Hubris & Nemesis

Hubris originally meant violent, insolent outrage that dishonors others or oversteps human limits — in Athens it was even a prosecutable offense — while Nemesis was the goddess and principle of righteous retribution that restores balance. From Homer (8th century BCE) through the tragedians and Herodotus' Histories (5th century BCE), Greek narrative returns again and again to the great brought low for presuming too much, with Xerxes bridging the Hellespont as the classic case. The pattern expressed a deep Greek conviction that the gods resent mortal excess and that arrogance carries its own downfall. The concept matters as the moral engine of Greek tragedy and a lasting Western image of pride going before a fall.