AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic Jean-Jacques Aubert My PURPOSE is to present and discuss the ancient evidence for magical practices and religious beliefs pertaining to the womb and its reproductive capacities, and the ways in which human and supernatural interventions were thought capable of interfering with the natural process of reproduction. 1 Scattered information about these practices is found in the literary sources, supplemented by epigraphical, papyrological, and archaeological evidence. This material sheds light on various aspects of uterine magic but fails to provide a total picture; internal contradictions and inconsistencies are numerous. And as the evidence considered here comes from various parts of the Graeco-Roman world and ranges from the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century A.D., one would expect to meet some difficulty in integrating it into a homo­ geneous description of this phenomenon. The views of classical antiquity on how women were affected by natural and magical influences at the time of conception, pregnancy, and delivery belong to a very common and widespread set of pop­ ular beliefs, clothed in a pseudo-scientific form; they originated in Near Eastern and Egyptian cultures and were based on the observa­ tion and interpretation of natural phenomena. Although scarcely 1 Works cited by author's name: A. A. BARB, -Diva Matrix," JWarb 16 (1953) 193-238; H. D. BETz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago/ London 1986); C. BONNER, Studies in Magical Amulets Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian (Ann Arbor 1950); A. DELAITE, -La clef de la matrice," MusB 18 (1914) 75-88; A. DELAITE and Ph. DERCHAIN, Les intailles magiques greco-egyptiennes de la Biblio­ theque Nationale (Paris 1964); J. G. GRIFFITHS, ed., Plutarch's De [side et Osiride (Cambridge 1970); T. HOPFNER, Griechisch-agyptischer OJJenbarungszauber (= Studien zur Palaographie und Pap'yruskunde 21, 23: Leipzig 1921-24); H. PHILIPP, Mira et Magica. Gemmen im Agyptischen Museum der staatlichen Museen (Mainz 1986); K. Preisendanz, ed., Papyri Graecae Magicae I-III (Leipzig/Berlin 1928, 1931, 1941; reprint in 2 vols. by A. Henrichs, 1973-74); R. K. RITNER, • A Uter­ ine Amulet in the Oriental Institute Collection," IN ES 43 (1984) 209-21; B. SIMON, Mind and Madness: The Classical Roots of Modern Psychiatry (Ithaca 1978). 421 AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 422 ASPECTS OF ANCIENT UTERINE MAGIC affected by developments in Greek science, they were adopted by educated magicians in the Graeco-Roman world for the prestige and authority inherent in their antiquity and exotic sources. The practices they inspired were used to affect the woman's body in both an aggressive and defensive way, to bend or restore the laws of nature according to the practitioner's wishes. The main part of our evidence consists of spells preserved in the magical pa­ pyri and on inscribed and carved stone amulets; their properties are described in the Greek lapidaries and bear witness to the actual use of uterine magic in antiquity. The Graeco-Egyptian character of this material does not rule out that similar practices were current else­ where in the Roman Empire, as we see in an anecdote reported by Apuleius (n.3l infra), who had the reputation of having a first-hand knowledge of magical practices. And the encyclopedic work of the elder Pliny contains numerous allusions to such practices, despite the author's disclaimer of their value (HN 25.25). Magic frequently departs from the realm of the supernatural to share in the less spiritual but tangibly more effective power of phar­ macology. It is therefore natural to look beyond recipes for drugs, pessaries, clysters, ointments, and fumigations in the writings of such scientific or pseudo-scientific authors as Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder to focus not so much on the specific virtue of indi­ vidual substances as on how they were supposed to work. There is no doubt that sympathetic magic (i.e., "persuasive analogy») was often thought to be at work in a more or less disguised way; and while it is now possible in some cases to distinguish the medicinal properties of these substances from the hocus-pocus, ancient magicians were probably deceived, in varying degrees, by the then unexplainable aspects of their own profession. But what mattered to them was not so much scientific accuracy and economy as retaining credibility by achieving some, at least, of the predicted results. This minimum rate of efficiency was accompanied by a certain level of sophistication in order to discourage competitors: internal consistency, for instance, based on popular and pseudo­ scientific knowledge would prevent opportunistic imitation. We begin with the magicians' notion of the womb; we then in­ dicate how they tried to effect its timely aperture and closure; and we end with a