INTRODUCTION
chiefly conceived as the blood-feud of the murdered, can be roused by any Hubris or overstepping of Moira. In the Agamemnon the Erinyes avenge the vulture whose nest has been robbed. And in the Iliad, at the great moment when Achilles' horse breaks into speech to warn his master of approaching death, the Erinyes "check his voice" (Il. xix. 418). The horse, however well-intentioned, was obviously transgressing his Moira.
So far we can follow the ancient ideas without much difficulty. But it is rather a surprise to the modern to find Mother Earth among the supreme authorities for executing this law. It is because Earth is the home of the dead, the Chthonian people, both the great ancestors who know what is Themis and "the wronged ones in the darkness" who cry for justice on their oppressors. Their wrath is her wrath. Besides that, whenever kindred blood is shed the intolerable stain falls first and most directly on the face of Mother Earth. It pollutes her, and she sends up her punishments from below, blight and barrenness and plague, just as to the innocent in normal times she sends life and fruitfulness. Thus we see that blessing as well as cursing lies in the power of the Chthonian people, the dead, the Erinyes, and collectively of Mother Earth. They who send can also withhold.
The law that "The doer shall suffer" is a natural law like the maturing of seed, or the return of spring; most of all like the growth and diminishing every year of the power of the Sun. For that diminishing is really a punishment due to the Hubris which the Sun committed when at his height. There are suggestions
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