An Examination Of Ancient Greek And Roman Witches Throughout Literature

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HUMS302
MAGIC IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
NAME: Debbie Turkilsen
STUDENT NUMBER: 220085895
WORD COUNT: 5960
TOPIC
This is an in-depth study of the accusations, the evolution, and the progression
of Witchcraft and Sorcery that was believed to have been practised in the
Ancient Greek and Roman World. This will be achieved by the analysis of
ancient mythology, literature, and material evidence that has been discovered
in archaeological excavations.

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This is an in-depth study of the accusations, the evolution, and the progression of
Witchcraft and Sorcery that was believed to have been practised in the Ancient Greek and
Roman World. This will be achieved by the analysis of ancient mythology, literature, and
material evidence that has been discovered in archaeological excavations.
One of the most common themes written about in ancient Greek and Roman Mythology
and Literature has been the topic of Witchcraft and Sorcery. From the first emergence of the
character of Circe in Homer’s work The Odyssey, to the many representations of Medea in
tragedy, mythology, and poetry, the stereotype of dangerous women who engaged in the
art of pharmakon and magic enthralled and frightened the Greek and Roman populace.
Aspersions were cast upon Thessalians, and on older women who were obsessed with erotic
magic to appease their nymphomania. These women had the gods under their command
and could control the elements, converse with the dead, and strike a victim dumbstruck
with one look of their evil-eye. However, with the aid of the material evidence which has
been unearthed in the last century, a completely different picture is emerging pertaining to
the themes and beliefs regarding Witchcraft and Sorcery. Firstly, it was not just a concept to
add terror and bestiality to the characters of storylines. Witchcraft and Sorcery was believed
to be real. Another fact that has emerged is that the stereotype of these practices being a
feminine occupation or pastime is now being revealed as one engaged in by the male sex.
This essay will closely analyse ancient mythology, literature, ancient historical texts, and
material evidence that has come to light. It will discuss the practice of eros and philia magic,
binding magic, necromancy, control of the elements, as well as other significant factors
which contributed to the stereotype of Witchcraft and Sorcery. By doing this evidence will
be given that demonstrates it was both a masculine and feminine practice.
Evidence relates that until the 5th
century B.C. there was actually no definitive term for the
word ‘magic’. It was at this time period the word magos appeared, associated with the
Persian mages who were trained priests, believed to have the ability to perform miraculous

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feats. However, as the knowledge of the magi reached Greece, it became more closely
aligned with goes, or sorcerer.1
The 5th
century B.C. was a period of change for the Greek world, moving from a Hellenised
culture to a Classical culture. The Greeks were known as untrusting of any religious practices
that they either did not understand, or that appeared barbaric.2
It is evident that it was at
this period of Greek history that character assassination began upon any person, usually
female, who had talents that were not fully understood.
Circe, who is ancient history’s first recorded practitioner of pharamakon or sorcery, was
originally labelled polypharmakos.3
Homer’s work The Odyssey, which is the piece of
literature in which Circe first makes an appearance, was written around 700B.C. Through the
use of her extended knowledge of herbs and potions, Circe transforms men into animals.4
Portrayed as an extremely attractive and erotic woman, one is lead to believe that the
practice of male transformation is to enable Circe, a woman who apparently craves sexual
stimulation, to have a stable of men permanently attached to her side with no means of
escape. This storyline is exaggerated as the years pass, and the story of her pharmacological
knowledge is rewritten throughout both the Classical Greek and Roman literature.5
This is the not the first incident of pharmakon recorded in ancient literature. However, it is
the first time it was recorded of as being used by a female. Evidence shows that the benefit
of the poppy plant was widely acknowledged for assistance with pain.6
There is also
1
Price, Simon, & Kearns, Emily, The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, Oxford & New York, 2003,
p.327.
2
Luck, Georg, Arcana Mundi: Magic and Occult in the Greek and Roman World, Baltimore, 2006, p.35.
3
Collins, Derek, Magic in the Ancient Greek World, Carleton, 2008, pp. 27-29
4
Homer, The Odyssey 10.229-43
5
Hom. Odys. 10.345-348; Hyginus, Fabulae 199; Ovid, Metamorphoses 14.5-74, 206-307; Apollonius of Rhodes
Argonautica 4.281-301, 4.659-672
6
Homer, The Iliad, 8.306-307.

