Among the curse tablets of the Greek world, the oldest and most numerous group is not about love or sporting contests, but about the law courts. In classical Greece, and in Athens in particular, civic life revolved around lawsuits, in which citizens spoke in person before popular juries. Winning or losing depended largely on the ability to speak well. That is why people tried to strike precisely at the opponent's speech.
The first tablets: Selinus
The oldest evidence of katadesmoi, "bindings", in the Greek language comes from Sicily, and in particular from Selinus, where numerous lead sheets were deposited in the sanctuary of the Malophoros, a deity associated with Demeter. The oldest date from between the late sixth and the fifth century BC, and many of them already have a judicial character: they list the names of the opponents in a case and ask that their tongues be rendered ineffective.
This fact is important: from the very beginning the practice appears tied to public competition, and not only to private grudges.
Athens and the Kerameikos
In Attica curse tablets become numerous from the fifth and above all the fourth century BC. Many were placed in the graves of the Kerameikos, the great cemetery at the gates of Athens. The choice of place was not random: the dead person was imagined as a messenger able to carry the request to the underworld deities, such as Hermes Katochos, "he who holds down", and Persephone.
The sheets were usually:
- inscribed with the victim's name and the formula;
- rolled up or folded several times over;
- pierced with a nail, a gesture that made visible the idea of fixing and blocking;
- placed in a grave, a well or an underground spot.
The binding formula
The structure of judicial texts is often very simple. The verb is katadō, "I bind", followed by the opponent's name and the parts of the body or faculties to be struck. The most frequent are:
- the tongue, so that the opponent cannot speak convincingly;
- the mind or spirit, so that he becomes confused;
- the hands and feet, indicating total immobility;
- words and deeds.
Not infrequently the curse extends to a list of people: besides the main opponent, his supporters, the witnesses, those who will speak on his behalf. In an Athenian trial it was in fact common for friends and allies to take the floor in support of one of the parties.
A pre-emptive weapon
Scholars have noted that judicial defixiones almost never ask for the opponent's death or permanent ruin. Their aim is more limited and concrete: to neutralise him for the duration of the trial. It is a magic of the decisive moment, meant to prevent the other from performing at his best exactly when it matters.
This also explains why the tablets rarely explain the cause of the dispute. Whoever wrote them did not need to convince anyone that he was right: he simply wanted to win.
Plato's testimony
That these practices were widespread and well known is confirmed by Plato. In the Republic, describing the itinerant priests and seers who knocked on the doors of the rich, he writes that they promised, for a fee, to harm an enemy, whether just or unjust, with spells and bindings, claiming they could persuade the gods to serve them.
In the Laws, moreover, Plato deals with those who harm others with incantations, wax figures and bindings, proposing that they be punished. His pages show two attitudes: the philosopher's contempt for credulity and, at the same time, the awareness that these practices genuinely disturbed the life of the city.
Who wrote the tablets
The quality of the sheets varies greatly. Some are scratched by an unsteady hand and contain only a name; others show elaborate formulas and regular writing, a sign that specialists were involved. It is likely that alongside do-it-yourself practice there was a small market of experts, just as Plato implies.
Classifying defixiones
Modern scholars, starting with the great collections of Richard Wünsch and Auguste Audollent, have grouped the tablets by context of use:
| Type | Sphere |
|---|---|
| Judicial | Lawsuits and disputes in court |
| Agonistic | Athletic contests and chariot races |
| Erotic | Desire and romantic rivalry |
| Commercial | Competition between shops and trades |
| Prayers for justice | Requests for punishment for a wrong suffered |
For classical Athens, the judicial ones remain the most characteristic group, because they reflect a society in which public speech was power.
In short
- Judicial defixiones aimed to bind the tongue and mind of opponents in court.
- The oldest in Greek come from Selinus, between the sixth and fifth centuries BC.
- In Athens many were placed in the graves of the Kerameikos, rolled up and pierced with nails.
- The aim was to neutralise the opponent during the trial, not to destroy him.
- Plato, in the Republic and the Laws, attests to the spread of paid spells and bindings.
