Hybris and Dishonour: I

Abstract

Professor D. M. MacDowell's article continues a recent and welcome tendency to question the common interpretation of hybris by study of the actual instances of the concept throughout Greek literature. MacDowell's definition ‘having energy or power and misusing it self-indulgently’ is fairly broad, and he supports it by five further points:i) that hybris is always bad,ii) that it is always voluntary,iii) that it is frequently, but not always, produced by such things as youth, wealth, and excess of food and drink,iv) that it is not usually religious, andv) that it often involves a victim, and is more serious when it does.