Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Two curse tablets from Lilybaeum Jordan, David R Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Winter 1997; 38, 4; ProQuest pg. 387 Two Curse Tablets from Lilybaeum David R. Jordan .N0NG THE INTERESTING lead curse tablets from Sicily pub­ lished in the last years are two opisthographic examples, inscribed in a mixture of Doric and Koine, from a grave of the third century B.C. at Lilybaeum (present-day Marsala); we owe their edition to Professor Antonietta Brugnone of the University of Palermo. 1 To judge from their letter-forms, as shown in her drawings, the two texts are probably contempo­ rary with one another and may well even be in the same hand, but this latter is difficult to say with any confidence, because the second text is written retrograde. 2 Not least among their interesting features are their personal names: the first curse is directed against a man (?) called Altleall~.a;V and the second, against a ZU)1tUp{wv 'tae; MUIl~UP, the two non-Greek names (no doubt Punic, as Brugnone suggests), being treated as inde- 1 B. Bechtold and A. Brugnone, "Novita epigrafiche da Lilibeo. La tomba 186 della Via Berta,» Seconde Giornate Internazionali di Studi sull' area Elima (Gibellina, 22-26 ouobre 1994), Aui (Pisa 1997) 111-40. I am grateful to Professor Brugnone for a reprint of this article. All ancient dates below are B.C. The two basic corpora of curse tablets are R. WONSCH, Defixionum tabellae (=IG III.3 [Berlin 1897; repr. Chicago 1976: hereafter' DTWu'J) and A. Audol­ lent, Defixionum tabellae quotquot innotuerunt ... (Paris 1904; repr. Frankfurt a.M. 1967: 'DTAud'); for a list of Greek examples appearing subsequently see D. R. Jordan, «A Survey of Greek Defixiones not included in the Special Corpora," GRBS 26 (1985) 151-97. The standard introduction is tK. Preisen­ danz, "Fluchtafel (Defixio),» RA C 8 (1972) 1-24; M. A. Lopez Jimeno, Las tabellae defixionis de la Sicilia griega (Amsterdam 1991), has assembled the Greeks texts from Sicily; most appear also in L. Dubois, Inscriptions grecques dialectales de Sicile (=CollEFR 119 [Rome 1989]). 2 Brugnone contrasts the looseness and the careless flow of the lettering of Text 1 with the neatness of 2. My assumption is that the retrograde writing of the latter would have caused the writer more trouble and thought and that this explains its more ordered appearance. J The dot between ~ and a stands on the tablet and was conceivably con­ sidered part of the spelling. 387 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 388 TWO CURSE TABLETS FROM LIL YBAEUM clinable.4 Apithamb.al is about to bring a legal action (1tp&~lC;), and Zopyrion is evidently also about to enter into a lawsuit, as the wording of the second inscription implies. The curse against Zopyrion is unusual also in its reference to the "chthonic Ti­ tans," the" abominating dead," and the "priestess of Demeter," figures not elsewhere so named in any Greek curse; indeed this is the only recorded explicit mention, as far as I am aware, of the last two. Here, using as evidence Brugnone's published drawings (Figs.1-4), I address the establishment of the texts. A: 2 3 4 B: 5 6 1. (Fig. la-b) Tav 1tpii~LV 'tav A1tt8all~.aA 1t0't1. NUIlTtPLOV Ka'taSl~llt 7tapa Ka'tax80VlotOt 8eolOt Kal. Aall[E]av, 07t0><; [11]" Ouva'tat uv'tla, 01t0><; 11["] ouva'tat AEYElV, 7t0't1. 7tii[oa] 7tpa~t uv'tla AEYEtV 11[,,]00£ Ilt OlV. 5 1to.crav 1tpo.~\V 6 Il..,OE IltcrElV The text above is Brugnone's, with my own punctuation and my 1t&[ (Ja] for her 1ta[ ] in line 5: the drawing suggests that the lacuna would probably admit two letters. The position of Dameas' name in line 3 is a problem. Is he a second intended victim, another of Numerius' opponents? If so, the syntax is awkward, the object of Ka'taOioTlIH being 'tav 1tp&~lV 'tav A1tl8all~.aA. (gen.), i.e. the legal action itself rather than the litigant in line 1, and we therefore expect some fuller phrase than the simple Kat f1all[E]av in line 3; in addition, plural victims require plural verbs in lines 3 and 4. Obviously some­ thing has gone wrong: the first two lines have been inter­ changed, for the text should have run: 4 Brugnone (117) adduces several Punic names preserved in Greek char­ acters at Lilybaeum. I share the hope of an anonymous referee of this article, who remarks that if Apithamb.al and Mymbyr are Punic "then someone should be able to shed light on them." Brugnone notes (120) that in ZC01tuptcova to." MuJ.L~up, the substitution in the latter name of to." for tov + gen. could be the result of the indeclinability of the non-Greek feminine name. I have no evidence to cite from Punic sources, but as a traditional civic nomenclature maternal lineage as an alternative to the strictly paternal was available in certain parts of the ancient world, e.g. Macedonia (A. Tataki, "From the Prosopography of Ancient Macedonia: The Metronymics," Apxa{a MalCl:oov{a 5 [~.993] 1453-71) and Egypt (R. Tanner, "Ehe- und Erbrecht im pharaonischen Agypten,» Klio 49 [1967] 5-37, esp. 36). