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Hubris is a Greek term that means excessive/deadly pride or arrogance before the gods. She is also a personified daemon. Soon after one succumbs to Hubris, Nemesis enacts retribution.

Since hubris is such a bad thing, did the Greeks have a term opposite of it?

Andrew Johnson
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2 Answers2

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The opposite of Hubris is Sophrosyne (σωφροσύνη). It is considered an important quality to have and is expressed in opposition to the concept of hubris. The meaning of the concept Sophrosyne is, "an ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind." No language has an equal word to Sophrosyne.

When one has Sophrosyne, it leads to other qualities of humble importance. Qualities are such: temperance, moderation, prudence, purity, and self-control.

The word Sophrosyne was used in Plato's writing and my have been influenced by Heraclitus. His fragment 112 states, "Sophrosyne is the greatest virtue, and wisdom is speaking and acting the trust, paying heed to the nature of things."

Sophrosyne is also a personified daemon. She was released from Pandora's jar and left the cosmos on her way to Olympus.

DukeZhou
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Andrew Johnson
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    Could you please point us to a source (or two) where Sophrosyne "is expressed in opposition to the concept of hubris". – yannis May 07 '18 at 08:23
  • @yannis , one of Dictionary.com definitions for Sophrosyne is discretion (the power to decide according to one's own judgment). One of hubris definitions is arrogance (offensive display of superiority).

    The merriam-webster dictionary defines Sophrosyne as 'prudence —contrasted with hubris'

     – Andrew Johnson May 07 '18 at 13:53
  • Or, something other than a definition... http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-sop1.htm – Andrew Johnson May 07 '18 at 13:53
  • I don't see how the modern definitions are relevant here. Do you have any source that indicates the ancient Greeks believed Sophrosyne to be the opposite of hubris? – yannis May 07 '18 at 14:43
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    @yannis , http://home.earthlink.net/~dbscr/Sophros.htm ... 'Arrogance, insolent self-assertion, was the quality most despised by the Greeks. Sophrosyne was the exact opposite.' ... Hubris in ancient Greece meant arrogance against the gods, which, in term, can plainly mean arrogance. The quote and link above says Sophrosyne is the exact opposite of arrogance. – Andrew Johnson May 07 '18 at 15:17
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    This is a good answer, although I still think "humility" is the proper opposite. But I'll have to build a case, as you have here! I think your answer is correct in the context of how sophrosyne could be used, relating to temperance as discretion and conduct (moderation in all things!), where hubris is an excess or extreme--a lack of discretion due to unmoderated pride. – DukeZhou May 07 '18 at 21:29
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    @yannis https://archive.org/details/sophrosyneselfkn00nort/page/10/mode/2up?q=hubris – cmw Mar 02 '21 at 13:00
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    Plato contrasts the two in Phaedrus 237e-238a @yannis – b a Mar 03 '21 at 21:23
  • I agree, this is a good answer. I've been looking for a word that describes the humbled and reasoned behaviour of one that has learned what it's like to suffer or be without, and because of this, is more humble, calm and accepting of future misfortune. In that sense Sophrosyne gets close but doesn't have the underlying clarity from suffering as part of it in the same way that hubris has underlying blindness from good fortune. – Oliver Rickman-Williams Mar 02 '21 at 08:49
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Following E.R. Dodds' (1951) The Greeks and the Irrational, I'd suggest that @Andrew Johnson and @DukeZhou are both correct, in a way.

Among the Ancient Greeks, Greek sōphrosynē ("moderation," "temperance") was sometimes considered to be the opposite of Greek hybris, English "hubris." Among the Christians, however, Dodd's suggested the opposite of hybris/hubris was "humility" (Latin: humilitas; Greek: tapeinós).

(As two asides, in Ancient Greek, tapeinós often meant "debased," "dejected," "low-lying," even "bad" in the sense of "debased". And, technically speaking, the opposite of sōphrosynē is often considered by etymologists to be represented by the Greek word mania: "madness.")

Word Fan
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  • One of the problems with the original question is that it flattens out a thousand years of literature. In Old English, blac and blæc could be seen as opposites, while their modern counterparts, bleak and black, couldn't. – cmw Jan 23 '23 at 01:49