Animals in Antiquity: Handout – Animals in Magic


1.      Greek magical papyri

 Ἀμαύρωσι<ς> δοκίμη. μέγα ἔργον· λαβὼν πιθήκου ὀφθαλμὸν ἢ νέκυος βιοθανάτου καὶ βοτάνην
ἀγλαοφωτίδος (τὸ ῥόδον λέγει) ταῦτα τρίψας σὺν ἐλαίῳ σουσίνῳ, τρίβων δὲ αὐτὰ ἐκ τῶν δεξιῶν εἰς τὰ
εὐώνυμα λέγε τὸν λόγον, ὡς ὑπόκειται· “ΑΝΟΚ ΑΝΟΥΠ ΑΝΟΚ ΟΥΣΙΡΦΡΗ ΑΝΟΚ ΣΟΣΩΤ ΣΩΡΩΝ ΟΥΙΕΡ ΑΝΟΚ ΠΕ
ΟΥΣΙΡΕ ΠΕΝΤΑ ΣΗΤ ΤΑΚΟ· ἀνάστηθι, δαίμων καταχθόνιε ιω Ἐρβηθ ιω Φορβηθ ιω Πακερβηθ ιω Ἀπομψ, ὃ ἐὰν
ἐπιτάξω ὑμῖν ἐγὼ ὁ δεῖνα, ὅπως ἐπήκοοί μοι γένησθε.” ἐὰν δὲ θελήσῃς ἄφαντος γενέσθαι, χρῖσόν σου τὸ
μέτωπον μόνον ἐκ τοῦ συνθέματος, καὶ ἄφαντος ἔσῃ, ἐφ’ὅσον χρόνον θέλεις. ἐὰν δὲ θελήσῃς
ἐμφαίνεσθαι, ἀπὸ δύσεως ἐρχόμενος εἰς ἀνατολὴν λέγε το ὄνομα τοῦτο, καὶ ἔσει δηλωτικὸς καὶ ἔποπτος
πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις. ἔστιν δὲ τὸ ὄνομα· “Μαρμαριαωθ μαρμα ριφεγγη, ποιήσατέ με, τὸν δεῖνα, ἔποπτον
πᾶσιν ἄνθρώποις ἐν τῇ σήμερον ἡμέρᾳ, ἤδη, ἤδη, ταχύ, ταχύ.” ἔχε<ι> λίαν καλῶς.


“*Tested spell for invisibility: A great work. Take an eye of an ape or of a corpse that has died a
violent death and a plant of peony (he means the rose). Rub these with oil of lily, and as you are
rubbing / them from the right to the left, say the spell as follows: I am ANUBIS, I am OSIR-PHRE, I
am OSOT SORONOUIER, I am OSIRIS whom SETH destroyed. Rise up, infernal daimon,19 IO ERBETH IO
PHOBETH IO PAKERBETH IO APOMPS; whatever I, NN, order you to do, / be obedient to me. And if you
wish to become invisible, rub just your face with the concoction, and you will be invisible for as
long as you wish. And if you wish to be visible again, move from west to east and say this name,
and you will be obvious and visible to all men.” (Betz 1986: pp. 9–10).


2.      Curse tablets

CIL 8.12511 found in Carthago (1st-3rd century CE).

„Ὡς οὗτος ὁ ἀλέκτωρ καταδέδεται τοῖς ποσὶ καὶ ταῖς χερσὶ καὶ τῆ κεφαλῆ, οὕτως καταδήσατε τὰ σκέλη
καὶ τὰς χῖρας καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τὴν καρδίαν Βικτωρικοῦ τοῦ ἡνιόχου τοῦ βενέτου ἐν τῆ αὖριν ἡμέρα
καὶ τοὺς Ἵππους ...“

Just as this rooster has been bound by feet, hands and head, bind the feet, hands, head and heart
of Victoricus, the charioteer of the blue team, for tomorrow and also the horses…

“He should take a white cock that was chosen by the name [named after] of the evildoer Adolf Hitler
and raise it at home for three weeks that is twenty-one days and then will slaughter it on a
waterway and say seven times, as I slaughter this cock so will Adolf Hitler the ruler of the
Germans be slaughtered by Samael, amen may it be His will.” (Harari, 2017, p.195).


Curses against horses – Defixiones agonisticae

Obligate et gravate equos veneti et russei, ne currere possint nec frenis audire possint, nec se
mo(v)ere possint, sed cadant, frangant, dis(f)rangantur, et agitantes veneti et russei vertant nec
lora teneant nec agitare possint nec retinere possint nec ante se nec adversarios suos videant nec
vincant, vertant.

Bind and burden the horses of the blue and red team, so they can´t run nor react to the bridle, nor
move, but they would fall, break, let them (the chariots?) be broken, and turn over the charioteers
of the blue and red team, and make them unable to hold the reins and drive the horses nor to retain
them, make them unable to see their opponents or themselves, make them not win and turn them over.

Compare:

PGM VII. 390-393

*Victory charm for the races: Write on the wide part of its hoofs by inscribing these characters
with a bronze stylus: (…) Write: “Give me success, charm, reputation, glory in the stadium”.

3.      Pliny the Elder – Natural History

„But of all animals, it is the hyæna that has been held in the highest admiration by the magicians,
who have gone so far as to attribute to it certain magical virtues even, and the power of alluring1
human beings and depriving them of their senses.“

...

„They say, too, that the skin of the head is highly efficacious, if attached to a person suffering
from head-ache; that the gall, applied to the forehead, is curative of ophthalmia; and that if the
gall is boiled down with three cyathi of Attic honey and one ounce of saffron, it will be a most
effectual preservative against that disease... We learn also, from the same sources, that the teeth
of the hyæna are useful for the cure of tooth-ache. ... Persons afflicted with night-mare and dread
of spectres, will experience relief, they say, by attaching one of the large teeth of a hyæna to
the body, with a linen thread.“ ...