Xenophon’s Virtue Personified

Abstract

How is virtue described in Xenophon’s writings? L. A. Dorion’s work on Xenophon’s enkrateia as a foundational Xenophonic virtue and recent research on Xenophon’s ethics as pertaining to utility and usefulness, seems to have set the general opinion on Xenophon’s virtues as belonging in one or both of these categories. What I would like to show in this article is that in an important passage on virtue, Memorabilia 2.1.22-33, where Socrates tells a tale on virtue and vice, Virtue is personified as a mythological lady who lists her own traits; even though enkrateia is discussed and praised by the personified Virtue, there seems to be equal emphasis on sophrosune, epimeleia, propensity to toil and piety as primary constituents of virtue, which are rewarded by eudaimonia. I shall henceforth examine the personified Arete in Mem 2.1 as a single whole made up of several necessary and some optional constituents; these constituents of arete will be compared with other instances of the term in Xenophon’s writings to see if they fit in this category. From this examination it will become clear that virtue is a group of excellences aimed mainly at inner strength and self-preservation and consisting of enkrateia, sophrosune and epimeleia, and to a lesser degree – courage and wisdom. These constituents both create and maintain virtue as a whole, and should be exercised persistently through the physical practice of endurance and toil and the mental practice of exaltation in endurance and toil. The reward of this practice is happiness.