History MoralEventHorizon / MythsAndReligion

** Like Tantalus, Ixion committed all three of Greece's taboo crimes. First, he violated xenia by throwing his father-in-law into a pit of burning wood and coals when the latter was visiting in a dispute over a bridal payment. Then, Ixion went to Mount Olympus to beg Zeus, whose job it is to punish violators of Xenia, for forgiveness. Surprisingly, Zeus agreed to do so. Ixion then committed hubris by being an UngratefulBastard towards Zeus and lusting after Hera. Finally, he arguably committed impiety by attempting to sleep with Hera, although he only slept with a duplicate that Zeus made out of clouds. Zeus was quite rightly enraged by this, and lashed Ixion to a wheel of fire, condemning him to spin around in Tartarus for the rest of eternity. For all the criticism Zeus and the other gods get, this is one time when he delivered LaserGuidedKarma and KickTheSonOfABitch.

** Lycaon committed the same crime as Tantalus by murdering his son Nyctimus and serving him in a meal to Zeus, even eating part of him himself.

** Hera crossed it by making Hercules kill his family.

* In the Literature/BookOfExodus, the first Pharaoh crosses it when he enslaves the Hebrews and orders the deaths of their firstborn male children, just out of paranoia that they ''might'' side against Egypt in a war, even though the Israelites have been nothing but loyal to Egypt up to this point. His successor, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, crosses it in turn when [[ILied he changes his mind about letting the Hebrews go]], even though it's stated that [[TheManBehindTheMan God hardened the Pharoah's heart each time he relented]].

[[folder:Christianity]]

* It's hard to pinpoint exactly when [[Literature/BooksOfSamuel King Saul]] crossed it, but there are two candidates.
** Until the second time David failed to show up after being invited to one of King Saul's banquets, Jonathan, who Saul was certain was first in line to succeed him, thought that King Saul was simply out of his mind. But when Jonathan gave him a cover story that David wanted to spend some time with his family, King Saul snapped, called him a son of a bitch, and – more heinous than that – actually tried to kill his own son.
** If that doesn't sell you on the point that King Saul had sealed his own fate, his unrelenting destruction of a city of priests and the execution of most of the same, including their families – yes, women and children included – certainly will. How unnecessarily cruel was it? ''Only one of his men was willing to carry out the grisly mass murder.''
* In the Literature/BookOfExodus, the first Pharaoh crosses it when he enslaves the Hebrews and orders the deaths of their firstborn male children, just out of paranoia that they ''might'' side against Egypt in a war, even though the Israelites have been nothing but loyal to Egypt up to this point. His successor, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, crosses it in turn when [[ILied he changes his mind about letting the Hebrews go]], even though it's stated that [[TheManBehindTheMan God hardened the Pharoah's heart each time he relented]].

* Haman in the Literature/BookOfEsther crossed it by [[FinalSolution plotting the slaughter of the Jews]] out of [[EvilIsPetty petty spite]] that Mordecai wouldn't bow down before him.

* In Christianity, a religion that doesn't completely rule out redemption for murderers, the truly "unforgivable sin" is [[http://robertwells.tripod.com/unforgivable.html the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.]] Even then, the general theological interpretation is that you have to have actually seen God and known you were seeing God, [[RageAgainstTheHeavens and THEN had a foaming, ranting, denying rage against him to count]] (beyond NayTheist, SmiteMeOhMightySmiter, and declaration of GodIsEvil levels), and that no one can be saved while ''in the middle'' of a RageAgainstTheHeavens, since you have to be a complete, through-and-through jerk to be left unforgiven — afterwards, perhaps, redemption is an option. If the raging person doesn't fall into distrust of God and despair first.

* [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Some]] 19th century [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} Mormon theologians and Brigham Young]] [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment made the hypothesis]] that some sins weren't covered by Jesus's death and had to be paid ''literally with the offender's [[RedemptionEqualsDeath own blood]]'' (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_atonement blood atonement]]). Similarly, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_perdition_(Mormonism) sons of perdition]][[note]]Those who either, during their pre-mortal life, aligned themselves with Satan's plan of salvation, or, in mortal life, have "denied the Holy Ghost" i.e. rejecting and denying Christ after receiving a personal witness and a "perfect knowledge" of Jesus (see "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost" above)[[/note]] are not to benefit either of the [[{{Heaven}} celestial, terrestrial, or telestial]] glory, but instead are cast into the [[TheNothingAfterDeath outer darkness]] with Satan and his angels.

** Atreus and Thyestes both crossed it in their quest for revenge against each other. Atreus, after finding that his wife Aerope was having an affair with Thyestes, violated ''xenia'' by inviting Thyestes to dinner before murdering his children, serving them to Thyestes in a pie, taunting him by telling him [[IAteWhat what he just ate]] and showing him the hands and feet of his children and then having him exiled as a cannibal before murdering Aerope. Then Thyestes, in order to fulfill a prophecy that [[ParentalIncest a son he had by his daughter]] would kill Atreus, raped his daughter Pelopia while she was sacrificing to Athena.

** Athena and Poseidon both crossed it in one version of Medusa's origin: Poseidon raped Medusa, and Athena punished Medusa for the "crime" of having sex with a god by turning her [[RevengeByProxy and her sisters]] into ugly monsters. Athena later mocked Medusa's death.

