Soldier of What?

Brett M. Grace · 20 Jan 2003, 21:24 · from urth-v0301.mbox · original

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From: "Brett M. Grace" <bgrace at mac.com>
Subject: (urth) Soldier of What?
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 13:24:29 -0800
Message-ID: <urth-v0301-2727 at digest.urth.net>
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    Howdy all.

    I was drawn to a reference to Soldier of Arete in somebody's blog=20
today.  He mentioned off-handedly that "[arete]... means 'a=20
sharp-crested ridge in rugged mountains'", the word deriving from the=20
Latin for fishspine.

    Having a smattering of Greek, and being ignorant of the perfectly=20
cromulent English word, I took it to mean exclusively "manliness,=20
excellence, virtue" -- it's similar in usage to Latin's virtus if that=20
makes it clear.  I'm forced to plead, "it looked Greek to me."

    I had always thought that putting 'arete' in the title was a kind of=20
signpost stating "this is not an accessible book."  Doubly so if its=20
English doppleganger has quite a different meaning.

    Unless... it's an allusion to the rocky geography of the=20
Pelopennesus and Attica, where much of the action takes place.  Er, I=20
think.  My recollection of the book grows dim.  I had been bothered by=20
the lack of symmetry between "Mist" and "Arete" which this=20
interpretation eases.

    Thoughts anyone?

BMG

PS:  Thucydides is also good background for the second book.


--=20

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