Aristeia

Earlier this semester we read “Epic as a Genre” by Richard Martin. An interesting detail from this reading explains epic to be a metonymy for culture. This means that if we analyze the literature, there are allusions to the culture. Martin claims that epic poetry offers a richness of culture, and this is evident in the notion of ‘aristeia’ in the Iliad. As Professor Pache explained, the etymology of ‘aristeia’ comes from the Greek adjective, ‘aristos,’ meaning ‘best.’ Similarly, ‘aristeuo’ means ‘to be the best.’ Following this etymology, ‘aristeia’ would mean ‘the moment of being the best,’ or ‘moment of glory.’

If we examine the English word ‘virtue,’ the beginning of the word ‘vir’ comes from the Latin term for ‘man.’ So this etymology is very interesting in that both the Latin and Greek hint towards ‘aristeia’ relating to the virtue of man. This is something we observe even in modern pop culture--superheroes have their final battle against their archenemies, brave men gear up for war, etc. So this imagery must be important. Greek warriors are depicted in the epic’s main motifs of arming scenes, fighting, being wounded, or coming back to battle. Warriors are shown making weapons and armor like an artisan takes his time perfecting his work. Hector’s arming scene is long and elaborate, signifying some of these motifs. Similarly, these motifs are present when Achilles’ rage amounts to an unstoppable killing spree. Achilles is one of the greatest Greek warriors, who answers to nobody; so it is appropriate that the central character of the poem gets the most attention with respect to the aristeia motif.