#curse tablets

[book-of-forbidden-knowledge]

Magic in Ancient Greece: An Introduction

I have seen some people claim that magic or witchcraft did not exist in Ancient Greece. This is not the case. So, I thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce you all to the strange and wonderful world of Ancient Greek magic!

First, what do we mean by "magic"? Radcliffe Edmonds, one of the leading scholars on Ancient Greek magic, defines "magic" as "non-normative ritual behavior." In short, what makes something magic, and not just normal religion, is that people in a given culture think it's weird. The word "magic" itself refers to the magi, Zoroastrian priests — the Ancient Greeks thought they did magic because to them, Zoroastrianism was foreign and weird. They also thought that Ancient Egyptians could do magic for the same reason — what the Greeks thought was spooky magic was just normal religion in Egypt. Within their own culture, magic was basically heteropraxic religion. Magic was not considered hubristic, at least not inherently.

There are multiple Ancient Greek words that refer to magic. The word μάγος, magos, itself means "magician" or "charlatan." There's also γοητεία, goetia, usually translated as "sorcery." The word most often translated as "witchcraft" is φαρμακεία, pharmakeia, the use of drugs or herbs to transform or influence people. This is what Medea and Circe do.

One of our best sources on Ancient Greek magic is the Greek Magical Papyri, or PGM, a set of magical texts from Hellenistic Egypt. When I first learned about it, I thought it was too good to be true, but here it is: uncorrupted ancient pagan magic! Essentially, the PGM is one of the oldest known grimoires, and the ancestor of the entire Western magical tradition. The papyri contain spells and rituals for almost every purpose: curses, love spells, divination, dream oracles, summoning daimones, necromancy, even full mystical rites. Most of them include invocations to various gods, which are heavily syncretic. Helios/Apollo (treated interchangeably) is invoked the most often. Aphrodite appears pretty often, too. Hekate-Artemis-Selene-Persephone (conflated with a whole bunch of other chthonic goddesses, including Ereshkigal) has her own set of spells. You'll even find the names of Egyptian gods and Hebrew angels in there.

One of the most common features in PGM spells is voces magicae or barbarous names, nonsense words that are supposed to be the secret names of the gods, which give you the authority to call them up. They act almost like a written form of glossolalia. Most are supposed to be spoken or chanted aloud. Some sound like actual names, or are well-known magical epithets like ABRASAX. Some are just strings of Greek vowels. Some of them are palindromic; there's lots of spells that use the "abracadabra" disappearing-letter-triangle format. There's also charakteres, apparently-meaningless magical symbols, the distant ancestor of modern sigils.

Another major source for Ancient Greek magic are defixiones or katadesmoi, curse tablets. They're little lead leafs called lamellae, which are inscribed with curses and then deposited in wells, graves, and other chthonic places. Thousands of them have been found.

Here's the text of a curse tablet that invokes Hekate and Hermes Kthonios (copied from Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World by John G. Gager):

Hermes Khthonios and Hekate Khthonia Let Pherenikos be bound before Hermes Khthonios and Hekate Khthonia. I bind Pherenikos’ [girl] Galene to Hermes Khthonios and to Hekate Khthonia I bind [her]. And just as this lead is worthless and cold, so let that man and his property be worthless and cold, and those who are with him who have spoken and counseled concerning me. Let Thersilochos, Oinophilos, Philotios, and any other supporter of Pherenikos be bound before Hermes Khthonios and Hekate Khthonia. Also Pherenikos’ soul and mind and tongue and plans and the things that he is doing and the things that he is planning concerning me. May everything be contrary for him and for those counseling and acting with…

Another curse tablet, which invokes Hekate to punish thieves, includes a drawing of her and charakteres. This is how she's depicted:

From Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in the Ancient World by John G. Gager

It's supposed to be a woman with three heads and six raised arms, but to me it looks like Cthulhu, which is honestly appropriate.

There was a very fine line between love spells and curses in Ancient Greece. Some love spells in the PGM call upon the spirits of the dead and chthonic gods to torture a poor girl until she submits to the magician. Just as many defixiones attempt to forcefully bind a lover. But there's another, gentler kind of love spell described by Theocritus in Idylls, in which a witch named Simaetha invokes the Moon and Hekate and uses an iynx wheel to make a man love her.

