No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2022
This paper looks at our term ‘curse tablet’ in the light of the Greek distinction between ἀραί (‘curses’) and κατάδεσμοι (‘binding spells’). It analyses the role of cursing in Greek culture and sketches a short history of research that led German and Anglophone scholars to coin a modern terminology that disregards the ancient distinction.
1 Wünsch, R., Sethianische Verfluchungstafeln aus Rom (Leipzig, 1898), iiGoogle Scholar.
2 Speyer, W., ‘Fluch’, in Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, vol. 7 (Stuttgart, 1969)Google Scholar, cols. 1160–1288.
3 E. Eidinow, Oracles, Curses, and Risk Among the Ancient Greeks (Oxford, 2007), 140.
4 In this issue, 000–000.
5 F. Graf, ‘Fluch und Verwünschung’, ThesCRA 3 (2007), 247–70.
6 K. Brodersen, ‘Briefe in die Unterwelt: religiöse Kommunikation auf antiken Fluchtafeln’, in K. Brodersen (ed.), Gebet und Fluch, Zeichen und Traum. Aspekte religiöser Kommunikation in der Antike (Münster, 2001), 59–68.
7 A. Audollent, Defixionum tabellae (Paris, 1904), cxvii–cxxviii.
8 Dio Cass. 57.18.9 (= Audollent [n. 7], cxx): ὀστᾶ τε γὰρ ἀνθρώπων ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ ἐν ᾗ ᾤκει κατορωρυγμένα καὶ ἐλασμοὶ μολίβδινοι ἀράς τινας μετὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ ἔχοντες. All translations are mine, unless otherwise indicated.
9 Tac. Ann. 2.69.3: reperiebantur solo ac parietibus erutae humanorum corporum reliquiae, carmina et devotiones et nomen Germanici plumbeis tabulis insculptum, semusti cineres ac tabo obliti aliaque malefica quis creditur animas numinibus infernis sacraria (‘And certainly there were found hidden in the floor and in the walls disinterred remains of human bodies, incantations and spells, and the name of Germanicus inscribed on leaden tablets, half-burnt cinders smeared with blood, and other horrors by which in popular belief souls are devoted to the infernal deities’; translation from A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb [ed. and trans.], Tacitus. Annals [New York, 1942]). The same term appears in Suet. Calig. 3.3 (Piso attacked Germanicus veneficiis et devotionibus).
10 SEG 57.1207 = Arkeoloji Dergisi 9 (2007), 117–21; the letter forms point to the Imperial age, most likely the second century ce.
11 T. Homolle, ‘Inscriptions d'Amorgos: lames de plomb portant des imprécations’, BCH 25 (1901), 413, no. 1 (no autopsy, from a drawing by the finder, a local priest; French translation) = IG XII 7, p. 1.
12 See H. S. Versnel, ‘Prayers for Justice in East and West: Recent Finds and Publications’, in R. L. Gordon and F. Marco Simón (eds.), Magical Practice in the Latin West. Papers from the International Conference Held at the University of Zaragoza, 30. Sept.–1. Oct. 2005 (Leiden, 2010), 336 n. 168.
13 K. Latte, Heiliges Recht. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der sakralen Rechtsformen in Griechenland (Tübingen, 1920), 61–8; there is a good evaluation in R. Parker, ‘Law and Religion’, in M. Gagarin and D. Cohen (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law (Cambridge, 2005), 51–81.
14 Latte (n. 13), 76.
15 This is also their function in a public prayer to protect a sanctuary, as in Kos: IG XII 4 1.311 (SEG 55 930; LSCG 162).
16 An unfortunately very damaged example of a preventive oath is IG II² 1175 (c. 367/366); the body of the text is lost, but the curse (ἀ̣ρ|[ὰν) by the demarch, the treasurers, and the priestesses and priests has the same function.
17 Description in Lysias, Contra Andocidem (= Or. 6), 54: ἐπὶ τούτοις ἱέρειαι καὶ ἱερεῖς στάντες κατηράσαντο πρὸς ἑσπέραν καὶ ϕοινικίδας ἀνέσεισαν κατὰ τὸ νόμιμον τὸ παλαιὸν καὶ ἀρχαῖον. According to Plut. Alc. 22.4, the priestess of Athena, Gorgo, refused because ‘she had become a priestess to pray, not to curse’, presumably an anachronistic argument.
18 R. Osborne and P. J. Rhodes (eds.), Greek Historical Inscriptions, 478–404 bc (Oxford, 2003), no. 102, a fragmentary text with a complicated history.
