title: “May Their Limbs Melt, Just as This Lead Shall Melt…”: Sympathetic Magic and Similia Similibus Formulae in Greek and Latin Curse Tablets (Part 1)
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Franek, Juraj
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Urbanová, Daniela
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2019-07-09T20:43:01Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2019-07-09T20:43:01Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2019-03
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Juraj Franek, Daniela Urbanová. “May Their Limbs Melt, Just as This Lead Shall Melt…”: Sympathetic Magic and Similia Similibus Formulae in Greek and Latin Curse Tablets (Part 1). Philologia Classica 2019, 14(1), 27–55.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2019.103
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/15936
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: 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.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.description.sponsorship
metadata.value: This study is a result of the project GA ИR 19-02741S “The Transmission and Transformation of Ideas in Hellenism, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity” funded by the Czech Science Foundation.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: en
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Philologia Classica;Volume 14; Issue 1
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: curse tablets
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: defixiones
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: ancient magic
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: sympathetic magic
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: Greek and Latin epigraphy
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: similia similibus
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: simile formula
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: materiality
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: ghosts in antiquity
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: “May Their Limbs Melt, Just as This Lead Shall Melt…”: Sympathetic Magic and Similia Similibus Formulae in Greek and Latin Curse Tablets (Part 1)
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 27-55.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/15936/1/27-55.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 885,77 kB