The classical definition of ruins, as developed by Alois Riegl, emphasizes the respect for and the opportunity to engage with the “patina of the ages.” A similar perspective is presented by Georg Simmel, who, while acknowledging the “naturalization” of ruins, focuses his reflections on the melancholy arising from a sense of almost biblical vanitas associated with human-made objects. This definition, therefore, primarily concentrates on the past and the irretrievably lost grandeur of human creations. However, contrary to this definition, from a biological, post-anthropocentric standpoint, ruins are never static, passive objects – instead, abandoned spaces become inhabited by other “more-than-human communities” (Anna Tsing). The objective of this article is to reframe the definition of ruins in terms of their active, processual form as a verb (Ann Laura Soler) and to expand the concept of prospective ruination, understood as the active inhabitation of ruins by more-than-human actors (as defined by Bruno Latour), particularly ruderal plants (Latin: rudus, rubble), which are the first to undertake succession in habitats abandoned by humans.

The concept of the risk society offers a critical perspective on modernity, wherein social life, politics, and culture are organized around uncertainties implicit in modernization processes. It is an inherently dystopian outlook that shifts our attention to the future, conceived primarily in terms of threats and civilizational crises. This article aims to explore subjectivity and its transformations in the face of a crisis in scientific and technological rationality, as well as the growing awareness of risks and uncertainties associated with it. In risk society, the subject is condemned to uncertainty and alienation as traditional methods of addressing threats collapse. The turn toward digital solutions further intensifies the precarious dependence of individuals on technology, leading to the emergence of terminal subjects.

The myth of Orestes, developed by Greek tragedians, may be the key to understanding the aporias of the modern world. Mycenae and its contemporary ruins may symbolize, respectively, the moment of the birth of modern subjectivity and the terrifying effects to which led the development of the civilization based on it. Following Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment, this essay attempts to ask about the Greek origins of subjectivity, which was fully revealed in the European Enlightenment and became the basis of modern consumerism, expansive technology and predatory exploitation of nature. The subject of consideration is also an alternative form of subjective individuality, outlined in the myth of Orestes and reaching us from the Mycenaean ruins of the modern world.