19 Speyer (n. 2), 1197.
20 Akarnania: Polyb. 9.40.6. Athens and Philip V: Liv. 31.44; see also 31.24 and Diod. 28.7.
21 On cursing and land reform see Pl. Leg. 3.684e: ὠς ἐπιχειροῦντι νομοθέτηι κινεῖν τῶν τοιούτων τι, πᾶς ἀπαντᾶι λέγων μὴ κινεῖν τὰ ἀκίνητα καὶ ἐπαρᾶται γᾶς τε ἀναδασμοὺς εἰσηγοῦμνενον καὶ χρεῶν ἀποκοπάς (‘when a legislator attempts to change this, everyone confronts him with the cry, “Hands off”, and they curse him for introducing redistributions of land and remissions of debts, with the result that every man is rendered powerless’). On the cursing of Crassus when marching out against the Parthians, see Plut. Crass. 15.5–6; less elaborate versions occur in Dio Cass. 39.39.5–7; Vell. 2.46.3; App. B Civ. 2.66; Flor. 1.46.3. The contemporary Cic. Div. 1.29 only speaks of bad omina (omens): the curses were a fabrication to remove the blame for Carrhae from Crassus.
22 Texts in SIG 3 167; W. Blümel, Die Inschriften von Mylasa, vol. 1 (Bonn, 1987), nos. 1–3; Osborne and Rhodes (n. 18), no. 54.
23 J. Strubbe, Ἀραὶ Ἐπιτύμβιοι. Imprecations Against Desecrators of the Grave in Greek Epitaphs of Asia Minor. A Catalogue (Bonn, 1997).
24 F. Graf, ‘Victimology, or: How to Deal with Untimely Death’, in K. Stratton and D. Kalleres (eds.), Daughters of Hecate (Oxford, 2014), 386–416.
25 G. Björck, Der Fluch des Christen Sabinus (Uppsala, 1938); H. S. Versnel, ‘Beyond Cursing: The Appeal to Justice in Judicial Prayers’, in C. A. Faraone and D. Obbink (eds.), Magika Hiera. Ancient Greek Magic and Religion (New York and Oxford, 1991), 60–106; Versnel (n. 12).
26 Pl. Leg. 11.931b–d.
27 The basic edition is G. Petzl, Die Beichtinschriften Westkleinasiens, EA 22 (Bonn, 1994). Since then, more texts have been found: see, e.g., H. Malay and G. Petzl, New Religious Texts from Lydia (Vienna, 2017).
28 For the background, see N. Belayche, ‘Les stèles dites de confession: une réligiosité originale dans l'Anatolie impériale?’, in L. de Blois, P. Funke, and J. Hahn (eds.), The Impact of Imperial Rome on Religions, Ritual, and Religious Life in the Roman Empire. Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop of the International Network Impact of Empire (Roman Empire, 200 b.c.–a.d. 476), Münster, June 30–July 4, 2004 (Leiden, 2006), 66–81; A. Chaniotis, ‘Ritual Performance of Divine Justice: The Epigraphy of Confession, Atonement and Exaltation in Roman Asia Minor’, in H. M. Cotton, R. G. Hoyland, J. J. Price, and D. J. Wasserstein (eds.), From Hellenism to Islam. Cultural and Linguistic Change in the Roman Near East (Cambridge, 2009), 115–53.
29 For the staff ritual, see R. Gordon, ‘Raising a Sceptre: Confession-Narratives from Lydia and Phrygia’, JRA 17 (2004), 177–96.
30 See above, n. 17.
31 Self-designation as κατάδεσμοι: see e.g. E. Ziehbarth, Neue Verfluchungstafeln aus Attika, Böotien und Euboia, Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse (1934), 1023 (Boiotia); SEG 26 1717 (Antinoupolis); see also IG XIV 2413.17 = I.Akrai 52 = Roy Kotansky, Greek Magical Amulets. The Inscribed Gold, Silver, Copper, and Bronze Lamellae. Part 1: Published Texts of Known Provenances (Opladen, 1994) 126.32, an amulet that protects against καταδεσμοί (lines 10–11: [αὐ]τὸ ϕορῶν οὐ ϕοβήσῃ μάγον οὐδὲ κατάδεσμον).
32 M. A. López Jimeno, Las Tabellae Defixionum de la Sicilia Griega (Amsterdam, 1991); see also Lamont in this issue.
33 Carta picta perscripta: Tabellae Sulis no. 8: see R. S. O. Tomlin, ‘“Carta Picta Perscripta”: Anleitung zum Lesen von Fluchtafeln’, in K. Brodersen and A. Kropp (eds.), Fluchtafeln. Neue Funde und neue Deutungen zum antiken Schadenzauber (Frankfurt am Main, 2004), 11–29 and xxx.
34 See C. A. Faraone, ‘The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding Spells’, in Faraone and Obbink (n. 25), 3–32.
