Arete
Arete is the goddess of excellence and virtue. She offered Heracles a glorious life but where work and effort would be needed. Heracles chose Arete over Kakia.
↻ synthesized from 4 sources
When
- First attested
- 1000 BCE
- Attested period
- -1000 – 2020
- Historical notes
- First attested in Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.1.25-26.
Relationships
- enemy of
- Kakia
Mentioned by
Sources
Source passages
“She was depicted as a vain and heavily made-up woman dressed in revealing clothes, and was presented as the opposite of Arete, goddess of excellence and virtue. Kakia tried to tempt many people to become evil, but her most famous temptation was that of Heracles”
#25524 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“Arete was occasionally personified as a goddess, the sister of Homonoia (goddess of concord, unanimity, and oneness of mind), and the daughter of Praxidike (goddess of justice).”
#27753 · extracted by deepseek/deepseek-chat
“Her siblings were Arete (a goddess personifying virtue) and Ktesios, a minor god of household. Arete and Homonoia were referred to as the Praxidikai, taking this name after their mother. As such, Homonoia was probably closely identified with the Theban Goddess-Queen Harmonia”
#28608 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001
“Mnaseas in his treatise On Europe says that Soter (Saviour) and his sister Praxidike (Exacter of Justice) had a son Ctesius (Household) and daughters Homonoia (Concord) and Arete (Virtue), who were called Praxidikai (Exacters of Penalties) after their mother.”
#34049 · extracted by deepseek/deepseek-chat