If you want to know how to apply all of this in modern practice, I'm still working that one out. I've found the PGM very hard to adapt, because a lot of its requirements are dangerous or impractical. Many of its spells require gross ingredients worthy of the Scottish play, or plants that scholars can't identify, or procedures that I don't plan on attempting. And if you haven't noticed by now, most of them fly in the face of modern magical ethics. (Don't let anyone tell you that the gods will punish you for doing baneful magic, because that's clearly bullshit.) On the other hand, Crowley adapted his Bornless Ritual almost word-for-word from PGM V. 96—172. So far, the best resource I've found on modernizing Ancient Greek magic is The Hekataeon by Jack Grayle. Its material is clearly historically-inspired, but still doable, and spiritually relevant. I really recommend getting it if you have the means, especially if you have an interest in Hekate specifically. I'm happy to have it as a model for how to adapt ancient magic for myself in the future. To me, it strikes the perfect balance between historically-informed and witchy, which is right where I want to be.

If you can't access that one, here's some other books I recommend:

Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World by Radcliffe G. Edmonds III: An introduction to Ancient Greek magic, both scholarly and accessible. It covers the definitions and contexts of magic, curses, love spells, divination, theurgy, philosophy, basically everything you need to know.

The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation by Hans Dieter Betz: The definitive English edition of the PGM. A must if you plan to study ancient magic in-depth, especially as a practitioner.

Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in the Ancient World by John G. Gager: An English edition of the texts of many curse tablets.

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds by Daniel Ogden: a sourcebook of ancient literature concerning magic.

The Golden Ass by Apuleius: A Roman novel about a man who is turned into a donkey by a witch. A very entertaining story, also our source for "Cupid and Psyche" and one of the best sources on the Mysteries of Isis that we have.

Ancient Magic: A Practitioners Guide to the Supernatural in Ancient Greece and Rome by Philip Matyszak: A simple and straightforward introduction to Ancient Greek magic, less scholarly but very easy to follow and directed at practitioners.

[catilinas]

@m-i-d-g-e here is the handout from the talk:

scratch whatever onto a small sheet of lead. roll it up and stab through with a nail if you feel like it. throw into a body of water or bury it 👍

[virgil-upinthestars]

babe wake up someone worked an ancient greek byler au into an assignment worth fifteen percent of their grade

what have i done

[contremineur]

Two Roman curse tablets (lead, c. 150-300 AD)

Curse tablets are found throughout the Roman Empire, though the UK has the highest number of known examples in Latin. The tablets were usually made of thin hammered lead or pewter in the hopes of passing the cold and heavy attributes of the metal onto the accursed. Inscriptions followed a common formula, invoking a god to bring harm to someone who had wronged the author, and might also include magical symbols to increase the potency of their curse. Before being left in ritualistically important locations like springs and temples, the curse would be either folded or rolled to disorientate the cursed individual. Unlike literature and monument commemorations, Roman curse tablets were written by all classes of people from slaves to high-ranking officials.

image and adapted text from here

[voluptuarian]

Great activity for when you're staying in on a Friday night

[mydonkeyfeet]

I've always liked the idea of ancient votive offerings, and even not-so-ancient ones like Roman Catholic ex-voto offerings (like a little figure of a leg in prayer/thanks for healing a leg problem). The idea of throwing your little treasures into a bog on purpose where you know you'll never get it back just seems so hopeful and full of faith and promise. Just now I was reading about votive offerings on Wikipedia and then came to this part: "although similar acts continue into the present day—for example, in traditional Catholic culture and, arguably, in the modern-day practice of tossing coins into a wishing well or fountain." WHAT! I never thought of it that way but it's true!

(I also love curse tablets that come up on the wiki page too. I got to make housings for some Ancient Roman ones when I worked in the library special collections conservation lab at my last job, the oldest objects I've worked with. I'm going to start throwing curses into wishing wells and fountains.)

