In Histories, Herodotus’ uses a variety of themes to narrate historical events and a common theme revolves around hubris. Extremely common amongst Greek literature and Greek mythology, hubris appears to be the infamous human trait. Greek mythology sees hubris as a great atrocity and results in an unrelenting punishment. The idea of hubris is that an individual with an authoritative position, a strong or influential leader, becomes extremely proud of his exceptional qualities and forms a delusion of his position to be on par with even the Gods. This blinds the hubristic individual into believing he can defy the Gods and elude ones inevitable fate. Herodotus’ Histories is no exception to containing individuals that display hubristic qualities similar to many other significant historical entities. In Histories, the theme of hubris assists the reader in making a connection between the excerpts from the end of book 1 (1-204-206) to other books and excerpts in Herodotus’ Histories. …show more content…
Another way one can understand hubris is by seeing acts of hubris as transgressions that are punishable by Gods. In which case, Xerxes committed an act that could be seen as a transgression. Once hearing that the king and commander of the Lacedemonians was none other than Leonidas, Xerxes, out of rage, called for the mutilation, and crucifying of King Leonidas. By doing so, Xerxes disrespected a nation’s customs and religion (7.238). Furthermore, the hubris of Xerxes seeped into his subordinate Persians who plundered a temple and set fire to all of Acropolis (8.53-54). The gods typically punish a sign for hubris directly or indirectly and a divine wind punished the Xerxes and his forces obliterating a large portion of his fleet off Sarpeis (7.189-191). In the end Xerxes’ hubris led the Persian empire into destruction because he campaigned to extend the reach of his power and failed to heed to advice just as king
Greek mythology is a beloved part of literature that has given humans thousands of stories to tell. From stories about deadly quests, powerful deities, to the even more famed aspect of Greek Mythology, its epic heroes. One of the many authors who took inspiration from Greek Mythology, and will serve as reference for this paper, is Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. 1988. The most well known epic heroes from Greek Mythology which Edith Hamilton writes about in her book are Hercules, Jason, Perseus, and Theseus, but the debate lies in which of these heroes is the best. To which the answer is, Theseus is the better epic hero because he possessed superior strength, intelligence, and courage, he was the most just from all other heroes,
There are several cases in which we, being the humans that we are, do unintelligent things. This central theme has been used throughout the ages in literature, poetry and theatre. In Socrates' Oedipus, he shows that even people in high positions, like King's, are unable to realize the information in front of them. In most Greek tragedies, characters have what is called a hubris which is pride or humans believing that they are more powerful than the Gods or people ordained by gods to be messengers. In the case of Oedipus, his hubris was also his hamartia or tragic mistake which makes him the tragic hero of the play. His hubris caused several reactions that effected the people around him including: effecting his country through the plague, effecting parents through fulfilling the profecy, and effecting his own life and his eventual downfall by making himself blind.
The hero stands as an archetype of who we should be and who we wish to be. However, the hero has inherent flaws which we do not wish to strive towards. In literature, these flaws are not used as examples of what we should be but rather as examples of what not to be. This is especially dominant in the Greek hero. While the Greek hero follows his fate, making serious mistakes and having a fairly simple life, the Anglo-Saxon "super" hero tries, and may succeed, to change his fate, while dealing with a fairly complex life. The Greek hero is strong and mighty while his wit and intelligence are highly valued. In the Greek tragedy, the hero struggles to avoid many flaws. Among these flaws are ambition, foolishness, stubbornness, and hubris-the excessive component of pride. He must overcome his predestined fate-a task which is impossible. From the beginning of the tale, it is already clear that the hero will ultimately fail with the only way out being death. In Oedipus, the hero is already confronted with a load of information about his family and gouges his eyes out. At this point, when he tries to outwit his fate he has already lost and is sentenced to death.
In his Poetics, Aristotle defines the tragic hero as a man of high social status who invites the gods to punish him through overbearing pride and/or presumption – hubris. It would be simple to assign the label of hubristic tragic hero to Victor Frankenstein, but such assignment of a. label would be an oversimplification. The gods in Greek drama punish, albeit harshly, in an. outright manner in the manner. The tragic figure is aware that the gods have forsaken him, and he resigns.
