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.159 The most famous literaryadaptation of treating a statue as a living sexual object is the story of theartisan Pygmalion and his carved ivory statue, which was animated by Venusand became the mother of Pygmalion s child.160 However, there are sev-eral historical accounts of men actually sleeping with marble cult statues,which whatever else one might think really happened neverthelessindicate the profound effect that statues could exercise over people.161A complete account of the treatment of effigies cannot omit dolls andpuppets, which were described in Greek and Latin by a variety of names(e.g., korB, koros; nymphB; puppa, mania, bulla, effigies, imago).Ancientdolls have been found made of wood, bone, wax, fabric, clay, precious metal,and other materials.Although we have little evidence for how Greek andRoman children played, the care that is often given to the hair, clothing, 9781405132381_4_003.qxd 30/10/2007 12:12 Page 9696 Binding Magic and Erotic Figurineslips, and adornment of these dolls is further evidence for social agency andits acculturation in children.Now the link between children s dolls andstatuary may not be immediately evident but, from an anthropological pointof view, cult statues are big dolls.162 The ancient treatment of dolls in facthas directly to do with the ritual treatment of cult statuary, insofar as boysand girls dedicated their dolls to certain divinities, which were them-selves embodied in statuary form.In Greece girls dedicated korai toArtemis in preparation for marriage, while in Rome unwed girls dedicatedpuppae to Venus.163 Roman boys, for different reasons, dedicated bullaeto the Lares,164 which are numinous entities that probably had theirorigin as daimones or ghosts, but were later associated with crossroads.In a rather striking instance of the role of dolls in ritual appeasement, onthe eve of the Compitalia, which was a celebration at the crossroads inRome and in the countryside, male and female puppets each representinga free member of the household and balls representing each slavemember, were hung so that the Lares might spare the living and acceptthe effigies as surrogates.The puppets are replacements for humanbeings, and as such they function as agents within a social network thatincludes both the living, who are visible, and divinities and spirits of thedead, who are not.It is within this broad network of ancient social agents, which is definedby interaction with statues and effigies generally as living presences, thatwe should situate the manufacture and deposition of magical figurines.In 1915 in an important, but today rarely cited, study of the Greek treat-ment of statuary in late antiquity, Charly Clerc argued along lines similarto the ones I am proposing here.165 Clerc s survey remains one of the mostcomprehensive to date, and he clearly saw connections between, forinstance, wooden images (xoana) and children s dolls,166 and between xoanaand magical figurines.167 His theoretical approach to magical figurines, whichwas common at the time in classical scholarship, relied almost entirely uponJames Frazer s theory of sympathetic (homeopathic) magic.But his over-arching view that the humanlike treatment by Greeks of images under-stood to include the range of effigies we have discussed, from oversizedstatues to tiny dolls ought to be interpreted within the same continuumis in line with my own.This continuum in the Greek and Roman treat-ment of statues and effigies should again caution us from assuming thatmagical figurines merely represented, symbolically or otherwise, anintended victim.As one type of social agent, it is entirely within reason toregard magical figurines, in view of the story of Theagenes statue, as cap-able of injury and retribution, if not of movement.If this line of reasoningis correct, magical figurines were abused through twisting and binding,not as symbolic acts, but literally to arouse their anger.In turn, it was 9781405132381_4_003.qxd 30/10/2007 12:12 Page 97Binding Magic and Erotic Figurines 97expected that they would somehow discharge their anger on the intendedvictim or victims, hence the need to write their names and the desired curseon the figurine or on its coffin.After all, the figurines needed to know whomto attack.Er,tesWe can extend the model of social agency to include one final group offigurines not yet discussed that are used in erotic magic.In the followingexamples, we will see clearly that figurines could operate as agents of amagical practitioner, complete with a premeditated mission.I refer to thewooden or waxen images of Eros (erDs), from whom they take their tech-nical name Eroses (erDtes).In two fourth-century ce magical papyri,PGM IV.1840 70 and XII.14 95, we find procedures described for acquir-ing Eros as a magical assistant.The procedures involve fashioning eitherwooden or waxen images of Eros (erDtes), consecrating them with fruitofferings, sacrifices, and spells to animate them, then sending them