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evidence to suggest that pharmakon was used in at least 5 different incidents throughout
Homer’s works with no negative connotations when it is being used by man.7
It is only with Circe’s use of this knowledge that malicious connotations are placed behind
her intent. This supposition is verified by the fact that Nestor discusses a woman well known
for her knowledge of drugs, Agamede.8
However, as she is respected by a great warrior, no
negative aspersions are cast upon her character, and she is not heard of again.
One theory that explains the accusation of black magic, or witchcraft upon Circe, is the
change from the worship of the Great Goddess, a matriarchal religion, to a patriarchal
religion. In the Bronze Age (3000-16/1500B.C.), Crete and other Aegean islands worshipped
the female divinity. This is evidenced by statues that have been unearthed in archaeological
excavations. (Figure 1).
Both mythology and ancient literature present both Circe, and the character Medea, as the
two most experienced witches and practitioners of pharmakon.9
Material evidence shows
that the cult of the Great Goddess was led by female priestesses, often depicted as
preparing herbs or being given votive offerings. (Figure 2-3). If one looks at the artistic
depictions of Circe and Medea, it can clearly be ascertained that both of these women could
have been priestesses of the Great Goddess cult.10
(Figure 4-5). The premise that Circe is
defeated in her magical knowledge by the intervention of Hermes can be viewed as the
beginning of the dominance of the patriarchal ideal.11
7
Hom. Odys. 1.261; 2.329; Il. 4.218; 5.401, 900; 22.94
8
Hom. Il. 11.738-41
9
Diodorus Siculus 4.46, 51;Ovid Met. 7.187-219; 14.349-350
10
Luck, G., 2006, p.35.
11
Hom. Odys.10.243-335

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Evidence states that most writers would use facets of society as a basis for their fictional
accounts, to make it more believable.12
To verify the ideological patriarchal stance of both
Greek religion and society, important priestesses are rewritten from beneficent beings to
bestial barbarians. This would assist in taking the sphere of sorcery away from the realm of
male activity. Evidence attests to the fact that male sorcerers did operate in Greece.13
However as magic was either attributed to curse tablets which was usually against a rival of
some kind, or love/erotic magic, it would have been a form of emasculation for a male to
profess that he had need to resort to these tactics.14
Ancient evidence also recognises the
prevalence of literature written that acknowledged the theoretical existence of both Circe
and Medea.15
As ancient literature evolved with the change of eras, political agendas, and cultural
dominance, a clear stereotype begins to evolve in the portrayal of Witches. The first of these
is that they are usually Thessalian in origin.16
The most damaging and demonic portrayal of a
Thessalian witch is Lucan’s Erictho. Lucan’s description ensures the reader that she is from
an extremely barbaric or uncivilised culture, far-distanced from any concept of what was
considered to be a Roman.17
As if to do more damage to the Great Goddess, this witch as
well as others, has powers over snakes.18
(Figure 1). As Beard, Price, and North assert, her
portrayal is the antithesis of rational and humane religious practice.19
Lucan creates Erictho as a character using her divinatory powers to answer questions for the
Republican side in the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey.20
She is an offense to the
gods of Rome, the Imperial Cult, and can be seen as a threat to the politico-social
12
Plutarch, On the Fame of Athens, 348A-B.
13
Strabo, Geography, C762
14
Price, S., & Kearns, E., 2003, p.328.
15
Pliny NH 25.10
16
Apuleius Metamorphoses, 1.1; 2.21; Pliny the Elder Natural History 30.1-20; Lucan, Civil War, 6.413-830.
17
Lucan, Civil War, 6.413-880
18
Lucan, BC, 6.543-549
19
Beard, Mary, Price, Simon, & North, John, Religions of Rome Vol. 1: A History, New York, 2010, p.220
20
Lucan, BC, 6.459-470

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order.21
One has to consider that Lucan is writing in a period of turmoil. Germanicus had
died through supposedly being a victim to witchcraft.22
Ancient evidence narrates that
Caligula had apparently been driven mad through the misuse of philia magic by his wife
Caesonia.23
Also, while Augustus had been Emperor all sorcerers and astrologers had been
forced to leave Rome in case they incited revolutions.24
This was Lucan’s way of rebelling
against the imperial regime. It is also his way of relating to the Roman populace his belief of
what period in history Roman socio-political culture had changed for the worse.
However it is not just Erictho who is portrayed as Thessalian in origin.25
The supposition was
used so extensively that one could surmise that the word Thessaly became known as
another word for witch. Mythology and historical evidence gives two separate reasons as to
why Thessaly was depicted as the home of witches. While fleeing from Athens, Medea
supposedly threw her herbs and potions from her chariot whilst flying over Thessaly.26
However, the more credible explanation is the fact that the Aleuadae, the reigning family in
Thessaly in the 5th
century B.C., assisted Xerxes in his invasion of Greece by allowing him
passage and offering him support.27
To the Greek psyche this would have been considered
one of the highest incidents of treason. In the case of Rome’s actual perception of Thessaly,
it was as a place of fictional demonic women. There was no apprehension of the place for
them in reality.28
Another stereotype was the patronage of the goddess Hecate. Hecate’s story is also a mass
of contradictions. Her initial appearance in Greek literature is through Hesiod, where she is
21
Beard,M, Price, S, North, J., 2010, p.220
22
Tacitus, Annals2.69-74; 3.7
23
Suetonius, Caligula, 50
24
Dio Cassius, Roman History, 52.36
25
Lucian Dialogues of the Hetaerae 1.2;4; Apul. Meta. 1.1, 3.16; Horace Carm. 1.27.21-22; Ovid The Cures of
Love 249-51
26
Scholiast Aristophanes Clouds 749a
27
Herodotus, Histories 7.6
28
Phillips, Oliver, ‘The Witches’ Thessaly’, Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, (eds.), Mirecki, P., & M.
Meyer, Leiden, Boston, & Koln, 2002, p.381.

