Ancient Wisdom Atlas

Motif

Inversion of social hierarchy

inversion_of_social_hierarchy

A motif of the Duality and Cosmic Opposition family, within the sub-family Virtue and vice, truth and falsehood, and social reversal. Every row below is a tagged passage; each rests on a quote in its source text.

1 occurrences

1 traditions


greek

  • The Republic BOOK V. / BOOK VI. / BOOK VII. / BOOK VIII.; lines 21407-21561 confidence: high

    Father and son are described as leveled, with the father fearing sons and sons lacking reverence; metic, citizen, and stranger are also treated as equal.

    The passage repeatedly describes hierarchical relations as leveled or inverted: father and son, teacher and student, old and young, slave and purchaser, and civic statuses.

    read in the book