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DAVID R. JORDAN a: Tablet 1, Side A b: Tablet 1, Side B Figure 1. 2 Ku-ru8i8TJf.Ll1tUpa lcu-ruX9oviQlcn 9Eatcn -rav 1tpa~lV -rav Am9uf.L~.uA 1to-rl NUf.LllptOV 3 X"<; Il~ llUva"Cat nv"Cia etc. "Cav 1tp&~tv "Cav AmSall~.aA 1tO't1. NUIl"pwV lCal. ~allfav and left the inscribing of the lead tablet to the assistant or apprentice, who evidently did not realize that all the 'bespoke' text was meant to follow line 1 of the model. The rest is not 'bespoke' but formulaic. This part too has its awkwardnesses, for the second 01t(j)~ Jl11 OUVCl'tUt is intrusive in line 4, and the infinitive in line 5 needs an auxiliary verb. Here too the error is no doubt the work of the scribe. I would sug­ gest that after writing 01t(j)~ Jl11 o-\)VU'tal av'ttu in line 3, he wrote AEyElV immediately beneath, at the end of the next line, to com­ plete the phrase. Then, seeing that there was some space re­ maining at the left, he continued with what was in his formula: 01t~ 1111 OUVU'tat 1to'tt1taOUV 1tpa~tv aV'tlU AEyElV etc. But when he reached the A(YElV that he had written in line 4 beneath av'ttu, he was forced to turn the table over and to write the rest of his formula on Side B. By way of illustration, I would print and translate the restored text as: Museo "Baglio Anselmi," Marsala Inv. 1649 H. 0.035, L. 0.12 m A: {"Cav 1tp&~tv "Cav AmSall~.aA 1to"Cl. NUJl"ptOV 1 Lilybaeum Late III" 2 KataaiaTJlll 1tapa lCa"CaxSoviotOl ScOtOl ("Cav 1tp&~tv "Cav B: 3 4 5 6 AmSaIlP.aA no"Ci. NUIl"plOV) lCai. ~all[f]av, 01t0><; [Jl]~ auva"Cal uV'tia / Afynv, 01t0><; Jl[~] liUva"Cal 1to"Cl. n&[ oa] 1tp&~t uV"Cta AfYflV Il[TJ]{ 0) aE Ill0'i:v. 5 1tacrav 1tpa~lV "I bind down before the chthonic gods the legal action of Apitham­ b.al against Numerius and Dameas, lest he be able to speak in opposi­ tion, lest be be able to speak in opposition to any legal action or to hate."s 5 In other words, Apithamb.al is to be unable to speak either in his own 1tpa~t" or in any 1tpa~t<; brought against him. The curse, this is to say, is meant to insure that its victim, whether plaintiff or defendant, shall be ineffective. Recently F. Costabile, «Defixiones da Locri Epizefiri: nuovi dati sui culti, sulla storia e sulle istituzioni," Minima epigraphica et papyrologica 2 (1999) 23-76, has published (his no. 3) a fourth-century judiciary defixio that has the same structure (see my "Three Texts from Lokroi Epizephyrioi," ZPE forthcoming): Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DAVID R. JORDAN 391 2. (Fig. 2a-b) The tablet is in six fragments, of which the largest two (a, b) join; the rest are only chips. It is possible to place one of the chips (c) in relation to the main fragments. No other chip pre­ serves a whole letter, nor is it recorded whether any chip is inscribed on its Side B. The published text: A 1 lCcnaoEro Zronupirova 'ta~ MUIl~uP napa cl>EPOE- 2 Plcrcrro, is awkward. In the drawing, the mark transcribed as h is compatible also with the second descender of u. It is better, then, to read nap' a/n­ [E]UX0I.1EVOtcrt in lines 2f, a phrase that finds its feminine counterpart in the nap' anEuxol.1E[ v ]a[ tcr] tv of line 4. For the next word, VEKUOt<; instead of the expected VEKU(E)crcrt, Brugnone cites comparable irregular dative plurals in -ot<;; of third-declension words in other Sicilian inscriptions, but we need not assume such irregularity here: for the U of the printed text the drawing, as I interpret it, shows traces compatible with 7 F. Costabile, "La triplice defixio del Kerameik6s di Atene, n MinEpPap 1 (1998) 9-54, has published a lead tablet inscribed in the fourth century, with three curses concerning lawsuits that have no evident connection. The editor makes a good case that the scribe was a professional. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DAVID R. JORDAN 393 a: Tablet 2, Side A b: Tablet 2, Side B Figure 2. p, which will yield the more normally spelled vEKPO'iC;. The formulaic phrases that refer to chthonians in lines 1£ have metrical shapes, napa EPO£EpoEEpcrE- 2 f- tOV ICa.1. vou]v 6 ~ a.Utou ICa.1. 'IIUX"V a.UtOU Ox; Ill, 8UV[a.ta.l avtia.] 7 ~ A.a.AlV. tJAC. Ka.ta.8ero 8e VLV Ell ~oAillrol, l:[ -max. CA 5-] 8 ~ U. YN, [a.]UtaV ICa.1. VOUV ICa.1. 'II,;>[xTiv a.uta.$] 2 !Cal. Tmlv£oen Brugnone 2/3 napa / n[p]tXOJ.l.£VOUH V£1CUOt~ Br. 4 [cO]apu>t~ (for aropiat~) Br in comm.; [i.]apiat~ (for i.ap£iat~) Curb era 5 a[ioGT,ow?] Br. 6 ouva[·tat ---]v Br. 7 AnA-lV (for AnAtlv).,,,,c·Kata­ ~£ro: AnA-ta[v] !Cata~£ro Br. 7/8 I3oAi[J.I.]rot o[CO(j)po]![o]uv(av) Br. "r bind down Zopyrion son of Mymbyr before Persephone and before (the) underground Titans and before (the) abominating (male) dead. also before (the) priestesses of Demeter and before (the) abominating (sc. female dead). And r bind him down in lead, him and his mind and his soul, so that he will be unable to speak in opposition. And r bind her down in lead, (i.e.) S[-J, yn, her and (her) mind and her soul." ATHENS June, 1999