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described as benevolent, honourable, and a favourite of Zeus. It is in The Theogony that she
is initially linked to Hermes.29
Another myth that discusses Hecate is Demeter’s search for
her daughter Persephone.30
However, at some time the perception of her changes. The only
definitive clue in ancient literature is from Diodorus Siculus.31
This could have occurred when one analyses the role Hecate played in helping to find
Persephone in the Underworld. She appears to share a goddess position with Persephone,
with the names Persephone and Kore becoming at least two of her many pseudonyms. With
the advent of her being linked with Pan, who is viewed as the god of the witches, she
became the patron goddess to those who practice witchcraft.32
With the assistance of Pan,
she can send madness onto victims. All mental disturbances in ancient Greece were
believed to be related to demonic possession.33
There is no denying that the description of
witches prevalent throughout literature or mythology, except for Circe, matched those who
would have been mentally deranged.34
The mythological assistance Hecate rendered to Demeter also appears to be a crucial
moment in the change of perception regarding Hecate and Underworld connotations.
Through these new Underworld connections, her positive elements of wealth and posterity
are changed to associations with the moon, terror, and bad luck or omens. Harris and
Platzner also state that under patriarchal auspices she changed from being portrayed as a
young goddess into the old, ugly hag. With Hecate’s sudden alignment with the moon she is
also associated with the previous dominance of the Great Goddess cult.35
This sudden
alignment with Hecate and the Goddess Cult would have been introduced to decrease her
importance and favouritism in Zeus’ eyes.
29
Hesiod, The Theogony,412-451
30
Homeric Hymn to Demeter 20-55
31
Dio. Sic. 4.45-50
32
Luck, G., 2006, p.57.
33
Doods, E. R., The Greeks and the Irrational, Berkely, 1951, pp.66-67.
34
Euripides, Medea103, 396, 815-817; Horace Epode 5; Lucan BC 413-880
35
Harris, S. L., & Platzner, G, Calssical Mythology: Images and Insights, Sacramento, 2008, pp.156-157

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The Great Goddess was known to have an affinity with the moon and serpents. She was
extremely mysterious to the male sex, as she was recognised as the giver of life, death, and
rebirth.36
As Hecate would have been thought of to have secretive properties this would
have convinced her devotees that she would fulfil requests that were evil. Ancient evidence
has recorded in the 5th
century B.C. a sorceress who sees herself as stronger than the
goddess Hecate, promising to expel her if needed.37
Gods of witchcraft were not openly
acknowledged, as they were not worshipped for glory. It was most likely that prayers recited
to them were either whispered or hissed.38
There is also the fact that Hecate was considered the goddess of the Crossroads. She was
often depicted with three faces to represent the three masks that were often hung at the
meeting of the three pathways.39
(Figure 6). Crossroads were perceived as liminal points,
places that signified no definitive place, and could be used by witches or sorcerers because
of their dissociation from municipal towns.40
Crossroads were also places where the bodies
of convicts and fraudulent sorcerers were left when they died, so as not to pollute the city’s
interior.41
Evidence asserts that those who practiced witchcraft or sorcery would often call upon
Hecate and her assembly of restless ghosts.42
Restless ghosts and witchcraft were said to fall
into four different categories. There were the aoroi, who were people who had died before
their time. Most often these were represented as children or babies. The second type were
bi(ai)othanatoi. These were people who had died by violence. The third were Agamoi,
usually a female who had died before fulfilling their role of marriage and motherhood. The
final category of restless ghosts was called Ataphoi, those deprived of burial.43
Literature
36
Price, S., & Kearns, E., 2003, p.243.
37
Sophon of Syracuse
38
Luck, G. 2006, p.55.
39
Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, Stuttgart, 2000, p.171;Sophocles The Root-Cutters F535
40
Johnston, S. I., ‘Crossroads’, in Zeitschrift fur papyrologic und epigraphic, Vol. 88, 1991, p.220.
41
Plato Laws 909a-d
42
Theocritus, Idyll 2; Ovid Meta. 7.189-194; Eur. Medea 396; Seneca Medea 6-12.
43
Ogden, Daniel, Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds, Oxford and New York, 2009,
p.146.

