My obsession with Classical mythology is unquestionable. I have two favorite quotes that describe why a legend is superior to other forms of storytelling.
“I enjoyed myths,” remarked Neil Gaiman, author of The Ocean at the End of the Lane. They weren’t tales for grownups, and they were just not stories for kids. They were far superior to that. They were precisely like this anyway.”
The other, according to Joseph Campbell, author of The Power of Myth,
“Folklore isn’t a deception; it’s art, and it’s symbolic.” Myth, it has been claimed, is the final reality of the situation because the penultimate cannot be expressed in words. It’s incomprehensible. Beyond pictures, beyond the Buddha Wheel of Becoming’s limiting rim. Mythology pushes the intellect past the horizon, to what understood but not told.”
There are Supreme beings who have a better half, siblings and relatives, mortal and eternal children, mirroring human relations on Planet.
The culture of Divine beings, their traditions and culture, emotions, and behavior are all comparable to that of a mortal person.
Their narratives are all different. They’re just such as you and me when it comes to shortcomings.
What distinguishes Divinities from human beings?
Eternal life. People die, but Deity does not.
Another distinguishing attribute of Divine beings is their ability to impose Justice.
Oh! The curses or I would say cruel curses!
Death would stand no chance when it will be compared with these cruel curses.
Be it any normal human being too great an emperor like Tutankhamun it’s nearly impossible to dodge the cruel curses that come from God himself!
Let’s give you a sneak peek of the cruel curses from my research of ancient mythologies from all over the world.
THE CURSE OF PROMETHEUS
Prometheus is a Giant deity of fire in Greek legend.
There is a good reason which is why he is known! He is also known for his challenging attributes to God’s! as he used to steal fire and pass it to his followers in the form of wisdom.
He is also attributed with the creation of mankind from mud in some interpretations of the ancient myth.
Prometheus is a deity who is noted for his wisdom and for being a supporter of humanity.
Prometheus, the Monster from Greek myth, is also known for his deception. As he stole fire from Zeus, the Lord of Divine beings and Lord of Sky and Lightning, and gave it to mortal beings who dared to confront the Divinities.
Zeus condemned him to be bound to a rocky outcrop on the edge of the cliff, where eagles would descend every night and eat his heart.
His heart would heal that day before being consumed by the eagle at nightfall. Now that’s the worse curse in history to start today! What do you say?
THE CURSE OF MEDUSA
Now in this list of cruel curses, we will take a look at the most famous and one of the cruel curses that are too bad to be true!
Medusa is well-known for having deadly snakes instead of tresses on her face. Medusa was one of the 3 Gorgon siblings, and she was breathtakingly beautiful.
Poseidon, the Demigod of the Seas, Downpours, Volcanoes, and Animals, was enthralled by Medusa’s magnificence and assaulted her at Athena’s shrine.
Angry Athena, who believes that such a deed has soiled the sanctity of her shrine, condemns Medusa’s tresses to turn into a snake and her appearance to be so hideous that anybody who looks at it would turn to rock.
Okay! This one of the cruel curses offended me greatly.
What for? Poseidon’s horrible act would make any normal person detest him.
Medusa, on the other hand, was condemned for being a seductress. It’s eerily similar to the world in which we live. What is your thought about this!
THE CURSE OF SISYPHUS
Before being condemned by God’s cruel curse, Sisyphus was regarded as an illusionist who cheated death not once but twice!
He wedded Tyro who was the daughter of his sibling Salmoneus.
He married her to exploit her and the kids she delivered him to depose Salmoneus from the kingdom. That’s disgusting!
That’s not it, he also exposed the mystery of Zeus, who had kidnapped Ageina, to her father Asopus, which caused Zeus a lot of misery.
However, as per legend, by imprisoning Hades, the God of The underworld, in the netherworld, he managed to avoid death.
He deceived Persephone who was the Queen of the Underworld, by claiming that his wife had messed his funeral and that he wished to go back and teach his wife how to perform a proper burial.
He, on the other hand, refused to go back to the afterlife as if he didn’t even accept it as his fate.
