"Arete"

                                               We must ask "about" the Nature of Soul and the Nature of "Center" .

                            What follows is from The Greeks, H.D.F. Kitto's Master-work :

                                          

                            The Soul of the Homeric Hero --- =

                             "What moves him to deeds of heroism is not a sense of duty as we understand it---duty towards others--- it is rather DUTY TOWARDS HIMSELF ."

                              "...in the context of a man, it will connote excellence in the ways in which a man can be excellent----morally, intellectually, physically, practically .   Thus the Hero of The Odyssey is a great fighter, a wily schemer, a ready speaker, a man of stout heart and broad wisdom who knows that he must endure without too much complaining what the gods send ;   and he can both build and sail a boat, drive a furrow straight as anyone, beat a young braggart at throwing the discus, challenge the Phaecian youth at boxing, wrestling or running:  flay, skin, cut up and cook an ox, and be moved to tears by song .   He is in fact an excellent All-Rounder, and has surpassing "arete" (Personal Excellence) ."

                           "Arete" implies a respect for wholeness or the oneness of life, and a consequent dislike of specialization .    It implies a contempt for efficiency---or rather a much higher idea of efficiency :  an efficiency which exists not in one department of life, but life itself . "

                           Odysseus is my Paradigm and has been so since I graduated .   I need my Gentle Readers to find a suitable Hero that you may use as your Paradigm ,  a someone within whom you can see your Self .   If you undertake the "Journey" alone,  there's a distinct possibility, nay PROBABILITY, that you will get LOST.