Comment by thaumasiotes

> This really reads like a modern Ancient-Greek story about inscrutable gods who suddenly decide to complicate your life for some unclear reason

If you read the ancient Greek stories, a consistent theme is that, if you offend the gods, they will punish you...

...but they're at least as likely to do it by cursing someone blameless who will then have an effect on you as they are by cursing you directly.