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depicts how dejected these spirits were.44
All played significant roles in the belief of being
able to successfully cast spells over someone.
Two ancient pieces of poetry demonstrate the widely believed premise that restless ghosts
were in fact a reality. Virgil relates the story of Dido, who would have been classified both as
bi(ai)othanatoi and agamoi. 45
Dying a violent death allowed Virgil to give his own reasoning
behind the continued warfare between Carthage and Rome, why there had been moments
Rome nearly lost, and why Carthage had to be destroyed.46
It was also a useful piece of
Augustan propaganda as he was in the process of reinventing Rome as moral and pious
place.47
The second piece is written by Horace. Along with Erictho, Canidia became one of the most
famous literary versions of a Roman witch. It involves another common stereotype used to
portray literary witches. This is the use of body parts for magical potions and spells.48
Canidia has abducted a boy and buried him in the ground, with just his head above the
service, so that this ‘lustful hag’ can make a powerful erotic spell. Being starved and teased
with glimpses of food was a pretext to make his liver and internal organs stronger with
longing, rendering the spell more potent.49
At the end of the piece this boy casts a curse
which is clearly exploitation on the premise of a restless ghost.50
It also assisted the
stereotype of old wicked hags practising witchcraft to appease nymphomanic urges.
One has to wonder how both Virgil and Horace had such an in-depth knowledge of the
rituals and incantations that had to be performed. Their pieces are both extremely graphic
and would have been believable for their reading audience. In regards to Virgil, a fragment
44
Virgil Aeneid, 6.325-30; Hom. Odys. 11.34-77
45
Vir. Aen. 4.478-629
46
Polybius Histories; Plutarch Cato the Elder 26-27; Appian Roman History 8.128-130.
47
Dio. Cass. 49.43.5
48
Apul. Meta. 2.21, 3.17; Lucan BC 6.591-633; Petronius Satyricon 63
49
Hor. Ep. 5.1-48
50
Hor. Ep. 5. 100-112

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of a piece called The Root-Cutters, belonging to Sophocles, has been found which is almost
identical.51
However, ancient evidence has also implicated Theocritus, Virgil, Horace and
Catullus as the possessors of superstitious beliefs.52
This supports the theory that love magic and sorcery was not just a female occupation.
Manning has identified two details in Horace’s poetry which has been confirmed in ancient
text as factual occurrences.53
Pliny discusses the ideal of people being buried alive, as well
as the recognised power of frogs.54
This also supports the theory that the practice of
witchcraft and sorcery was widely believed to be a reality that could have consequences on
intended victims.
Epigraphic evidence has been discovered that asserts that the Roman populace were
convinced the theft of children and/or body parts by witches was in fact a reality. An
epitaph records the death of a young slave girl who was supposedly snatched by witches.55
The girl’s parents belonged to Livia, Drusus Caesar’s wife. However, ancient evidence
reports that Livia was executed for poisoning Drusus at a later time.56
Whether one wants to
make the assumption that Livia herself practiced witchcraft there is enough evidence to
support the hypothesis. However, it is more likely the young girl was killed through
punishment and misadventure, and her parents superstitious beliefs played upon as a
sufficient explanation.
Material evidence has been discovered recently of an erotic spell from later antiquity, which
specifically calls on Hecate in all her many guises; Baubo from Persia, Persephone-Kore, and
51
Vir. Aen. 413-14 “Herbs she had gathered, cut by moonlight with a bronze knife – Poisonous herbs all rank
with juices of black venom’’; Sophocles The Root-Cutters F534 “And she, looking back as she did so, caught the
white, foamy juice from the cut in bronze vessels…and the hidden boxes conceal the cuttings of the roots,
which she uttering loud ritual cries, naked, was severing with bronze sickles”.
52
Pliny NH 28.19
53
Manning, C. E., ‘Canidia in the Epodes of Horace’, in Mnemosyne, Vol. 23, No. 4, 1970, p.394
54
Pliny NH 30.12, 32.49-52
55
CILvi 19747; Bucheler 1895-97; vol.2, no.987.
56
Suet. Tibullus 62

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Artemis from Lydia, as well as many other names. What is most significant about it is that it
calls on all four forms of restless ghosts to assist her.57
It also corrupts the premise of the
stereotype regarding the ideal that it was women who used erotic magic on men. This spell
is requesting Hecate and her Underworld friends to send a female mad with longing for him.
It is an extremely valuable find in the archaeological field for ancient magic.
Controlling nature, the elements, and being able to draw down the moon was also
attributed to mythological and literary witches. The premise was that witchcraft and sorcery
was able to make mountains crumble, to make harvests die, and fruit to fall from trees with
no wind.58
All of these ideas are easily explained, either as a literary artifice to increase the
terror associated with the storyline, or as natural events. Fruit falls from trees when ripe; no
wind is needed. There also would have been times of drought. Ancient evidence attests to
the fact that Rome suffered famine from crop shortage.59
The puzzling premise is that of a sorcerer’s spell being able to remove a neighbour’s harvest
and place it in their own field.60
However, the Romans definitively believed that this was an
occurrence that did indeed happen, as evidenced by the law in their Twelve
Tables.61
Written in the 5th
century B.C., the only explanation is that Rome was a place that
highly believed in the existence of prodigious events. Livy personally narrated in his history
supernatural events that would occur before something would happen that negatively
affected the Romans.62
There is also evidence to suggest that at the time the Twelve Tables
were documented Rome had been struck with two extreme disasters, famine and
plague.63
This is the only plausible explanation for the invention of such a law. Natural
disasters were more easily explained as supernatural events.
57
Faraone, Christopher, Ancient Greek Love Magic, Cambridge & Massachusetts, 2001, pp.144-145.
58
Ovid Med. 7.187-220; Amores 3.7.31-34
59
Tac. Ann. 6.13, 12.43
60
Tibullus Elegies 1.8.19-22; Ovid The Cure for Love 254-258
61
Pliny NH 28.18
62
Livy Histories 3.10,21.62,22.57,
63
Livy Hist. 3.33