toaccomplish erotic magic literally sending them out by flight to attractwhichever man or woman the practitioner desires to retrieve.In additionto the actual Greco-Egyptian spells, we are fortunate to possess a textby the second-century ce author Lucian of Samosata (Philopseudes 34.14)that describes how erDtes work and offers some indication that animatingEros figurines was a distinctive and well-known procedure.168In Lucian s Philopseudes we find numerous miraculous stories offoreign magicians, notably that of an unnamed Hyperborean who can fly,walk on water, and walk through fire barefoot (34.13).These are his greatfeats.Among his trivial feats, he can, much like a typical itinerant religiousspecialist or witch in the classical period, call forth daimones, the dead,make the goddess Hekate appear, draw down the moon and send erDtesto people.As Lucian relates it, the Hyperborean once offered his servicesto a young man named Glaucias, who had just inherited his deceasedfather s estate and fallen in love with a married woman named Chrysis.The young man paid four minas in advance to sleep with Chrysis, andpromised sixteen if he should succeed.The Hyperborean did severalthings in preparation, including waiting for a waxing moon, digging apit in the courtyard of the house to summon Glaucias dead father,Alexicles, for his approval, and then he summoned Hekate.Alexicles at firstdisapproves of the union and becomes angered, but eventually consents.Finally, the Hyperborean fashioned a little Eros (erDtion) from clay, andordered it to go and fetch Chrysis.Next we read that the clay flew awayand soon [Chrysis] stood on the threshold knocking on the door, came in 9781405132381_4_003.qxd 30/10/2007 12:12 Page 9898 Binding Magic and Erotic Figurinesand embraced Glaucias as if she were madly in love with him, and sleptwith him until we heard the cocks crowing (34.14).Although Lucian does not describe in any detail how the Hyperboreanfashioned the Eros figurine, two such spells survive in the Greco-Egyptianmagical papyri.First, in PGM IV.1716 1870, we have an erotic spell thatbegins by consecrating a magnet inscribed with images of Aphroditesitting astride Psyche and holding her hair, while Eros stands beneathPsyche holding a torch and burning her.We saw earlier how torchesand burning are among the standard means that Eros employs to inflamehis victims with desire.But this is also a reference to the famous lovestory of Amor (Cupid/Eros) and Psyche, as told by Apuleius [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.159 The most famous literaryadaptation of treating a statue as a living sexual object is the story of theartisan Pygmalion and his carved ivory statue, which was animated by Venusand became the mother of Pygmalion s child.160 However, there are sev-eral historical accounts of men actually sleeping with marble cult statues,which whatever else one might think really happened neverthelessindicate the profound effect that statues could exercise over people.161A complete account of the treatment of effigies cannot omit dolls andpuppets, which were described in Greek and Latin by a variety of names(e.g., korB, koros; nymphB; puppa, mania, bulla, effigies, imago).Ancientdolls have been found made of wood, bone, wax, fabric, clay, precious metal,and other materials.Although we have little evidence for how Greek andRoman children played, the care that is often given to the hair, clothing, 9781405132381_4_003.qxd 30/10/2007 12:12 Page 9696 Binding Magic and Erotic Figurineslips, and adornment of these dolls is further evidence for social agency andits acculturation in children.Now the link between children s dolls andstatuary may not be immediately evident but, from an anthropological pointof view, cult statues are big dolls.162 The ancient treatment of dolls in facthas directly to do with the ritual treatment of cult statuary, insofar as boysand girls dedicated their dolls to certain divinities, which were them-selves embodied in statuary form.In Greece girls dedicated korai toArtemis in preparation for marriage, while in Rome unwed girls dedicatedpuppae to Venus.163 Roman boys, for different reasons, dedicated bullaeto the Lares,164 which are numinous entities that probably had theirorigin as daimones or ghosts, but were later associated with crossroads.In a rather striking instance of the role of dolls in ritual appeasement, onthe eve of the Compitalia, which was a celebration at the crossroads inRome and in the countryside, male and female puppets each representinga free member of the household and balls representing each slavemember, were hung so that the Lares might spare the living and acceptthe effigies as surrogates.The puppets are replacements for humanbeings, and as such they function as agents within a social network thatincludes both the living, who are visible, and divinities and spirits of thedead, who are not.It is within this broad network of ancient social agents, which is definedby interaction with statues and effigies generally as living