discussion, based on the deities invoked in uterine spells and represented on uterine amulets, of whether uterine magic was connected with a solar (Delatte) or with a lunar (Bonner) theology, and whether these two positions can be reconciled. AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 JEAN-JACQUES AUBERT 423 I. The Womb as Ancient Magicians Might Have Thought of It In the ancient world some viewed the womb as an independent entity living within the female body, and exhibiting behavior be­ yond the control of the woman herself. Plato describes the womb as an animate creature, desirous of childbearing, that strays through the body and causes all manner of diseases if it remains barren too long. 2 This view was not explicitly rejected by the Hippocratics and Aristotle, 3 but it suffered a temporary eclipse from the third century B.C. onwards, when Herophilus of Chalcedon performed the first dissections of human bodies and therefore radically changed the state of anatomical knowledge. This theory was nevertheless revived in the second century A.D. by Aretaeus of Cap­ padocia and appears to have been still alive in the sixteenth century, as we see in the writings of Rabelais and Montaigne. 4 2 Ti. 91c: ~ii>OV (EJl'l'UXOV) t1tl8uJlTl'tll(OV tVOV 't11<; 1taE~ ... Kat EU­ WaEO't OOJ1TtO'EO't 'tEp7tE'tat .... Kat 'to ~u~av tv 'tu aVepWKcp to''tt i} UO"tEP1l, OKO'iov n ~~v Ev ~cixP. Cf. Rabelais, Tiers-Livre 32 (quoted by Simon 260), and Montaigne, Essais 3.5 (Editions du Seuil [Paris 1967] 348). 5 PGM VIL26(}-71 (P.Lond. I 121): KPO~ J1Tt'tpa~ avaapoJ1Ttv· t1;oPKi~CI) O'E, J1Tt'tp~ 1\ O'K6'to~, 'tOY K'tlO'av'ta anEAoU~, 6>V KPii>'tO~ AJ1txaJ1Xou Kat XQ'UXaCl) X1lPCl)Et OUEtaXCI) ooou 1tpOO'EtO'Y"f1l~, Kat tKt XEpouptV Kaei)J1EVOV, paO''ta~ov­ 'ta 'tOY ep6vov 'tOY iatov· a1tOKa'taO"taeilvat tV 'tfi £a~ J11lae d.1&i1vat E~ 'to aE~lOV 1tMUp[ ii>]v J1£PO~ J11la£ d~ 'to aptO''tEpOV KA.£Upii>v J1EPO~ J11lae aKOaTt~n~ d~ 't1)v xapaiav ~ xUCI)V, aA.Mx O"tae"n Kat J1EVO\~ tV XWPO~ iaiO\~, J11laEV ~~O'''[J1]EV1l, EO''tE t~opKi~CI) O'E 'tOY apxu KOtTtO'av'ta 'tOY oupavov Kat 't1)V yilv Kat Kav'ta 'ta tv au'tU. clAA1lAoUta, aJ1Ttv (tr. Scarborough in Betz). For the womb as a primeval deity, cf. PGM 1II.602ff (a spell to establish a relationship with Helios); cf. Barb passim. Dr Kotansky has kindly communicated to me his new reading, based on a fresh examination, of the text found on a gold lamella from Beirut, now in the Cabinet des Medailles, Paris ( Froehner no. 286; CIG IV 9064), that will appear shortly in his new corpus of amulets. The new reading shows that the spell con­ cerns a 'prolapsus' of the uterus: -I adjure you, a Womb of Hypsa whom Hypsa bore, that you never abandon your place, uron the name of the living Lord, unconquerable: remain at (your) place, (that) 0 Hypsa whom Hypsa bore!" AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 JEAN-JACQUES AUBERT 425 threats directed at the womb are preserved on stone amulets, the purpose of which is to prevent painful wanderings of the bearer's womb: "Be quiet (or "contract"), womb, lest Typhon overcome yoU."6 The practitioner who tries to intimidate the restless uterus by threatening to call in a more powerful deity to subdue it might boast a special relationship with this deity or have some personal means to persuade or to compel him or her. When the practitioner is confident enough in his or her own power, the distinction be­ tween a prayer and a polite order is often blurred. A magical amulet provides an example of such a request addressed to the Egyptian moon god Khonsou or Sachmet: "Fasten the womb of so-and-so in the right place, 0 (you who raise) the disk of the sun!"7 With such spells as these, ancient magicians aimed at restricting the freedom of movement of the womb, which, as an animal, demon, or deity, was thought to have a natural inclination to move about inside the female body. The preventive and curative aspects of these magical practices do not seem to have been devised sep­ arately. II. Timely Aperture and Closure of the Womb The unpredictable action of the womb was not the only concern of ancient practitioners. In a society in which survival was a day-to­ day struggle, with a high infant mortality rate and a short life expec­ tancy at birth serving as a constant reminder of the precariousness 6 Bonner no. 140: oproplOu9 eJa~ar09 eJ'tcXA:rl'tl ,.L1hpa JlTt eJ£ Tu~ r.cpiA:rl­ O'EV it ';'IO'te;; 'tOY "Omptv lCat. IJ.lVa'tro J.10t aYVTJ IDe;; it nl1VEAOXl1 'tep 'OOuO'O'l' O'u ~E, ~Tt'tpa, J.1Vl1J.10VEU£ J.1Ou dc; 'tOY axav'ta 'tlle; ~rolle;; J.1ou Xpovov, on tyro dJ.1\ 'AlCapvax­ ea~" (tr. E. N. O'Neill in Betz). Cf. also PGM VII.91 Off; P. Warren 21.138; PGM v.330ff in combination with a ritual to be performed when the moon is waning. Dr Kotansky has brought to my attention a gold lameLLa from Ballana (Nubia), published by S. Eitrem in W. B. Emery and L. P. Kirwan, The Royal Tombs of Ballana and Qustul (Cairo 1938) 382 (Cat. no. 874) 405-07, and pIs. 107B, 116.1, which calls for Isis to open her womb to receive the waters -flowed from the breast of Ibis, the water of Anubis, the brother of...," and brought to and sown in her by her brother Osiris (tr. Eitrem): avu~ov O'ou 'tTJv J.1Tt'tpav, tv 'tau('tu) 'tn roPC!