"A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you" was stated by C. S. Lewis. Hubris, an over abundance of self confidence, is a common problem in Greek myths. It usually stems from characters not acknowledging those who are superior to them, usually the gods and goddesses. This is what happens in the stories Daedalus and Icarus, Phaethon, and Arachne. The characters let their pride prevent themselves from making the right choices. An excessive amount of pride from the characters in Daedalus and Icarus, Phaethon, and Arachne negatively impacts their choices. In the story Daedalus and Icarus, Icarus's pride causes the death of himself and the grief of his father. The story starts with King Minos requesting a palace and labyrinth from Daedalus and then holding him and his son as prisoners once the project was complete. Daedalus, being the great inventor he is, sets to work on an escape plan. In the text it states, "Daedalus begged it to spare him one feather. Then each night, when everyone else had gone to bed, Daedalus worked by candlelight on his greatest invention of all". Daedalus creates two sets of wings for Icarus and himself. Before they leave, he warns Icarus not to fly too close to the sun. When they escape, Icarus becomes very prideful of the fact that he is the first boy to ever fly. "I’m the first boy ever to fly!...Think you’re the highest thing in the sky, do you?' he jeered" was stated in the text. This is where Icarus makes his colossal mistake. He had mocked the sun, which was Apollo. Greek gods and goddess are the supreme beings in Greek mythology, to mock one was like condemning oneself to death and that was what Ica... ... middle of paper ... ... in the form of poor and humble people". Arachne had already done enough damage by openly saying that her skills were equal to or possibly even better than a goddess's, but to continue to insult Athena by weaving such a pattern in to her cloth was taking it too far. In the end Athena turns Arachne into a spider and dooms her and her descendants to continue to weave. Humans will always be humans, there is no such thing as a perfect character. Today, humans are still the same as they were thousands of years ago. It is good to have self esteem, but too much of anything is bad. Pridefulness combined with arrogance can produce devastating results as seen in these three myths. The characters let their pride keep them from listening to the words of the wise and influence them into making disastrous choices. Death was the ultimate consequence of the characters' choices.
While working, there were people who would come from remote areas and watch her weave skillfully. On page 19, the text says, “If Athene herself were to come were to come down and compete with me, she could do no better than I.” Her bold action was challenging Athene, a goddess, to a weaving competition. Additionally, on page 19, “Arachne herself flushed red for a moment, for she had really believed that the goddess would hear her.” Arachne took an action that could possibly embarrass herself. During their competition, Arachne had designed “a pattern of which showed evil or unworthy actions of the gods, how they had deceived fair maidens, resorted to trickery, and appeared on earth from time to time in the form poor and humble people.” and Athene had designed “a border of twined branches of the olive, Athene’s favorite tree, while in the middle, figures began to appear. As they looked at the glowing colors, the spectators realized that Athene was weaving into her pattern a last warning to Arachne.” Athene had created that embroidery to warn Arachne, and Arachne made an embroidery to disgrace the goddess. Arachne’s bold action caused Athene to be angry and then turned Arachne into a spider. Arachne’s consequence for her bold action was her descendants and herself to turn into
In Greek mythology having power and control over others was the greatest achievement that any character could achieve. In order to gain this dominance many characters had to use fraudulent tactics. These tactics were learned from earlier generations and then tweaked in order for future success. This path was an example of how Ouranos, Cronos and Zeus all came to power. In the poem Hesiod’s Theogony, the Greek family relationships between the husband, wife and their children are a repeated cycle, built on the characteristics of power, deceit and achievement that maintained the family dynamic in Greek life.
Along the same line as humility comes pride. Odysseus had more pride and cockiness than any of the characters I have read about this semester. He didn’t seem as bad in the Iliad, but the Odyssey really showed him in a different light. He had to swallow his pride when he had to come back to his home and get it back. Just in the fact that he came back at all was pride swallowing. He lost all of his men.
When it comes to pride, when do we know that we have too much? A perfect example of having too much pride lies in the Greek tragedy, Antigone. In my opinion, it is the perfect example because the main character, Creon, is dealing with all the things that are happening because of Antigone’s decision to go against his law and many people are telling him that he is wrong, but he is too confident in his own choice that nothing bad will happen.
