Icons of Pride

[Collin152]

So, I've got a little project I'm working on, the idea as it is right now is to do a series of sketches on some of the more prominant prideful characters of history, mythology, and literature.
I don't have many people on my list so far.

So, playground, tell me whom it is you like that had a lot of Pride? The bad kind of pride, specifically, where it's a negative trait, not the kind where its justified appreciatoin of your accomplishments.


What an unusual thing to ask, don't you think?
If you want, feel free to add candidates for the other deadly sins, but Pride is my topic as far as I have hitherto decided.

[RTGoodman]

Basically all of the old-school style heroes of Greek and Roman myth are full of pride (a.k.a. "hubris") and fall because of it. Most of the heroes of the Trojan War are guilty of it to some degree, if I remember correctly, especially Achilles (in the Iliad) and (in some parts of the Odyssey) Odysseus. I also particularly remember doing a short paper on Turnus, an antagonist from the Aeneid, as being a hero of the old style and full of hubris, and how he was defeated by Aeneas was a new style of hero who was respectful and gave honor to others besides himself.

There's got to be more examples from more modern(ish) literature that I like better, but I'll have to go look at my bookshelves to find them.

EDIT: Ooh, I also just remember a great lecture I heard at a conference once that compared the good kind of Pride as it was viewed in Scandinavian/Norse mythology and society as opposed to the bad kind in Greco-Roman myth. That could be a cool thing to look at.

[Unique]

Hitler, Ceasar, And of course, Grand Moff Tarkin. That was his title, right?

[Jarade]

Napoleon Bonaparte, very much the prideful antagonist.

[The Demented One]

Louis XIV, the Sun King. Caligula and Nero are good ones.

[Unique]

Napoleon Bonaparte, very much the prideful antagonist.That may not count. He did pretty well for himself, as I recall.

[Collin152]

That may not count. He did pretty well for himself, as I recall.

I count it. He did a lot, but he did let it get to his head.

[Unique]

I suppose. He did eventually get humbled, didn't he?

[Collin152]

I suppose. He did eventually get humbled, didn't he?

Death: the universal humbling agent.

[Unique]

Death: the universal humbling agent.
I thought that was "getting pantsed in public".

[Destichado]

Bellerophon, Narcissus, Arachne, Cassiopeia and Marsyas are the most notable examples of Hubris from classical mythology.

[Collin152]

I thought that was "getting pantsed in public".

It doesn't work if you wanted them to go down.

[Unique]

It doesn't work if you wanted them to go down.

Fine then. Gettinng unexpectedly and unwelcomed-ly pantsed in public.

[de-trick]

i would say a rifle and a sword, because both owners of them took great prode in them, but both were disigned to kill

[bosssmiley]

Bellerophon, Narcissus, Arachne, Cassiopeia and Marsyas are the most notable examples of Hubris from classical mythology.

There's a difference between pride and overweening pride (hubris).

Re: Arachne. It's not hubris if you really are better than the gods. Her story was just about Athena being a sore loser and a right b*tch.

The dominant motif of Caesar's life story wasn't pride. He was done in by envy for being too primus in a society that insisted eminence was only possible on the basis of primus inter pares. He had the birth, the breeding, the connections and the talent to go all the way to the top, he did, and he died for it.

Pride coming before a fall in history: the Assyrians, Alexander the Great Egomaniac, Rameses II (aka Ozymandius (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias)), most of the men who fought Hannibal Barca, King Herod Agrippa, Caligula, Nero and Commodus, the last Khwarizm Shah of Persia and Transoxania, Charles I of England, Tipu Sultan of Mysore, Napoleon Bonaparte...and now we're getting into national pride/no-no politics territory. :smallamused:

[Destichado]

Re: Arachne. It's not hubris if you really are better than the gods. Her story was just about Athena being a sore loser and a right b*tch.

Not necessarily; it depends on *when* you look at the story. Mythology was not static, it changes so much it's often hard to say anything for certain about anything. I know where you're coming from, but in some versions, Arachne boasted about her weaving skills just like Cassiopeia boasted about her children.