Defixiones

spectators, were superstitious, and sought supernatural powers for assistance in the outcome of the chariot race by inscribing curses on lead tablets against their opponents (296). The infamous chariot race, as evidenced by archaeological finds, reveals hundreds of defixiones found around the event sites or grave sites in Rome (Futrell 203). The defixiones contained a specific curse against a charioteer or…

be carried out by the waves of the sea in 115 W, to find ruin in the hands of Apollo in Archilochus 26 W, to be killed by the bright light of Sirius in Archilochus’ 107 W, to be pursued by Erinys in Alcaeus’ 129V, to be stoned or mistreated by order of a public vote near the seaside in Hipponax 128 W, to die in horrible ways in Theognis 341-350 W, to go to hell in Theognis 600-602 W, to be destroyed by Zeus in Theognis 891-894 W). The agent of the curse does not always want to punish his…

This can be argued by a careful examination of these fragments along with other literary curses and some of the curse-tablets. More specifically, I suggest that Sappho inscribed her poetry in the context of the tradition of curses and that she blended this tradition with other elements coming from epic poetry, iambos, and the funerary epigram, thus that she composed literary curses. I propose that the understanding of the magical/curse context of some of her fragments provides us an insight…