I absolutely love to study Greek mythology. It is one of the few subjects I research outside of school. The other day I was browsing through different gods and goddess’ when I came across a goddess called Hybris. Here is a little biography, I guess you could call it, I wrote about her.
Hybris, also known as ‘Petulantia’ in Latin, was one of the ancient Greek gods. She was the goddess or spirit of insolence, violence, wantonness, reckless pride, arrogance, and outrageous behavior in general.
Hybris in Greek (?????) means ‘vituperation’, meaning verbal abuse or castigation; violent denunciation or condemnation. Another spelling of Hybris, Hybreos, in Greek (??????) simply means ‘insult’. Her Roman name in Latin (Petulantia) means ‘wantonness’, meaning without regard for what is right, just, humane, etc.; careless; reckless.
She was a personified spirit in Greek mythology, the daughter of Darkness and Night. Hybris’ parents were Erebos, the protogenes of darkness, and Nyx, the goddess of the night, one of the ancient Protogenoi.
She was referred to as a ‘daimon’ or ‘daemon’, Latin for an evil spirit or in Greek, meaning ‘a deity’, ’fate’, or ‘fortune’. But the most common meanings for ‘daimon’ or ‘daemon’ was a demi-god, the guardian spirit of a place or person, overall a variant spelling of ‘demon’ (devil, fiend).
The goddess was believed to have two children, Koros, the daimon of satiety and surfeit, insolence, and disdain, and Dyssebia, the spirit of impiety, ungodliness.
Hesiod, Works and Days 214 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.):
“Listen to right and do not foster Violence (Hybris); for Hybris is bad for a poor man. Even the prosperous cannot easily bear its burden, but is weighed down under it when he has fallen into delusion. The better path is to go by on the other side towards justice; for Dike (Justice) beats Hybris (Outrage) when she comes at length to the end of the race. But only when he has suffered does the fool learns this.”
Here are some definitions for some of the words that you probably have only heard in Greek mythology and in the bio:
Protogenes: a Greek painter. As in reference to Erebos, meaning one of a kind; first to be created.
Protogenia: (classical mythology) the first woman born after the great flood of Zeus, daughter of Devcalion and Pyrrha, as in reference to Nyx, protogenoi (plural).
Satiety: the state of being satiated; surfeit.
Surfeit: excess; an excessive amount.
Impiety: lack of piety; lack of reverence for god or sacred things; irreverence.
Hesiod: 8th century BC, Greek poet and the earliest author of didactic verse. His two complete extant works are the Works and Days, dealing with the agricultural seasons, and the Theogony, concerning the origin of the world and the genealogies of the gods.