Sophocles and arete: chapters in the history of an idea

• Grant number: 24/06126-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: November 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Classical Languages
• Principal Investigator: Flavio Ribeiro de Oliveira
• Grantee: Lucas Fonseca de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the idea of aret in Sophocles' tragedies. The idea of arete, "excellence" or "virtue", is fundamental in ancient Greek thought. It has been observed that there are problems in the studies about the theme in Sophocles, since it is considered that they do not provide satisfactory definitions of arete and do not adequately take into consideration its ethical context (Blundell 1991; Bromberg, 2022). Based on a study of Greek ethics and the history of the idea of arete in Greek literature, this research seeks to verify whether this idea is present in Sophocles' tragedies. The historical study will be based on analysis of secondary bibliography (Jaeger, 2013; Adkins 1960; Dover, 1994) and its aim is to outline a history of the idea to establish comparative parameters for our analysis of the poet's works. The study of Sophocles' tragedies, in turn, will be carried out through a close reading of Sophocles' works (Sophoclis, 1990) with commentaries and secondary bibliography (Whitman, 1951; Winnington-Ingram, 1980) and the results of the previous stages of research.