ancestral curse
Bloodline's dark legacy
An ancestral curse is a supernatural affliction believed to pass down through family lines, punishing descendants for the sins or transgressions of their forebears.
The concept appears in folklore, religion, and fiction—Greek tragedies feature houses cursed for generations, and some believe family misfortunes stem from curses placed on ancestors: They blamed their bad luck on an ancestral curse.
The term also appears figuratively for inherited disadvantages or patterns that seem inescapable: Poverty had become an ancestral curse in that community.
- bloodlineAncestry through generations
- blood oathVow sealed by bloodshed
- hexMalevolent incantation
- generationalRelating to age groups
- generational traumaInherited psychological harm
inherited · lineage · haunted · haunted house · sins · original sin · broken vow · legacy · doom · family · family secret · blight · forebears · occult · vengeful · witchcraft · darkness · broken
- dark magicblack magic, dark magic, sorcery, witchcraft, dark arts
- AeschylusAgamemnon, Oresteia, Seven Against Thebes, Orestes, Clytemnestra
ancestral, ancestor, ancestors, ancestry, ancestress, curse, curses, cursed, cursing