Ancient Greek Love Magic

Front Cover
Harvard University Press, 2009 M06 30 - 240 pages
The ancient Greeks commonly resorted to magic spells to attract and keep lovers--as numerous allusions in Greek literature and recently discovered voodoo dolls, magical papyri, gemstones, and curse tablets attest. Surveying and analyzing these various texts and artifacts, Christopher Faraone reveals that gender is the crucial factor in understanding love spells. There are, he argues, two distinct types of love magic: the curselike charms used primarily by men to torture unwilling women with fiery and maddening passion until they surrender sexually; and the binding spells and debilitating potions generally used by women to sedate angry or philandering husbands and make them more affectionate. Faraone's lucid analysis of these spells also yields a number of insights about the construction of gender in antiquity, for example, the femininity of socially inferior males and the maleness of autonomous prostitutes. Most significantly, his findings challenge the widespread modern view that all Greek men considered women to be naturally lascivious. Faraone reveals the existence of an alternate male understanding of the female as naturally moderate and chaste, who uses love magic to pacify and control the naturally angry and passionate male. This fascinating study of magical practices and their implications for perceptions of male and female sexuality offers an unusual look at ancient Greek religion and society.

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Contents

1 Introduction
1
2 Spells for Inducing Uncontrollable Passion Eros
41
3 Spells for Inducing Affection Philia
96
4 Some Final Thoughts on History Gender and Desire
132
Glossary
175
Abbreviations
179
Bibliography
183
Subject Index
205
Index of Foreign Words
213
Index of Passages from Ancient Authors
217
Index of Magical Texts
221
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Page 89 - If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple.
Page 125 - Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes ; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance : therefore much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery : it makes him and it mars him ; it sets him on and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens him ; makes him stand to and not stand to ; -in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and giving him the lie, leaves him.
Page 97 - I shall go to visit them and shall stop their ceaseless quarrels, since now for a long time they have stayed apart from each other and from their marriage bed, since bitter anger (cholos) has fallen upon their hearts.
Page 48 - If the sufferer acts like a goat, and if he roars, or has convulsions involving the right side, they say the Mother of the Gods is responsible. If he utters a higher-pitched and louder cry, they say he is like a horse and blame Poseidon.
Page 71 - Conformable to this, also, is the requirement that the bride eat a quince and be shut up in a chamber with the bridegroom ; and that the husband of an heiress shall approach her thrice a month without fail. For even though they have no children, still, this is a mark of esteem and affection which a man should pay to a chaste wife ; it removes many of the annoyances which develop in all such cases, and prevents their being altogether estranged by their differences.
Page 59 - Theonilla bore, out of passion and love, in this very hour, immediately, immediately; quickly, quickly. ... do not allow Karosa herself, whom Thelo bore, to think of her [own] husband, her child, drink, food, but let her come melting for passion and love and intercourse, especially yearning for the intercourse of Apalos, whom Theonilla bore, in this very hour, immediately, immediately; quickly...
Page 34 - Hades — with the chthonic gods and daimones, with men and women who died before their time, youths and maidens, year after year, month after month, day after day, hour after hour.
Page 52 - Ka6r|Wondrous spell for binding a lover: Take wax <or clay) from a potter's wheel and make two figures, a male and a female. Make the male in the form of Ares fully armed, holding a sword in his left hand and threatening to plunge it into the right side of her neck.
Page 59 - Aye, lord daimon, attract, inflame, destroy, burn, cause her to swoon" from love as she is being burnt, inflamed. Sting the tortured soul, the heart, of Karosa, whom Thelo bore, until she leaps forth9 and comes to Apalos, whom Theonilla bore, out of passion and love, in this very hour, immediately, immediately; quickly, quickly.
Page 75 - ... love. 2 Inanna, who loves apples and pomegranates, 3 Has brought forth potency. 4 Rise! Fall! Love-stone, prove effective for me ! Rise ! 5 ... Inanna .... 6 She has presided over love. 7 Incantation. If a woman looks upon the penis of a man. 8 Its ritual : either <to> an apple or to a pomegranate 9 you recite the incantation three times. You give (the fruit) to the woman (and) have her suck their juices.

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