­ lCal. tV ('tau)'tu 'tn poxn 1(al. apxa~ov 'to O'xapal.v tV 0'0\ uopro tV 'tep O'Ot ovoJ.1a'tl, ';'IO't, avaO'a, l3aO'tAtO'a 'to)V O'U\~CJ)V (=xav'tCJ)v ~rorov), ii 011 , 'taxu 'taxu, oUl ouva~1.V itJ.1WV, 'taxu (l1ff). (A new' reading will b~ published by Kotansky in his forthcoming corpus of amulets.) It is unclear whether purification or fecundation is meant, but the latter is more likely: see Pluto Mor. 368c (quoted 446 infra). In Euripides' Andromache the protagonist denies Hermione's false charges that she is using secret drugs to secure her childlessness and her husband's consequent hatred (32f, A£YEt yap roe;; V\V cpap~alCOte;; 1(£lCpUJ.1~£VOle;; 'ttOl1J.1' axalOa 1(al. xOO'El J.110'0UJ.1£Vl1V, and 205, OUlc t~ EJ.1WV O'E cpapJ.16.1(CJ)v O''tuYEI XOO'le;;). This might provide an instance of closure of the womb for contraceptive purpose, though the text contains no explicit reference to the use of - witchcraft and malignant drugs to seal her womb" (Simon 258; italics mine). Elsewhere Hermione connects Neoptole­ mus' resentment towards her with Andromache's use of cpapJ.1a1(a: the secret drugs have destroyed her barren womb (157f, O''tuyou~al 0' avOpl. cpapJ.16.1(Ote;; O'ole;;, Vl1~ue;; ~' alCUJ.1CJ)v ~Ul 0'£ ~Ol OtOAAU'tCl1.). But the effect of Andromache's alleged philtres consists in poisoning Hermione's foetus and causing her to miscarry (355f: itJ.1t~ yap d O'TJV xatoa cpapJ.1alC£UOJ.1EV 1(at. V110UV E~aJ.1I3AouJ.1Ev, IDe;; au'tTJ 'AiYEl): we are dealing here with abortifacient drugs rather than with contraceptive charms. Deceitful poisoning mayor may not be considered as magical practice. Pliny's digression on abortiva ... amatoria ... (et) alia magica portenta in the midst of his treatment of plants (HN 25.25) demonstrates plainly that P. T. Stevens' distinction between -the sphere of magic" and -Greek pharmacopeia" is unnecessary (Euripi­ des' Andromache [Oxford 1971] 95 with references to Od. 4.230, 10.394, and Eur. Med. 717f, where Medea proposes to provide Aegeus with drugs to p~omote male fertility: xauO'CJ) yi 0" ov't' axatoa lCal.xai~cov yovae;; O'xEtpat O'E thlO'co' 'totaO' oloa cpapJ.LalCa). In Cic. Clu. 31, a pregnant woman had been given a venenum shonly before delivery with the intent of killing the foetus, thus depriving her husband of progeny; the treacherous operation resulted in the mother's own ac­ cidental death. The empress Eusebia, Constantius II's wife, was more successful in securing recurrent miscarriages for her sister-in-law Helena, julian's wife, whom AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 428 ASPECTS OF ANCIENT UTERINE MAGIC If intercourse and conception have occurred, the pregnant woman-or someone else-might want to prevent the normal course of pregnancy. A magical papyrus of the third century con­ tains a spell used to inflict an abortion by causing menstruation or menorrhagia, even though it might be more correct to consider the return of the menses as the sign (or side effect) and not the cause of the abortion: "Let the genitals and the womb of her, NN, be open, and let her be­ come bloody by night and day." And [these things must be written] in sheep's blood, and recite before nightfall, the offerings (?) ... first she harmed ... and bury it near a sumac, or near ... on a slip of papyrus.9 This spell contains numerous features quite specific to uterine magic. In the form in which the spell has been transmitted, the intelligible part is preceded by a long section containing magical words known as Ephesia grammata; in the third and fourth lines (not quoted above) one can read the names of the Egyptian deities Hathor, goddess of sexual love, and Isis, who is called J.LiCl ("the only one") or perhaps JlCltCl, mother goddess or midwife. As pro­ tectors of the womb, Hathor and Isis are represented together on at least one uterine amulet. 10 The cult of Isis had been adopted widely in the East by the end of the Hellenistic period and its expansion continued during the Imperial period. Several Greek in­ scriptions, dating from the first century B.C. to the third A.D. (from Andros, Cyme, los, and Macedonia) present Isis as the goddess in she induced to drink a quaesitum 'Venenum ... per fraudem (Amm. Marc. 16.10.18). Whether such practices were labelled 'magical' or merely 'criminal' is a matter of who committed the act and in what circumstances. In none of the above instances is the use of magical spells or charms explicitly suggested. On a possible shift of the sense of 'Veneficium from poisoning to magical practice in Republican Rome, cf. M. Le Glay, -Magie et sorcellerie a Rome au dernier siecle de la Republique," in L'Italie preromaine et La Rome republicaine. Melanges Heurgon I (Rome 1976) 52S-50, esp. 536-38. 