Greek philosophy is crossed by tensions and distensions between humans and the gods Classical are the reflections and narratives that are concerned with the relationship between the mortal and the divine, the wrong and the perfect, order and excess.
In this context, transgression has been one of the figures found in the background of the myths and stories that gave rise to the most classical Greek philosophy, and that among other things allowed the latter to have effects and functions in the social order.
For the Greeks, there is a necessary natural order that governs behavior and that must be maintained and respected. Nature (of which gods and humans are part) organizes and regulates the world, the body and the soul, maintaining an order that should not be contradicted. The concept of hubris which we will see developed below, has to do with that.
In Greek philosophy, human beings are part of an order called “cosmos.” In this order there is no place for the sharp distinction between the human and the divine, nature and the soul, biology or culture. Nevertheless, It is an order in which human beings recognize themselves as different from divinity: Humans are limited, they are not immortal or omnipresent like the gods, they are the other way around: finite and perishable.
Since there is awareness of immortality, there is also awareness of one’s own limits, and there is then the possibility of transgression. The problem is that transgression is a sign of ignorance of the limits and of one’s own human condition, which means equating oneself with the condition of gods through a narcissistic ego.
Hubris is the word with which the latter is represented: It is the state of absence of restraint, which is also the state of the greatest transgression, into which none of the human beings should fall. The duty of humans, contrary to this, is to “know themselves”, which means knowing one’s own limits, avoiding excesses and maintaining moderation. Hubris is the state that breaks with homogeneity, disrupts the order of the cosmos and the social order.
Thus, hubris represents daring and excess, the split of the cosmos and the political order. It is the opposite of prudence, which is closer to the idea of human humility and invites us to think and live ourselves in recognition of our own limits. Hubris represents the act of aspiring for more than is actually possible go against the “moira” which means “part”, “lot” or “destiny”, and refers to what has happened to each “being”, including the possibilities of “doing”.
Heroes and political ethics
One of the great problems that some Greek philosophers raised is when those who fall into hubris are the human beings in charge of governing. The tyrant, who stumbles upon what the Greeks called “pleonexia” (the insatiable motivation, always wanting to have more), is the representation of the maximum transgression
Those who have fallen into hubris do not regulate themselves, they do not measure themselves by moderation, which means they are not the right person to govern. The opposite is true of the figure of the hero of Greek tragedies, who also has a sometimes insatiable desire for power. This desire causes blindness and closeness to hubris but that does not represent a deliberate offense against the gods.
However, they do fall into pride and arrogance, which is why they are not saved from divine punishment: nemesis; figure that represents revenge, justice and balancing punishment. Herodotus, one of the fathers of History, already said that “divinity tends to bring down everything that stands out too much.”
Agamemnon of the Homeric Iliad and attack commander of Troy; Oedipus the King, who killed his father and married his mother; and some emperors such as Caligula and Nero, are just some of the Greek characters who reached hubris. The consequence of excessive trust is not taking into consideration the experiences, ideas and mentalities of others, with which the consequences or reactions of others are not foreseen, and the “nemesis” easily restores balance.
hubris syndrome
Through the concept and history of hubris it has been easier to represent the figure of excessive consumption, the contemporary tendency to “pleonexia” and the feeling of insatiability that runs through subjectivities becoming increasingly narcissistic.
A clearer example can be the obvious ambition for political power of the tyrant’s subjectivity, or the excessive ambition for knowledge that leads to excess confidence, a state of impatience or thoughtless hyperactivity.
Hubris is the state inspired by exaggerated passions, thoughtless actions. Represents obstinacy, fixation on preconceived ideas and the rejection of contrary or foreign ideas, arrogant treatment and narcissism.
It is an excess that disorganizes and corrupts but that is quite far from the individual meaning that we attribute to “madness” in our era, precisely loaded with hubris.
However, the hubris figure has been used to represent, even in clinical terms (such as “syndrome”), personalities that are characterized by an eccentric and excessive ego that results in dismissing what is foreign.
