cURSES AND cURSE TABLETS
The ancient Greeks had a rather strange habit when it came to dealing with their daily problems. This habit consisted of cursing particular areas of one’s body or soul through writing down curses on lead tablets or through the usage of voodoo dolls. The tradition of cursing is referred to by scholars as 'katadesmoi' in Greek, or 'defixiones' in Latin, which means 'binding spells.' The use of curse tablets became more common from the 5th century BC onward, and lasted until around 800 CE. Over 1600 of these lead tablets have so far been found in archeological exhumations. The main deposition site for these tablets were graves and chthonic sanctuaries (sanctuaries for deities of the underworld). Were these tablets as magical as we would think on first sight? And what can we deduce about life in the polis through analyzing these tablets?
The earliest curse tablets were found in Selinus on the Italian island of Sicily, and date back from the early fifth century. 22 Lead tablets were found on this site.
dIFFERENT types of curses
There are two types of curses. Conditional curses are intended to discourage those who are planning to commit a crime, while binding curses usually aim to ‘immobilize’ their victims. Among these two types, different categories are to be distinguished, such as love curses, curses for lawsuits, trade curses and theatrical curses. Curses are often categorized into the individual and magical sphere of Greek religion, and therefore excluded from the overarching and communal 'polis religion’. This concept was coined by Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood and means in short that the Greek religion and the greek city-state (polis) were strongly intertwined, the Greek polis articulated religion and was itself articulated by it. These curses do however describe situations that inhabitants of the Greek polis had to deal with on a daily basis. The situations described on the tablets make it seem as if the ancient Greeks did not merely see these curse tablets as an exertion of magic, but rather as a way of getting rid of their daily annoyances.
eMOTIONS and relationships IN CURSE TABLETS
Even though the content of some curse tablets is dark and magical, we find a reflection of situations and emotions that people had to deal with on a daily basis. The curses tell us a lot about personal life, as well as life in the the community of the polis, for example an Attic lead trade curse tablet against shopkeepers, in which the agent of the curse binds several body parts of his fellow shopkeepers. He tells us the names and sometimes even the locations of the occupation of the cursed person. Relationships between the cursed are pointed out.
I bind Callias, the local shopkeer, and his wife Thraitta, and the shop of the bald man, and the shop of Anthemion, which is adjacent to .... [lacuna[ and Philon the shopkeeper. Of all these people I bind their soul, works, hands, feet and shops. I bind Sosimenes (and[?]) his brother, and Carpos his slave, the linen seller, and Clycanthis, whom they call 'Gentle' [Malthake], [...]
(DTA no. 87a, 4th century B.C.)
Curses were frequently used in law-suits. The most prominent emotions in these curses had to do with fear of being found guilty. In the analysis of emotions in the tablets as a whole, fear and anger stood out. Incentive emotions for love curses are twofold, on the one hand the positive feelings that accompany an infatuation, as well as the more negative feelings of envy and jealousy. Faraone has argued that the curse tablets originating from the early Greek period (late 6th and early 5th century BC) all share a theme that has to do with rivalry. Although this isn’t quite clear in some categories, there is a clear rivalry between different lovers in the curses that is driven by envious feelings. Love curses can be divided into two categories, separation and attraction, and were either meant to bind the target so that he or she could not have a (sexual) relationship) with someone else, or to restrain the erotic attraction between the target and the rival.
Most emotions in curse tablets are really strong and often aggressive. The emotions that are found most frequently are a feeling of impotence, fear, anger, love and jealousy. These emotions are found mostly in the personal curse tablets, where one person curses another. These are quite fierce emotions, which might be an explanation for the often dark and ‘magical’ twist in these curse tablets. The common belief might have been that only through dark and mysterious ways, one would be successful in cursing another. On the other hand there are a lot of curse tablets that aren't as emotional as the aforementioned, and which didn't have the same dark content. For example, the Athenian Assembly would start it's meetings with writing a curse. Cities also used curses to protect their citizens form any harm, which made the practice of cursing less personal.
