Zell ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 55 (2015) 250–255 2015 Michael Zellmann-Rohrer Protective Iambic Incantations on Two Inscribed Octagonal Rings Michael Zellmann-Rohrer N AN ARTICLE published in this journal in 2009, C. A. Faraone identified and discussed a group of four inscribed instances of a protective iambic incantation formula, a version of which is also prescribed in the late ancient medical treatise of Marcellus Empiricus.1 The latter text, an iambic trimeter, runs !"#$ %"&"'"( µ) %'"(* %+&,* -+*,.$, “a god commands that the belly not conceive pain,” and is recom- mended for inscription on a gold ring. Two such gold rings inscribed with similar formulae (!"#$ %"&"'"( µ) /0"(* -+*,.$ %+&,* and !"#$ %"&"'"( µ) %'"(* %+&,* -+*,* 1* 2.*3µ"( 456) have been examined by Faraone,2 along with variants on a gold band, a bronze ring, and a prism-shaped bronze pendant.3 Two further examples, both inscribed with iambic trimeters directed against pain in the intestines, can now be added to this group, objects already published but not yet so identified. I provide here a text, translation, and brief commentary for both. The first of these, an octagonal gold ring now in Belgrade and said to have been found in Serbia or Macedonia, expands 1 “Stopping Evil, Pain, Anger, and Blood: The Ancient Greek Tradition of Protective Iambic Incantations,” GRBS 49 (2009) 227–255 (hereafter ‘Faraone’), at 235–239 with bibliography on previous discussions; Marcellus 29.23, ed. M. Niedermann, Corp.Med.Lat. V 231. 2 Respectively, Faraone 237 no. 2 (once in Florence), and his “Notes on Some Greek Amulets,” ZPE 172 (2010) 213–219, at 213–215 (purchased in Beirut, now in Paris). I present a normalized Greek text here in both cases. 3 Faraone nos. 4, 3, and 5 respectively. I MICHAEL ZELLMANN-ROHRER 251 ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 55 (2015) 250–255 the geographic scope of the tradition of this particular iambic incantation formula to the Balkans and allows it to be traced into the sixth or seventh century A.D. Furthermore, the verb used to describe the ‘growth’ of pain combatted by the incantation (7'"(*) suggests a connection with another literary parallel adduced by Faraone, an incantation for abscesses men- tioned by Pliny the Elder: negat Apollo pestem posse crescere cui nuda uirgo restringuat.4 The second object, a late ancient octagonal bronze ring of unknown provenance now in London,5 pre- serves a garbled version of the formula that may be the result of direct copying from a similar ring. Together the two rings also provide further instances of a variant of the formula in which the verb of command appears in the first person, as seen previously in a gold band from the Castellani collection.6 1. An octagonal gold ring said to come from Serbia or Macedonia is now in the National Museum of Belgrade (inv. 113/IV).7 It was published with a drawing and partial photo- graph by I. and A. V. Popovic8 and reviewed, with an im- proved text, as SEG LII 655. The ring was dated to the sixth or 4 “Apollo says that no disease can grow in one for whom a naked maiden quenches it,” Plin. HN 26.93, to be spoken by a nuda uirgo while applying a poultice to the patient; discussed at Faraone 239, where the incantation is also identified as an iambic senarius. 5 Described as “late Roman” in the first edition, F. H. Marshall, Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman, in the Departments of Antiquities, British Museum (London 1907) no. 641 (see further below), with specification of a date range from the third to fifth centuries A.D. in the introduction, p. xlvii. More precision does not seem possible. 6 Faraone no. 4, !"#$ %"&"'6 … 7 The photograph provided in the first edition shows that the inside of the ring bears a further modern processing number of uncertain significance: 137. 8 “Greek Inscription on Golden Finger Ring from National Museum in Belgrade,” Starinar 52 (2002) 157–160; previously mentioned in I. Popovic, Late Roman and Early Byzantine Gold Jewelry in National Museum in Belgrade (Bel- grade 2001), cat. no. 29, where it is said to have been acquired from D. Obradovic in 1908 (p.159). 252 PROTECTIVE IAMBIC INCANTATIONS ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 55 (2015) 250–255 seventh century A.D. on palaeographic grounds in the first edition. One further improvement can now be made to the text in light of the identification of the type. The inscription runs counterclockwise across the eight faces (separated here by |) on the outside of the ring: !"#|$ %5|(&"'|6 µ) | 7'(* | %+&|68*9 -+|*,*. 