Love Is At The Heart Of Every Virtue, by Donald DeMarco

By Donald DeMarco, The Wanderer, Sept. 19, 2023

The word “virtue” is derived from the Latin vir, meaning man. It was once believed that virtue was virility (or manliness) and nothing more. Virtue, then, was the sole province of the male and was most clearly evident when men displayed courage on the battlefield. Virtue did not apply to women not only because of their sex, but, by and large, because they did not go to war.

Plutarch (c. AD 46 to AD 120) disagreed with the prevailing notion that only men could be virtuous. In his book, Mulierum Virtutem (The Virtues of Women), he sought to demonstrate that virtue applies equally to women as well as to men. If virtue belonged to those who displayed courage under difficult and dangerous circumstances, Plutarch reasoned, then they were as virtuous as men. And surely women face personal challenges that have nothing to do with war.  …

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