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Available
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Publication
New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.
Description
In the ancient Greco-Roman world, it was common practice to curse or bind an enemy or rival by writing an incantation on a tablet and dedicating it to a god or spirit. These curses or binding spells, commonly called defixiones were intended to bring other people under the power and control of those who commissioned them. More than a thousand such texts, written between the 5th Century B.C.E. and the 5th Century C.E., have been discovered from North Africa to England, and from Syria to Spain. Extending into every aspect of ancient life--athletic and theatrical competitions, judicial proceedings.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Maggie.Anton
I found this book both informative and interesting. Only in the last decade or so have scholars started to seriously study the magic, superstitions, sorcery, etc of the ancient world as a guide to how the average person [not the rich, famous or intellectual] lived approximately 2000 years ago. Not
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surprisingly, Gager has deduced from the many amulets, curse tables, incantation bowls and love spells that sorcery was ubiquitous in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Practitioners and clients were Jews, Christians, and pagans, wealthy, poor and everyone in between, in Babylonia and the Roman Empire. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1992
Physical description
xv, 278 p.; 22 cm
ISBN
0195062264 / 9780195062267
Other editions
Curse tablets and binding spells from the ancient world by John G. Gager (Paper Book)
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