Moving on, after being dragged to the afterlife forcibly, Zeus condemned him as a cruel curse that Sisyphus to carry a rock upward, only for the mountain to roll down just as Sisyphus was about to reach the top.
This was a senseless and aggravating condemnation also considered one of the cruel curses of all time.
The myth of Sisyphus inspired the term “Sisyphean” to characterize undertakings that can never be completed.
THE CURSE OF IXION
In Northern Greece, Ixion was the supreme ruler of the Lapiths.
He assassinated his father-in-law and was forbidden the assistance of neighboring states in performing rites to cleanse him of his sin.
For clan-slaying, he was ostracized. Zeus felt sorry for him and decided to invite him to Olympus to atone for his sins.
Ixion, on the other hand, broke the rules of behavior by falling in love with Zeus’s spouse Hera.
When Zeus learned of Ixion’s plans, he made a replica of Hera to analyze his faithfulness.
Zeus was outraged when Ixion had made pregnant Hera’s doppelganger.
He then condemned one of the cruel curses to Ixion, binding him to a fiery wheel for the rest of his life.
Remind you, it’s not the amusement park’s fairy’s wheel!
THE CURSE OF TANTALUS
Tantalus has condemned the cruel curse of an underground prison for offenders, for slaying his child and presenting him at a feast for the Divine beings to test their wisdom.
What kind of sadist was he, only God himself can tell that!
He didn’t stop there! He also seized nectar, the nourishment of Divine beings that granted them eternity, and gave it to his followers, as well as revealing Divine mysteries.
Tantalus was being imprisoned in Tartarus and told to stand in a puddle of water with a branch above him whose leaves were low enough for him to grab and devour the fruits it grew.
But the trees would move out of his grasp every time he grabbed for the goodies.
Before he could take a drink, the pool’s flow receded.
Temptation is penalized cruelly and ineffectively by this cruel curse.
Tantalus is the source of the English word “tantalize,” meaning implies “to torture or harass (somebody) with the appearance or prospect of something unattainable.”
THE CURSE OF CASSANDRA
Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy.
She went to Deity, the deity of cure, medicine, archery, music, poetry, and, most importantly, prophecy, because she couldn’t suppress her need to know the future.
Cassandra agreed to give herself to Apollo in exchange for the ability to see into the future.
However, she refused to offer her to Apollo shortly after getting the present, causing him to become enraged.
Apollo cursed her, saying that even if her forecasts were true, no one would acknowledge them.
Cassandra was upset because her relatives refused to understand her.
She was seen as a fraud and a lunatic.
THE CURSE OF ARACHNE
Arachne was reported to be the child of a prominent Hooper and also a butler’s child.
Well, there are many retellings of legends, but I’ll get to the cruel curse.
Arachne, confident of her woven abilities, dared Athena, the Goddess, Craft, and War, to a spinning competition.
She has woven a fabric in which Deity was depicted as having bad morals, particularly Zeus, who was depicted as a womanizer.
In addition, her fabric was more lovely than Athena’s.
Athena was enraged, and she ruined Arachne’s handiwork, making her feel guilty and ashamed.
Arachne hung herself because she couldn’t stand the shame and remorse any longer.
Arachne was given another existence by Athena, who condemned the cruel curse to be a spider so that she may spin for the rest of her life. Like what a cruel curse for a wonderful gift!
THE CURSE OF KING TUT
A team of British archaeologists opened the monument of Tutankhamun, often known as “King Tut,” an Egyptian king from the 14th century B.C.
So when the team’s stakeholder died of a pathogenic bacteria six weeks later, National newspapers claimed, without proof, that he killed as a result of “King Tut’s cruel curse.”
When more members of the group deceased, the claimed cruel curse was resurrected by the press.
While their nations were removing rich antiquities from Cairo, Europeans and Americans devised King Tut’s curse and other renowned “mummy’s cruel curses.”
Some media also popularized a false narrative after the Titanic sunk in 1912, claiming that the titanic had fallen due to a “mummy’s cruel curse.” But that is just a Titanic conspiracy theory.
Though that’s unclear how several people believed these “cruel curses,” they were immensely popular topics for horror films such as The Mummy (1932).
