Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00491)

Thee is a story from Herodotus which you might find interesting. It 
has been years but I think I remember it correctly.

Some warlord's courtiers decided to help him celebrate a hard 
campaign of rape and pillage, so while he was sleeping they brought a 
captured woman to his tent. He woke up and, not realizing the woman 
was harmless, drew his sword and killed her. When he was fully awake 
and realized he had committed a murder he was stricken with grief and 
guilt, a strange sort of conscience for a man in his line of work.

Thereafter he saw the lady in his dreams saying: "Come. Meet thy 
doom. By pride are men undone."

He desired to get rid of the dreams and consulted some oravle or 
other, whereupon he was advised to go to a certain plavce and perform 
some religious mummery there. He was told that when he did this his 
problems would all come to an end. He followed the orders and died 
at the spot.

If anyone wants to search Herodotus he can probably find a more 
accurate account, since this is from memory.

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Eldon B Tucker" <eldon@t...> 
wrote:
> Someone at work subscribes to the Merriam-Webster word of the day, 
and sends
> around a copy for people to comment on. Today's word may be of 
interest.
> 
> -- Eldon
> 
> ---- quoted text follows ----
> 
> The Word of the Day for Apr 15 is
> 
> : hubris \HYOO-bris\ noun 
> 
> : exaggerated pride or self-confidence 
> 
> Example sentence:
> 
> Many have fallen into the trap of Icarus, and soar, overcome with 
hubris,
> until their pride is thwarted and rude reality hurls them earthward 
again.
> 
> Did you know?
> 
> English picked up both the concept of hubris and the term for that
> particular brand of cockiness from the ancient Greeks, who 
considered hubris
> a dangerous character flaw capable of provoking the wrath of the 
gods. In
> classical Greek tragedy, hubris was often a fatal shortcoming that 
brought
> about the fall of the tragic hero. Typically, overconfidence led 
the hero to
> attempt to overstep the boundaries of human limitations and assume 
a godlike
> status, and the gods inevitably humbled the offender with a sharp 
reminder
> of his or her mortality.
> 
> *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.