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Introduction Introduction Andreas Hellerstedt and Stefano Fogelberg Rota The articles in this volume are the result of discussions between the eight authors during five workshops (2011–2013) at Stockholm University, the Swedish Institute in Rome and at Lund University. The workshops were orga- nized by a network funded by the Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences (Riksbankens jubileumsfond), and were led by the editors, Stefano Fogelberg Rota and Andreas Hellerstedt. The participants were schol- ars working on a wide range of topics, from Late Ancient philosophy to late eighteenth-century literature, and depart from different fields within the humanities: philosophy, history, theology, history of ideas, comparative litera- ture and art history. The different perspectives represented, and the inherently interdisciplinary character of these discussions, had a common origin and theme: the concept of heroic virtue and its development from its first expres- sion in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (VII.1.1). The philosopher describes it as a virtue opposed to bestiality (thêriotês) and standing beyond us, a heroic and somehow divine virtue. Aristotle gives no further explanation of this disposi- tion and while he refers to the example of Hector in Homer’s Iliad, he promises to return to the subject on a later occasion. The briefness of Aristotle’s descrip- tion is inversely balanced by the richness of references to a superhuman virtue found during Late Antiquity, throughout the Middle Ages and Early Modern times and up to the late eighteenth century, on the eve of the collapse of the ancien régime. The primary purpose of this volume, and the discussions that preceded it, is to outline the history of the reception of the idea of heroic virtue through a number of representative examples. Shaping Heroic Virtue is not the first book on the subject. Our aim is to provide an account of the reception and adapta- tion of the concept of heroic virtue over time in a variety of different contexts and genres through a selection of examples. This is something that is not found in previous research. Another important intention in the texts presented is to emphasize the political use of the concept of heroic virtue, which has been very much neglected in previous studies. The concept of heroic virtue first appears in Book Seven of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Book Seven as a whole is dedicated primarily to a discus- sion of self-control or self-mastery (enkrateia) and its opposite, the lack of self- control, or unrestraint (akrasia). However, in the introduction to the book, the philosopher defines three categories of negative character traits: vice (kakia), © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/978900430378�_00� 2 Hellerstedt and Fogelberg Rota lack of self-control (akrasia) and beastliness (thêriotês). He also mentions the positive opposing traits: virtue, self-control and (as the opposite of beastliness) a form of superhuman virtue, which is described as both “heroic” and “divine”. Aristotle gives what seems to be an example of this heroic virtue, quoting a couple of lines of the Iliad, where King Priam praises Hector as seeming more like a son of gods than of mortals. Aristotle continues to consider the idea of beastliness a little further in the fifth chapter of Book Seven. Self-control (and lack thereof) is discussed throughout the whole book, while virtue and vice are of course major themes in the whole of the Nicomachean Ethics. Oddly enough, the category that seems to correspond to the very peak of human excellence—indeed, it is described as divine—is the one about which Aristotle speaks the least. It is no wonder then, that heroic virtue was a concept that caught the atten- tion of many later readers. Perhaps the fact that Aristotle did not discuss the subject in great detail made it more useful to later generations. Here was a grand idea hinted at by the great philosopher, only waiting to be explained, commented upon and put to good use. The very words that make up heroic virtue definitely have something majestic and awe-inspiring about them, even though the term itself was almost empty. Heroic Virtue in the Middle Ages The term virtus heroica was introduced into medieval Latin through the first complete translation of the Nicomachean Ethics, which is attributed to Robert Grosseteste (c.1175–1253). This meant that heroic virtue found a place in scho- lastic terminology and became a technical term in its own right, which phi- losophers and theologians started to feel a need to explain and comment upon. Many scholastic philosophers wrote significant commentaries or questions on the subject. In general, heroic virtue took on a more Christian form in medi- eval theology. Only the most prominent philosophers will be mentioned here: Albertus Magnus, Albertus’ pupil Thomas Aquinas and Jean Buridan. Besides these figures, there were many others who discussed heroic virtue, and there was a significant amount of disagreement around such issues as whether it was a question of natural virtue only, or if heroic virtue was to be considered supernatural (God-given), the precise relationship of heroic virtue to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, whether it constituted a particular species of virtue in its own right, or if it represented the common cardinal or theological virtues in a higher degree, and so forth..
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