Myths and Mortals (Greek Mythology)

Horkos

                                                                                                  In , the figure of Horkos (: Ὅρκος, "") personifies the curse that will be inflicted on any person who swears a . In  there is a cautionary story, numbered 239 in the , indicating that retribution is swift where the god is defied. Oath-taking and the penalties for perjuring oneself played an important part in the Ancient Greek concept of justice,
Divine retribution

Horkos as the son of  ("strife") and brother of various tribulations:  ("toil"),  ("starvation"), the  ("pains"), the  ("conflicts"), the  ("battles"), the  ("murders"), the  ("man-slaughters"), the  ("quarrels"), the  ("lies"), the  ("disputes"),  ("lawlessness"),  ("ruin"), and  ("forgetfulness"). In his , Hesiod states that the ()  assisted at the birth of Horkos, "whom Eris bore, to be a plague on  those who take false oath", and that the fifth of the month was  especially dangerous as being the day on which he was born.  However, according to the moral given in an ethical parable related by  Aesop, there is no fixed day on which the god's punishment falls on the  wicked.

Aesop's fable concerns a man who had taken a deposit from a friend  and, when asked to swear an oath regarding it, left the town hurriedly. A  lame man whom he met told his fellow-traveller that he was Horkos on  his way to track down wicked people. The man asked Horkos how often he  returned to the city they were leaving. "I come back after forty years,  or sometimes thirty," Horkos replied. Believing himself to be free from  danger, the man returned the following morning and swore that he had  never received the deposit. Almost immediately, Horkos arrived to  execute the perjurer by throwing him off a cliff. Protesting, the man  asked why the god had said he was not coming back for years when in fact  he did not grant even a day's reprieve. Horkos replied, "You should  also know that if somebody intends to provoke me, I am accustomed to  come back again the very same day."

Concepts of justice

A similar story was told by  and may even have been the fable's origin. It concerned a man who asked the 's  advice about dishonouring such an oath and received the answer that he  would profit for the moment but that it would bring about the  destruction of him and his heirs - for Horkos has a son 'who is nameless  and without hands or feet, swift in pursuit'. Nor can there be any  repentance, for intent is no different from action.

The severity of such justice underlines the importance of oath-taking  in Ancient Greece, which was undertaken in the name of the gods. To  perjure oneself meant waging war on the gods, who even themselves could  suffer under the same sanctions. In taking an oath one called down a conditional curse on oneself, to take effect if one lied or broke one's promise.  The lasting nature of this curse, and the corresponding benefit of  honouring one's word, is also emphasised by Hesiod in discussing the  matter: "Whoever wilfully swears a false oath, telling a lie in his  testimony, he himself is incurably hurt at the same time as he harms  Justice, and in after times his family is left more obscure, whereas the  family of the man who keeps his oath is better in after times."

In later times, the role of bringing justice for broken oaths was  undertaken by the Furies, specified by Hesiod as the midwives at the  birth of Horkos. Justice was also under the protection of the King of  the gods, who in this aspect is referred to as   Horkios (guardian of oaths); in circumstances where other divine  entities were named, they too took responsibility for retribution.