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Magic Spears

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. Cary  and
A. D. Nock
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Extract

Among the conundrums relating to Roman ritual which Plutarch set himself to solve was this: ‘Why do they part the hair of brides with the point of a javelin?’ To this question Plutarch offers a number of answers, all based on the assumption that the spear was symbolical. Professor Rose in his discussion of the passage makes short work of these fumbling guesses, and points out that the original purpose of the spear was magical.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 3-4 , June 1927 , pp. 122 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1927

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References

page 122 note 1 Q.R. 87: Rose, H. J., Roman Questions of Plutarch, 205Google Scholar.

page 122 note 2 Livy III. 28. 10. The tigillum sororium was so explained by Roscher, , Lex. II. 21Google Scholar; porta triumphalis by von Domaszewski, A., Abh. z. röm. Religion, 222 sqGoogle Scholar.

page 122 note 3 Classical Review, 1913, 48–51; Roman Essays and. Interpretations, 70–75.

page 122 note 4 The Golden Bough (3rd ed.) XI. 193 sq.

page 122 note 5 Folklore, 1924, 94.

page 122 note 6 Hakluyt, , Principal Navigations I. 63Google Scholar (extract from the story of the Friar Carpini, 1246 A.D.).

page 122 note 7 Two spears not merely make a gate with its special value but also give you twice as much spear-magic; cf. Deonna, Rev. Arch. Ver Série, XX. (1924) 88 sq., on this sort of duplication. For the gate of purification cf. Ditt. Syll. 982. 9 (Pergamon), καì διελθότνες τήν πύλην καθʼ ῆν τὰἁγιστήρια τίθεται, καθαροì ἔστωσαν αύθημερόν for the yoke as positive as well as negative cf. Nock, A. D., C.Q., 1926, 101 sqqGoogle Scholar.

page 123 note 1 Köchling, J., Relg. Vers. u. Vorarb. XIV. iiGoogle Scholar. passim, e.g. 81. He follows Wilken in holding (p. 44) that the custom came from the crowning of the victim in sacrifice, captives having been earlier sacrificed (But ?).

page 123 note 2 [Dem.] 47, § 69. Cf. the use of iron nails in defixiones, and Gruppe, , Griech. Myth. 895Google Scholar.

page 123 note 3 S.v. ἐπενεκεȋν δόρυ κ.τλ., p. 77. 5, Bekker. Possibly the spear is the magic spear with which Cephalus killed Procris according to Hyginus, , Fab. 189Google Scholar, (as Dr. R. B. Onians has suggested to me).

page 123 note 4 The apotropaic nature of the hasta caelibaris and the spear in auctions has been recognized earlier by Eitrem, S., Opferritus, 388Google Scholar. After completing this paper we found that de Waele, F. J. M., The Magic Staff or Rod in Graeca-Roman Antiquity, 1927, 177Google Scholar, had anticipated us in explaining the double value of the hasta caelibaris.

page 123 note 5 For other evidence cf. FrSchwenn, , Arch. f. Rel. XX. 299 sqqGoogle Scholar. Pausan. IX. 40. 11 tells of the worship of Agamemnon's sceptre by the Chaeroneans,δόρυ ὀνομάζοντες; but may mean simply ‘stick’ and sceptre worship is known, cf. Cook, A. B., Zeus II. 1132Google Scholar; de Waele, F. J. M., op. cit., 107 sqq.Google Scholar; and a Lydian confession inscription (Jahresh. XXIII, Beibl. 7), 1. 15, ἐπεστάθη οὗν τῆς θεοû τò σκῆπτρον καì τοû Κυρίου τοû Τιάμου, with Zingerle's full note, Kol. 13 sqq.; ib., p. 16, No. 2, 1. 9, ῆ δὲΤατία ἐπέστησεν σκήπτρον καì ἀρὰς ἕθηκεν ἐν τῶ ναῶ.

page 123 note 6 Frazer, , Pausanias V. 211Google Scholar.

page 124 note 1 Ovid, , Fasti II. 560Google Scholar.

page 124 note 2 They would perhaps have additional value from contact with βιαιοθάνατοι on the virtues ascribed to the blood of gladiators; cf. Dölger, F. J., Vortr. Bibl. Warburg, 1923/4 (1926). 196 sqqGoogle Scholar. The witch in Lucan VI. 547 takes insertum manibus chalybem; nails from crosses which had been occupied by malefactors were employed in magic (Fahz, L., R.G.V.V. II. iiGoogle Scholar. 44 [ = 150]).Waele, De, op. cit. 177Google Scholar, compares the primitive idea that a youth who would marry must first kill a man, so that his soul passes into him; is the motive clearly that, and not rather the desire to accomplish an exploit proving manhood?

