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Witch of Endor by Nikolai Ge, 1857.

Ancient Witchcraft and the Spell of the Pella Curse Tablet

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In the first half of the 4th century someone wrote a text in Doric Greek idiom. This text became known as the Pella curse tablet. Over the centuries, it became a key object in the argument supporting the theory that the ancient Macedonian language was created by the Doric dialect and one of North-Western Greek. It is also considered as one of the magical texts of ancient Greece.

The text was discovered in Pella, the capital of ancient Macedonia and was probably created between 375 and 350 BC. It was a period when Amyntas III, Alexander II, Perdiccas III, and Phillip II ruled the growing empire. The ancient Greeks believed in a number of deities and they were aware of the powers of nature. With these beliefs in mind, they also liked to use magic for their own purposes. Apart from oracles, spells were valued in ancient Greek society as well.

Most of the known curse tablets were written in Greek. There are about 1,600 tablets that have been discovered in this language. The Pella curse tablet is one example of these texts from ancient times.

Curse tablets, also known as binding tablets, were very popular in Greece. They were seen as a way to ask spirits, gods, and goddesses for support or to do away with a person or a problem. Ancient Greeks used herbs and fire to make their spells stronger. However, many spells were also created with stones or baked clay to make them survive for many years. These kind of spells were called katadesmoi or defixiones, and it was believed that they would work as long as the text existed.

urse Tablet found in London. Inscription reads: "I curse Tretia Maria and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memory; thus may she be unable to speak what things are concealed, nor be able." (Translation: British Museum). 

Curse Tablet found in London. Inscription reads: "I curse Tretia Maria and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs mixed up together, and her words, thoughts and memory; thus may she be unable to speak what things are concealed, nor be able." (Translation: British Museum). (Public Domain)

A Curse from Pella

There are many translations of the text on the Pella curse tablet. The inscription is available on the internet, so any person who knows ancient Greek may try to read it. According to a specialist in this field, James L. O’ Neil from the University of Sydney, the translation of the ancient text is:

''I forbid by writing the ceremony and the marriage of Dionysophon and Thetima, and of all other women, and widows and virgins, but especially Thetima, and I assign them to Makron and the daimones. And whenever I shall unroll and read this again, after digging it up, then Dionysophon may marry, but not before. May he not take any wife but me, and may I and no other woman grow old with Dionysophon. I am your suppliant; pity me. dear daimones, for I am weak and bereft of all friends. But protect me so this does not happen and evil Thetima will perish evilly, [undecipherable] mine, but may I be fortunate and blessed, [undecipherable].''

The Pella Curse Tablet.

The Pella Curse Tablet. (Public Domain)

The Pella curse tablet calls on the divine powers to solve the author’s problem. The author of this curse was a woman named Dagina. Her beloved, Dionyspohon, was about to marry a woman named Thetima, but Dagina didn't want him to do this. She asked the deities to make Dionysophon marry her, not Thetima. She also requested that her beloved be unable to marry any other woman. She only wanted him for herself.

An analysis of her actions suggests that Dagina could be called an ancient Greek witch. Following this idea, she would be one of the earliest known witches in ancient Greece.

A Linguistic Surprise

Dagina believed in magic and her vocabulary suggests that that she was from Western Greece. It also appears that she may have been a part of the lower-class in Pella. The curse tablet cannot be compared to the royal texts of ancient Macedonia but it is an important example of the language that was used by less wealthy people of the time.

According to a specialist in ancient Greek languages, the Pella curse tablet is one of four texts which have been found representing the local dialect from Macedonia. It confirms that Doric Greek was used in this area and became a basis for the Ancient Macedonian language. James L. O'Neil believes that the tablet shows word forms which are Doric but very different from other forms of the Doric dialect in other parts of the Hellad.

