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Literary notes about chief (AI summary)

In literature, the term "chief" functions both as a marker of authority and as a qualifier for primacy or essential quality. It is often used to designate a leader or foremost figure—whether a divine commander in epic narratives ([1], [2], [3]) or a principal officer in administrative contexts ([4], [5]). At the same time, "chief" can denote the most important or fundamental component in a broader scheme, as seen in discussions of artistic materials ([6]) or central tenets in philosophy and sociology ([7], [8]). The word also appears in diverse settings, from denoting key figures in religious rites ([9]) to indicating main characters in myth and folklore ([10], [11]), reflecting its versatility in conveying primary importance or rank across literary genres.
  1. Beholding the fierce thunderbolt about to be hurled by their chief, the celestials all took up their respective weapons.
    — from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1
  2. " [pg 216] To him the chief: "What then remains to do?
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  3. I am Vishnu, I am Brahma and I am Sakra, the chief of the gods.
    — from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1
  4. The legation party included the chief, Adams, Mitford, who had just been [pg 370] gazetted second secretary, and myself.
    — from A Diplomat in Japan by Ernest Mason Satow
  5. (It was here that the chief of police had gone while Lembke was rescuing the feather bed.)
    — from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  6. Unfortunately, however, this latter furnishes the chief materials of the imitative arts.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  7. The imagination is not extinct; but its chief function is to devise what may be useful, and to represent what is real.
    — from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville
  8. But that the reasons alleged do not prove it either to be not-good or the Chief Good is plain from the following considerations.
    — from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle
  9. For in the days of David and Asaph from the beginning there were chief singers appointed, to praise with canticles, and give thanks to God.
    — from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete
  10. As for the stranger, he was Mentes, son of Anchialus, chief of the Taphians, an old friend of my father's."
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  11. This new chief, God, he became unexpectedly conscious of, and he felt embarrassed by him.
    — from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

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