Abstract: The article is dedicated to comparative analysis on the material of ancient and Middle Eastern cultures of the essence and beginning of the virtue, as an ethical concept, which guides the spiritual and moral life of human and society, as well as regulates the sociopolitical and economic relations in society. The basis of the comparative analysis lies in Aristotle’s ethical teachings, who suggested a method for studying anatomy of a moral act alongside the interrelation between moral choices and social activities of man. Aristotle proposed a concept of the virtue as of result of the social and ethical thought of antiquity. Such method allowed structuring the understanding of the virtue that have established in Middle Eastern cultures, using the works of S. S. Averintsev and body of texts dedicated to culture of the Hittites. Methodological foundation of the article consists in the concept of value-archetypal complex, which identifies the value determinants of culture: man makes a value choice freely, but within the boundaries of understanding of good and evil set by their culture, which is the axiological system of coordinates that contains his value consciousness. Axiological dominant is the result of solution of the dialectics of spiritual and psychophysical beginnings of human nature, which is based on the initial value choice of a nation at the beginning of their historical path, structured relatively to the absolute values. The author proves that the axiological system of coordinates alongside the axiological dominant of ethnic culture manifest as the origins of the virtue; they are the anchor of the moral action of a human, suggesting the possible options for a value choice. The following conclusions are made: ethical concepts in ancient and Middle Eastern cultures has a lot in common, as well as differ in multiple ways; common implies the understanding of the virtue as a reasonable constraint of human passions and desires in favor of the common good in society; different implies that human makes a value choice freely, but within the framework of the existing in their culture perception of good and evil, which sets the axiological system of coordinates, which contains his value consciousness. The analysis demonstrates that the axiological system of the Antiquity excludes the suffering side of human nature, whereas axiological system of Middle Eastern culture includes all aspects of human nature. The exception or rather acceptance of the fullness of human nature is related to the axiological dominant of «the value-archetypal complex» of ethnic culture, which also has a decisive influence upon the value choice of a man.