Family curse


A family curse or an ancestral curse, a generational curse, hereditary curse, is a curse, on a family. The belief in them crosses many religious beliefs. Many deny that they even exist.

Religious beliefs and family curses

Christianity and Judaism

and Judaism have somewhat conflicted views of generational curses,
However,

Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, the Erinyes exacted family curses.

Hinduism

Some holy writing in Hinduism states,
Hinduism has family curses, elsewhere.

Japanese Shinto

Family curses occur, in Japanese Shinto.

Witchcraft

The term witchcraft is not well-defined, but within at least factions, the belief in family curses persists.

Historical examples

felt his family was cursed, due to his ancestors, John Hathorne and his father William. William Hathorne was a judge who earned a reputation for cruelly persecuting Quakers, and who in 1662 ordered the public whipping of Ann Coleman. John Hathorne was one of the leading judges in the Salem witch trials. He is not known to have repented for his actions. So great were Nathaniel Hawthorne's feelings of guilt, he re-spelled his last name Hathorne to Hawthorne.

Family curses in fiction

As he lies dying, in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Mercutio says, "A Plague O' Both Your Houses," blaming both the Capulets and Montagues. As the play progresses, his words prove prophetic.
There is a family curse in The House of the Seven Gables.
In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, there was a feeling the Baskerville's family had legendary family curse, of a giant black hound, "... a foul thing, a great, black beast, shaped like a hound, yet larger than any hound that ever mortal eye has rested upon."

Skeptical views

Modern skeptics deny that curses of any nature, including family curses, even exist,, if some fervently believe.

Famous examples