems to me to be relatively the same idea as arête.

I was originally introduced to this phrase in my English 215 class, when we read through The Odyssey. Another phrase that seems to correlate to this same thought process, and is in Latin this time (and is also from a Lit class, one I'm taking right now), is "Paulo maiora canamus," which translates roughly to "Let us sing of somewhat higher things." These two words and phrases became icons for me as I went through Lent, and as I finish up the next set of 40 days with my focus on humility of appearance.

So there you go, the lowdown on arête. More on clothes, dating, and the essence of Christianity coming soon.