9 PCM LXII.76-106 (P. Warren 21), tr. Scarborough in Betz; cf n.14 infra: aVOt­ rTt'tCll it cpUOle; Kal. it J.lTt'tpa 'tile; O£lva Kal. aiJ.laootoSCIl VUK'tOe; Kal. itJ.ltpae; Kal. 'ta[lha yp(acpCllv)] ap[vdcp] xpro atJ.lan Kal. 1tPOOi[CIl]K£ 'tCx [1ta]pa9£[,ta] VUK'tOe; y£[ ca 9 letters]10J.l[.] 1tp&rtll it01Kllo£ Kal. XIDoOV 1tapa Po1lV T11tapa .. Oa Xa ... ov tV 1tlUaK[ 10\]CIl. 10 Delatte and Derchain no. 345, where Isis is identified with Hathor. Cf F. Daumas, LdA 2 (1977) 1029 S.'V. -Hathor." AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 JEAN-JACQUES AUBERT 429 charge of governing sexual relations, length of pregnancy, and birth.l1 A second-century papyrus (P.Oxy. XI 1380) contains the text of an invocation of Isis that indicates that the goddess was worshiped as J.llCX at Letopolis Magna (6), and as J.lCXtCX at Athribis (39), among the Bucoli (42), among the Indians (103), and at Berytus (116). Isis, in her function as midwife, probably occupied an im­ portant place in uterine magic, for midwives bridged the roles of doctor and magician; Plato has Socrates, whose mother was a midwife, say that they combined some acquired technical skill with the knowledge of a bulk of incantations and portentous recipes. 12 The spell preserved in P. Warren 21, quoted above (n.9), includes a drawing of a crescent-shaped figure (PLATE 1), described in the pa­ pyrus as imitating the shape of a lCcxpblCX (line 82, o,h(J)~ lCcxpbLOtbffi<;). This word usually designates the heart, but occasionally refers to the genitalia. The drawing itself is more reminiscent of a lunar crescent than of anything else, but we do not know how the copy­ ist or his or her model visualized the heart and female genitalia respectively: with some imagination both anatomical parts could be so represented. In my view, there are more reasons to understand 11 IG XII.5 739.36-39 (Andros, I B.C.), nOE YEvi9Aac; apxav, aVOp1. YUVo.tKo. cruvayo.yov, E-iS 1:£ crEAaVo.c; ic; OEKa'to.v a'l'EtOo. n:90.AO'toc; apnov Upyou q>iyyoC;, be' ap'ttyovov ~piq>oc; ayo.yov; H. Engelmann, I.v.Kyme 41. 18-20 (I B.C) A.D.); IC XII.5 14.17-21 (los, II/III); SEC XII 316, XXXIV 622, 626£ (Macedonia, Imperial period: dedications to ElcrtOt AOXt~). Isis was honored as ~.t1.0. in Cyrene (SEC IX 192, A.D. 103). Cf S. K. Heyob, The Cult of Isis among Women in the Craeco­ Roman World (=EPRO 51 [Leiden 1975]) 44-52, 70-74. According to Plutarch (Mor. 372D) Isis was a lunar deity; cf Griffiths' commentary, 497, 500f. See also supra n.8. 12 Tht. 149c-D: midwives can provoke or soften birth-pangs, deliver women in labor, and perform an abortion when necessary, Otooucro.t yE 0.1. J.Lo.iat q>o.pJ.LaKto. Ko.1. beq.Oou(Jat. Pliny HN 28.70 blames midwives and prostitutes for carrying on the tradition of portentorum miracula involving abortion and menstruation. At 28.81 he cites the fifth-century B.C. midwife Lais, in conjunction with the first-cen­ tury B.C. cosmetician and sexologue Elephantis, as the author or compilator of gyne­ cologic monstrifica; cf. Lloyd (supra n.2) 63 n.11 and 168f, with a discussion of Soranus Cyn. 1.4.4, where the author stresses the necessity for midwives to be free from superstition (aoncrtoo. tJ.L0VEC;), a barely concealed hint at a different reality. On midwives in antiquity cf V. French, "Midwives and Maternity Care in the Graeco-Roman World," Helios 13 (1986) 69-84. In the later Middle Ages mid­ wives and other female medical practitioners were often persecuted as witches as a result of restrictions imposed on the medical profession: cf. M. Green, "Women's Medical Practice and Health Care in Medieval Europe," in J. M. Bennett et aI., edd., Sisters and Workers in the Middle Ages (Chicago 1989) 39-78, esp. 56£ nn. 51-53; T. R. Forbes, The Midwife and the Witch (New Haven 1966). AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 430 ASPECTS OF ANCIENT UTERINE MAGIC the drawing as a representation of female genitalia (perhaps an open cervix) rather than as a representation of the heart. Be that as it may, the drawing is covered and encompassed by the seven vowels and magical words sprinkled with smaller lunar crescents. 13 The magician who invented or transmitted the spell recommends that it be written with blood on a slip oflapyrus or tablet (1tt't­ 'talclOtoV). It is uncertain what kind of bloo was meant to be used. The plate in P. Warren shows that the text is hardly legible and that the correct reading of line 104 might be Kat (followed by traces of about 10-12 letters) aioxpip atJ.lan, meaning "with menstrual blood."14 Several ancient writers interested in agriculture and 13 Preisendanz refers in his apparatus criticus to H. de Villefosse's collection of similar drawings on lead tablets, BAntFr (13 Sept. 1905) 291, to which one may add F. Maltomini, "'I papiri greci," StCIOr 29 (1979) 55-124, esp. no. 6, plate x, fr.A. On xapSia with the meaning of genitalia, cf. Barb 202 and n.156, with reference to PG M v.156-58: EYro EiJ1l. 1} XUPl.