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The ability to draw down the moon was widely attributed to those able to practice
witchcraft and sorcery. This was an art that became an important component to being able
to perform powerful erotic magic. The effect of drawing down the moon either seemed to
turn it pale or red.64
Those most talented at it were, of course, the Thessalians, who were
said to pay an extremely high personal price for performing the action.65
However, ancient
evidence has perceived that the act of drawing down the moon was actually just the ability
to foretell the coming occurrence of a lunar eclipse.66
It is evident that it was not only men
who studied astronomy.
The main stereotype in regards to witchcraft or sorcery was that, for the most part, in was
always done by women. Literature and mythology gave us Medea and Circe, Canidia and
Erictho. However, this is in variance to ancient evidence with supports the premise that
sorcery was actually first recorded as being practised by the male sex.67
Pythagoras is an
extremely interesting character in regards to sorcery. Legend states he was able to avert
pestilences, and control elements. All these things were supposed to be the scope of
witchcraft. However, his career was celebrated and not degraded like the female practice of
sorcery.
Shape-shifting was also attributed to female witches, usually under the pretext of becoming
a werewolf.68
They were also attributed with having the power of invisibility.69
However,
these were abilities of male shamans, or sorcerers, as well. Certain Greek tribes were
celebrated for having this talent.70
Only when portrayed as a male talent, are they told in a
positive way.71
Apollonius was known as an extremely experienced and widely admired
sorcerer, as is evident of spells discovered that were still being practiced over 300 years
after his death.
64
Aristophanes Clouds 746-47; Ovid Met. 4.329-33; Apul. Meta. 1.3; Ovid Amores 2.1.23-28
65
Zenobius Epitome 404
66
Plut. Mor. 145cd; Vell. Pater. 1.4.1
67
Hero. Hist. 4.94-6; Diogenes Laertius 8.3; Porphryry Life of Pythagoras 28.9
68
Vir. Ecl. 8; Pet. Sat. 61.2;
69
Pet. 63; Apoll. Of Rhod. 4.569-74
70
Hero. Hist. 4.105
71
Philostratus Life of Apollonius 3.38-9; 4.10

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The Papyri Graecae Magicae was an assortment of spells and charms that were discovered
in the 4th
century A.D.72
One of the most intriguing spells was the PGM Xia, which was
attributed to Apollonius. By using the skull of a Typhon, or an ass, and chanting an
incantation with the assistance of certain herbs and incense, one was able to summon their
own demonic assistant. If the assistant remained in the form of an old hag, she would be
loyal. However, if allowed to transform herself into an attractive young maiden, she could
escape.73
This appears to correspond to beliefs that old witches were desirous of having young men.74
Similar to the myth of Perseus and the control he had over the Graeae by seizing their one
eye, this demonic assistant would remain old and loyal by the seizure of her tooth.75
Yet this
spell was taken seriously and readily performed by men. One has to wonder why there were
no negative connotations placed on the men who practised it.
One only has to investigate ancient evidence to understand why this was so. Women in
Greece were portrayed as evil, drunkards, sex-fiends, and repugnant to a household.76
One
source even went so far as to state that a woman was only favourable on two days; the day
of her wedding, probably because of her virginity and freshness, and the day of her
funeral.77
If men perceived them as evil, it was easier to cast aspersions of malevolent
witchcraft and sorcery upon them.
72
Beard, Mary, Price, Simon, & North, John, Religions of Rome Vol. 2: A Sourcebook, New York, 2011, p.269.
73
Ogden, D., 2009, p.311.
74
Apul. Meta. 2.5
75
Apollodorus Bibliotheca 2.4.1-5
76
Eur. Med. 408-9; Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 392-94; Semonides of Amorgos 7.1-6, 12-20, 57-70, 106-
18
77
Hipponax 68

14
The same association was made for women in Rome. It was widely believed a Roman
woman who drank would commit adultery.78
Evidence tells us that in Early Republican Rome
a husband was allowed to beat his wife to death with a cudgel for drinking.79
Bacchic Rites
were expelled from Rome in 188 B.C. because of the wildness and orgiastic activities related
to it. It was also a religion that allowed women to play a pivotal role.80
The female sex were
also considered to be the most susceptible to uncontrollable anger.81
Women were not to be
trusted at all. Also, by placing the stereotype of witchcraft and sorcery on women, the
expansion of the Roman empire cast suspicion on outside cults which held an element of
female ascendency within them.82
One has to agree that ancient mythology and literature have portrayed witchcraft and
sorcery as an extremely malevolent and misused portion of magic in the ancient world. For
important men to have their own Diviners was an accepted part of society. C. Gracchus,
Sulla, and even Caesar openly admitted to having their favourites in this field.83
However,
evidence proves that Sulla was highly suspicious of sorcerers, putting extreme laws into
enactment that promised capital punishment for any found practising the black arts.84
This
moves the premise of witchcraft and sorcery out of the realms of being a literary character
and into the realms of reality.
This is asserted by the prevalence of laws that were decreed concerning the abolition of any
form of magical profession. Evidence tells us that as early as the 5th
century B.C. there were
requests and assertions being recorded that those who practice witchcraft and sorcery
should be punished and expelled from Greek society.85
There is an act of capital punishment
that has been uncovered that confirms this law was put into place. A servant was executed
78
Pliny NH 7.12,18
79
Valerius Maximus Memorable Deeds and Sayings 6.3.9
80
Livy Histories 39.8
81
Plut. Mor. 457b-c; Plut. On Contentment 2.e-f; Seneca Phaedra 522-524
82
Beard, M., Price, S., & North, J, 2010, pp.213-14
83
Val. Max.8.11.2; 9.12.5; Plut. Sulla 9.3; Suet. The Deified Julius 81
84
Beard,M., Price, S., North, J., 2011, p.261
85
Plato Laws 933e

