HUBRIS

also spelled hybris, in classical Greek ethical and religious thought, overweening presumption suggesting impious disregard of the limits governing human action in an orderly universe. It is the sin to which the great and gifted are most susceptible, and in Greek tragedy it is usually the hero's tragic flaw. Perhaps the simplest example occurs in the Persians of Aeschylus, in which the arrogance of Xerxes in building a bridge of ships across the Hellespont flaunts nature by turning sea into land. He is punished by the crushing defeat of the Persians at Salamis. In most other Greek tragedies the hero's hubris is more subtle, and sometimes he appears wholly blameless.