Areté
Ancient Greek word usually translated as "excellence";
but which also carries the meaning of Manhood, Virtue, and Valour.
As UC Berkeley Prof Stephen Miller says in his book Areté: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources,
[Areté] is a word for which we have no simple equivalent in English. Areté includes the concepts of excellence, goodness, manliness, valor, nobility, and virtue. It existed, to some degree, in every ancient Greek and was, at the same time, a goal to be sought and reached for by every ancient Greek.
What's important for us to understand is that the word and concept of areté, which is one of the most important in ancient Greek culture, derives from Ares, the Greek God of War, the Warrior God --
as is explained in Liddell and Scott's Ancient Greek Lexicon:
From the same root [ARES] comes areté [excellence] ...the first notion of goodness being that of manhood, bravery in war; cf. Lat. virtus.
Which means that for the Greeks, Fighting and Fighting Spirit -- Manhood -- are core to Excellence.
And thus to Virtue.
Further, in Symposium, Plato argues that male-male Eros is the Love of Areté.
Which means that Eros is, at least on one level, the Love of Fighting Spirit.
Guys -- areté is a complex concept -- and a very important one.
To better understand it, please see
AGOGE IV: Excellence, Honor, and the Molding of Men.
and