What Is The Hubris In The Peloponnesian War

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The Academy of Tragedy in the Peloponnesian War
Ancient Greek tragedies and the Peloponnesian War were similar in one huge way. They both portrayed “hubris.” Athens was very hubris in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta because they thought they were going to win and sent out most of their army to defeat Sparta.
Hubris means excessive pride. Most characters in Greek tragedies had that as a characteristic, in which leads them to death or failure. This was the same case with the Peloponnesian War.
Athens thought they were going to win the war from the start. Though, they were almost beaten when a group of Spartans came to Athens and started burning down part of their city. Athens thought they were safe as long as they had a good supply of food, which they did. The city was safe as long as ships could sail into port with food from other Athenian colonies and other foreign states. This made them cocky and a bit egotistical. …show more content…

Everything went well before they suffered an unmistakable defeat in 413 B.C.. Everything was destroyed. They’re fleet, armies, there was nothing left to protect Athens. This lead to their defeat in 404 B.C..
Some may think that it was a good thing for Athens to be confident in themselves, but there is a difference. Being confident is okay, but cocky is not. If one is cocky then they will lose sight of what is really important. Athens should never had the idea of sending all those soldiers to destroy an ally of Sparta. They should have sent a smaller army, so Athens could still have something to fall back on if their plan failed.
The war between Athens and Sparta was a lot like an ancient Greek tragedy. Athens thought they could win the war and sent a huge army, of almost all of their soldiers, to destroy Syracuse, but were defeated. Athens was hubris in the war, so they

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