Curse

A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object.

To reverse or eliminate a curse is sometimes called "removal" or "breaking", as the spell has to be dispelled, and often requires elaborate rituals or prayers.

The idea became so widespread as to become a pop-culture mainstay, especially in horror films (though originally the curse was invisible, a series of mysterious deaths, rather than the walking-dead mummies of later fiction).

The 10 Plagues of Egypt, preceding the 10 Commandments, can be seen as curses cast from the rods of Aaron and Moses acting on instruction from the God of Israel, in order to enable the enthralled to come free from the yoke of enforced serfdom, slavery and the like.

The stories behind why these items are cursed vary, but they usually are said to bring bad luck or to manifest unusual phenomena related to their presence.

[8][9] In 2003 a 371-word extract from the curse was carved into a 14-ton granite boulder as part of an art work by Gordon Young which was installed in Carlisle; some local people believed that a series of misfortunes (floods, factory closure, footballing defeats etc.)

A woman performs a cursing ritual ( Hokusai )
Ancient Greek curse tablet , text written onto a lead sheet, 4th century BC, Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, Athens .
Limestone donation- stele from Mendes , 3rd Intermediate Period , Dynasty XXII . The inscription celebrates a donation of land to an Egyptian temple, and places a curse on anyone who would misuse or appropriate the land.
Shimei curses David , 1860 woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld
Ancient Greek cursed object against enemies in a trial, written on a lead figurine put in a lead box, 420-410 BC, Kerameikos Archaeological Museum, Athens .
The Cursing Stone art work in Carlisle , England, by Gordon Young with an extract from the bishop's curse