2–4 l. %"&"'6 || 5 l. 7'"(* || 6–7 :;<= ring, l. %+&,* “I, a god, command that the belly not produce pain.” 5 7'(*: !he other examples discussed by Faraone (237), and the new instance identified below in text 2, use either %'"(* or /0"(* for the forbidden action. The present locution recalls the incantation in Plin. HN 26.93 (quoted above), in which Apollo forbids disease to grow (crescere), though there the verb is in- transitive. Cf. the metaphorical usage applied to the begetting of unsatisfactory children in Soph. Ant. 645–647: >?@($ 2’ A*67B&C@5 7(@'"( @B%*5, / @D @+*2’ E* "F-,($ G&&, -&)* 5H@I -+*,.$ / 7J?5(. 6–8: I print %+&|68*9 -+|*,* in preference to %+&K -+*,* (SEG) or %,&6-+*,* (ed. pr.). The latter compound is un- attested; the new reading follows the syntax expected based on the identified parallels, while the loss of final -* and conflation of vowel quantity in , and 6 are trivial,9 as are the phonetic graphemes noted in 2–4 and 5. The intransitive use of 7'6 in the present active, which both previous readings seem to re- quire, would be unusual, this sense being usually restricted to the passive voice or the active in the second aorist, perfect, and pluperfect tenses (cf. LSJ and Lampe s.v.); so too the locative dative without a preposition in the SEG version (cf. Smyth, Greek Grammar §§1530–1536). 2. An octagonal bronze ring once in the collection of Sir A. W. Franks entered the British Museum through his bequest in 9 Cf. F. T. Gignac, A Grammar of the Greek Papyri of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (Milan 1976) I 111–112, 275–277. MICHAEL ZELLMANN-ROHRER 253 ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 55 (2015) 250–255 1897. It was first described in the catalogue of F. H. Marshall.10 Marshall, who identified the ring as “Gnostic,” provided only a majuscule transcription, beginning at an arbitrary point and reading counterclockwise around the ring: LM:|;NMO|;<;O|:M<|PN=|QR|PM;S|NM4O11 As no facsimile has yet been published, I provide here photo- graphs of the ring ( fig. 1). Choosing a different starting point but reading in the same direction, I number the segments thus: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 PM;S|NM4O|LM:|;NMO|;<;O|:M<|PN=|QR Now supposing an easy graphic confusion of P for the rounded uncial M in 7 and a transposition of R and Q in 8, we readily find the opening element in the protective command formula, !"#$ … %"&8"9'6 8µ)9 … In light of that parallel, further corrections can be made: 8%9'"(* in 2 and -8+*,9* | 8%9+&,* in 3–5. These errors are somewhat more complex, but M for ; and ;N for O are graphically plausible; LM: in 3 perhaps represents an uncorrected false start in the writing of 8:9;<;O in 5, with further confusion of O and E. Accordingly, so far we can reconstruct 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 !"#$ | 8%9'"(* | -8+|*,9* | 8%9+&,* | %"&|8"9'6 | 8µT9 Here we find all the expected elements of the formula, with a particularly close resemblance to the gold band from the Castellani collection (Faraone no. 4: !"#$ %"&"'6 µ) [%]'"(* -+*,[*] %+&,*), but in a nonsensical order. This larger dis- location is obviously the result of some more serious textual corruption. It would be possible to attribute that garbling to various layers of corruption in a written formulary employed by the engraver; but I suggest that the situation can be most 10 Marshall, Catalogue no. 641. 11 Marshall’s readings have been confirmed on the original by C. A. Faraone (see n.12 below); the M of PM;S is somewhat obscured by surface damage, but clear under raking light (see fig. 1.A). 254 PROTECTIVE IAMBIC INCANTATIONS ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 55 (2015) 250–255 readily explained by reference to direct copying from another octagonal ring with the expected order, whose faces I designate as A–H: A B C D E F G H !"#$ | %"&|"'6 | µ) | %'"(* | -+|*,* | %+&,* Suppose that the engraver of the present ring began his copy with face A of the hypothetical original, !"+$, then carelessly skipped to the face diametrically opposite it (E, %'"(*) and con- tinued in order counterclockwise from there, moving on to F, G, and so forth. He will then in due course have reached A, realized the mistake, and therefore avoided copying this face a second time, skipping now to B and ending with D. Such an order yields exactly what is observed in the British Museum ring, with the additional graphic errors explained above, per- haps present in part already in the exemplar. I present finally a re-ordered text noting in parentheses the original order: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (1) (6) (7) (8) (2) (3) (4) (5) !"#$ | %"&|8"9'6 | 8µ)9 | 8%9'"(* | -8+|*,9* | 8%9+&,* 2–3 (6–7) :M