In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Horkos ' onMouseout='HidePop("52961")' href="/topics/Oath">oath

Oath

An oath is either a statement of fact or a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath, to make a solemn vow...

") personifies the curse that will be inflicted on any person who swears a false oath. In his Works and Days

Works and Days

Works and Days is a didactic poem of some 800 verses written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. At its center, the Works and Days is a farmer's almanac in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in the agricultural arts...

, Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...

 states that the Erinyes

Erinyes

In Greek mythology the Erinyes from Greek ἐρίνειν " pursue, persecute"--sometimes referred to as "infernal goddesses" -- were female chthonic deities of vengeance. A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath"...

 (Furies) assisted at the birth of Horkos, "whom Eris bore, to be a plague on those who take false oath".

Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...

's Theogony

Theogony

The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC...

identifies him as the son of Eris

Eris (mythology)

Eris is the Greek goddess of strife and discord, her name being translated into Latin as Discordia. Her Greek opposite is Harmonia, whose Latin counterpart is Concordia. Homer equated her with the war-goddess Enyo, whose Roman counterpart is Bellona...

 ("strife") and brother of Ponos

Ponos

Ponos was the god of hard labor and toil in Greek mythology. His mother was the goddess Eris , who was the daughter of Nyx . He was brother to Algos, Lethe, Limos, and Horcus....

 ("toil"), Limos

Limos (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Limos was the goddess of starvation. She was opposed by Demeter, goddess of grain and the harvest with whom Ovid wrote Limos could never meet, and Plutus, the god of wealth and the bounty of rich harvests...

 ("starvation"), the Algea

Algos

Algea is used by Hesiod in the plural as the personification of sorrows and griefs, which are there represented as the daughters of Eris, Greek goddess of strife. Algos in Greek is a neuter noun literally meaning "pain"...

 ("pains"), the Hysminai

Hysminai

The Hysminai are figures in Greek mythology. Descendants of Eris, they are personifications of battle. Quintus Smyrnaeus wrote of them in Book V of the Fall of Troy in a passage translated by Arthur Way:Around them hovered the relentless Fates;...

 ("fightings"), the Makhai

Makhai

In Greek mythology, the Machai were the daemons of battle and combat, and were sons or daughters of Eris, siblings to other vicious personifications like the Hysminai, the Androktasiai, and the Phonoi.The daemons Homados , Alala , Proioxis , Palioxis...

 ("battles"), the Phonoi

Phonoi

In Greek mythology, the Phonoi were the male spirits of murder, killing and slaughter. While their sisters, the Androktasiai , presided over the slaughter of battle, they were considered to be responsible for murder and killing outside the battlefield. They were sons of Eris, goddess of strife,...

 ("murders"), the Androktasiai

Androktasiai

In Greek mythology, the Androktasiai were the female personifications of manslaughter.Hesiod in Theogony names their mother as Eris and their siblings as Lethe , Ponos , Limos , the Algea , the Hysminai , the Makhai , the Phonoi , the Neikea , the Pseudologoi , the Amphilogiai...

 ("man-slaughters"), the Neikea

Neikea

In Greek mythology, the Neikea were goddesses of arguments. Hesiod's Theogony identifies them as children of Eris through parthenogenesis and siblings Lethe , Ponos , Limos , the Algea , the Hysminai , the Makhai , the Phonoi , the Androktasiai , the Pseudologoi , the...

 ("quarrels"), the Pseudologoi

Pseudologoi

In Greek mythology, the Pseudologoi were gods of lies. Hesiod's Theogony identifies them as the children of Eris and brothers of Ponos , Lethe , the Algea , Limos , the Hysminai , the Makhai , the Phonoi , the Androktasiai , the Neikea , the Amphilogiai...

 ("lies"), the Amphilogiai

Amphilogiai

In Greek mythology, the Amphilogiai were goddesses of disputes. Hesiod's Theogony identifies them as the daughters of Eris and sisters of Ponos , Lethe , the Algea , Limos , the Hysminai , the Makhai , the Phonoi , the Androktasiai , the Neikea , the...

 ("disputes"), Dysnomia

Dysnomia

Dysnomia can refer to the following:*Dysnomia , a condition affecting memory.*Dysnomia , "Lawlessness" - a child of the mythological Greek goddess Eris.*Dysnomia , a moon of the dwarf planet Eris....

 ("lawlessness"), Atë

Ate

Atë or Aite a Greek word for "ruin, folly, delusion", is the action performed by the hero, usually because of hubris, that leads to his or her death or downfall. There is also a goddess by that name in Greek mythology, a personification of the same.In Homer's Iliad she is called eldest daughter...

 ("ruin"), and Lethe

Lethe

In Greek mythology, Lethe was one of the five rivers of Hades. Also known as the Ameles potamos , the Lethe flowed around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, where all those who drank from it experienced complete forgetfulness...

 ("forgetfulness").

One of Aesop

Aesop

Aesop was a Greek writer credited with a number of popular fables. Older spellings of his name have included Esop and Isope. Although his existence remains uncertain and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a...

's Fables

Aesop's Fables

Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...

tells the story of a man who took out a deposit from a friend with the intention of keeping it for himself. When the friend asked him to swear an oath regarding the deposit he recognised the danger and prepared to leave town, and while on the road he met a lame man who was also on his way out of town. When asked, the lame man said that he was Horkos (Oath), and that he was on his way to track down wicked people. The man asked Horkos how often he returned to the city, to which he replied, "I come back after forty years, or sometimes thirty." Believing himself to be free from danger, the man returned to his friend the following morning and without hesitation swore that he had never received the deposit. Within the day, Horkos had found him and dragged him to the edge of a cliff and, protesting, the man asked how the god could have said he was not coming back for thirty years when in fact he did not even grant him a day's reprieve. Horkos replied, "You also need to know that if somebody intends to provoke me, I am accustomed to come back again the very same day."

External links

• Theoi Project: Horkos, Greek god or spirit of oaths