This conversation uses “underdog” in different ways, giving rise to confusion. Yes, the point of an underdog story is indeed that the underdog wins, but this just makes the heros of the story just more awesome. Ultimately, you emphasize with somebody who is super strong.
The OP, however, describes a phenomenon where the groups see themselves as weaker and in fact unlikely to win. cousin_it attributes this to weakness being desirable due to Christianity. Socrates is a good counterexample, but the 300 are less so.
This conversation uses “underdog” in different ways, giving rise to confusion. Yes, the point of an underdog story is indeed that the underdog wins, but this just makes the heros of the story just more awesome. Ultimately, you emphasize with somebody who is super strong.
The OP, however, describes a phenomenon where the groups see themselves as weaker and in fact unlikely to win. cousin_it attributes this to weakness being desirable due to Christianity. Socrates is a good counterexample, but the 300 are less so.
The ancient Greeks had many tragic stories too then, for example, Prometheus Bound.