~ 'tou A irovo~, OVOJ1U J101. xapSia 1t£pl.£~COOJ.L£VT\ o(j)w. On the role of the seven Greek vowels in a uterine context, cf. Ritner 218 and P. Cox Miller, "'In Praise of Nonsense," in A. H. Armstrong, ed., Classical Mediter­ ranean Spirituality (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) (=World Spirituality: An Encyclo­ pedic History of the Religious Quest XV [New York 1986]) 481-505. 14 Probably the equivalent of Columella's obscaenus cruor (Rust. 10.360). My proposed reading, kindly revised by Prof. D. D. Obbink on the basis of the plate provided in P.Lugd.Bat. I, is closer to the reading adopted by the editors of P. Warren 21 (P.Lugd.Bat. I, M. David, B. A. van Groningen, and J. C. van Oven, edd. 1941, with an excellent commentary [p.64] to which this paper owes much) than to the reading adopted by Preisendanz/Henrichs (reprinting the text included in the unpublished third volume of PG M in proof in 1941). The editio princeps by A. S. Hunt (in Studies presented to F. Lt. Griffith [Oxford 1932] 233--40) does not provide a more convincing text (line 125: xat 1}J1E.pa(l.)~ xat 'tel J111v .. ap ... xpro alJ1U'tl. xat 1tpoSi[ro]x£. At my request Dr F. A. J. Hoogendijk has checked the original in the Papyrologisch Instituut in Leiden and has supplied a new photograph. Her convincing reading of 124-27 is close to the text printed in P.Lugd.Bat. I: &'VU"fTl'tro 1} q>U(n~ xat 1} J1ft'tpa 'tile; S'i(voc;) xal. ai).l.a~E.06ro VU1C'tOe; xal. 1}J1E.pa{ l)e; xal. 'tel x.y ... ( ) aioXPCP alJ.la'tl xal. 1tpoSi[ro]x£ 'tel [.] .. 6£ .. vux'toe; &'S .. [,.]a'hl1 J.l£ 1tPOO'tl1 ftSixl1o£ xal. XCOOOV 1tapa {>ouv T\ 1tapa [.]l1Xa.ov Ev 1tl't'ta­ xl.[Si)ro: t would only sugges't'that the reading ftSi1C11O'£ is justified by the new photo­ graph~ At 126 Dr Hoogendijk suggests the tentative reading 'tel [1t]po6£'ta VU1C'tO~ &'SftA,[ou]? and rightly speculates that [.}TUa.ov in 127 "must be a kind' of water, stream, well." I suggest restoring either [~]~xavr1v or [J.l]ftxavov. The latter is not attested, but would be the equivalent of J111Xav'\1COV opyavov; ~i1Xavft would be a 'water-wheel', commonly used in Roman and Byzantine Egypt to pump water from the ground (cf. for instance P.Oxy. XXXIV 2730, 3th or 4th c.). I can find no parallel for the use of sheep's blood for magical or medical purposes in Greek or Latin literature, but goat's blood (aiyo~ atJ.la) is attested in the magical papyri: PGM Iv.2575f (in a S£l.VOV 'tl. 6uJ1iaO'J.la to secure the cooperation of the moon), AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 JEAN-JACQUES AUBERT 431 natural history record instances of magical practices in which menstrual blood plays an essential part. Contact with menstrual blood was universally considered bad for vegetables and animals, and was seen as being adverse to fertility or even threatening their survival: Pliny (HN 28.78) refers to Cappadocian practices reported by Metrodorus of Scepsis (first century B.C.), and points out that all plants are contaminated by the proximity of a menstruating woman (19.176); even minerals were thought to be susceptible to corrosion by contact with women during their periods (7.63f, 28.79f). These alleged negative properties made menstrual blood all the more at­ tractive to magicians. Columella, whose source was the treatise On Antipathies by Democritus of Abdera, mentions that the use of menstrual blood in recipes belonged to the domain of magic, or "Dardanian art" (10.357-62). Such recipes were part of Mediter­ ranean folklore-it seems difficult to be more precise about the geographical origin of this material-and illustrate the attitude of rural populations toward menstrual blood. Considering that these charms were used to keep off vermin and hail, it is quite clear that they reflect a genuine fear of menstrual blood. Similar beliefs are occasionally found in various cultures, for instance in nineteenth­ century Paris and Finland, and in contemporary Jamaica. IS In the context of ancient uterine magic, the use of menstrual blood in writing a spell can be explained in various ways. Pliny lists, 2644. Note that in the same passages, the (non-menstrual?) discharge of a dead virgin is called iXrop mxp9ivo'U VElCPUC; (for the meaning of iXrop see J. Jouanna and P. Bemont, REA 83 [1981] 197-209). The recipe for a (non-uterine) amulet is preserved in the same magical papyrus (Iv.78-82): the spell was to be written on a pure leaf (of papyrus or any other material) with blood taken from the hand or foot of a pregnant woman: q)'\)A.aK't~ptOV 'to\> 1tPOK£tIl£VOU' 'Ypa\jlov tic; xap'tllv Ka6apov atllan a1tO xupoC; 11 1tOOOC; YUV 1CUvO~ xa1. £J.l~pUOv yUVatXO~ '" --a J.lTt 9iJ.lt~-'t0'i~ ~ £9"x£ ~Q)J.loi~ (tr. O'Neil in Betz 85f). PMC Iv.2643-74 presents roughly the same spell, but as a result of a confusion on the part of