Sorcery in Ancient Greece and Rome Part One: Defixiones

Both the Greeks and Romans had laws restricting magical practices, as it wasn't part of the state-sanctioned religion. However, magic did have its allure. When normal supplication didn't work, desperate people would turn to a magician or witch for assistance.

One of the main remnants of Greco-Roman magic is the curse tablet. Called katadesmoi in Greek and defixiones in Latin, over 1600 of these survive throughout the Greco-Roman world from about 500 BCE onward. For the purpose of this post, I will refer to these by the Latin term.

Defixiones typically sought to bind or restrain their targets, often utilizing reversed, twisted, or jumbled forms of writing, conventions, or imagery. They had much in common with 'voodoo dolls,' which were found as early as the archaic period. Defixiones were often inscribed on lead, which was then rolled or folded and nailed shut to fix the spell. Lead was a readily available and inexpensive writing medium, as it was a byproduct of silver mining. According to Wunsch, the peculiar coldness and color of lead - "like the pallor of a corpse" - might have made its use for defixiones especially appealing.¹ The defixiones were often deposited into graves, in underground bodies of water, such as springs or wells, or in chthonic sanctuaries. They were also sometimes placed in the target's home or workplace.

Defixiones fall in to one (or more) of four binding formulae:²

1. Direct binding formula: "I bind NN and the hands, feet, and tongue of NN"
2. Prayer formula: "Deity, restrain NN" - of the deities, the four most invoked are Hermes, Ge, Hekate, and Persephone.
3. Wish formula: "May NN be unsuccessful"
4. Similia Simibilis formula: "As this corpse is cold and lifeless, in the same way may NN be cold and lifeless"

The majority of defixiones fall into one of four categories: legal/justice; choral or athletic competitions; trade; and love and sex.

Early defixiones just had the names of their intended targets inscribed on lead, indicating that the binding formula might have been spoken or sung instead of inscribed. Support for this can be found in the binding song of the Erinyes from Aeschylus' play Eumenides, which sought to inhibit Orestes' performance at his forthcoming murder trial. The increase in complexity of the defixiones is likely due to an increase in literacy and wealth from the Classical Period onwards.

Plato references professional magicians selling spells in the Republic (346 b-e). This corresponds with archaeological evidence, and other literary evidence. Four bound lead voodoo dolls - each enclosed within a lead box inscribed with a binding curse - were discovered in two different graves in the Kerameikos, dating to about 400 BCE. These seem to have been produced by the same person, providing the earliest extant material evidence of a professional in ancient Greece. A grave located northeast of the Piraeus, the port of Athens, was excavated in 2003 and contained five curse tablets. The writing on the curse tablets was neat and its prose was eloquent, suggesting a professional curse writer.

Apuleius describes the workshop of the Thessalian witch Pamphile, where defixiones appear alongside other objects as the stock in trade of the witch.³ There are numerous copies that were clearly prepared by professionals, making multiple copies from an exemplar, having identical texts with the same scribal hand with only different names filled in on the different tablets. The names were often filled in in a different hand than the rest of the text. In some instances, the name was not even filled in.

Hundreds of tablets written in the same hand were deposited in the well at Amathous in Cyprus, indicating that professional magicians had their favorite places to deposit their work. One professional magician working in Rome frequented the fountain of Anna Perenna and utilized serpent imagery in his/her work. Both tablets and wax figurines were sealed within triple layers of leaden cannisters. One figurine was blanketed by a curse tablet, while a serpent twined around the body of the figurine, its head rearing up out of the tablet to strike the figurine in the face.

When looking at the technologies used in creating the defixiones, it is easy to see why so many people utilized the technique. There are many modern magical technologies present that make these effective. The use of lead as an inscribing medium, for example, is even more significant when looked at through a modern magical lens; lead is the metal of Saturn, the planet of karma and death. The jumbled writing is meant to confuse the target. Nailing the metal shut is a common way of binding or 'fixing' the spell. By depositing in a grave, underground well, or chthonic sanctuary, the spell and its target is turned over to the dead and chthonic deities.

This information is all well and good - but can these technologies be used by the modern practitioner? Absolutely. I've used defixiones with success when the need arose. In one instance, I needed to banish a stalker. I decided to use a defixione and invoked Hermekete, a conglomeration of Hermes and Hekate. I used the prayer formula to banish the stalker and took the defixione to the grave of a law enforcement officer. When researching the grave to deposit this into, I discovered that the officer had been cremated, and his ashes had been scattered into the lake behind his tombstone. Thus, I decided to throw the defixione into the lake where the ashes had been scattered. did an oral petition at the grave site, similar to the Furies' binding song in the Eumenides, and threw the tablet into the lake, leaving without looking back. It definitely did what it was supposed to do - I did not hear from my stalker again.

Would I use such a thing as the ancient Romans did, to ensure my favorite sports team won? Of course not! But these technologies have its purpose. When reason doesn't work on someone and you need them gone, curse tablets, combined with some hot foot powder, can definitely do the trick.

1. Faraone, p. 7
2. Faraone, p. 5
3. Edmonds, p. 55