Evaluation of Telémakhos’ Actions Essay -- Aristotle Telemakhos Essays

Evaluation of Telmakhos Actions Authors and poets in ancient and modern literature extol the actions of heroes and condemn the actions of villainsjudging which is laudable action comes from understanding the virtues. Our greatest stories atomic number 18 nothing if not conflict surrounded by antagonist and protagonist, a meshing against that esteemed as good and that which is evil. In ancient literature, our understanding of harmless action comes principally from Aristotle. The path of virtue is the middle ground, such that it is an modal(a) between excess and defect (Aristotle 1220). Just as Aristotle gives a material with which to judge virtuous action, so Dante presents a framework with which to punish actions deemed external of virtue. In Dantes Inferno we meet non-Christians, those not baptized, whom God punishes correspond to the severity of their sin. At the entrance to Hell, Dante reads an inscription above the gate that says, scourge every hope, you who enter here (Dante 1416). Hell is a place of stasisthe cold found there can never leave. Drawing from Homers Odyssey, this essay explores the actions of Odysseus son Telmakhos. By applying Aristotles Nichomacean Ethics and incorporating Dantes formation of punishment, this essay evaluates Telmakhos actions and places him in his proper place in hell subaquatic in a hot river of blood forever.In order to neck what virtuous action is, one must carefully choose between too much and too little. Aristotle says, It is possible to fail in many a(prenominal) vogues, while to succeed is possible only in one vogue (Aristotle 1221). This teaching is the premise of Nichomacean Ethics Aristotle teaches what modern readers know as The gilt Meanthe understanding that moral virtue is a mean bet... ... audition just as Virgil warns Dante of his own fate. In the opening lines of the Inferno Dante says, In the middle of the journey of our life I came to my senses in a unsung forest, for I had lost the s traight path (1408). This straight path is the way of virtue. The relevance of virtue is as applicable today as it was in the time of Homer, Aristotle, and Danteand in a Dantean understanding of the world, failure to take up the mean carries with it the punishment of an eternity in Hell.Works CitedAristotle. Nichomacean Ethics. Trans. W. D. Ross. Wilkie and Hurt 1220-1225. Dante, Alighieri. The forebode Comedy. Trans. H. R. Huse. Wilkie and Hurt 1398-1571.Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fitzgerald. Wilkie and Hurt 273-594. Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt, ed. Literature of the Western World flashiness 1. 5th Ed. New Jersey Prentice Hall. 2001.