Other existing inscriptions in the same language also prove that the Doric dialect was known in Macedon, and suggest that Macedonian words were taken from this language. Many of the Macedonian inscriptions were created in the Koine language, but it seems that people spoke and wrote less official documents in Doric.

A Macedonian Inscription, 4th century BC.

A Macedonian Inscription, 4th century BC. (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Pella curse tablet became one of the strongest pieces of evidence to support the theory that ancient Macedonian language grew from North-Western Greek, including Aetolian, Epirote, Phocidian, Locrian, etc. Due to the modern political problems between Greece and Macedonia (FYROM), ancient historians, linguistic specialists, and archaeologists looked into the origins of both. Research has also proven that the roots of the Macedonian language don't come from Thessalonian.

The importance of the Pella curse tablet also relates to the content of the written text itself. The script of the curse shows the concerns and interests of people who lived centuries ago. Most of the texts on curse tablets were created by people who were desperate, frustrated, and felt they couldn't find any other way to solve their problems.

Ancient Curses for Many Purposes

Curse tablets were also known in other ancient cultures such as the Egyptian and Roman societies. In Ancient Greece, different types of curses were known. Many of them were created to discourage people who wanted to commit a crime or hurt others. They were created to protect the victims and possible victims.

The most popular types of curses, however, were those made for lawsuits, love spells, theatrical curses, and trade curses. They were always connected to religion, but the deity dedicated to the spell was related to the polis region, where the spell was created.

Pella leaded tablet (katadesmoi) 4th Century.

Pella leaded tablet (katadesmoi) 4th Century. (Public Domain)

Curses and spells in ancient times were used by most of the kings, queens, and other nobles. However, most people wanted to have a magical bond between them and unknown powers, who they believed could make their lives better.

Top image: Witch of Endor by Nikolai Ge, 1857. Source: Public Domain

By Natalia Klimczak

References:

Marco Fantuzzi, Richard L. Hunter, Tradition and Innovation in Hellenistic Poetry, 2004

Ancient Greek Curse Tablets by Christopher A. Faraone, available from:
http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/1/777777122300/

Curses and curse tablets, available from:
http://cityfullofgods.weebly.com/curses-and-curse-tablets.html

Scientific Analysis of the Pella Curse Tablet by James L. O’Neil, (University of Sydney), available from:
http://history-of-macedonia.com/2009/03/20/scientific-analysis-of-the-pella-curse-tablet-james-oneil-university-sydney/

Love Charms In Their Social Context, available from:
http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/csts212w4.html

 

Comments

No one ever said that the ancient city-states were a United country. Everyone knows that so to use that as information to try and prove Greece didn't exist means all your information is either from propaganda or you actually don't know history.

Macedonians were of Greek stock yet Macedonians were a bit removed from the rest of the Greeks. We do know they had a doric roots and we some some similarities between the Macedonians and the Spartans.

We do know 100% that the kings of Macedonia were from Argos. Maybe the population wasn't all pure Macedonians but no region is 100% pure especially regions bordering other groups of people.

The name Philipos is Greek (Philos = lover of, just like philosophy and Ipos = horse in Ancient Greek) and so is Alexander (Alexi = defender of, just like the words Alexiptoto which means parachute and Alexikeravno which is a lightning rod and they mean to repel or defend. Andras means man) and Epiros is where his mother was from and we know Alexander had a relative in Epiros with the same name.

The amacedonians united all the city-states except for Sparta. The language they spoke was the Koini Greek. Only later after Alexander defeated Persia did the Greek language mix with Persian but that was only in Persia and INdia.

All Ancient Macedonian names were Greek names and the language of the Macedonians was Greek. Fact!

The invading Slavs gave the language to the Turkic Bulgarians who do not look like the other Slavs in the area. Funny enough there are more similarities with names, culture and dialect of the Slavic country of Macedonia (which sits on top of the ancient land of Peonia and not Macedonia. Peonia was later annexed by Philip).

