The curse tablet from Pela, Macedonia, 4th century BCE

II. Magic in women’s daily lives

The curse tablets are very modest documents, of small format, engraved in lead, a cheap material, on which it was easily written with an awl. They contain curses cast against people whose names are mentioned. Scholars call these tablets defixio or defixiones with the Latin or Greek term katádesmos or katádesmoi. They were used over many centuries in both Italy and Greece and the oldest is dated to around 500 BC. In Athens the most recent ones date from the 5th century AD! Latin or Greek is used, depending on the place and the origin of the customers. These tablets were used as a complement to legal actions undertaken by those who commissioned them, who wanted to achieve the ruin of their enemies in one way or the other, or both at the same time. They were wealthy people who paid professionals. Later its use became much more popular. The text responds to a fixed scheme, a sort of incantation or spell composed by expert women or men using rituals related to the underworld, since they were deposited inside tombs, especially those of babies or people who had died before their time.
The tablet of Pela is a singular text: a humble woman, who could have been called Phila (Phila «dear, beloved» was very frequent in the region) is responsible. She curses the marriage of Theotima and Dionysophon and wishes the worst for her enemy, «that she may die a terrible death » and for her she asks, «to be able to grow old with her beloved Diosophon». This is not a declaration of love, but an attempt to ensure her livelihood with her beloved, since the economic conditions of women were precarious if they did not share their lives with a man.

Araceli Striano Corrochano