35 GEMF 74 = PGM VII 435–438.
36 Plut. De mul. vir. 9.238d, after Nymphis of Herakleia, FGrHist 432 F 7.
37 TAM V 1 318 = Petzl (n. 27), no. 69: μεγάλοι οὖν οἱ θεοὶ οἱ ἐν Ἀζίττοις ἐπεζήτησαν λυθῆναι τὸ σκῆπτρον καὶ τὰς ἀρὰς τὰς γενομένας ἐν τῷ ναῷ.
38 R. Gordon, ‘“What's in a List?” Listing in Greek and Graeco-Roman Malign Magical Texts’, in D. Jordan, H. Montgomery, and E. Thomassen (eds.), The World of Ancient Magic. Papers from the First International Samson Eitrem Seminar at the Norwegian Institute at Athens 4–8 May 1997 (Bergen, 1999), 239–78.
39 The Knidos texts: Audollent (n. 7), nos. 1–12; the Geneva text: SEG 28 1568 = C. Dunant, ‘Sus aux voleurs! Une tablette en bronze à inscription grecque du Musée de Genève’, MH 35 (1978), 241–4. For a discussion of the public display of these texts, see C. A. Faraone, ‘Curses, Crime Detection and Conflict Resolution at the Festival of Demeter Thesmophoros’, JHS 131 (2011), 25–44.
40 Digest. 16.3, Depositi vel contra; 47.17, De furibus balnearis.
41 Versnel (n. 12), 288–9.
42 Ibid., 321.
43 W. S. Fox, The Johns Hopkins Tabella Defixionum, AJP 33, supplement (1912), 10.
44 W. J. Battle, ‘Magical Curses Written on Lead Tablets’, TAPA 26, Supplement: Proceedings of Special Session (1894), liv–lvi. Battle went on to become president of the University of Texas at Austin (1914–16): see <https://president.utexas.edu/past-presidents/william-james-battle>, accessed 25 September 2020.
45 W. S. Fox, ‘Cursing as a Fine Art’, Sewanee Review 27 (1919), 466–70.
46 D. Fraser, ‘The Ancient Curse: Some Analogies’, CJ 17 (1922) 454–60.
47 M. Niedermann, ‘Remarques sur la langue des tablettes d'exécration’, in Mélanges de linguistique offerts à M. Ferdinand de Saussure (Paris, 1908), 71–8.
48 Ziebarth was born in 1868; he taught at a local gymnasium (grammar school) between 1900 and 1919, before becoming the founding professor of Ancient History at the new Hamburg University. Fox (born 1878) taught Greek and Latin at Brandon College in Brandon (Manitoba), 1900–9, from where he moved to Princeton in 1909, then more permanently to Western University in 1917, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and President: see the Rutgers Database of Classical Scholars, <https://dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/8707-fox-william-sherwood> and <https://president.uwo.ca/president/emeriti/w_fox.html>, both accessed 22 September 2020. Another contemporary was Richard Wünsch (1869–1915), who was awarded his PhD in Marburg in 1893; on a Mediterranean trip the following year, in part with Albrecht Dieterich (1866–1908), he bought the lead tablets that he published in 1897 for the supplement of IG III. The Austrian epigrapher Adolf Wilhelm (1864–1950) belonged to the same generation, as did the French epigrapher and ancient historian Auguste Marie Henri Audollent (1864–1943).
49 Ziebarth, E., ‘Der Fluch im Griechischen Recht’, Hermes 30 (1895), 57–70Google Scholar.
50 On Lasaulx, see Stölzle, R., Ernst von Lasaulx (1805–1861). Ein Lebensbild (Münster, 1904)Google Scholar; Petz, S., Die Wiederkehr im Unterschied. Ernst von Lasaulx (Freiburg and Munich, 1989)Google Scholar; and the short characterization in N. Vance, review of R. Hill, Lord Acton, IJCT 9 (2003), 653. Ziebarth (n. 48), 57 n. 5, cites Lasaulx as his predecessor.
51 Lasaulx, E. von, Studien des Classischen Alterums. Akademische Abhandlungen (Regensburg, 1854), 159–77Google Scholar (159: ‘Mit dem Glauben an die magische Kraft des Willens im Gebete hängt naturnothwendig zusammen der Glaube an die magische Macht des Fluches’ [‘The belief in the magical power of the will in prayer is naturally connected to the belief in the magical force of the spell’]). The volume collects earlier papers; the other relevant texts are: Die Gebete der Griechen und Römer, 137–58 (orig. 1842); Die Linosklage, 345–56 (orig. 1842); Der Fluch bei Griechen und Römern, 159–77 (orig. 1843); Der Eid bei den Griechen, 177–207 (orig. 1844); and Der Eid bei den Römern, 208–32 (orig. 1844). One could also add his interest in archaic oracles, demonstrated by Das pelasgische Orakel des Zeus zu Dodona, 283–315 (orig. 1840).