The country of Macedonia was a. Ore Bulgarian influenced area historically part of southern Serbia which is why Tito said they werent Bulgarians but Macedonians. They did this so Bulgaria doesn't take that region away from them. So that's when the fable started.

Everything about the country of Macedonia is Bulgarian.

The Greek region of Macedonian hasn't changed much and the language is still Greek. The kings of Macedonia claimed greek heritage during the Olympic Games and historians call the Macedonians Greeks however they do understand there was a bit of a seperatuon and there was a distance especially in relations for a long time and therefore refered to as once removed from the Greeks. It still makes them Greek and they never ever had anything to do with Slavs or Bulgars who came down to the region in the 6th century AD. The only thing close to Macedonia by the new country of The Republic of Macedonia is only the name. For the Greeks it's blood.

Speaking of brainwashing....to the obvious former Yugoslavian why didn't your provide links to academic sources rather than websites run and owned by former Yugoslavian propagandists? Could it be because no historian on earth, other than former Yugoslavians ones, claims the founders of the Hellenistic period were Slavic?

Chill with the name calling. I know I hit a nerve. I'm totally understanding of the pain and denial that comes when your reality of who you are is challenged and ice turned the tables around on myself to see what I would feel if that were the case with me.

I know that the problem with most of this stems from the idea that race and our roots should be perfect and bright. That no other cukture should be better than mine. I know there's a lot of ego in this topic and I like it because it can help chip away falsehoods of our personality and make us all better.

This is why we should teach our children that all humans have amazing capabilities and one path can make us strong while another weak. Cukture is a software and we can reprogram it to be better. It's not our makeup. Who we are is equal to all people.

I also understand that the Balkans fight for who is "the oldest" there because of territorial claims. That's what got FYROM to be this way. The Bulgarian population which was overwhelming and so Tito had to make up a story to prevent Bulgaria from annexing that part of what was then southern Serbia.

At end of the day we are all people with the same capabilities of the ancients and possibly even more.

So let's all just try to become better regardless of who we think our ancestors are.

Thomas, you are a brainwashed, uneducated Gypsy, learn real history or get farken.

Http://Www.HistoryOfMacedonia.Org/

Http://WWW.MacedonianTruth.Org/forum/

Because of the political issue with The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece this none issue has become an issue.
The language and culture of the Macedonians was Greek. All of the Greek city-states and kingdoms and colonies who were bordering other cultures did commingle. They citizens married one another and of course there were other "mixing" of people's and cultures that took place. Regardless of how Macedonia was their rulers were Greek so even if the population was half Greek and half other the essence was all Greek. There was for sure some kind of assimilation of people and culture and all of his has nothing to do with the current county of Macedonia (FYROM).

FYROM occupies a region called Macedonia but does not occupy the ancient Macedonia we all know about. Those who live in FYROM speak a Slavic language closely related to Bulgarians and most have Bulgarian last names.

In any case. Even if the ancient Macedonians were not Greek at all we know they quickly blended with them. So if a later migration of Slavs absorbed these people they still retained the Slavic language and culture and had nothing to do with the ancient Macedonians.

The Bulgarians for example are not a Slavic people and eventually adopted the Slavic language and a majority of the culture so regardless of their precious identity they are now culturally more related to the Slavs.

Just like modern Americans have no connection to the native Americans unless they are actual native Americans. You can have 1/8 or 1/10 American Indian in you and culturally be a modern American unless you still practice and participate culturally with the native Americans.

If FYROM wants to be part of ancient Macedonia they should work on speaking Greek and adopting Greek culture.

With their purchasing of modern statues of Alexander the Great and naming their airport Alexander the Great say they've already started practicing on how to become Greek.

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Natalia

Natalia Klimczak is an historian, journalist and writer and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the Faculty of Languages, University of Gdansk. Natalia does research in Narratology, Historiography, History of Galicia (Spain) and Ancient History of Egypt, Rome and Celts. She... Read More

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