the scribe who compiled this papyrus (or its source), the human embryo is replaced by a dog's (XUV£1OV £JL~puov); Lucan 6.558f describes the Thessalian witch Erictho cutting open women's wombs to deliver in an unnatural way babies that she then offers on a burning altar; Hopfner 104 (§423), 163 (§638), 170f (§§665f). The representation of such a cere­ mony is found in a Campanian wall painting: cf. H. Hubert, in DarSag 3 (1904) 1515 fig. 4784. The sacrifice of pregnant victims to Tellus, as a fertility rite, took place once a year in Rome during the festival called Fordicidia (April 15): cf. H. J. Rose, OeD 2 (1970) 444, with reference to Ov. Fast. 4.630ff and Paus. 2.11.4. AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 JEAN-JACQUES AUBERT 437 condition that bestowed on him or her a superior knowledge or power. Those who had recently died of unnatural (i.e., violent) causes (~t(ltoea.va'tol) and who had not been properly buried (il'ta ~' tV KEpallCf> ~£~£'to 'tplO"KaiSEKa ~ilvac;. Cf. Rose (supra n.lS) 67. AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 JEAN-JACQUES AUBERT 439 by a magical spell. Only the second spell involved supernatural beings explicitly, but one can surmise that the first worked in a similar way. 31 Apuleius transmits neither the wording of these spells nor the names of the gods and demons. In comparative material, one notes that while the magical papyri preserve no examples of a locking spell, they do provide some reverse spells-for instance a fourth­ cen tury charm to open a door: Take from a firstborn ram an umbilical cord that has not fallen to the ground, and after mixing in myrrh, apply it to the door bolts when you want to open a door, and say this spell, and you will open it immediately. Now this is the spell: Open up for me, open up for me, door bolt; be opened, be opened, door bolt, because I am Horus the Great, ARCHEPHRENEPSOU PHIRINX, son of Osiris and Isis. I want the godless Typhon to flee, immediately, immediately, quickly, quick­ ly.32 Another spell of a relatively late date (fifth century) and showing explicit Christian features was intended for childbearing: "Come out of your tomb, Christ is calling you. [place] a potsherd on the right thigh. "33 The introductory lines of the collection to which this 31 unico verbo mutavit (etc.) .... eadem amatoris sui uxorem, quod in eam dica­ cule probrum dixerat, iam in sarcina praegnationis obsepto utero et repigrato Jetu perpetua praegnatione damnavit et, ut cuncti numerant, iam octo annorum onere misella illa velut elephantum paritura distenditur. quae cum subinde ac multi no­ cerentur, publicitus indignatio percrebuit statutumque, ut in eam die altera severis­ sime saxorum iaculationis vindicaretur: quod consilium yirtutibus cantionum antevortit et ... devotionibus sepulchralibus in scrobem procuratis ... cunctos in suis sibi domibus tacita numimim violentia clausit. It is' not certain that unico verbo applies to all the magical operations performed by Meroe in the passage. 32 PGM xxXVI.312-20: avo1.~\(; eupa~' A.a~OOV 1tPC!YC01:0teOU tep1.OU OJA-cpaA,1.OV JA-Tt 1ttOOV xaJA-at, l;JA-upvtoa~ EXt teat, on J30UA,U avo'i~ Myo~' A YON NHI A YON NHI TKEAAI avotY'191. avolY'191., teAt'io'tpov, on tyro tiJA-1. 7.QpO~ <> JJiya~ apxtcpptVE'I' cp1.ptyx ui.o~ 'tOU 'Orova, Tlbll Tlbll 'tax" 'taxu; tr. R. F. Hock in Betz 277. The door is opened by Horus acting against SethlTyphon who is presumably keeping it closed. The reverse situation is de­ scribed in Harris Magical Papyrus, discussed by Ritner 216f, where Seth opens (=impregnates) and Horus closes the womb (=prevents the delivery) of the great goddesses Anat and Astarte. 33 Maltomini (supra n.13) 65 no. 1.48ff: 1tpO~ YEvoooav' Tl~tp8E Ttte 'too JA-VtJA-tOU oou XPto'to~ OE teaA,\, rooo'tpateov bE~lCP JA-EPCP (with commentary pp.81-84)= PGM cxxma.50; tr. R. Kotansky in Betz 319. The name of Brimo appears in a circle drawn in the middle of the spell and is related to Hecate-Selene-Persephone. AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 440 ASPECTS OF ANCIENT UTERINE MAGIC last spell belongs contain several references to the moon and to the underworld. In the spell, the womb is compared to a tomb, per­ haps in connection with the belief that resurrection, being a kind of rebirth, requires a womb. 34 Again, a Coptic magical text of the fifth century or later contains a birth spell summoning several archangels to the assistance of a parturient woman, to "split her right side, bring forth her child ... and bring out from under her some polluted blood and some bane­ ful fluid." 35 The fear that pregnancies would not necessarily result in deliveries after a period of nine to ten months was common in classical antiquity. An inscription from Epidaurus, dedicated ca 320 B.C., commemorates the providential intervention of the god Ascle­ pius in numerous cases involving various ailments: significantly the first two cases refer to long-awaited deliveries. 