The ancient Greeks had pretty wacky ways to explain catastrophes. Their explanations might include a clever hot-headed mortal named Odysseus who escaped a sticky situation by blinding a one-eyed giant. (I won’t go into detail, even though the poet Homer had a whale of a time describing it in The Odyssey.) Turns out, the giant’s father was the god of the sea and announced he would get revenge. Odysseus then suffered a nasty voyage across the Mediterranean Sea, with encounters like a many-headed monster gobbling up most of his men— a serious loss since they were the ones who rowed the boat.  In this world, one act of revenge triggered another act of revenge. That triggered another act of creative revenge. Then there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of the mortals caught in the crossfire, like the men rowing the boat.