page 124 note 3 Naturally we do not deny that these practices may well go back to the Bronze Age; but it is of the essence of such things to gain cumulative effect as they go on.

page 124 note 4 Plutarch, , Praec. Rei. Publ. Ger. 26, p. 819EGoogle Scholar: Χρυσòν μὲν εἰς ἕνια τῶν ἱερῶν εἰσιόντες ἔξω καταλείπουσι, σίδηρονδʼ ὡς ἁπλῶς εἰπεȋν εἰς οὐδὲν. Other instances of taboos are given by Frazer, , Golden Bough (3rd ed.), III. 230Google Scholar; Wächter, T., Reinkeitsvorschriften im griechischen Kult (R.G.V.V. IX. i. 115·7)Google Scholar. Cf. [Callisth, .] Hist. Alex. III. 17, 31, p. 113Google Scholar, 8 Kroll (Alex, on visiting an Indian temple is told βασιλεû, σίδηρον οὐ καθήκει εἐς τò ίερòν εἰσελθεȋν).

page 124 note 5 P. Osloenses I., col. IV. 108, and note S. Eitrem (p. 56). To the parallel instances given by Eitrem add the Paris papyrus (in Wessely, , Grieclusche Zauberpapyri), II. 2130, 2153, 2306Google Scholar. Some earlier Oriental uses are discussed later, p. [5], n. 8.

page 124 note 6 Usener, , Kleine Schriften, IV. 198Google Scholar.

page 125 note 1 For specimens of taboos, cf. Frazer, , G.B. 3 III. 176, 205, 232Google Scholar; for instances of iron being prescribed, ib. I. 159; III. 232–6, 315; VIII. 51;Eitrem, , P. Osloenses I. 56Google Scholar. The Vestals used it for cutting up salt (Varro, ap. Non. 222, 20Google Scholar. M = p. 330, Lindsay).

page 125 note 2 G.B. 3 I. 159. For iron bells cf. a Central African use noted by Frazer, , Folklore in the Old Testament III. 479Google Scholar.

page 125 note 3 III. 235, 230.

page 125 note 4 Bronze was often prescribed in preference to iron for making an apotropaic noise; e.g. the bronze gong at Dodona Cook, A. B., J.H.S., 1902, 5)Google Scholar. It may be questioned whether iron was harder than bronze before processes of tempering were known. A. Abt's suggestion that iron is supposed to break spells because of its general superiority to bronze (Die Apologie der Apuleius 87) hardly goes deep enough.

page 125 note 5 For its being magnetized cf.Pliny, , Nat. 34. 147Google Scholar, sola haec materia (sc. ferrum) uirus ab eo (sc. magnete) lapide accipit retinetque longo tempore, aliud adprendens ferrum ut anulorum catena spectetur interdum. Our explanation has been given earlier by Ridgeway, W., Proc. Brit. Ass., 1903, 816Google Scholar; how far he developed it we do not know.

page 125 note 6 Pliny 36. 127, passim inueniuntur. Professor Pugh kindly informs us that it is found in Elba, in Piedmont, in the Austrian Tyrol. In antiquity it was found in Cantabria (Plin, . N.H. 34, 148)Google Scholar. Launay, L. de, Dar.-Saglio II. 1083Google Scholar, rightly points out that Pliny mentions magnetite, but not as an iron ore.

apge 125 note 7 Odyssey 16, 294; 19, 13.

page 125 note 8 Nock, A. D., Journ. Eg. Arch. XI. 154Google Scholar; also Pliny 36. 130; Röhr, J., Philol. Suppl. XVII. i. 10, 92–5Google Scholar.

page 125 note 9 It might be argued that this magical value is also due to its having been first obtained from aerolites, as is inferred from its description in the Pyramid texts as ‘the heavenly metal.’ Such objects are, however, rare in workable conditions (Roeder in Ebert's, Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte III. 66Google Scholar; Launay, L. de, Dar.-Saglio II. 1077b)Google Scholar; and there is no trace of the idea in Greece, or reason to believe that the Greeks would in this point be influenced by the Egyptian idea.

page 125 note 10 Note the story of the iron image of Sarapis in the temple at Alexandria, made to rise through mid-air thanks to the attractive power of magnetite in the roof (Weber, W., Drei Untersuchungen zur ägyptisch-griechischenReligion, Heidelberg, 1911, 9 sqq.)Google Scholar; Plin, . N.H. 34Google Scholar. 147 for a similar unfinished temple of Arsinoe.