[alchemisland]

Cursing the Oppressors 

Apollo and python 

A sporting lord

And wielded change and lightning chains

Who enjoyed cavorting with human sorts 

Despite his wife's jealous, green-tinged eyes blazing

Queenly Athena, shed no fierce tears at your frieze’s fleecing

Turn your molten heart freezing and curse the disruptor’s penis

Cast shadows where the shoulder-stroking light of Venus lends warm feeling

Upon the world’s ceiling, inscribe vistas of revealing

Revolting scenes of revolving wheels, of far flung icy seas and skin peeling

And bouts of harsh, eyepopping disease

Frequent ingestion of food o’er piquant

Boreas watching us, send hammerblow breezes to set seas seizing

Like Caesar fitting, a divine disease, and a punishment befitting a villainous

Indigent on an indecent mission. Toes he should have kissed in submission

He submerged in padded tissue and held in wooden prisons

Art is the prism which christens beauty, unleashing be its duty

All glory and booty of refracted fruit: eye and mind and light

Like wombs; now tombs, beneath Albion’s 70-room dunes

With purloined goods strewn, never to be exhumed

Let these cast runes quicken ruinous winds, send them soon and zooming

Send them booming, send them in pursuit

Send men in suits who, forsooth,

Would have made fine myrmidon troops, given room and duty

Let Zeus tear up Elgin’s lands roots, those planted by his own hand

Let rigid, immovable boundaries be set, that he no more expands

His demesne; drain away his lakes and leave a basin dry as sand

Send Egyptian Set to this place instead, which you left so stands

Deservedly bereft, languishing

Let Elgin's clod be cleft for seekers from Hell

Let Elgin’s egg bonce be below every roof tile which falls or fell

Let chaos constant and monstrous, hail and wail, without pretense

Let him pray, let him see his failure, his life’s newfound railings

Let him seek recompense, let him these dire crimes recollect

Let our notions in his head be connected and sprout legs

Let his portion be the dregs, just the foamy, drinkless head again

Offer no protection to this predator, worm his bread and turn his head

To sordid sights which vengeful knights arranged upon the night

Let nothing armour him from these harmful ardours, neither mail nor neck charm

Balm or calm the constant spine-trampling; let him search to no avail

Finding no help available, and no rest beyond the veil

Should he self-impale upon those newly uprighted railings marking his jailing

Let vile incurable sores beset him, agony force him to floor on all fours

Let weep the Christ petrol from his bored paws

Let seep the green sap from his thrice-infected jaws

Let Set send all the agues, lurgies and poxes of his dread heaven

Let the spine of Elgin be bent or severed

Let his friends and prelates be enveloped with jealousy

And run like leverets before an hungry owl’s malevolence into that green sea

Let this world’s worst fates betray him, epoxy to him all things alien

That he might know and disdain a foreign traitor’s raping

Let all his light be draped and taken away like a child finished play

Let him see reflected the error of his ways in these taxing labours

Let his neighbours be quite taken with his decorations

Their new Grecian flavour; in fact, have them visit him wielding sabres

To liberate and save the Parthenon bodies and return them where they came from

Let able-bodied mobs with hanging ropes come thronging, eager to flog him

Hermes in winged boots and quickening cape, what imps can you ape this day

Make permeable the solid walls of Elgin’s life, make this change permanent

In bronze chains ensconce this blithe termagant, have his worm turn

Have him reduced to steaming puce ashes, fit for an urn

Ravage him savagely, his back rancid where the lash landed

For all his cash, for the great works lining his vast landing

Let him be utterly thankless, sporting wounds one cannot bandage

A feeling one cannot vanquish of being sandwiched between hard places

Let nights of cards and succession rites and works of art be taken away

Subtract his means and dry his gravy, drive him crazy unto the grave

For his great and ill-considered desecration of a lost world’s resting place

Let him see, as through a glass darkly, a hail-like haze

Let his own mind be a mystery maze, let him see only haunting shapes

Never the clarity of the face, nor of the place he disgraced

Where his head lay, let that x-marked space be a serpent’s basin

Let him lose all his servants, this purpose-built fervent freemason

Henceforth, let pass no moment when his hands are not clammy

Let him shake and rave and babble for all the damage

[urbs-romae]

Roman Curse Tablet

a lead tablet inscribed with words, rolled up, and thrown into a fountain in Bath, England, most referenced Minerva Sulis as the deity they wanted to fulfill their curses.

