“As Isis Loved Osiris, So Let Matrona Love Theodoros...”: Sympathetic Magic and Similia Similibus Formulae in Greek and Latin Curse Tablets (Part 2)

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985955%3A_____%2F19%3A00524741" target="_blank" >RIV/67985955:_____/19:00524741 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/00216224:14210/19:00115168

Result on the web

<a href="http://hdl.handle.net/11701/17052" target="_blank" >http://hdl.handle.net/11701/17052</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.21638/11701/SPBU20.2019.202" target="_blank" >10.21638/11701/SPBU20.2019.202</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

“As Isis Loved Osiris, So Let Matrona Love Theodoros...”: Sympathetic Magic and Similia Similibus Formulae in Greek and Latin Curse Tablets (Part 2)

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 in the previous issue of Philologia Classica (Vol. 14, Fasc. 1, Pp. 27-55), we introduced curse tablets, briefly discussed the principles of sympathetic magic, and focused on comparata that reference the materiality of the tablet 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, are presented in here together with general conclusions.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

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

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

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

—

Volume of the periodical

14

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

RU - RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Number of pages

31

Pages from-to

177-207

UT code for WoS article

000509734600002

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85085383892