In
Greek mythology, Horme (/ˈhɔːrmiː/;
Ancient Greek: Ὁρμή) is the Greek spirit personifying energetic activity,
impulse or effort (to do a thing),
eagerness, setting oneself in motion, and starting an action, and particularly onrush in battle. She had an altar at
Athens, where mainly the divine servants and relations of
Zeus (including
Pheme and
Aidos, as well as
Athena) had altars.[1] Her opposite character is
Aergia, a goddess of
sloth and
apathy. The word "horme" is also used to refer to the philosophical concept represented by the goddess.[2]
Legacy
The name 'horme' was adopted by Sir
Percy Nunn,[3] to refer to all the purposive behaviours (drives or urges) of an organism – whether conscious or not. He based this on a suggestion by Jung[4] but saw it as having a wider significance than Jung's idea of relating the term to psychological values.
Maria Montessori[5] made this a central point of her later thinking, stressing that the behaviour of the child was driven by an inner urge to self construct, to become the adult they were destined to be. This idea of the future drawing the child on (as opposed to child development being just driven by causality) was related to the Aristotelian concept of
entelechy[6] which would have formed an implicit part of her
Thomist education as a devout Catholic. The concept, but not the name, has been developed by writers such as
James Hillman[7] where he applies the idea to adults and refers to it as 'destiny' or the individual's
daemon.
In On Obligations, Cicero contrasts horme with reason as one of two aspects of the soul. He seems to be using [clarification needed] where one would expect to see the word "passion" or "emotion″. In the Walsh translation it is rendered "appetite".[2]
The Greek writer
Arrian of Nicomedia owned a much-loved greyhound called Horme, whose character and name he recorded for posterity in his Kynēgetikos.[8]