In Greek mythology, the Arae were female spirits of curses, specifically curses put by the dead on those guilty for their death; they were associated with the underworld. They can also curse humans in the same manner as the cattle of the sun god Hyperion did when they were harmed by a man, as related in Homer’s Odyssey. A curse’s intergenerational source or effect was more likely to occur with the more synoptic approach to the mythology we witnessed in the fifth century; lyric, tragedy, and the logographers.
The source of a curse was not necessarily fixed but might be traced back to one or more ancestors who committed acts of impiety or other wrongdoing. This flexibility is partly because tragedy frequently focuses on the curse’s conclusion, namely the eventual downfall of the House, rather than its inception. Because the story is centered on everyday occurrences, and the previous episodes are undoubtedly well-known, the more distant connections to inherited obligations are frequently minimized. However, this is not to say that the origins of a curse or more general allusions to a sad past are irrelevant in tragedy. In Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, the horrible feast perpetrated on Thyestes by Agamemnon’s ancestor Atreus affects the behavior of the modern scions of that House. However, a reference to Tantalus by the Argive elder chorus during the curse on the House (1468–69) demonstrates that the play’s images of slaughtered infants and gorging on human flesh may still allude to an earlier crime. Tantalus was not a direct participant in Agamemnon’s life, but his existence, even if only briefly stated, was part of the known backdrop to the present unfolding of events. In this discussion, we shall focus mainly on the curse of the House of Aeolus.
Euripides ‘ play in making Aeolus the founding ancestor of his House was his most regrettable decision as Aeolus was the first source of an inheritable curse in their family tree. He was Deucalion and Pyrrha’s grandchild. He is also known as the grandfather of the Aeolic branch of the Greek people. People get mixed up because this Aeolus, who was Hellen’s son, was mixed up with the Aeolus who ruled the wind and the Aeolus who was Melanippe’s father through Hippo. According to later stories, the conflated Aeolus was known for abusing his children. He forced his six sons and six daughters to marry each other. Even though Aeolus may have been punished for his actions, there is no evidence that his descendants cursed him. He did have at least one son who appears to have been cursed by his father’s crimes in Greek tragedy.
Sisyphus of Ephyre, son of Aeolus, was the “craftiest of men” in the epic. Sisyphus was said to have shackled Death when he returned to get him in later mythology. Ares then appeared with the assistance of Death, and Sisyphus was forced to yield. Sisyphus had urged Merope to abstain from making the traditional gifts and avoid burying her husband while he was still alive. That is why the devil allowed him to return to punish her in the hereafter for her negligence. When Sisyphus returned to his homeland, he lived another lengthy life before succumbing to death for the second time.
Sisyphus
Like Autolycus and Prometheus, Sisyphus was a well-known character in Greek mythology as the trickster or master of stealing. There are several hypotheses about why he is being punished in Hades, but no one has come up with a sufficient explanation. Other Greek images of the afterlife portray it as a realm of fruitless labor. . Pindar praises Sisyphus’s cleverness, while Hesiod calls him a suitable epithet considering his parentage and disposition. Even though he was punished in the Homeric Underworld, Sisyphus and his descendants are not referred to as cursed until Sophocles: To put it another way, he is “of the cursed race of the Sisyphus-sons.” In the eyes of Ajax, Sisyphus is responsible for the affliction that has ravaged his people.
Ceramic evidence indicates that the Sisyphus ailment in tragedy began from a curse invoking the Erinyes, implying the possibility of a blood curse, that is, a curse beginning from murder, typically of relatives. Oakley discovers an intriguing phenomenon in Sisyphus’s representations on vases from Magna Graecia, a region known for its depictions of various types of theatrical scenery and well-known Greek tragedies: two of the three South Italian vases depicting Sisyphus’ punishment in the Underworld depict him being harassed by a female demonic figure. Scholars commonly refer to the whip-wielding demon as “Ananke” or “Poine,” however, companion demons on similar vases are called Erinyes when they torment bloodthirsty individuals, such as Orestes. The objects depicting Sisyphus being chased in this manner imply that his punishment was seen similarly in antiquity, and literary evidence, detailed below, also suggests involvement in the murder of his family.
Pelias
Sidero, Salmoneus’ second wife, raised Neleus and Pelias, and some suggest that when they lived in Elis, they held the Olympian games in honor of Endymion’s father, Aethlius. Because this Sidero was impolite to Tyro, when the twins discovered the truth about their mother, they assaulted Sidero, who sought refuge in Hera’s precinct, but to no avail; for Pelias, who had no respect for the shrine’s purity, slaughtered her on the altars. He incurred the goddess’ anger in this manner, so setting the framework for his destruction. When Cretheus died, Pelias came to the throne, but with a sense of foreboding, he visited the kingdom’s oracle, where he was warned that his fate would be near if a man wearing only one sandal emerged. The king first did not understand whom the oracle was referring to, but when he was about to give a sacrifice to Poseidon, he summoned Jason and a vast number of people.
Jason arrived at the sacrifice but lost one of his sandals in the torrent while crossing the Anaurus river in Thessaly. When Pelias recognized him, he recalled the oracle. He asked Jason what he would do if he were king and had received an oracle foretelling his killing by a particular citizen. “I would assign him the task of delivering the Golden Fleece,” Jason explained. According to some, he was prompted to act in this manner by Hera, who, angry by Pelias’ intrusion into her sanctuary, meant Medea to place a curse on Pelias.
Upon hearing Jason’s response, Pelias sent him off in pursuit of the Golden Fleece. Upon his return to Iolcus, Jason brought Medea, the woman who was responsible for the king’s death. Additionally, Hera is said to have taken on the appearance of an older woman at the river Evenus, searching for someone to ferry her across. No one helped her until Jason led her over. Jason, however, was prompted to leave one sandal in the mud by the goddess, who was plotting Pelias’s downfall.
Athamas
In Greek mythology, Athamas was the prehistoric Minyan ruler of the ancient Boeotian city of Orchomenus. His first wife was Nephele, a cloud goddess. Athamas fell in love with Ino, Cadmus’s daughter, and chose to ignore Nephele, who departed in a fury. When Ino nursed the divinity, Dionysus, Athamas, and Ino awoke the goddess Hera’s anger. Athamas lost his mind and murdered Learchus, one of his sons. Ino and her second son, Melicertes, jumped into the water to flee. Both were adored as sea deities afterward, Ino as Leucothea and Melicertes as Palaemon. Athamas fled Boeotia and lived in Phthiotis, Thessaly. Perhaps the story was a parody of a Minyan human sacrifice ceremony.
Indeed, cursed Houses play an important role in Greek tragedy. They serve as a link between ancestors whose quarrels and disagreements culminated in impious conduct and their offspring’s irrational or impious behavior. According to West, the Labdacid curse in Euripides’ Chrysippus* was developed or improved by the authors. The genetic curse presents itself in a multitude of ways in tragedy.
Work Cited
Stinton, Thomas CW. “The scope and limits of allusion in Greek tragedy.” M. Cropp, E.Fatham and SE Scully, edd., Greek Tragedy and its Legacy: Essays Presented to DJ Conacher. Calgary (1986): 67-102.
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