page 126 note 1 J. Eg. Arch., I.c. Orph, . Argon. 360Google Scholar, λίθοναὐδήεντα … ἓμΨυΧον. Nemes, . denatura hominis I, p. 40Google Scholar, Matthaei (referred to Posidonius by Reinhardt, C., Posidonius, 105Google Scholar, 350). But in carmen paraeniticum, § 15, 114 sqq., ed. Lundström, , Anecd Byz. I. 8Google Scholar (twelfth century according to Krumbacher 2 803), the magnet ὲμψυΧοȋ …συγκινεȋ τὴν ἂψυκον οὐσίαν.

page 126 note 2 Strabo V. 2. 6, p. 224c (cf. Cumont, , Études Syriennes, 197 sqq.)Google Scholar; Callimach, . Coma Beren., fr. 35cGoogle Scholar, Schneider (= 4 Mair), γαιόθεν ἀντέλλοντα κακòνϕυτòν οἲ μιν ἒϕηναν.

page 126 note 3 Nock, A. D., J.H.S., 1926, 49Google Scholar sq. (cf. also the need for women as agents in some rites, their exclusion as ‘dangerous magic’ from others; the use of menses for some purposes, their avoidance at other times; the use of agnus castus as a help to ritual continence, also apparently as an aphrodisiac, as discussed byFehrle, E., R.G.V.V. VI. 139Google Scholar sqq.; and perhaps to be explained on the line suggested byRose, H. J., Folklore, 1925, 322Google Scholar sqq., of the working up of emotion and its diversion into other channels as a feature of ritual).

page 126 note 4 Schol, . Q in Od. XI. 48Google Scholar.

page 126 note 5 Plin, . N.H. 34Google Scholar. 151;Eitrem, , Opferritus 61Google Scholar, 339.

page 126 note 6 Cf. the prayer P. Lond. 121, 1. 100, Wess.,.πέμψον μοι τòν ἀληθινòν ' Ασκληπιòν διΧά τινος τινος πλανοδαίμονος: Arnob. IV. 12; Th.Hopfner, , Griechisch.-ägyptische Offenbarungszauber, I. 202Google Scholar sq., §§ 781–4.

apge 126 note 7 Frazer, , Folklore in the O.T., I. 521Google Scholar. On survivals in Mohammedanism of Semitic belief in the protective virtues of iron cf.Goldziher, I., Arch. X. 41Google Scholar sqq. The evil spirit Werzelya in the Sisinnius story has a name possibly derived from a word for iron (Petersen, E., ΣΙΣ θΣΟΣ, 118)Google Scholar; what conclusions, if any, are to be drawn we do not know. According to Manetho ap.Plut, . Is. it Os. 62, p. 376Google Scholar B, iron was called in Egypt ‘the bone of Typhon’ (the power of evil); cf. Roeder inRoscher's, Lex. IV. 777Google Scholar.

page 126 note 8 A text at Boghaz-köi, giving directions for the averting of plague, says: ‘I take a chain for the neck and an iron ring with a [ ] stone and bind them on the neck and horns of the ram. This is done at night before the tents (?) with the following formula, “The god who runs away in anger, the god who has caused this dying, I have bound on this ram: now content thyself with that. The next morning I release it”’ (Friedrich, J., Aus den hethitischen Schriften IIGoogle Scholar. [Der alte Orient XXV. 2], 11). Salmanassar I. put a plate of iron in the foundations of the temple he restored at Assur (BrMeissner, , Babylonien und Assyrien I. 265)Google Scholar; this implies apotropaic qualities.

page 127 note 1 For this idea of catching ghosts, cf. the smearing of the doorposts at the time of birth and during the Anthesteria (Samter, , Geburi Hochzeit Tod, 292)Google Scholar, well explained byRose, H. J., Primitive Culture in Greece, 113Google Scholar, 131, as a sort of spiritual flypaper; it may also have been intended to frighten away ghosts with the evil smell of pitch (Clemen, C., Neue jahrb., 1926, 21Google Scholar; cf. the use of garlic discussed byBertholet, , Rel. Gesch.Gegen.2 I. 315)Google Scholar.

page 127 note 2 It should be remarked that nowhere is magnetized iron prescribed in the recipes considered. Our case rests on the fact that iron is susceptible to magnetic influence and capable of magnetization. We are indebted to Professor H. J. Rose and to Dr. A. B. Cook for valuable criticisms and suggestions.