Acme
The acme means the point of extreme tension, of a remark or situation. It is a feminine noun which nevertheless experienced the hesitations of gender and male jobs found.
Applied to a civilization , it evokes its heyday.
Summary |
This term was widely used by Diogenes Laertius , who seems to hold a Apollodorus of Athens. The Latin term floruit is also sometimes used. It was used to designate the culmination of a person's life, but it was assumed that he was suffering around the fortieth year of life. This criterion has enabled scholars to try to relocate the boundaries of lives of important people. Note, however, that this is a clue, and certainly not a reliable criterion because doxographers tended to arrange the peak periods to coincide with remarkable facts (political event, master's death, birth of the disciple the most important ...).
The word first appeared in French in 1751 in the medical field, to denote the highest degree of intensity of disease. He continues to be used in physiological (see article infantile sexuality : this description refers to all adults in the acme of pleasurable genital report).
Modern Meanings
In the first half of the nineteenth century the word acquired a broad sense, and designates the "culmination" of a thought or a book.
It is very appropriate to call the summit of philosophical thought (cf. Article Aristotle : the second trip to Athens marks the acme of Aristotelian philosophy).
The acme word becomes a synonym of climax with its modern sense (come from English) of peak, peak.
Acme Theatre
The climax is part of the technical vocabulary of theater. It comes from ancient Greek and applies mainly to Greek tragedies (works of Euripides , of Seneca , of Aeschylus , ...), or Greco-Latin inspiration, such as the French literature of the seventeenth century ( Racine particular ). It is the climax of a character whose evil is met, and often accompanies a pathetic record (which evokes the pain) or dramatic.
For example, in Phaedra by Racine, the peak is reached at around 303-304:
- "I saw that the enemy had removed
- My wound has bled once too bright. "
The fury of the goddess Venus is fatal, Phaedra can not escape his vengeful fury:
- "Venus is entirely committed to its prey."
That's when she understands that it is impossible to resist.
We will say that Molire has cleverly delaying the peak of his Tartuffe until the last scene of the play.
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