Black Magic Revealed in Two Ancient Curses

livescience.com ^ | 5-22-2012 | Owen Jarus

[Renfield]

At a time when black magic was relatively common, two curses involving snakes were cast, one targeting a senator and the other an animal doctor, says a Spanish researcher who has just deciphered the 1,600-year-old curses.

Both curses feature a depiction of a deity, possibly the Greek goddess Hekate, with serpents coming out of her hair, possibly meant to strike at the victims. Both curses contain Greek invocations similar to examples known to call upon Hekate....

[Renfield]

CREDIT: Photo courtesy Museo Archeologico Civico di Bologna

This tablet contains a curse directed at a Roman senator named Fistus, possibly the only known case of a curse targeting a senator. An eight-point star covers the deity's genitals and snakes project out of its head. The curse is written in Latin with Greek invocations.

"Destroy, crush, kill, strangle Porcello and wife Maurilla. Their soul, heart, buttocks, liver ..." part of it reads. The iconography on the tablet actually shows a mummified Porcello, his arms crossed (as is the deity) and his name written on both of his arms.

[Renfield]

Ping

[voicereason]

Did it work??? You know, just for curiosity sake.

[Bratch]

...possibly the only known case of a curse targeting a senator...

Meh.

I target curses at my Senator on a regular basis.

[wildbill]

Yeah, I’d like to know if it worked too, but not for curiosity’s sake. There are a couple of Democrat Senators I’d try it on if we had the entire words of the curse.

[JimSEA]

Well I’m sure Porcello is dead now, if that means anything.

[wbill]

possibly the only known case of a curse targeting a senator.

The author obviously doesn't surf FR.

[bigbob]

the Carville Curse

[philetus]

+1

[Talisker]

Both curses feature a depiction of a deity, possibly the Greek goddess Hekate, with serpents coming out of her hair, possibly meant to strike at the victims.

[SunkenCiv]

Slip ‘em ex-lax — they’re probably so full of it that they’d just disappear.

[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
Thanks Renfield! To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Salamander]

So don't piss me off *ping*

;]

[shibumi]

Don’t look now, but there’s hair coming out of your snake’s head.

[Salamander]

Of course there is.

Medusa was derivative.

[LibertyRocks]

Your snake looks much nicer than the ones I encountered in my dreams last night! No more “Billy the Exterminator” before bed for me! LOL

[TheOldLady]

I would never do anything to make you angry in the slightest!!

Your snakes are gorgeous, BTW. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

Uh-oh.

[Salamander]

Billy is anathema amongst herpephiles.

The kid is a over-reactive, ill-informed, theatrical fruit loop...LOL

Brom T Boa is my baby.

Of all my pets, he alone can truly hug me back.

Hubby digs him too but when he holds him, Brom will not rest until he’s wriggled free and stretched all 7+ feet of himself back over to me where he then coils around my shoulders and looks out from under my hair [or atop my head] at “dad” with a deep, abiding suspicion.

[he’s a mommy’s boy]

;D

[Salamander]

Glad you think so because one day, you may receive a box full of baby ones....LOL