Saturday, April 11, 2009

katadesmoi or defixiones. Greek and roman curses and spells

In the greek and roman tradition the Katadesmos (in greek) Defixio (in latin) was a formal type of curse.
A curse tablet or binding spell is a form of tablet with text found throughout the Greek-Roman world, in which someone would ask the gods or the deities or the dead souls. to do harm to others or to help the person who wrote the text.
These texts are scratched on very thin sheets of lead in tiny letters, then often rolled, folded, or pierced with nails. These bound tablets were then usually placed beneath the ground: either buried in graves or tombs, thrown into wells or pools, or underground sanctuaries, or nailed to the walls of temples. Tablets were also used for casting love spells and, and some times (not always) they were placed inside the home of the desired person.
The texts on curse tablets are typically addressed to gods such as Hermes, Charon, Hecate, and Persephone.
sometimes the person who cast the curse ask for the mediation of a dead person. this mediation make the spell far more stronger.
You can ask from the spirits to mediate with the aid of a ouija board (don't do rituals in the graveyards and do not use corpses or any tissues (blood for example) of humans or animals. this activities are illegal and will bring curse upon you!.

The language of those tablets often is used indefinite grammar for their punishment to the gods, ("whoever did this crime"), or conditional ("if he is guilty")(like an ancient Greek/roman spell programming language or even future conditional ("if he ever do this crime").
So the programming languages are far older than you think.

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