36 The third type of evidence pertaining to uterine magic is found in certain oaths and funerary imprecations. These documents contain curses requesting that any transgression of their provisions should cause, among other plagues, women to remain barren or to have difficult pregnancies resulting in the procreation of monstrous offspring. These maledictions are attested in various places and in different periods. One may cite, in chronological order, the Am­ phictyonic oath (early sixth century: Aeschin. 3.111); the oath al­ legedly sworn by the Greeks before the battle of Plataea in 479 and preserved on a stele from Acharnae (Tod II 204); the oath of Taurian Chersonesus (300-280: Syll.3 360); the oaths of Dreros, Itanos, Axos, and Hierapytna on Crete (III/II B.C.);37 and funerary inscriptions of Imperial date from Neocaesarea, Salamis on Cyprus, 34 Barb 206, 230f nn.203-13. Uterine symbolism in grave-chambers and cinerary urns would repay special study; Cicero (Leg. 2.22.56) refers to the fetal position of corpses buried according to an old custom. 35 W. H. Worrell, ·Coptic Magical and Medical Texts," Orientalia N.5. 4 (1935) 5-13 (P.Mich. inv. 1190.12-24). lowe this reference to R. D. Kotansky. The text is unfortunately damaged in some places. A similar prayer (. incantation pour un accouchment") has been recognized in PGM v.459-89 by M. Philonenko, ·Une priere magique au dieu createur," CRAI (1985) 433-50, esp. 445f, with parallels in 1.239f, 11.123, XIII .807. Such prayers can be traced back to the time of the New Kingdom (XIXth Dynasty): cf. J. F. Borghouts, The Magical Texts of Papyrus Leiden I (Leiden 1971) 12f and 28f, with seven spells (nos. 28-34) to accelerate or facilitate deliveries; Ritner 214f. I have not seen A. Ermon, Zauberspruche fur Mutter und Kind (Berlin 1901). 36 IG IV2 121.1-22, after five and three years respectively. 37 I.Cret. I IX 1.85-89; II v 23; III m5, IV 8. AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 JEAN-JACQUES AUBERT 441 and Halicarnassus. 38 Several Near Eastern parallels are preserved in some eighth-century B.C. Aramaic and Akkadian treaties,39 and in the Old Testament the prophet Hosea calls for the doom of Israel in punishment for its idolatry:4o Give them, 0 Lord: What wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts .... Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. There is no sign of a direct connection between the Near Eastern curses and the Greek ones, because the two earliest Greek occur­ rences-a sixth-century Amphictionic oath and the oath allegedly sworn at Plataea, both preserved in fourth-century sources- stem from continental Greece, the later ones spreading eastward through Asia Minor and the southern Aegean area. We are probably seeing here a manifestation of common human experience that shows that ancient societies were sensitive to the fact that the barrenness of the soil, flocks, and women-all of which are usually found together in curses-would bring death and extinction of the race and thus represents the ultimate punishment. III. Wombs and the Moon Spells to cause barrenness, miscarriages, delayed deliveries, and monstrous births were thus part of the usual arsenal of ancient practitioners. The same magicians who built this arsenal probably devised defensive means to protect their clients or themselves against competitors' actions. Anticipated magical aggression was de­ flected with the help of apotropaic stone amulets. These are de- 38 SEC XVIII 561.6-9, tOUtCOl ~Tt 1tatpte; oilcotto, ~Tt rii Kap1tOY [K~{vO'U 1t'tp{~E 'to.uC; 1t6~ac; (Kat) 1tapaxPtlJ.1U EK~aA.At1 tin: ~oov ti'tE n:9VTlKOc;. 42 Galen De simpL med. temp. ac fac. 9.19 (Kiihn XII 207) and Damigeron-Evax (preface). A notable exception is found in Orphei Lithica Kerygmata 36.1-3: A.1Boc; oV'UXl'tTlC; £'tEPOC; IlEAaC; 'tU 0'llE1 ~10Aou. o-t'tOC; ci>cp£A.11l0C; 'taic; EV yaO''tpt E:xoUO'a1C; Kat 'taic; 9TlAa~ouO'a1C;. yA.ucpE'ta1 ~£ EV autcp XVOU~lOC; EXrov KEcp£pyapJXxp-~ptO'\)Ptrx: cf Ritner 218 with n.69. 4S Delatte 80f. Bonner (85) identifies it as "a special demonic power concerned with the generative functions of women." Philipp (111 no. 181) suggests translating this formula "Licht der Lichter, uranfangliches Licht," and sees a connection be­ tween this formula and the octopus as a solar symbol (112 no. 184). L. Barry ("No­ tice sur quelques pierres gnostiques," ASAE 7 [1906] 241-49, esp. 241-45) provides the text of an interesting uterine amulet (haematite) with the names of several protectors of the womb (god, guard, saviour, or demon): (rev.) J.l.Tt['t]pa~ 9rtA.U1(i1~ 6£o~ a~av~aro J.l.Tt'tpa~ yuvatlcrov 6£o~ taT} aUT} atu atT} teo uo£ tT}a uta T}ua T}ata J.l.Tt'tpa~ yuvatlcrov ri>pto~ OproptCI)Qu6 av~ax J.l.Tt'tpa~ yuvatlcrov cp{>A.a[;]. taT} teo uo£ taro alO tT}t OT}t acoo tT}ro UOE tT}at J.l.Tt'tpa~ yuvatlcrov omTtp. CtJ.l.OUV uo ... tJ.I.UX aKJ.l.T}; (obv.) [J.I.