15
for knowing pharmakon.86
However, there is evidence that states the reason for her death
was actually because she was a priestess teaching slaves’ deceit.87
One can see a definitive
attempt of defamation of a religious woman’s character by associating her with a forbidden
activity.
Necromancy was an important attribute to a witch’s or a sorcerer’s repertoire. Homer
introduces the concept by having Circe instruct Odysseus in how to perform the
ritual.88
However, the whole pretext of it being a feminine ability is destroyed by the fact
that Odysseus, and the men with him, now are experienced practitioners in the art as well.
Erictho, Lucan’s creation, can reanimate people from the dead using special concoctions and
chants.89
This storyline would have been heavily influenced by the Medea rejuvenation
myths.90
However, ancient evidence heavily supports the fact that male sorcerer’s were able
to perform the act of necromancy also.91
Laws were also initiated in Rome that made witchcraft and sorcery illegal activities. The first
known laws were from the Twelve Tables, enacting laws that stated no one was to bewitch
another’s crops and that there was to be no casting of evil spells.92
This was then further
strengthened in 81 B.C. with the lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficiis. In this law, the
possession of magical books and other occult paraphernalia were strictly banned.93
In 31
B.C., Augustus reinforced this law by burning every magical book that existed in Rome,
except for certain portions of the hallowed Sybilline Prophecies.94
This would have been
done to maintain control in Rome after an especially horrible period of Civil Wars and to
ensure that there were no revolutions.
86
Aristogeiton 79
87
Plutarch Demosthenes 14.6
88
Hom. Odys 10.488-540; 11.13-149
89
Lucan BC 6.588-830
90
Ovid Med. 7.187-294
91
Philostratus Life of Apollonius 3.38-9; 4.11,16
92
Pliny NH 28.12
93
Beard, M., Price, S., & North, J., 2011, p.211
94
Suet. Augustus 31

16
Imperial Rome took these laws to the extreme. Evidence exists that shows practitioners in
witchcraft or sorcery were either burned alive or tortured by the hook before being
beheaded.95
In A.D. 354, whilst Tiberius Claudius was emperor, forty-five men and eighty-
five women, who were all suspected of sorcery, were executed.96
This proves that witchcraft
and sorcery was a considered a reality in the ancient world, and was not just a topic for
mythology and literature.
Much of the reality of witchcraft and sorcery can be discerned through ancient literature.
Graf does not believe this to be so, arguing that literature has its own laws and is open to
exaggeration.97
However, as Faraone has responded, it is quite hypocritical for scholars to
investigate ancient literature such as Homer and Sophocles for Greek beliefs and cultural
practices such as burial customs, social life, and the manufacture of goods while completing
eschewing it for the use of witchcraft and sorcery.98
The knowledge of pharmakon is prevalent throughout all ancient mythology, literature, and
text. Ingredients are usually identified as poisonous herbs, owls’ eggs and feathers, and
water from Lake Avernis.99
There are also common household ingredients like barley grains
and bay leaves.100
As Scarborough has stated, Sophocles, Homer, and Petronius have all
implied that love of drugs and poisons is an exclusively female preoccupation.101
However,
evidence disproves this theory.
95
Ammianus Marcellinus 29.1; Ogden, 2009, p.284, Hadrian of Tyre at Polemon Declamationes; Ogden, 2009,
p.335, Theodosian Code 9.16.1,3,6,7
96
Ogden, 2009, p.333, Chronicle of the Year 354 A.D.
97
Graf, Fritz, Magic in the Ancient World, Cambridge & London, 2003, p.175.
98
Faraone, C., 2001, p.39.
99
Hor. Epodes 5. 20-22, 29
100
Theocritus Idyll 2
101
Scarborough, John, ‘The Pharmacology of Sacred Plants, Herbs and Roots’, in Magical Hiera (eds.) Faraone,
C., & Dirk Obbink, New York & Oxford, 1991, p.140.

