Roman, Eclipse and hubris

Abramovich's Eclipse, the biggest yacht ever built.

Something worries me about Roman and his Eclipse and I hear from afar the faint sound of distant warning bells. I'm a great fan of Abramovich, and I hope I'm wrong. But he is truly tempting fate.

The Greeks had a word for it - as always. The word was 'hubris'.

The dictionary meaning is - excessive pride: presumption: arrogance: insolence.

To the ancient Greeks in their world, it meant you were putting yourself on an equal footing with the Gods. You were saying to them, 'look how rich I am, and how powerful, and how big - as big and rich and powerful as you'.

The Greek Gods, a querulous and nasty tempered bunch at the best of times, took a very dim view of this sort of behaviour and always took their revenge on any such display of cheek and chutzpah.

For instance, Bellophoron was a great hero and slayer of monsters and his most famous deed was to kill the infamous chimera , a fire-breathing monster which had been terrorizing the countryside and taking many lives.

Seeing how all his predecessors had met horrible deaths when approaching the monster from the ground, Bellophoron, a very bright boy, decided the only way to succeed in dispatching the chimera was from the air.

He turned to Athena, one of the great Goddesses, and prayed in her temple all night, whereupon Athena, impressed with such a show of faith, gave Bellophoron the magical Pegasus, a winged horse. So, flying high above the fiery blasts coming out of the chimera's three mouths, our hero did for the chimera, to much acclaim and praise from all and sundry.

That was the problem. Success went to his head and he became positively triumphalist, thinking himself as good as anyone, and better than most, and figuring he belonged right up there with the Gods. So, taking his magic horse, he flew straight out of this world and up, up and away in the direction of Mount Olympus, the home of the Gods.

Unfortunately, they saw him coming - well, you would, wouldn't you, when a intruder hoves in sight on a flying horse. So gossip says Zeus, the top God, sent a buzzing fly to distract and irritate Bellerophon and he fell from Pegasus back into the world below. From that day forward, injured,  and cursed by the Gods, Bellerophon, wandered alone, devouring his own soul and avoiding the paths of men until he died.

Greek legends are full of stories of brave, beautiful, gorgeous young men, heros and winners all of them - who tempted Fate, or drew to themselves the attention of some jealous God.

Of course, we're all so civilised now we don't believe in Gods, or Fate, or whatever you call whatever is out there watching our escapades.

But if you look around the world, you'll see that hubris is still a recognisable factor in many a modern hero's downfall.

I'm surprised and disappointed in Abramovich. For a long time he was famous for keeping a low profile. It worked. It was a smart thing to do. Now he really has raised his head above the parapet. And it worries me that there are a lot of envious people out there who will have him in their sights.