• Who Wrote Greek Curse Tablets?

    Author(s):
    Olivier Dufault (see profile)
    Date:
    2017
    Group(s):
    Late Antiquity
    Subject(s):
    Religions, Greece, History, Ancient, Civilization, Classical, Literacy--Study and teaching, Magic
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Curse Tablets, Ancient Greek religion, Late Antiquity, Literacy studies
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/g6th-6779
    Abstract:
    Many scholars of ancient Greek religion would probably agree that the use of curse tablets in the ancient Mediterranean world 'cut across all social categories'. From a comparative perspective, it would be surprising if high levels of Greek literacy had been achieved by all social classes in classical and Hellenistic times. Greek literature, however, always represents these women using non-literary cursing techniques. While the use of figurines and spoken words were common features of ancient Greek cursing, specific mentions of curse writing are absent from classical and Hellenistic sources. According to Jordan, a single person from the mid-third century ce inscribed fifteen curse tablets and deposited them in two wells in the Athenian agora. Unlike many other ancient corpora, the corpus of ancient Greek and Latin curse tablets is in constant evolution. Since new evidence will likely come to light in the future, the study of curse tablets can afford bold hypotheses as well as falsification attempts.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Book chapter     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315266527
    Publisher:
    Taylor & Francis
    Pub. Date:
    2017
    Book Title:
    Prophets and Profits
    Author/Editor:
    Richard Evans
    Page Range:
    31 - 49
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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