Revenge taken in return for an act of vengeance, creating a cycle of retaliatory harm between parties.
From 'counter-' (in return) and 'vengeance' (revenge), from Latin 'vindicare.' This compound emerged in literature to describe the escalating cycle of blood feuds and retaliation.
The entire plot of Homer's *Iliad* is essentially countervengeance—Greeks attack Trojans, Trojans strike back, and the cycle spirals into a ten-year war, showing how revenge never truly ends.
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