This chapter examines the role of anger as seen by Homer, Plato, Thucydides, and the tragedians and others briefly. Poets, historians, and philosophers in ancient Greece recognized that anger could be destructive but also noble. Anger is necessarily part of maintaining status in the face of disrespect from others. The transition from the age of heroes to the city-state meant that anger needed to be directed and contained, but not that it should be eliminated. Anger is necessary because one’s equality and worth needs to constantly be defended against injury and injustice. Yet that anger needs to be focused through lawLaw and political battles rather than force. The positive value of anger and its dangers mean that we must understand anger as something that can be done rightly or wrongly.