In Greek mythology, Horme (; Ancient Greek: ) 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 the 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.Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 1.17.1 Her opposite character is Aergia, a goddess of sloth and apathy. The word "horme" also refers to the philosophical concept represented by the goddess.Cicero, P.G. Walsh (2000) On Obligations
Legacy The name 'horme' was adopted by Sir Percy Nunn,Nunn, P. (1923) Education: its data and first principles. London: Edward Arnold to refer to all the purposive behaviours (drives or urges) of an organism – whether conscious or not. He based this on a suggestion by JungJung, C.G. (1916) Analytic Psychology. p. 348 footnote, as cited by Nunn but saw it as having a wider significance than Jung's idea of relating the term to psychological values. Maria MontessoriMontessori, M. (1948). The Absorbent Mind. Oxford: Clio 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, which formed part of her Thomist education as a devout Catholic.Stoops, J.A. (1987), "Maria Montessori: An Intellectual Portrait", paper presented at the American Montessori Society meeting in Boston, available from ERIC (ED289600). The concept, but not the name, has been developed by writers such as James HillmanHillman, J. (1996) The Soul's Code: in search of character and calling. New York: Random House 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 where one would expect to see the word "passion" or "emotion″. In the Walsh translation, it is rendered "appetite". The Greek writer Arrian of Nicomedia owned a much-loved greyhound called Horme, whose character and name he recorded for posterity in his Kynēgetikos.
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References Pausanias, Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. . Online version at the Perseus Digital Library Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio. 3 vols. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.