17
Pliny gives us a wealth of information in regards to men having knowledge of pharmacology.
He affirms that the origin of magic probably lay in the advent of medicine.102
Evidence
relates common remedies for impotence, plants to be used as aphrodisiacs, as well as what
was commonly identified as poisons.103
Mythology also plays its part in relating male
knowledge of pharmacology.104
One has to wonder if the negative aspersions on womens’
pharmacological knowledge came from the mysteries of childbirth, and potions and
ointments used by midwives.105
Another source of ancient evidence narrates the case of a Roman man, Calpurnius Besta,
accused with rubbing Aconite on his wife’s private parts. A known poison, it was said to
kill.106
Hemlock had been known for years for its poisonous properties, as having been used
for capital punishment in Athens.107
As stated previously, it was widely known in Homer’s era
of the benefits of opium. However, by concentrating on female characters who knew
pharmakon, incantations, and were portrayed as having uncontrollable temper, it is
perceived that it would only be men who had the rationality to use such potent ingredients.
Ancient texts relate many accusations of witchcraft and sorcery that were recorded. There
were those which accused rival wives or concubines of keeping one childless.108
Curio, one of
Roman Republic’s most famous orators, blamed witchcraft as the source of becoming
tongue-tied and lost for words in an important case.109
Libanius, a famous imperial orator,
was also apparently the victim of witchcraft.110
One has to acknowledge that for incidents
like these to have been recorded in historical texts, the belief in witchcraft and sorcery was
real.
102
Pliny NH 30.2
103
Pliny NH 24.157;25.154; 28.99,262
104
Pindar Pythian 3.46.54
105
Pliny NH28.97, 100, 102; Eur. Andromache 29-35, 155-60
106
Pliny NH 27.4
107
Pliny NH, 25.51
108
Eur. Andro. 31-35; Plut. Dion. 3
109
Cicero Brutus 217
110
Libanius Orations 1.243-50

18
One of the main preoccupations within literature regarding the use of witchcraft and
sorcery is eros or philia magic. Pindar introduces the concept of the iunx bird, or wryneck.
111
Scholarship agrees that the wryneck was used in love magic as its customary movements
were thought to either indicate it had a lascivious nature or was mad.112
This bird is then tied
to a wheel and whipped and burned to torture the recipient of the spell.113
However, there
is no emasculation attributed with Jason’s actions to use this spell on Medea. As he is taught
by a goddess, he is portrayed as a hero.
The wryneck is also used in Theocritus’ piece about a woman called Simaetha.114
Once the
iunx was attached to the wheel which woud make a whistling sound as it was supposedly
spun. This was thought to create an analogy between the iunx’s mating call and the whistle
of the wheel.115
She chants an incantation ten times between each stroph, calling on the iunx
to draw the man she loves to her house.116
Ancient evidence states that there was a wide
belief that certain incantations and words had power.117
It is easy to discern that this was a
transferral of animalistic desire or behaviour onto the intended victim of the spell.
Theocritus’ piece has been analysed as both an erotic spell and a binding spell.118
Faraone
has studied the existence of binding spells or curses, eros magic, and philia magic quite
intensely. He has made some very surprising discoveries. With the archaeological discovery
of 81 lead tablets, used for both types of love magic, it was predominantly males who were
using it, as 69 of them target women.119
This goes directly against the stereotype that it was
women who had a preoccupation with love magic.
111
Pindar Pythian 4.213-15
112
Faraone, C. ‘The Wheel, the Whip, and Other Implements of Torture: Erotic Magic in Pindar Pythian’, in The
Classical Journal, Vol. 89, No. 1, 1993, p.14.
113
Pind. Pyth. 211-250
114
Theocritus Idyll 2
115
Ogden, 2009, p.250
116
Ibid 1,6,11,16,21,26,31,36,41
117
Pliny NH 28.13
118
Theo. Idyll2 3,10,159
119
Faraone, C, 2001, p.43

19
Faraone’s research has also helped identify the clear differences between eros magic and
philia magic. Spells for philia were more often used by social inferiors or wives. One can
discern evidence of this magic used in ancient text, and not always exclusively by
females.120
It usually involves incantations over amulets, knotted cords, or love
potions.121
Eros magic is used to create an uncontrollable lust within the victim. It was most
predominantly used by courtesans and men. Incantations were usually recited over bound
images, tortured animals, or burning objects.122
Evidence shows the sorcery used by men
was more violent and damaging towards the intended victim. Female witches and sorcerers
did not deserve the stereotype that they have inherited from ancient mythology and
literature.
Binding magic was seen as an emblem of black magic.123
Even though used for love and/or
erotic purposes, they were known to call on Eros. Eros magic can be seen as a curse, as he
began his career as a demonic figure armed with a whip, bow and arrow, and a torch.124
All
of these implements denote violence. To seal their powers, binding curses were written on
lead tablets or pieces of papyrus. (Figure 7). They were usually deposited inside of graves,
bodies of water, or chthonic sanctuaries, to ensure they were not dug up again.125
Close examination of some of these lead tablets that have been discovered are very
disturbing in regards to the wording used. There are tablets requesting demonic gods to
cause a loved one to fight with a love rival, some to the point of death.126
Another spell
recorded on tablet has been buried with a waxen figure of a dog, obviously as a
representation of Hecate. Bat’s eyes are put in place where the dog’s eyes would have been.
This would have caused the woman sleeplessness until the spell has been fulfilled.127
120
Plutarch Lucullus 43.1-2;Sophocles Women of Tracchis 532-581
121
Faraone, C., 2001, p.28
122
Ibid.
123
Aeschylus Euminides 305-306
124
Faraone, 2001, p.45.
125
Ogden, 2009, p.210.
126
PGM LXVI, Ogden, 2009, p.229.
127
PGM VII.466-77, Ogden, 2009, p.233.

