"There is no greater evil than anarchy"
About this Quote
Anarchy, for Sophocles, isn’t a sexy slogan or a rebellious mood; it’s a civic horror story. “There is no greater evil than anarchy” lands with the blunt finality of a chorus verdict, and it’s meant to. Greek tragedy is obsessed with what happens when the bonds of the polis loosen: not just chaos in the streets, but chaos in the soul. The line isn’t primarily about criminals or rioters. It’s about the collapse of shared authority - law, custom, reverence - that makes people legible to one another.
The subtext is a warning aimed at a city that had learned, the hard way, how fragile order can be. Sophocles lived through Athens’ high democratic confidence and its later convulsions: factionalism, war, demagogues, the way “freedom” can be used to justify settling scores. In that atmosphere, anarchy reads less like a philosophical category and more like a trauma response. The quote flatters obedience, yes, but it also fears the vacuum that opens when legitimacy evaporates and every household becomes its own regime.
What makes it work is the superlative: “no greater evil.” Sophocles isn’t arguing policy; he’s establishing hierarchy. Tragedy thrives on competing goods (family vs. state, piety vs. duty). Anarchy is the condition that turns those conflicts from tragic into pointless, because without a common frame, even moral language stops binding. Order, in this view, isn’t virtue’s enemy. It’s virtue’s infrastructure.
The subtext is a warning aimed at a city that had learned, the hard way, how fragile order can be. Sophocles lived through Athens’ high democratic confidence and its later convulsions: factionalism, war, demagogues, the way “freedom” can be used to justify settling scores. In that atmosphere, anarchy reads less like a philosophical category and more like a trauma response. The quote flatters obedience, yes, but it also fears the vacuum that opens when legitimacy evaporates and every household becomes its own regime.
What makes it work is the superlative: “no greater evil.” Sophocles isn’t arguing policy; he’s establishing hierarchy. Tragedy thrives on competing goods (family vs. state, piety vs. duty). Anarchy is the condition that turns those conflicts from tragic into pointless, because without a common frame, even moral language stops binding. Order, in this view, isn’t virtue’s enemy. It’s virtue’s infrastructure.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
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