Sophrosyne Sophrosyne Sophrosyne () is an ancient Greek concept of an ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind, which when combined in one well-balanced individual leads to other qualities, such as temperance, moderation, prudence, purity, decorum and self-control. In other languages there is no equivalent word. In Greek literature sophrosyne is considered an important quality, and is sometimes expressed in opposition to the concept of hubris. A noted example of this occurs in Homer's "The Iliad". When Agamemnon decides to take the queen, Briseis, away from Achilles, it is seen as Agamemnon behaving with hubris and lacking sophrosyne. In
Ancient Greek dialects centuries AD. After the division of the Roman Empire into the east and the west the earliest Modern Greek prevailed. The dialect distribution was then as follows: According to some scholars, Tsakonian is the only modern Greek dialect that descends from Doric, albeit with some influence from the Koine. Others include the Southern Italian dialects in this group, though perhaps they should rather be regarded as descended from the local Doric-influenced variant of the Koine. Ancient Greek dialects Ancient Greek in classical antiquity, before the development of the κοινή (koiné) "common" language of Hellenism, was divided into several dialects. Most