20
However, the most intriguing and disturbing love spell was a Greek one found in Egypt.
Inside a sealed clay pot was a lead tablet with a small effigy of a woman. She had her hands
and feet bound, and had been penetrated in areas such as her eyes, anus, private parts, and
mouth by 13 needles. (Figure 8). The wording in the spell was especially violent, stating that
the gods had the right to drag her by the hair, by her guts, and to allow her no comfort of
food or sleep until she was obedient to Sarapammon, the initiator of the spell.128
It is quite
significant in proving how close sometimes love is to hate.
Binding curses have also been discovered upon archaeological excavations. At least 1600
have been discovered so far, with the majority of them being in Greek. They are dated from
the 6th
century B.C. onwards. They are usually written in a jumbled or reversed system of
writing and/or images.129
This suggests the belief that the curse would end up confusing the
victim so that they could not perform at their career, or in competitions, effectively. Most
that have been translated deal with issues such as trade, competition, legal cases, or prayers
for justice.130
Ancient literature exhibits many pieces of evidence which signify that men were known to
call on the assistance of witches or sorcerers.131
However, this where there appears to be a
masculine element attached to the women who are practisers of the art.132
As these men
have had to concede to emasculation, resorting to what was considered a feminine
resource, to achieve their heart’s desire, the women who performed the act for them were
masculine. Female rulers who had to be queen and king at the same time, courtesans who
ran their own household and tended to their own finances, and elderly women or widows
who had no masculine dominance playing a guardian role over their lives anymore.
128
Faraone, C., 2001, pp.41-42
129
Ogden, 2009, p.210.
130
Ibid, p. 210.
131
Tib. Elegies 1.2.42-66; 1.5.49-56; Xenophon Memorabilia 3.11.16-17
132
Plut. Mor. 256a-d; Sallust Catalinarian Conspiracy 25.1-5; Plut. Mark Antony, 37

21
A fascinating discovery has been made recently in Rome’s Piazza Euclid by the archaeologist
Marina Piranomonte and her colleagues. They discovered the remains of a fountain
dedicated to a minor goddess, Anna Perenna.133
This goddess was associated with a festival
that was celebrated on the 15th
of March each year, which falls on the Ides of the month
and would have celebrated the first full moon of the year. Anna is also said in legend to have
been the sister of Dido.134
This dig has unearthed an enormous amount of voodoo dolls and
lead curse tablets dated roughly from the 4th
century A.D. The most surprising thing about
the find is that one of the dolls has a fingerprint on it, which has been determined to have
been a female. With the amount of curse tablets found here evidence suggests she was an
extremely busy and popular witch.135
Many ancient writers wrote treatises against witchcraft and sorcery. There was the
implication that love magic used on husbands left them mindless and ruined, only an effigy
of the masculine form they had once been.136
Other representations have made women
appear treacherous and untrustworthy.137
Evidence suggests that mythology and literature
were written with this pretext in mind to further support and strengthen the ideological
culture of a patriarchal society. This is especially so when one takes into concideration the
reason behind Pandora’s creation.138
Audiences have been entertained and terrified by the idea that witches and sorcerers exist
for many centuries. From the first emergence of Circe, the bewitching pharmakon whose
erotic and twisted desires drove her to magically change men into beasts so they could
never escape, to the many incarnations of the Medea story, the Ancient Greek and Roman
World were convinced that what they were reading was true. Their belief in supernatural
133
Faraone, C. ‘When Spells Worked Magic’, accessed at http://archive.archaeology.org/0303/etc/magic.html,
on 23/01/13
134
Price,S., & Kearns, E., 2003, p.30
135
Faraone, C, ‘When Spells Worked Magic’.
136
Plut. Mor. 139a
137
Hom. Il. 14.197-210; Odys 4.213-240; St. Basil of Caesarea Letters 188.8
138
Hesiod Works and Days 56-83

22
forces, and the veracity of witches and sorcerers being able to cast spells and jinxes on them
has been proven by the continual recurrence of new laws being issued in a bid to contain its
prevalence. As it appeared to be an issue that would not fade away, ancient writers began
to fashion a stereotype. It was women who were preoccupied with this activity. They were
usually from Thessaly, or some other barbaric location, and they were skilled in the
performance of malevolent arts. However, evidence suggests differently. The fact is that
men were also preoccupied with witchcraft and sorcery as well. Magic in the ancient world
was, indeed, very, very real.

23
APPENDIX
Figure 1
http://moodle.une.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?=337358

24
Figure 2
http://www.superstock.com/stock-photos-images/1598R-238449

25
Figure 3
http;?moodle.une.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?=337358

26
Figure 4
http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Kirke.html

27
Figure 5
http://www2.cnr.edu/home.bmcmanus/medeabg.html
Figure 6
http://www.numeralgame.64g.ru/num/num4en.htm

28
Figure 7
http://archive.archaeology.org/0303/etc/magic.html
Figure 8
http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/voodoo-dolls/

29
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