In Herodotus’ The Histories, Xerxes has been an important figure since he launched the invasion of Greece in 480 BC. Throughout the course of the invasion, Xerxes has had many advisors whom he consults and one particular advisor, Demaratus, deserves attention from us because of his Spartan origin and identity. Not only does Demaratus’ personal history greatly shape his interactions with Xerxes, it also gave his comments extra credits and value. His Spartan family background seemed to help him connect with Xerxes on a level that other people are not able to, but in fact I argue that Xerxes does not regard him as a valuable advisor but rather as a character from which Xerxes looks for confirmation and submission, which in turn offers a valuable
I found “Herodotus on the Scythians” to be really cool!! At first, I did think of this reading to have a bit of a slow start, but once I got into the middle of the reading, that was when the Scythian customs began to show. At first, I thought that Herodotus was insulting their culture a bit. For example, when the two elder siblings “agreed together, and made the whole kingdom over to the youngest born” (pg. 130) after the fire extinguished from the gold. Usually, when it comes to kingdoms, one would think that handing it to the eldest sibling would be the right thing to do. Especially since the eldest sibling has the most experience. The fire extinguishing could have happened because of nature and the fire so happened to be cooperative with the youngest brother. What if the youngest
Hubris is defined as excessive, personal pride. As Oedipus is about to learn the devastating truth of his origin and destiny, the chorus observes “Audacity sires the tyrant…” Creon accuses Oedipus of being irrational, and for allowing his pride to lead him into a journey that will affect his life forever. The greeks held reason to be the greatest gift of man, therefore a tyrant’s actions should be governed by reason. Hubris was not the essential cause of Oedipus downfall because of Oedipus’ prophecy, and Religious Incest. Hubris was not the essential cause of Oedipus downfall because of Oedipus’ prophecy.
...oming major obstacles, they are suspicion and persistent, and they have hubris. Just like Odysseus and Oedipus share these positive traits of persistence and suspicion, which helped them all the way through their journey, they also share hubris, a negative trait that holds them back from quickly achieving their goals. Without these traits, Odysseus would have never returned home to Ithaca, and Oedipus would have never found out that he was the murderer of King Laius.
In The Odyssey, Homer, or more so, the characters, often referred to Odysseus as the ‘Great Odysseus’. In the text, it is obvious to see that Odysseus demonstrates arrogance, charisma, over-confidence, and pride. Odysseus and his m...
Heroes are found everywhere. They are seen in movies, on television, in books, and in reality. A hero can be anyone from a friend to a fictional character. To be considered a hero, one must make selfless sacrifices, develop and learn, overcome challenges and temptations, and ultimately present their known world with a gift of any kind. Homer’s The Odyssey paints a picture of the supposed savior Odysseus. The irony of Odysseus’ situation is that he really is not the marvelous hero that many who read The Odyssey see him to be. When imagining a great hero, the words of cruel, unfaithful, selfish, or careless never come to mind, but the son of Laertes sets examples for each attribute. Odysseus makes many poor decisions that cause his dislikable traits to highly outweigh his few better ones. Several of his more prominent characteristics are exhibited on numerous accounts. Odysseus cannot possibly earn the title of being a hero because he harbors hubris, he displays a lack of faith, and his self-centeredness causes unfortunate events.
Throughout Odysseus’s meandering and consequent homecoming in Ithaca, Homer depicts many different aspects of Odysseus’s personality in his epic poem “The Odyssey”. Although Odysseus is smart, brave, and is a great fighter, in reality, he is an overconfident madman. Throughout Homer’s classic epic, Odysseus uses his skill to overcome many obstacles. However, in each story, overconfidence is always a major theme, and Odysseus’s hubris always causes him to do crazy things. At the end, Odysseus’s arrogance is his fatal flaw, and leads him into trouble.
“In history you have the record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself both examples and warnings: fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through to avoid.” (Livy 34). Herodotus lived centuries before Livy’s time, but fits Livy’s view of the historian’s job remarkably well, with only a few minor discrepancies. The anecdotal nature of The Histories lends itself well to stories of morality, to give its audience Livy’s “fine things to take as models, base things [...] to avoid,” although the focus is not necessarily on cultural values, but rather to document the history, as he knew it, of the Greek world.
Greek politician and playwright, Sophocles, in his play, Oedipus the King, depicts a series of chronological events of the consequences of Oedipus’ downfall caused by his excessive pride. Sophocles’ purpose is to instruct readers that too much pride can dismally lead to unfortunate events. Sophocles illustrates an effective tone in order to inform the readers of the negative outcomes of stubbornness and denial.
The chorus sites hubris, the Greek word referring to mortal pride or arrogance, as being the cause of many bad fates. Someone guilty of hubris aspires to be more and do more than what the gods allow, resulting in severe punishment and a tragic destiny. As an example, the chorus recites the story of Ouranus in lines 168-175 of Agamemnon. They tell of his pride and arrogance, and how both ultimately led to his fall. They continue to list two of his successors who suffered the same fate. Hubris is also discussed in lines 461-470, explaining that, "The gods are not blind to men who... unjustly prosper." The chorus views this arrogance as a terrible offense to the gods, and warns all those who dare set themselves beyond Justice to limit their belongings to what they need and what the gods allot them. They offer this warning so that all people might "avoid this suffering," (Agamemnon, lines 370-381).
Herodotus believes Gods decisions presented by his divine communication with humans is justified by Crosesus’ and Astyages’ ignorance. The text of Herodotus’ follows the theme of retribution and vengeance throughout its stories. This theme presented by Herodotus masks Gods own beliefs which are represented by his divine communication and his placement of individuals in the cosmos. No man can escape his fate due to Gods ability to place a human in time) Herodotus explains that Croesus is an ignorant