The Greek relationship with hybris — there is a thing we as modern Americans simply lack entirely. Caught up as it is with the conception of the deinos, this should come as no surprise.
The sense of stepping beyond the bounds of safety and acceptable behavior, of leaping beyond sophrosyne, of daring what the Gods have decreed is beyond one — this tempted the Greeks constantly. Every Greek knew within him the desire to escape the boundaries that had been set for him and was held back only by a fear of the punishments one should endure if he went beyond those boundaries. And it is this holding back through fear that defines the Greek feeling of hybris: one sees hybris as something essentially belonging to those without fear, to those who are truly noble. Think of the myth of Prometheus who could not be held back by the restrictions given to him by the Gods: he took the gift of fire and saved man and suffered for eternity for it. This seems to be what is essential to the Greeks — the notion that what is best in life is acquired by audacity and one will pay for the moments of happiness with a great deal of pain forever after and yet this is a good trade.
The greek conception of hybris is the putting into practice of the claim, “man at his best is man at his worst.”
How different this conception is from the Roman myth of Remus!