Hubris ( / ˈ h juː b r ɪ s / ; from Ancient Greek ὕβρις ( húbris ) 'pride, insolence, outrage'), or less frequently hybris ( / ˈ h aɪ b r ɪ s / ), describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence and complacency , often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance . The term arrogance comes from the Latin adrogare , meaning "to feel that one has a right to demand certain attitudes and behaviors from other people". To arrogate means "to claim or seize without justification... To make undue claims to having", or "to claim or seize without right... to ascribe or attribute without reason". The term pretension is also associated with the term hubris , but is not synonymous with it.
21-426: Arrogance , or hubris, is a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride. Arrogance or Arrogant may also refer to: Arrogance According to studies, hubris, arrogance, and pretension are related to the need for victory (even if it does not always mean winning) instead of reconciliation, which "friendly" groups might promote. Hubris is usually perceived as a characteristic of an individual rather than
42-571: A consequence of his successful attack on Timarchus, Aeschines was cleared of the charge of treason. In 343 BC the attack on Aeschines was renewed by Demosthenes in his speech On the False Embassy . Aeschines replied in a speech with the same title and was again acquitted. In 339 BC, as one of the Athenian deputies ( pylagorae ) in the Amphictyonic Council , he made a speech which brought about
63-480: A group, although the group the offender belongs to may suffer collateral consequences from wrongful acts. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments, or capabilities. The adjectival form of the noun hubris / hybris is hubristic / hybristic . The term hubris originated in Ancient Greek , where it had several different meanings depending on
84-658: A positive trait: Larry Wall promoted "the three great virtues of a programmer : laziness , impatience , and hubris ". The Oxford English Dictionary defines "arrogance" in terms of "high or inflated opinion of one's own abilities, importance, etc., that gives rise to presumption or excessive self-confidence, or to a feeling or attitude of being superior to others [...]." Adrian Davies sees arrogance as more generic and less severe than hubris. Aeschines Aeschines ( / ˈ ɛ s k ɪ n iː z / ; Greek : Ancient Greek : Αἰσχίνης Ἀτρομήτου Κοθωκίδης , romanized : Aischínēs Atromḗtou Kothōkídēs ; 389–314 BC)
105-430: Is accused of breaking the law of hubris by submitting himself to prostitution and anal intercourse. Aeschines brought this suit against Timarchus to bar him from the rights of political office and his case succeeded. Aristotle defined hubris as shaming the victim, not because of anything that happened to the committer or might happen to the committer, but merely for that committer's own gratification: to cause shame to
126-462: The Fourth Sacred War . By way of revenge, Aeschines endeavoured to fix the blame for these disasters upon Demosthenes. In 336 BC, when Ctesiphon proposed that his friend Demosthenes should be rewarded with a golden crown for his distinguished services to the state, Aeschines accused him of having violated the law in bringing forward the motion. The matter remained in abeyance till 330 BC, when
147-561: The New Testament parallels the Hebrew word pesha , meaning "transgression". It represents a pride that "makes a man defy God", sometimes to the degree that he considers himself an equal. In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride combined with arrogance. Hubris is also referred to as "pride that blinds" because it often causes a committer of hubris to act in foolish ways that belie common sense. Hubris has also been presented as
168-671: The army , and held several clerkships, amongst them the office of clerk to the Boule . Among the campaigns that Aeschines participated in were Phlius in the Peloponnese (368 BC), Battle of Mantinea (362 BC) , and Phokion's campaign in Euboea (349 BC). The fall of Olynthus (348 BC) brought Aeschines into the political arena, and he was sent on an embassy to rouse the Peloponnese against Philip II of Macedon . In spring of 347 BC, Aeschines addressed
189-447: The ancient Greek concepts of honour (τιμή, timē ) and shame (αἰδώς, aidōs ). The concept of honour included not only the exaltation of the one receiving honour, but also the shaming of the one overcome by the act of hubris. This concept of honour is akin to a zero-sum game. Rush Rehm simplifies this definition of hubris to the contemporary concept of "insolence, contempt, and excessive violence". Two well-known cases are found in
210-532: The assembly of Ten Thousand in Megalopolis , Arcadia urging them to unite and defend their independence against Philip. In the summer 347 BC, he was a member of the peace embassy to Philip, where he found it necessary, in order to counteract the prejudice vigorously fomented by his opponents, to defend Philip and describe him at a meeting of the Athenian popular assembly as being entirely Greek. His dilatoriness during
