Among the most vivid pages Greek literature has devoted to magic is a short poem by Theocritus, who lived in the third century BC between Sicily, Cos and Alexandria. It is the second of his Idylls, known by the title Pharmakeutria, "The Sorceress". In little more than a hundred and fifty lines, Theocritus stages a young woman who, at night, performs a rite to bring back the man who has abandoned her.
The scene
The protagonist is called Simaetha. For nearly twelve days her lover, a young athlete named Delphis, has not shown himself. Simaetha suspects he has fallen for someone else. So, under the full moon, together with her maid Thestylis, she prepares a rite with traditional objects and substances.
The poem falls into two parts:
- in the first, Simaetha performs the rite itself, accompanying each gesture with a formula;
- in the second, left alone, she tells the Moon the story of her love, from her meeting with Delphis to his desertion.
The deities invoked
Simaetha addresses Selene, the Moon, asking her to shine and listen, and Hecate, the underworld goddess who roams among the tombs and before whom even dogs tremble. At one point the woman hears the dogs howling in the town and takes it as the sign that the goddess has reached the crossroads.
She also invokes the great sorceresses of myth as models: she asks that her potions be no weaker than those of Circe, of Medea and of fair-haired Perimede. Theocritus thus builds a bridge between the everyday magic of an ordinary woman and the legendary magic of the heroes.
The refrain of the iynx
The first part is marked by a refrain repeated at regular intervals: "Iynx, draw that man to my house". The iynx is at once a bird and an instrument.
The bird is the wryneck, a small woodpecker able to twist its head in a startling way. The instrument is a wheel or disc which, spun on strings, produced a whirring sound. In Greek tradition the iynx was linked to erotic attraction: Pindar, in the fourth Pythian, tells that it was Aphrodite who gave Jason the iynx bound to a wheel so that he could win Medea.
The circular movement of the instrument represented the call: as the wheel turns, so the beloved must turn back.
Ingredients and gestures
The heart of the rite is a series of symbolic actions, each with its own meaning. Theocritus describes them precisely:
| Gesture | Meaning expressed by Simaetha |
|---|---|
| Burning barley meal | These are Delphis' bones being scattered |
| Burning laurel, which crackles | So may Delphis' flesh burn |
| Melting wax | So may Delphis melt with love |
| Spinning the bronze rhombus | So may he wheel about my door |
| Throwing a fringe of his cloak into the fire | What belonged to him calls him back |
This is a perfect example of magic by analogy: what happens to the object must happen to the person. The fringe of the cloak, moreover, is a typical case of a link by contact: a fragment of something that belonged to someone stands for him.
Simaetha adds that the next day she will prepare a drink with a ground-up lizard, and she tells Thestylis to knead herbs on the threshold of Delphis' house. There is also mention of hippomanes, a plant said to drive horses mad with desire.
The confession to the Moon
The second part changes tone. The refrain becomes: "Mark, lady Moon, whence came my love". Simaetha tells how she saw Delphis during a procession, fell sick with passion, sent Thestylis to fetch him. She describes his arrival, his words, their love, and finally the news of his desertion.
Here the poem reveals its depth: the rite is not only an attempt to dominate the other, but the way a lonely person tries to give shape to her own pain. Magic becomes narrative, and narrative becomes awareness.
The echo in Virgil
The second Idyll enjoyed great success. Virgil, in the eighth Eclogue, offers a Latin reworking of it: a woman performs a similar rite to bring Daphnis home, with a refrain urging her songs to lead him back from the city. Wax, laurel, knots and herbs return, a sign that these gestures had by then become a shared literary repertoire.
Why read it today
Theocritus is not writing a manual of magic but a psychological portrait. Yet his verses coincide in many details with what we know from the magical papyri and curse tablets: the deities invoked, the use of wax, the summoning of the beloved. That is why The Sorceress is a valuable source for those who study ancient magic and for those who, like the Studio Esoterico Cornelio, also see ritual as inner work on desire and loss.
In short
- Theocritus' second Idyll, The Sorceress, tells of Simaetha's night rite to bring Delphis back.
- Simaetha invokes Selene and Hecate and compares herself to Circe and Medea.
- The refrain calls on the iynx, a bird and magic wheel tied to erotic attraction.
- Wax, laurel, barley meal and a fringe of the cloak express magic by analogy and by contact.
- Virgil took up the model in his eighth Eclogue, confirming the success of these gestures.
