Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World

by John G. Gager

Book Overview

In the ancient Greco-Roman world, it was common practice to curse or bind an enemy or rival by writing an incantation on a tablet and dedicating it to a god or spirit. These curses or binding spells, commonly called defixiones were intended to bring other people under the power and control of those who commissioned them. More than a thousand such texts, written between the 5th Century B.C.E. and the 5th Century C.E., have been discovered from North...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195134826
• ISBN13: 9780195134827
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.2"