Love Charms
In Their Social
Context
Love Charms
Philia — love, liking, friendship
"That unalterable relation, far deeper than fondness and compatible with all changes of mood, which unites a normal man to his wife, his home, or his own body — the tie of mutual 'belonging' which is there even when he dislikes them." C. S. Lewis (Preface to Paradise Lost, 1942, p. 23)
Eros — passionate desire, madness, disease
Like a blacksmith the Love God has hammered me and crushed me on his anvil, and has plunged me into a winter torrent (Anacreon 413)
Let me only glance where you are, the voice dies, I can say nothing, but my lips are stricken to silence, underneath my skin the tenuous flame suffuses; nothing shows in front of my eyes, my ears are muted in thunder. And the sweat breaks running upon me, fever shakes my body, paler I turn than grass is; I can feel that I have been changed, I feel that death has come near me. (Sappho 2)
Eros, god of love, distilling liquid desire down upon the eyes, bringing sweet pleasure to the souls of those against whom you make war, never to me may you show yourself to my hurt nor ever come but in due measure and harmony. For the shafts neither of fire nor of the stars exceed the shaft of Aphrodite, which Eros, Zeus's son, hurls forth from his hand.
'Tis folly, folly, that the land of Greece makes great the slaughter of cattle by the banks of the Alpheus and in the Pythian house of Apollo if we pay no honor to Eros, mankind's despot, who holds the keys to the sweet chambers of Aphrodite! He ruins mortals and sets them upon all manner of disaster when he visits them. (Euripides, Hippolytus 525-541)
Gender Issues
Gender and Society in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- male dominion vs. female submission
- male guardian of female (kurios) — father vs. husband
- public stance vs. private reality
- status of women and status of family
- pattern of female development — from father's house to house of husband
Gender and Society in the Ancient Mediterranean World
- male anxiety and female desire
- restricted access — world of men and world of women
- violence and disruption of restrictions
- abduction marriage
- agoge spells
Obtaining Spells - Agogai
Torments of eros
- burning
- torture
- iunx
And the queen of sharpest arrows brought the dappled wryneck from Olympus, bound to the four spokes of the indissoluble wheel: Aphrodite of Cyprus brought the maddening bird to men for the first time, and she taught the son of Aeson skill in prayerful incantations, so that he could rob Medea of reverence for her parents, and a longing for Greece would lash her, her mind on fire, with the whip of Persuasion. And she quickly revealed the means of performing the labors set by her father; and she mixed drugs with olive oil as a remedy for hard pains, and gave it to him to anoint himself. They agreed to be united with each other in sweet wedlock. (Pindar, Pythian 4.213-224)
Fiction of male control vs. female desire
Apples and Aphrodisiacs
Exceptions to the male agent-female victim pattern
- homoeroticism
- female agents
- literary figures — witches
- prostitutes and widows
Retaining Spells — promoting philia
Pella Tablet — 3rd century BCE Macedon
Of Thetima and Dionysophon the ritual wedding and the marriage I bind by a written spell, as well as (the marriage) of all other women (to him), both widows and maidens, but above all of Thetima; and I entrust (this spell) to Macron and to the daimones. And were I ever to unfold and read these words again after digging (the tablet) up, only then should Dionysophon marry, not before; may he indeed not take another beside myself, but let me alone grow old by the side of Dionysophon and no one else. I implore you: have pity for [Phila (?)], dear daimones, [for I am indeed bereft (?)] of all my dear ones and abandoned. But please keep this (piece of writing) for my sake so that these events do not happen and wretched Thetima perishes miserably [---] but let me become happy and blessed.
Retaining Spells — promoting philia
Stable relationships and vulnerable women
Love potions — philtra
- female agents and male victims
- thumokatoxon — restraining male thumos
- potions and poison — problem of overdose
- other devices to strengthen philia
- Aphrodite's kestos
male agents and male victims — manipulating the social hierarchy
charitesion spells — to win favor and restrain anger (thumos)
GMA 60 = SM 64 — AEEIOUŒ IAŒ … Adonaie Sabaoth, give favor, love (philia), success, charm to the wearer of this amulet
PGM XXXVI.35f — Charm to restrain anger and to secure favor and an excellent charm for gaining victory in the courts (it works even against kings; no charm is greater) … give to me victory, favor, reputation, advantage over all men and all women...
Agoge Spells —
Issues for discussion: