This essay explores an aspect of Weber's theory of charisma and its routinization. It argues that charisma can be seen as a form of a more general phenomenon calledhybris. Classics scholars use the term hybris to denote a tragic hero's defiance of the order laid down by the gods. Hybris is identified here as any idiosyncratic challenge to a larger social order. Examples treated in this article are love, failure, brillance, and charisma. Included among society's responses to hybris are outright suppression, routinization, toleration, accommodation and cooptation.