197 Arete is an asteroid in the asteroid belt. It has a very bright surface, unusually bright even for a rocky S-type asteroid.
It was discovered by J. Palisa on May 21, 1879, and named after Arete, the mother of Nausicaa in Homer's The Odyssey. Every 18 years, this asteroid approaches within 0.04 AU of 4 Vesta. During these encounters, Vesta causes a gravitational perturbation of Arete, allowing the mass of Vesta to be directly determined.