Mortal pride

[Isis]

Mortals never learn to not boast about being better than the gods. It's rather petty of the gods to punish them for saying so, but you would think eventually mortals would understand the lesson of the various punishments.

 

[Myrddin]

No one likes someone coming up to them and saying, "I'm better than you." Whether it's true or not, it's just... rude. So, of course the gods are going to punish the mortals for saying things like that. People like that should be punished.

 

[jerri]

I don't really see it as punishment, more as just letting them know that they are very wrong. The one that can hurt is the dominant one. If someone doesn't have the power to hurt you it's because they're unimportant to you, right?

 

[Nadai]

Unless it's true. In the story of Arachne she boasted that she was a better weaver than Athena and that her talent was hers alone rather than a gift of the goddess and she proved it by beating the goddess in a weaving contest. Unfortunately she was still punished; the goddess turned her into a spider!
Gods were petty at times. I think turning people into other creatures or into stone could be called punishment.