The Cruelest Curses In Ancient Greek Mythology

May 2024 · 2 minute read

Myrrha's only crime was having a father who couldn't keep his mouth shut, and she paid the ultimate price. According to World History, Cinyras was the king of Assyria, and Myrrha was his daughter. Like any good father, he was incredibly proud of her, and used to boast about how her to anyone who would listen. He went a little too far, though, and when he started talking about how she outshone even the goddess of love herself, you'd better bet that Aphrodite heard that one.

Aphrodite enlisted the help of her son, Eros, to curse Myrrha with an insatiable lust for her own father. She started to pursue Cinyras with a relentless single-mindedness, until she successfully tricked him into sleeping with her. When he realized what they'd done, he turned on the girl and tried to kill her. She managed to run away, and to add onto the mess that had been made of what was a perfectly acceptable family situation before Aphrodite got involved, Myrrha she was pregnant.

Seeing no other choice, she went to the gods for help — and what happened is proof that when it comes to the Greek gods, people really should be careful about what they ask for. In order to protect her from her father's wrath, Myrrha was turned into the myrrh tree, and when the tree split open nine months later, there was the little baby Adonis ... who Aphrodite immediately fell in love with.

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