Chapter 11 Flashcards
“A dislocation can be healed with the following incantation: Take a green reed, about four or five feet long, split it down the middle, and let two men hold it against your hips. Begin to chant: motas vaeta daries dardares astataries dissunapiter. Continue until the two halves of the reed come together. Wave a piece of iron over the reed. When the halves have come together and are touching one another, take the reed in your hand and cut it on the right and on the left. Bind it over the dislocation or fracture, which will then heal. Nevertheless, perform the following incantation for the dislocation every day: huat haut huat ista pista sista dannabo dannaustra. Or use this incantation for the dislocation: huat haut huat istasis tarsis ardannabou dannaustra
Cato, On Agriculture 160: An account for a magic spell for healing a dislocation. Medicine emerges from magic (this is a procedure to make a splint). The chanting could even have the health effects of a mantra. No deity is invoked here, apparently the words themselves have their effect.
I call on you, demon, whoever you are, and ask that from this hour, from this day, from this moment, you torture and kill the horses of the Green and White teams, and that you kill and crush the drivers Clarus, Felix, Primulas, and Romanus, and that you leave not a breath in their bodies.
ILS 8753: Here a deity is invoked and this follows the structure of a prayer; what makes this magical is the socially unsanctioned ends and the fact that this is written on lead and buried. There are many curse tablets like this associated with horse racing.
Seize Euphemia and lead her to me, Theon, loving me with mad desire, and bind her with shackles that cannot be loosed, strong ones of
adamantine, for the lover of me, Theon. Do not allow her to eat, drink, obtain sleep, jest or laugh but make her leap up out of every place and house, abandoning her father, mother, brothers, and sisters until she comes to me… Burn her limbs, liver, female body, until she comes to me, Theon, loving me… If she holds another man in her embrace, let her cast him off, forget him, and hate him; but let her feel affection for me, giving me her property, and doing nothing against my wishes. Holy names, here, and powers, here, enforce this spell and bring it to fruition, now, now, quickly, quickly.
Ogden 2002: no. 207: A love spell invoking a deity to seize a woman for the speaker. Specificity and emphasis on the effect happening immediately, but also structured more or less like a prayer.
I entrust this binding spell to you chthonic gods, Pluto and Kore Persephone Ereschigal and Adonis also called Barbaritha and Hermes chthonian Thoth Phokensepseu Erektathou Misonktaik and Anoubis the powerful Pseriphtha, who holds the keys of Hades, and to you chthonic divine demons, the boys and girls prematurely dead, the young men and women, year after year, month after month, day after day, hour after hour, night after night; I conjure all the demons in this place to assist this demon Antinous.
SEG XXVI.1717: A lovers binding spell invoking different gods (Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian-Ereschigal) and primarily invoking Antinous, a love interest of the emperor Hadrian.
Those who perform or have performed for them impious or nocturnal rites for the purpose of enchanting, bewitching or binding someone, are either crucified or thrown to the beasts. …Those who are knowledgeable in the art of magic are to receive the supreme penalty, that is, to be thrown to the beast or crucified. The magicians themselves are burnt alive. No one may possess books on the art of magic; and those found in possession have their property confiscated and their books burnt in public; they are deported to an island or, if of inferior rank, executed. Not only the practice of this art, but also the knowledge of it, is prohibited.
Paul, Opinions V.23.14-19: Discusses the legality of magic. Legal principle derived from a law of Sulla (Late Republic) on poisoning.
Constantine Augustus and Caesar to (Septimus) Bassus, prefect of the city: The knowledge of those who with the aid of magical arts are discovered to have plotted against people’s well-being or to have diverted chaste minds to lustful thoughts must be punished and a penalty duly exacted under the harshest of laws. However, criminal charges are not to be brought against remedies devised for the human body, nor against assistance innocently applied in rural areas to prevent fears of rain falling on the ripe grapes… ; nobody’s health or reputation is harmed by them; in fact such actions ensure that neither the gift of the gods nor the labour of humans is spoiled.
Theodosian Code IX.16.3: This ruling by Constantine illustrates the continuing validity of the law. Although it has sometimes been seen as Christian action against ‘paganism’, it was in fact a development of earlier Roman law. Love charms divert chaste minds to lustful thoughts and potentially harm the person’s reputation.