Rolled up curse tablets.
dEITIES IN CURSE TABLETS
One deity, several deities or The Gods as a whole could be invoked in the curse tablets. Analysis of these curse tablets shows that the writers most frequently invoked deities such as Hermes, Persephone, Demeter, Hades and Hecate. Out of the fifteen analyzed tablets at least five were dedicated to Hermes. This fact isn't so striking, since Hermes was the God who accompanied souls to the underworld. The majority of the curse tablets are dedicated to Gods that had some connection to the underworld. Most of the times, the more 'magical' texts turned to other, alien Gods such as Osiris the Egyptian God, or other alien and unknown Gods. Although the deities in curse tablets are generally connected to the underworld, they belong to general Greek religion as well. The same powers and characteristics are endowed to the Gods as they are in other Greek religious area's. The relationship between the writer of the curse and the Gods wasn't always as similar to the relationship between man and God in 'normal' Greek religion. A wide variation of tone and attitude is adopted towards the powers adressed, sometimes even imperative. Yet in most curse tablets the position of the curse writer is humble, while he asks for the Gods to help him or her put a spell on someone.
Polis RELIGION?
Many scholars have treated curse tablets as a marginalized practice in Greek religion, and thus as not belonging to the paradigm of polis religion. There is a lot to say for that view. The use of the so-called voces mysticae (words not belonging to any recognizable language), the often strong connection to the underworld, and the aggressive binding of one and another gives these tablets a rather dark and eerie connotation. However, analysis of the relationships that can be found amongst inhabitants of the polis and their deities shows us that curse tablets were not confided to the personal sphere, but were meant to act out influence on the polis level. Even cities used curses to protect their citizens, which makes the argument that curses were merely personal invalid. Besides that, Esther Eidinow has observed that curse tablets have a strong link to the polis, since the situation in which people found themselves prompted the need to reassess and realign relations between the inhabitants of the polis. The creators of the curse tablets were also part of the network population of the polis. Last but not least, despite the fact that there are few literary sources (Plato has named it a few times), the number of curse tablets exhumed so far (1600) speaks for the fact that the cursing wasn't as marginalized as many scholars have argued.
Image on top of page: Pella curse tablet.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pella_leaded_tablet_(katadesmos)_4th_Century_retouched.jpg
Image of Selinus: https://maps.google.nl/maps?q=selinunte&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x131a4ad55a26dee5:0x83cd35ff9e031c6e,Selinunte,+Trapani,+Itali%C3%AB&gl=nl&ei=VgSnUpq-JMSZ0QWL9oCQDg&ved=0CLUBELYD
Image of rolled up curse tablets: http://www.jenmalin.com/archives/901
References
Eidinow, E., 'Networks and narratives. A model for ancient Greek religion.' Kernos Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique, (2011) p. 9-38
Faraone, C.A., Obbink D., ed., Magika Hiera, Ancient Greek magic and religion (New York 1991)
Sourvinou-Inwood, C., ' What is polis religion?' In The Greek city from Homer to Alexander, ed. Oswyn Murray and Simon Price: (Oxford 1990) p. 295-322.
Ogden, D.D., Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook (Oxford 2002)
Kindt, J., Rethinking Greek religion: (Cambridge 2012)
Angkarloo, B., Clark, S. ed., Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Vol. 2: Ancient Greece and Rome (Witchcraft and Magic in Europe) (Pennsylvania 1999)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pella_leaded_tablet_(katadesmos)_4th_Century_retouched.jpg
Image of Selinus: https://maps.google.nl/maps?q=selinunte&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x131a4ad55a26dee5:0x83cd35ff9e031c6e,Selinunte,+Trapani,+Itali%C3%AB&gl=nl&ei=VgSnUpq-JMSZ0QWL9oCQDg&ved=0CLUBELYD
Image of rolled up curse tablets: http://www.jenmalin.com/archives/901
References
Eidinow, E., 'Networks and narratives. A model for ancient Greek religion.' Kernos Revue internationale et pluridisciplinaire de religion grecque antique, (2011) p. 9-38
Faraone, C.A., Obbink D., ed., Magika Hiera, Ancient Greek magic and religion (New York 1991)
Sourvinou-Inwood, C., ' What is polis religion?' In The Greek city from Homer to Alexander, ed. Oswyn Murray and Simon Price: (Oxford 1990) p. 295-322.
Ogden, D.D., Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook (Oxford 2002)
Kindt, J., Rethinking Greek religion: (Cambridge 2012)
Angkarloo, B., Clark, S. ed., Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Vol. 2: Ancient Greece and Rome (Witchcraft and Magic in Europe) (Pennsylvania 1999)