231-408: The context. In legal usage, it meant assault or sexual crimes and theft of public property, and in religious usage it meant emulation of divinity or transgression against a god. In ancient Greek , hubris referred to "outrage": actions that violated natural order, or which shamed and humiliated the victim, sometimes for the pleasure or gratification of the abuser. Hesiod and Aeschylus used
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#1732863305440252-451: The second embassy (346 BC) sent to ratify the terms of peace led to him being accused by Demosthenes and Timarchus on a charge of high treason . Aeschines counterattacked by claiming that Timarchus had forfeited the right to speak before the people as a consequence of youthful debauches which had left him with the reputation of being a whore and prostituting himself to many men in the port city of Piraeus . The suit succeeded and Timarchus
273-519: The speeches of Demosthenes , a prominent statesman and orator in ancient Greece . These two examples occurred when first Midias punched Demosthenes in the face in the theatre ( Against Midias ), and second when (in Against Conon ) a defendant allegedly assaulted a man and crowed over the victim. Yet another example of hubris appears in Aeschines ' Against Timarchus , where the defendant, Timarchus,
294-450: The two rivals delivered their speeches Against Ctesiphon and On the Crown . The result was a complete and overwhelming victory for Demosthenes. Aeschines went into voluntary exile at Rhodes (to avoid the judgement of the jury, which was likely a large sum of money), where he opened a school of rhetoric . He afterwards removed to Samos , where he died aged 75. His three speeches, called by
315-567: The victim, not in order that anything may happen to you, nor because anything has happened to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the requital of past injuries; this is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its cause is this: naive men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater. In the Septuagint , the "hubris is overweening pride, superciliousness or arrogance, often resulting in fatal retribution or nemesis ". The word hubris as used in
336-400: The word "hubris" to describe transgressions against the gods. A common way that hubris was committed was when a mortal claimed to be better than a god in a particular skill or attribute. Claims like these were rarely left unpunished, and so Arachne , a talented young weaver, was transformed into a spider when she said that her skills exceeded those of the goddess Athena , even though her claim
357-577: Was a Greek statesman and one of the ten Attic orators . Although it is known he was born in Athens , the records regarding his parentage and early life are conflicting; but it seems probable that his parents, though poor, were respectable. Aeschines' father was Atrometus, an elementary school teacher of letters. His mother Glaukothea assisted in the religious rites of initiation for the poor. After assisting his father in his school, he tried his hand at acting with indifferent success, served with distinction in
378-425: Was defined as the use of violence to shame the victim (this sense of hubris could also characterize rape). In legal terms, hubristic violations of the law included what might today be termed assault -and- battery , sexual crimes, or the theft of public or sacred property. In some contexts, the term had a sexual connotation. Shame was frequently reflected upon the perpetrator, as well. Crucial to this definition are
399-631: Was king Xerxes as portrayed in Aeschylus's play The Persians , and who allegedly threw chains to bind the Hellespont sea as punishment for daring to destroy his fleet. What is common in all of these examples is the breaching of limits, as the Greeks believed that the Fates (Μοῖραι) had assigned each being with a particular area of freedom, an area that even the gods could not breach. In ancient Athens , hubris
420-458: Was sentenced to atimia and politically destroyed, according to Demosthenes. This comment was later interpreted by Pseudo-Plutarch in his Lives of the Ten Orators as meaning that Timarchos hanged himself upon leaving the assembly, a suggestion contested by some modern historians. This oration, Against Timarchus , is considered important because of the bulk of Athenian laws it cites. As
441-527: Was true. Additional examples include Icarus , Phaethon , Salmoneus , Niobe , Cassiopeia , Tantalus , and Tereus . The goddess Hybris is described in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition as having "insolent encroachment upon the rights of others". These events were not limited to myth, and certain figures in history were considered to have been punished for committing hubris through their arrogance. One such person
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