Horkos

Horkos, whose name means “Oath”, was the personification of the oath and of the punishment that fell on anyone who swore falsely. Hesiod makes him a son of Eris (Strife) and says that he “most of all harms men on earth, when anyone willingly swears a false oath” (Theogony 231–232). He appears in early Greek poetry as a feared, almost nameless avenger rather than a god with myths of his own.

Family

In the Theogony Strife, herself a daughter of Night, bore a number of grim children: Ponos (Toil), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Famine), the tearful Algea (Pains), the Hysminai (Fights), the Makhai (Battles), the Phonoi (Murders), the Androktasiai (Manslaughters), the Neikea (Quarrels), the Pseudea Logoi (Lies), the Amphilogiai (Disputes), Dysnomia (Lawlessness), Ate (Ruin), “who share each other’s company”, and Horkos (Theogony 226–232). Most of them are personifications of wrongdoing and suffering. In Hesiod, Horkos is listed last and is the only one whose special danger is described.

Horkos in Hesiod

In the Works and Days Hesiod says that Oath “runs alongside crooked judgements”, hurrying after corrupt verdicts, while the personified Justice (Dike) follows weeping and bringing evil to a city that drives her out (Works and Days 219–224). He also warns that in the age of iron there will be no favour for the man who keeps his oath, and the bad man will harm the better one with crooked words and swear an oath on them (Works and Days 190–194). Among the days of the month Hesiod says that the fifth is to be avoided, because on it the Erinyes are said to have attended the birth of Horkos, “whom Strife bore as a scourge for those who swear false oaths” (Works and Days 802–804).

The Punishment of Oath-Breakers

Horkos is closely connected to the powers that were called on when an oath was sworn. In the Iliad, those who swear call on Zeus, Helios, the rivers, the earth and “those below who punish the dead, whoever has sworn a false oath” (Iliad 3.276–280); Agamemnon swears his oath that he has not touched Briseis by Zeus, Earth, Helios and the Erinyes who punish oath-breakers below the earth (Iliad 19.258–260). Among the gods themselves the greatest oath is by the water of the river Styx, and a god who swears falsely by it lies breathless and speechless for a year and is excluded from the company of the gods for nine more (Hesiod, Theogony 783–806).

Herodotus preserves a Delphic oracle about the personified Oath. A Spartan named Glaucus, son of Epicydes, had been entrusted with money by a Milesian and, when the owner's family asked for it back, wondered whether to swear falsely and keep it. The Pythian priestess told him that it would profit him to prevail by his oath, but warned that death awaits even the man who swears truly, “but Oath has a son, nameless, without hands or feet, who pursues swiftly until he seizes and destroys the whole family and house” (Herodotus 6.86). Glaucus gave the money back, but in the end, Herodotus reports, there was no descendant of Glaucus left in Sparta.

Horkos at Olympia

Pausanias writes that the statue of Zeus Horkios, “Zeus of Oaths”, in the Council Chamber at Olympia held a thunderbolt in each hand and was the statue most likely to strike terror into sinners; athletes, their fathers, brothers and trainers swore over the cut pieces of a boar that they would do nothing wrong against the Olympic games (Pausanias 5.24.9).

Horkos Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 225–232 and 783–806, and Works and Days 190–194, 219–224 and 802–804; Homer, Iliad 3.276–280 and 19.258–260; Herodotus 6.86; Pausanias 5.24.9.

See Also: Eris, Ponos, Limos, Algea, Styx, Erinyes, Zeus