Reaching Back 2,000 Years to Unravel a Curse

New York Times/Science ^ | January 2 2012 | SINDYA N. BHANOO

[shibumi]

A vegetable seller named Babylas was the target of an alarming curse nearly 2,000 years ago. Written on a lead tablet found in Antioch, one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, the curse calls on the gods to tie up the hapless greengrocer, then “drown and chill” his soul.

The curse is described in the German journal Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik by Alexander Hollmann, a classicist at the University of Washington who studies Greek and Roman magic.

[Sacajaweau]

And he and the scribe are now both dead. Damn curse!!

[reaganaut]

I wouldn’t call the curse alarming. Many of the greek papryus curses are similar.

[Sacajaweau]

Oh heck..The curser was a kid. He stole an apple. The grocer caught him and told his parents. His parents whooped him and made him work to pay the grocer back.

I'd put a curse on the grocer, too.

[Larry Lucido]

Nobody puts Babylas in the corner!

[HiTech RedNeck]

The cursing party was likely a rival grocer, the scholars say.

Today’s grocery advertisements are so tame. Ancient Greek food wars?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Throwing a lead tablet in a well. Wonder if it was the grocer’s well, with the idea of giving him lead poisoning too. Or the guy casting the curse plopped it in his OWN well (cool move Einstein).

[ThomasThomas]

“And he and the scribe are now both dead. Damn curse!!”

And all his kids and his kids kids and...

[mrreaganaut]

Roman curses ping!

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
That's gotta be it. :') Thanks HiTech RedNeck. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.