Magische Verwendung von Eigennamen als zentrales Element von Fluchtafeln
| Title in English | Magical use of proper names as a central element of curse tablets |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The texts of the ancient Greek and Latin curse tablets show that religious beliefs and magical rituals are based on the common idea that there are gods or demons that can help or harm humans. The pronouncing or writing of a name in the magic formula allowed the identification of a precise and concrete entity, which then became either the executor of the curse (as in the case of gods and demons) or the target or victim of the curse (as in the case of the names of people who were to be affected by the curse). The crucial and only inseparable element that must be present in a defixio is the name of the curse victim. Proper names, not only those of deities, have a special status in magical and religious concepts, as they are seen as an inseparable part of a person or thing they denote. Thus, according to the principle of magical analogy, the life of a particular person can be influenced by the name they bear. This could be the reason why a person's name had to be spelled in its ‘true’ form or correctly. In particular, this raises the question of the extent to which the magical character of these texts was the reason for identifiable peculiarities – such as the materiality of the writing surface, the graphic design of the writing and, finally, the syntax of the text. |