Evaluation of Telémakhos’ Actions Essay -- Aristotle Telemakhos Essays

Evaluation of Telmakhos Actions Authors and poets in ancient and modern literature exclaim the actions of heroes and condemn the actions of villainsjudging which is laudable action comes from understanding the virtues. Our greatest stories are nothing if not conflict amid antagonist and protagonist, a passage of arms against that esteemed as good and that which is evil. In ancient literature, our understanding of guileless action comes principally from Aristotle. The path of virtue is the middle ground, such that it is an mediocre between excess and defect (Aristotle 1220). Just as Aristotle gives a textile with which to judge virtuous action, so Dante presents a framework with which to punish actions deemed a mien(p) of virtue. In Dantes Inferno we meet non-Christians, those not baptized, whom God punishes agree to the severity of their sin. At the entrance to Hell, Dante reads an inscription above the gate that says, quit every hope, you who enter here (Dante 1416). Hell is a place of stasisthe departed 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 brass of punishment, this essay evaluates Telmakhos actions and places him in his proper place in hell go down in a hot river of blood forever.In order to drive in what virtuous action is, one must carefully choose between too much and too little. Aristotle says, It is possible to fail in many trends, while to succeed is possible only in one way (Aristotle 1221). This teaching is the premise of Nichomacean Ethics Aristotle teaches what modern readers know as The well-heeled Meanthe understanding that moral virtue is a mean bet... ... reference 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 nighted forest, for I had lost the straight path (1408). This s traight 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 maintain 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 augur 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 plenty 1. 5th Ed. New Jersey Prentice Hall. 2001.