IVQIHIM-MAIBLIV-TIVALOVNICISTAVQILCMOCAVQAALLEAT__MIVQMAETIVA__VISANNIVLEVSVEREPVSXEVNAIREASVNIREVESSILATSVGASVNAITIMOCSUAINIMSUTACLLINAMREGANIVOI

these people really didn't want anyone reading it because they wrote each word in reverse (also a part of it is ripped off and we just guessed what was there)

IVQIHIM is QUI MIHI

Qu[i] mihi Vilbiam in[v-] olavit sic liquat com[o](do) aqua ell[a?]- m[2-3]ta qui eam v[or?] avit si Velvinna Exs- upereus Verianus Se- verinus A(u)gustalis Com- itianus Catus Minianus Germanill[a] Iovina

this is a basic transcription. It's pretty normal, basically 'the people who took my girl, turn to water and get stupid, whether it is Velvinna, Exsupereus, et cetera et cetera'

but the interesting thing to me is 'ella muta qui eam voravit', parts of which are blank and I can only guess

granted another person has made this guess before me and this is just the one I have found to be most likely

'qui' is technically masculine but it's also more anonymous so the guy may have just defaulted to qui, but 'ella' and 'muta' are feminine. then there is 'v__avit', and it seems most fitting (in terms of space and grammar) to but voravit. This implies a sexual act from the feminine 'ella muta' ([may] she [become] dumb) to Vilbia (another woman)

it may be '[in]v[ol]avit' but that doesn't really make sense spacewise and stuff

this is big because there's like 3 references to Roman lesbians and two of them are Martial being freaky

[theonlyfrenchhistoryblog]

Awesome 🔥

[tweedfrog]

Everyone finds roman curse tablets against clothing thieves in the baths hilarious and excessive but considering how expensive (both in terms of labour and cost) clothes were back in those days I imagine going to the bath and getting your cloak stolen was like pulling up to the pool and having someone pinch your laptop with all your notes on it fuck I'd be writing curse tablets too

[theeternalnewb]

Everybody wants to talk about Pharaoh's Curse (boring, historically inaccurate, a little racist) and nobody wants to talk about Roman Curse Tablets (exciting, varied, discussed by archaeologists in academic circles)

[edorazzi]

Page 42 of my Miraculous Mentor AU comic A Matter of Trust! In which Felix might have lost his magic, but everything he learned from balancing Misfortune could just pay off... ☯️✨

Also, I'm aware there's a slight layering issue with the text in the first panel - unfortunately my tablet broke this week so short of delaying the page there's nothing I can do right now! I hope it's not too distracting and I'll replace the image when I have it sorted! 💕

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[yrynysddu]

1,600-year-old lead curse tablet in the Museo Archeologico Civico di Bologna, of unknown provenance. — "The first known surviving curse directed at a Roman senator. ... The text is written mainly in Latin with Greek invocations ... 'Crush, kill Fistus the senator,' part of the curse reads, 'May Fistus dilute, languish, sink and may all his limbs dissolve …' " — Image a composite of photo and drawing found at The History Blog

[dragon-drop1477]

I cannot express how much I need Skyfire and bumblebee to be friends. The biggest and smallest autobots.

Bumblebee just sits on Skyfire’s shoulder and talks about whatever to help catch him up to the modern day (it feels familiar. It reminds him of starscream). Bee also gets a nice view and a pretty good hiding spot from anyone shorter than Optimus. It’s a win-win

Whenever Skyfire finds something interesting and wants to do some field work Bumblebee tends to come with him. He’s a scout, good at always keeping an eye open for trouble. Not to mention, if things go south he’s quick to react and a pretty good fighter, he helps cover for Skyfire who still hasn’t developed the skills or reflexes to fight in a millennia year old war.

sometimes, on these excursions, Bumblebee asks Skyfire to tell him what Cybertron was like before the war. Most of the autobots could tell him what it was like but they just describe it as home. However, Skyfire was an explorer searching and cataloguing distant worlds. He paints cybertron with all the vivid detail it deserves. Some part of bumblebee thinks it’s the closest he’ll ever get to seeing his home planet in its prime, even if the war ends.

idk I just think they’d be friends

[clownsuu]

Update I have been gifted a new art tablet and oh my lort how do y’all draw with a screenless pad-

This last one was the first thing I drew with it LMAO

all of these were lil test doodles, but m a n I got mad respects to them gamers who can use this kinda tabloot with ease

[crowbitz]

some quick and simple portrait commissions