Pride is a personality trait that Oedipus and Hally develop in each play that eventually serve to their destruction. Oedipus and Hally are both introduced as humble characters who develop a false sense of pride as each story progresses. Oedipus’ pride is based on his inability to accept reality, while Hally’s pride is based on social influences that shape his views on humanity. Oedipus’ demonstrates humility when the Oracle informs him that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus believes what the Oracle tells him and eventually leads a journey to avoid his fate. Later in the story, he develops a false sense of pride which allows him to deny the truth behind Teiresias’ prophecy. Oedipus instead interprets Teiresias’ prophecy as a threat from Kreon and reasons that it is because of his “Wealth, power, craft of statesmanship! Kingly position, everywhere admired!”. (scene 1, 163-4) Oedipus’ language suggests superiority over Kreon and Teiresias, and it is this scene where he demonstrates that the humility he once possessed is gone. In the beginning of ...
The act of constantly tricking others, boasting, and the blatant disregard for others needs or feelings can be considered “hubris” in Greek myth. In the Odyssey many characters show self-confidence, but only a select few actually seemed to have “hubris” such as the suitors and Odysseus. The suitors were immediately characterized as selfish individuals, for instance when they were described in book 1 “suitors trooped in with all their swagger and took their seats”. (Odyssey 1. 169-170) Simply in the way they carry themselves it is obvious they disregard others. “They reached out for the good things that lay at hand, and when they’d put aside desire for food and drink the suitors set their minds on other pleasures” this line proves their lack of Xenia and their abundance of hubris. (Odyssey 1. 176-178) In book 22 the suitors finally meet their fate by the
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.
During the ancient Athens character was subjective, there were people who were envy, sycophancy, and Hubris. There were people who were envy, that is a person who is jealous of another person or of something they have like the power they may have. Envy "is a disturbing pain which is directed against good fortune, not because someone does not deserve it, but because they are our equals and like us.(68)" All rivals were equal during this time and once you went through a lawsuit and lost to your rival, they would gain what you had and you would feel envy towards them. Your loss is someone else's gain of power and that causes envy and agony. Sycophan is a person who uses his/her charm to get what they want. They are very good at lying to people,
Victories in battle gained the Homeric hero honour in the eyes of their fellow aristoi; however, this was not enough to exhibit their triumphs. ‘… [T]here appears to be a close equation between honour… and the possession of a ‘prize’… ’ (Block 1, p. 50), as success in battle could be forgot, the heroes materialised these victories within the prizes taken as the spoils of war. These prizes provided a lasting symbol of their achievements; therefore, their importance was immense. We see this importance demonstrated in the way Agamemnon is determined to retain Chryseis, his ‘trophy’, saying to her father, ‘The girl I will not give back…’ (Iliad, 1.29). She is the embodiment of his honour, manifested in the flesh. When forced to give her back to her father, Agamemnon’s symbol of honour is gone and his pride is wounded. This dishonour may even jeopardise his position as leader of the Greek army and explains why he demands another man’s ‘prize’.
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).
According to Collins English Dictionary, the definition of hubris is “an excess of ambition, pride”. Hubris is a person like Oedipus in this play who tricks himself. Throughout the story of Oedipus the king, Sophocles developed the story by building up the characteristic of each character from the start to made the story end as a tragedy. The protagonist, Oedipus, shows might and arrogance without acknowledging the truth. Oedipus’ hubris is responsible for the pollution that at the end leads to his downfall. His stubborn mind and blindness made him never thought himself as the murderer of Laius, a husband of his own mother, and are thirsting to find the truth later on.
vanity, pride, and self - knowledge intervenes in the development of the virtue of the characters,
Pride is not a bad attribute to have, it is actually very important. One definition for pride is: A sense of one's own proper dignity or value; self-respect. Self respect is a very good quality to have, however, there’s such thing as too much of a good thing. This is especially the case if you are a hero in a Greek play that has too much pride. Pride is the most central flaw in Greek tragedy, even in heroes. In the plays “Antigone” and “The Odyssey”, Antigone’s and Odysseus’ pride causes them unnecessary problems that could have been easily avoided if they had just kept their pride in check.
young Arachne becomes especially famous with her amazing weaving and spinning. But when Arachne becomes famous she becomes very rude and develops a bad attitude of hubris. She thinks that she is as good as all gods and goddesses. The daughter of Zeus, Athena listens to what Arachne is saying. Athena wants to disguise herself as a crone to warn Arachne about her hubris. Arachne does not listen to the wiseness of the crone and responds very rudely. Then Arachne proceeds to insult Athena. Athena reveals herself as a goddess and