Curse

Curse

Ancient Mariner

cursed by the crew because his slaying of the albatross is causing their deaths. [Br. Poetry: Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]

Andvari

king of the dwarfs; his malediction spurs many events in the Nibelungenlied. [Norse Myth.: Bulfinch]

Atreus, house of

cursed by Thyestes, whose children Atreus had served to him in a stew. [Gk. Legend: Benét, 61]

Cain

cursed by God for murdering Abel. [O. T.: Genesis 4:11]

Eriphyle

dying at the hand of her son Alcmaeon, she curses any land that would shelter him. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 20]

Family Reunion, The

the Eumenides haunt a decaying English family because the head of the house had plotted to kill his pregnant wife. [Br. Drama: Magill II, 321]

Flying Dutchman

sea captain condemned to sail unceasingly because he had invoked the Devil’s aid in a storm. [Maritime legend: Brewer Dictionary]

Harmonia’s necklace

brought disaster to all who possessed it. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 442]

Maule, Matthew

about to be executed as a wizard, laid a bloody doom on the Pyncheons. [Am. Lit.: Hawthorne The House of the Seven Gables]

Melmoth the Wanderer

doomed by a curse to roam the earth for 150 years after his death. [Br. Lit.: Melmoth the Wanderer]

moonstone

wrested by an English officer from Buddhist priests, who place a curse on all who possess it. [Br. Lit.: Collins The Moonstone in Benét, 683]

Murgatroyd, Sir Rupert

he and all future lords of Ruddigore are doomed by a witch to commit a crime a day forever. [Br. Opera: Gilbert and Sullivan Ruddigore]

Thyestes

cursed the house of Atreus, who had served him his sons in a stew. [Gk. Myth. & Drama: “Atreus,” Benét, 61]

Tutankhamen’s tomb

its opening supposed to have brought a curse upon its excavators, some of whom died soon after. [Pop. Cult.: Misc.]