presences, thatwe should situate the manufacture and deposition of magical figurines.In 1915 in an important, but today rarely cited, study of the Greek treat-ment of statuary in late antiquity, Charly Clerc argued along lines similarto the ones I am proposing here.165 Clerc s survey remains one of the mostcomprehensive to date, and he clearly saw connections between, forinstance, wooden images (xoana) and children s dolls,166 and between xoanaand magical figurines.167 His theoretical approach to magical figurines, whichwas common at the time in classical scholarship, relied almost entirely uponJames Frazer s theory of sympathetic (homeopathic) magic.But his over-arching view that the humanlike treatment by Greeks of images under-stood to include the range of effigies we have discussed, from oversizedstatues to tiny dolls ought to be interpreted within the same continuumis in line with my own.This continuum in the Greek and Roman treat-ment of statues and effigies should again caution us from assuming thatmagical figurines merely represented, symbolically or otherwise, anintended victim.As one type of social agent, it is entirely within reason toregard magical figurines, in view of the story of Theagenes statue, as cap-able of injury and retribution, if not of movement.If this line of reasoningis correct, magical figurines were abused through twisting and binding,not as symbolic acts, but literally to arouse their anger.In turn, it was 9781405132381_4_003.qxd 30/10/2007 12:12 Page 97Binding Magic and Erotic Figurines 97expected that they would somehow discharge their anger on the intendedvictim or victims, hence the need to write their names and the desired curseon the figurine or on its coffin.After all, the figurines needed to know whomto attack.Er,tesWe can extend the model of social agency to include one final group offigurines not yet discussed that are used in erotic magic.In the followingexamples, we will see clearly that figurines could operate as agents of amagical practitioner, complete with a premeditated mission.I refer to thewooden or waxen images of Eros (erDs), from whom they take their tech-nical name Eroses (erDtes).In two fourth-century ce magical papyri,PGM IV.1840 70 and XII.14 95, we find procedures described for acquir-ing Eros as a magical assistant.The procedures involve fashioning eitherwooden or waxen images of Eros (erDtes), consecrating them with fruitofferings, sacrifices, and spells to animate them, then sending them toaccomplish erotic magic literally sending them out by flight to attractwhichever man or woman the practitioner desires to retrieve.In additionto the actual Greco-Egyptian spells, we are fortunate to possess a textby the second-century ce author Lucian of Samosata (Philopseudes 34.14)that describes how erDtes work and offers some indication that animatingEros figurines was a distinctive and well-known procedure.168In Lucian s Philopseudes we find numerous miraculous stories offoreign magicians, notably that of an unnamed Hyperborean who can fly,walk on water, and walk through fire barefoot (34.13).These are his greatfeats.Among his trivial feats, he can, much like a typical itinerant religiousspecialist or witch in the classical period, call forth daimones, the dead,make the goddess Hekate appear, draw down the moon and send erDtesto people.As Lucian relates it, the Hyperborean once offered his servicesto a young man named Glaucias, who had just inherited his deceasedfather s estate and fallen in love with a married woman named Chrysis.The young man paid four minas in advance to sleep with Chrysis, andpromised sixteen if he should succeed.The Hyperborean did severalthings in preparation, including waiting for a waxing moon, digging apit in the courtyard of the house to summon Glaucias dead father,Alexicles, for his approval, and then he summoned Hekate.Alexicles at firstdisapproves of the union and becomes angered, but eventually consents.Finally, the Hyperborean fashioned a little Eros (erDtion) from clay, andordered it to go and fetch Chrysis.Next we read that the clay flew awayand soon [Chrysis] stood on the threshold knocking on the door, came in 9781405132381_4_003.qxd 30/10/2007 12:12 Page 9898 Binding Magic and Erotic Figurinesand embraced Glaucias as if she were madly in love with him, and sleptwith him until we heard the cocks crowing (34.14).Although Lucian does not describe in any detail how the Hyperboreanfashioned the Eros figurine, two such spells survive in the Greco-Egyptianmagical papyri.First, in PGM IV.1716 1870, we have an erotic spell thatbegins by consecrating a magnet inscribed with images of Aphroditesitting astride Psyche and holding her hair, while Eros stands beneathPsyche holding a torch and burning her.We saw earlier how torchesand burning are among the standard means that Eros employs to inflamehis victims with desire.But this is also a reference to the famous lovestory of Amor (Cupid/Eros) and Psyche, as told by Apuleius [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]