Burying the Lead: Women and Witchcraft in Greco-Roman Antiquity
Open Access
- Author:
- Snyder, Casey
- Area of Honors:
- Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Mathias Hanses, Thesis Supervisor
Erin Mc Kenna Hanses, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- classics
classical studies
greek literature
roman literature
witchcraft
enslaved women
role reversal
monstrosity - Abstract:
- The use of magic or witchcraft by women, including enslaved or marginalized women, has been an intriguing and informative subject for literature and art since the very foundations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, and throughout their existences. Consider famous figures like Circe or Medea, who would become frequently referenced character archetypes for centuries. Although often written by elite male authors potentially far removed from the subject matter, these depictions do offer insight into the treatment of magic and of women in the ancient world. This is especially valuable in the case of depictions of enslaved or marginalized women, a term I use here to encompass shades of privilege which don’t fit neatly into enslaved and free, or into a modern context (such as freedwomen, foreigners, or courtesans). I argue that while the actual voices of enslaved women are absent from the literary record, the themes which recur in their depiction in art and literature offer us critical insight into their role in and treatment by ancient societies. And where their written perspective may be missing, we can ground our interpretation of these depictions in evidence from the material record, evidence which corroborates the realities of women as practitioners of magic who sometimes wielded real social power. This archaeological evidence includes curse tablets, voodoo dolls, and other material remnants used for magic practices. In examining these depictions of enslaved or marginalized women using magic, focusing mainly on sources from ancient Greece and Rome from approximately the 5th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, two significant themes emerge which are discussed. These themes are role reversal and monstrosity. Role reversal is defined here as a switch, after the intervention of magic, in the typical roles or traits which would be ascribed to a character. So, for example, roles which would typically be ascribed to men being ascribed to women, or free women being ascribed to enslaved women, and vice versa. The theme of monstrosity might appear as human characters transforming themselves or others into animals (like shape-shifting), and it can also include characters taking on traits of a death-like state, as well as chthonic, or even necromantic associations. I examine the recurrence of both of these themes in relevant poetry, mime, drama, and more, with particular focus on a scene which recurs in a mime fragment by Sophron, the poem Idyll 2 by Theocritus, and the poem Eclogue 8 by Vergil. I then consider the synthesis and evolution of these two themes in the Metamorphoses by Apuleius, a unique tale by an author from a more marginal part of the ancient world himself. This source acts as an fitting bookend for my discussion of these tropes in ancient literature and ancient life, as well as their legacy throughout the medieval, early modern, and modern periods.