Aristotle and the Three Graces

The Three Graces come from Greek myth, associated by Homer and Hesiod with joy, celebration, and beauty. They have been rendered in Greek and Roman sculpture, and paintings from the Italian Renaissance to French impressionism, as well as countless modern and perhaps postmodern versions. They join hands in dance alongside the goddess of Love in Botticelli’s famous “Primavera.” It is not the poets, however, but Aristotle, who explains their specific calling: their public shrines remind human beings to benefit others in return, and even to initiate acts of beneficence. Their message does not describe human life so much as remind us of what it could—and should—be. Aristotle even refers to the work of the Graces in his discussion of justice in the Nicomachean Ethics, where he reminds us of what supplements and enriches legal and political arrangements.