"May Their Limbs Melt, Just as This Lead Shall Melt…" : Sympathetic Magic and Similia Similibus Formulae in Greek and Latin Curse Tablets (Part 1)

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F19%3A00110076" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/19:00110076 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/67985955:_____/19:00506674

Result on the web

<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/11701/15906" target="_blank" >http://hdl.handle.net/11701/15906</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2019.103" target="_blank" >10.21638/11701/spbu20.2019.103</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

"May Their Limbs Melt, Just as This Lead Shall Melt…" : Sympathetic Magic and Similia Similibus Formulae in Greek and Latin Curse Tablets (Part 1)

Original language description

In this contribution, we present a representative corpus of similia similibus formulae attested in ancient Greek and Latin curse tablets or defixiones. The simile formulae, attested in about 80 tablets in widely differing states of preservation and legibility, are introduced in the context of sympathetic magic and, in contradistinction to literary similes, as performative utterances that are based on a persuasive analogy. This analogy operates in the general form of "just as X possesses property P, so let also Y possess property P", in which Y is the target or victim of the curse, while X and P are variables that change in accordance with the intended results. We provide a provisional taxonomy of simile formulae, offer new readings and interpretations of some defixiones, and compare Greek and Latin documents. Due to its length, the paper has been divided into two parts. In the first part, presented here, we focus on comparata that reference the materiality of the tablet itself and comparata referencing corpses or ghosts of the dead. The remaining comparata, namely animals, historiolae and rituals, aversus formulae and unusual orientations of the script, "names", and drawings, will be presented in a follow-up paper, to be published in the next issue of Philologia Classica.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

60304 - Religious studies

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA19-02741S" target="_blank" >GA19-02741S: The Transmission and Transformation of Ideas in Hellenism, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity</a><br>

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2019

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Philologia Classica

ISSN

0202-2532

e-ISSN

2618-6969

Volume of the periodical

14

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

RU - RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Number of pages

29

Pages from-to

27-55

UT code for WoS article

000473314800004

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85084062749