Aretalogy

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An aretalogy (

aretê, "excellence, virtue") in the strictest sense is a narrative about a divine figure's miraculous deeds[3] where a deity's attributes are listed, in the form of poem or text, in the first person. The equivalent term in Sanskrit is ātmastuti.[4] There is no evidence that these narratives constituted a clearly defined genre but there exists a body of literature that contained praise for divine miracles.[5] These literary works were usually associated with eastern cults.[5]

Usage

Often each line starts with the standard "I am …". Usually, aretalogies are self praising. They are found in the sacred texts of later

Greco-Roman times. Aretalogies of Isis would be recited every day by an aretalogist who would have to memorise a huge list of attributes which they would have to recite (Priests and priestesses of Isis had equal rank in the temple). The aretalogies of ancient Egypt provide some the most complete information extant about their deities.[6] Aretalogies are found as early as the Coffin Texts. In a Ptolemeic aretalogy, Isis
says about herself:

In the

papyri.[8] The earliest records of divine acts emerged from cultic hymns for these deities, were inscribed in stones, and displayed in temples.[1] The Greek aretologos (ἀρετολόγος, "virtue-speaker") was a temple official who recounted aretologies and may have also interpreted dreams.[9]

By extension, an aretology is also a "catalogue of virtues" belonging to a person; for example,

Pro Lege Manilia.[10] Aretology became part of the Christian rhetorical tradition of hagiography.[11]

In an even more expanded sense, aretology is

moral philosophy which deals with virtue, its nature, and the means of arriving at it.[citation needed] It is the title of an ethical tract by Robert Boyle published in the 1640s.[12] Other scholars also consider literature that involve the praise of wisdom as aretology.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ .
  3. .
  4. .
  5. ^ .
  6. .
  7. ^ Laurent Pernot, Rhetoric in Antiquity, translated by W.E. Higgins (Catholic University of America Press, 2005), p. 80
  8. ^ Christopher Walter, The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition (Ashgate, 2003), p. 17.
  9. ^ Roger Rees, "Panegyric," in "A Companion to Roman Rhetoric (Blackwell, 2007), p. 140.
  10. ^ Walter, The Warrior Saints, p. 17; Alistair Stewart-Sykes, From Prophecy to Preaching: A Search for the Origins of the Christian Homily (Brill, 2001), p. 75.
  11. ^ John T. Harwood, The Early Essays and Ethics of Robert Boyle (Southern Illinois University Press, 1991), p. xvii.

Further reading

External links