How The Nicomachean Ethics drew on The Odyssey
A documented line of influence: Aristotle demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Odyssey
Homer · c. 725 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
The Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · c. 330 BCE
Ancient GreeceRelevance
6/10
On The Nicomachean Ethics’s page
- Aristotle illustrates his doctrine of the mean with a line from the Odyssey — steer clear of the worse hazard — turning Homer's navigation into a rule for ethical choice
- The Scylla-and-Charybdis predicament becomes the model for picking the lesser of two vices
- A small but telling debt: the philosopher anchors his ethics in the poet everyone in his audience already knew
On The Odyssey’s page
- Aristotle reaches for the Odyssey to teach ethics — quoting the helmsman's line, "Steer the ship clear of yonder spray and surge," to explain the doctrine of the mean
- Odysseus choosing the lesser hazard between Scylla and Charybdis becomes the rule for choosing the lesser of two vices
- Homer's seamanship, recast as moral navigation