** Zeus crossed it when he ordered the creation of Pandora and gave her a box (well, a type of large storage jar called a pithos) containing all of the evil in the world as punishment for man accepting the fire that Prometheus stole for them.
** Leto, Apollo and Artemis all crossed it when the former sent the other two to [[WouldHurtAChild slaughter the children]] of Niobe because [[RevengeByProxy their mother claimed to be more beautiful than her]].
** Demeter crossed it in the story of Hades and Persephone by [[InferredHolocaust causing a deadly famine throughout the entire world]] to spite Zeus in response to Persephone’s kidnapping ([[RevengeByProxy even though not one of the countless humans who died as a result was in any way involved in the kidnapping]]) and subsequently threatening to intentionally let all life in the entire world die out from said famine unless she got Persephone back. [[FreudianExcuse Her grief over her daughter’s kidnapping]] is understandable, but [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic not nearly enough to justify the innocent bloodshed that she was willing to cause on a global scale]].

** Atreus and Thyestes both crossed it in their quest for revenge against each other. Atreus, after finding that his wife Aerope was having an affair with Thyestes, violated ''xenia'' by inviting Thyestes to dinner before murdering his children, serving them to Thyestes in a pie, taunting him by telling him [[IAteWhat what he just ate]] and showing him the hands and feet of his children and then having him exiled as a cannibal before murdering Aerope. Then Thyestes, in order to fulfill a prophecy that [[ParentalIncest a son he has by his daughter]] will kill Atreus, raped his daughter Pelopia while she was sacrificing to Athena.

** Before Tantalus, Zeus' father and predecessor Cronus solidified cannibalism and murder of his offspring as one of the worst taboos in Greek Mythology by how he tried to stop his children from overthrowing him; [[EatsBabies swallowing them alive as newborns]] and imprisoning them in his belly, an act [[NotSoDifferent which was just as bad]] as how his own father sealed him and his fellow Titans within Gaea. Thankfully, his wife hid the infant Zeus from him, [[LaserGuidedKarma who rescued his siblings, then castrated and dethroned him]].

** Zeus crossed it with what he did to Pandora.

* Christian tradition holds that [[{{Satan}} the Devil]] crossed it the moment he rebelled against God and literally brought evil into the world. Catholic theologians, such as Thomas Aquinas, have stated that, though a human may eventually repent and be forgiven no matter how grievous their sins, Satan and the other fallen angels will ''never'' do this, because it is not in their nature.
* Orthodox Christianity states that the devil's (and later other demons) is the corruption of Adam and Eve (and later temptation, making the whole human race suffer the same FateWorseThanDeath that awaits them. TakingYouWithMe in an extreme form. Before that, some saints state, redemption was still possible for them. [[DownerEnding After that...]]

* [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Some]] 19th century [[UsefulNotes/{{Mormonism}} Mormon theologians and Brigham Young]] [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment made the hypothesis]] that some sins weren't covered by Jesus's death and had to be paid ''literally with the offender's [[RedemptionEqualsDeath own blood]]'' (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_atonement blood atonement]]).
** Similarly, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_perdition_(Mormonism) sons of perdition]][[note]]Those who either, during their pre-mortal life, aligned themselves with Satan's plan of salvation, or, in mortal life, have "denied the Holy Ghost" i.e. rejecting and denying Christ after receiving a personal witness and a "perfect knowledge" of Jesus (see "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost" above)[[/note]] are not to benefit either of the [[{{Heaven}} celestial, terrestrial, or telestial]] glory, but instead are cast into the [[TheNothingAfterDeath outer darkness]] with Satan and his angels.

** Like Tantalus, Ixion committed all three of Greece's taboo crimes. First, he violated xenia by throwing his father-in-law into a pit of hot coals when the latter was visiting. Then, Ixion went to Mount Olympus to beg Zeus, whose job it is to punish violators of Xenia, for his crime, for forgiveness. Surprisingly, Zeus agreed to do so. Ixion then committed hubris by being an UngratefulBastard towards Zeus and lusting after Hera. Finally, he arguably committed impiety by attempting to sleep with Hera, although he only slept with a duplicate that Zeus made out of clouds. Zeus was quite rightly enraged by this, and lashed Ixion to a wheel of fire, condemning him to spin around in Tartarus for the rest of eternity. For all the criticism Zeus and the other gods get, this is one time when he delivered LaserGuidedKarma and KickTheSonOfABitch.

----

----

* In Myth/NorseMythology, Loki's murder of Balder and [[KickTheDog refusal to weep for him, thus making him unable to return to life]], is the moment when he becomes the enemy of the rest of the Norse gods.
** For those unaware, he doesn't just murder Balder, he ''tricks his blind brother Hod into accidentally killing him''.

** Demeter crossed it in the story of Hades and Persephone by [[InferredHolocaust causing a deadly famine throughout the entire world]] to spite Zeus in response to Persephone’s kidnapping ([[RevengeByProxy even though not one of the countless humans who died as a result was in any way involved in the kidnapping]]) and subsequently threatening to intentionally let all life in the entire world die out from said famine unless she got Persephone back. [[FreudianExcuse Her grief over her daughter’s kidnapping]] is understandable, but not nearly enough to justify the innocent bloodshed that she was willing to cause on a global scale.

** Leto, Apollo and Artemis cross it when the former sent the other two to [[WouldHurtAChild slaughter the children]] of Niobe because [[RevengeByProxy their mother claimed to be more beautiful than her]].
** Demeter crossed it in the story of Hades and Persephone by [[InferredHolocaust causing a deadly famine throughout the entire world]] to spite Zeus in response to Persephone’s kidnapping ([[RevengeByProxy even though not one of the countless humans who died as a result was in any way involved in the kidnapping]]) and subsequently threatening to intentionally let all life in the entire world die out from said famine unless she got Persephone back. Her grief over her daughter’s kidnapping is understandable, but not nearly enough to justify the innocent bloodshed that she was willing to cause on a global scale.