~'t]pa~ yuvatKrov ooiJ.l.rov. oJ.I.QopocP ... oJ.l.oopocpcO-tT}~. R. D. Kotansky brought this text to my attention. 46 Bonner nos.139 and 140 (reverse); Philipp 112, no.184. AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 444 ASPECTS OF ANCIENT UTERINE MAGIC Ereschigal-Neboutosoualeth with Hecate-Selene-Artemis and Per­ sephone, for instance in love-spells of attraction. 47 In my opinion, Bonner's interpretation makes more sense than Delatte's in a Graeco-Roman context, where the moon is traditionally connected with childbearing. The Greek moon-goddess, often assimilated to Demeter, Persephone, Aphrodite, Eileithuia, and Prothuraia in Greek literature and inscriptions, is called AoXiCl~ ("aiding birth»), A'U(Ji~rovo~ ("loosening the belt»), J.10'YO(JtOKO~ ("of birth-pangs»), (JOroOiVCl ("saving in travail»), cboivrov £ltClpro'YO~ ("helping in child­ birth»), and cbK'UAOX£tCl ("giving a quick birth»).48 On the other hand, Pliny (HN 7.42) reports that pregnant women and infants after birth are most at risk at the time of the full moon, because it is inimical to them. Assuming that the figures engraved on the amulets have been properly identified, we find that there is a conspicuous absence of other Egyptian deities traditionally associated with the protection of pregnancy and childbirth, such as Heqet, Nechbet, Renenutet, Mafdet, Menhet, and Meschenet. 49 This is perhaps a sign of the twilight into which these deities faded during the Graeco-Roman period, their functions having been taken over by other deities who thereafter underwent changes in their astrological attributes. Some gods, like Osiris, Harpocrates/Horus, Chnoubis/Chnum, and Bes, were thus considered in an earlier period as sun gods, and this view 47 Delatte 86; Bonner no. 141; PGM Iv.2441-2621 and passim. Cf. also Bonner 197, 199. On the lunar aspect of the triad Hecate-Selene-Artemis, cf I Eur. Med. 397: 'E lCa'tTlv' &mv ~£v n 'tptrov TUU:proV, I£A.TtVTJ ovo~~£'tat, ,hav Sf. E~ "Ap't£~t<;, o'tav Sf. S£lCaftEv't£, 'ElCa'tTl. Cf H. G. Gundel, WeLtbiLd und Astrologie in den griechischen Zauberpapyri (=MunchBeitr 53 [1968]) 25ff; for the moon as a fourfold deity, Gundel 28; T. Hopfner, -Hekate-Selene-Artemis und Verwandte in den griechischen Zauberpapyri und auf den Fluchtafeln," in Pisciculi: Studien ... Fr.-J. DoLger, edd. T. Klauser and A. Ruecker (=Antike und Christentum Erg.bd. 1 [Munster 1939]) 125-45. Cf D. R. Jordan, -A Love Charm with Verses," ZPE 72 (1988) 245-59. 48 Aoxta<;: PGM Iv.2285 (Selene-Mene); supra n.ll (Macedonia, Isis); A.o:x,£la: PI. Tht. 149b (Artemis); IG IX.2 141-42 (Thebae Phthiotidis, Artemis); Hymn.Orph. 9.6 (Selene), 36.3 (Artemis); Pluto Mor. 659 A (Artemis/EileithuiaiSelene); ).:\)(Ji~rovo<;: Hymn.Orph. 2.7 (Prothuraia), 36.5 (Artemis); Theoc. 17.60 (Eileithuia); Cornutus De natura deorum 73.8ff (Eileithuia); Lib. Ep. 371.4.2 (Artemis); ~OO't6lCOC;: Jl. 11.270, 16.187, 19.103 (Eileithuia); Theoc. 27.30 (Artemis); (JoroSiva: IG VII 3407 (Chaeronea, Artemis); ooSivrov Eftaproy6<;: Hymn. Orph. 2.2 (Prothuraia), 36.4 (Artemis); 001CUA.OX£tCl: Hymn.Orph. 2.4 (Prothuraia), 36.8 (Artemis). 49 W. Westendorf, LdA 2 (1977) 461 S.'ll. -Geburt." AUBERT, JEAN-JACQUES, Threatened Wombs: Aspects of Ancient Uterine Magic , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 30:3 (1989) p.421 JEAN-JACQUES AUBERT 445 is occasionally still echoed in the magical papyri, where for instance, Osiris is identified with Helios (PGM Iv.2342). Plutarch, however, records in the De Iside et Osiride that the Egyptians locate the power of Osiris in the moon and say that Isis, as the creative principle, has intercourse with him. For this reason they also call the moon the mother of the world and they believe her nature to be both male and female since she is filled and made pregnant by the sun, while she herself in turn projects and disseminates procreative elements in the air. For Typhonic destructiveness does not always prevail.so This passage shows the contamination of two traditions, the one retaining the old association of Osiris with the sun, and the other adopting his subsequent role as a lunar god subject to the destruc­ tive attacks of Typhon, who in turn had become a solar god "warm­ ing and withering things that grow and bloom" (367D). Typhon is said to be responsible for all diseases and confusion, such as "bad seasons, imperfect coalescence of air, eclipses of the sun, and dis­ appearances of the moon, which are in the manner of sallies and rebellions" (M or. 3 71 B). In his argument for the importance of the sun in the protection of the womb, Delatte rested his case on the solar attributes of Bes, Horus, Osiris, Chnoubis, the tail-devouring snake oupo(36po<;, and the texts of two amulets. One has been quoted above (n.7): "Fasten the womb of so-and-so in the right place, 0 (you who raise) the disk of the sun." As we have seen, its lunar character is not to be doubted. The other text admittedly has a solar connotation: "I in­ voke you, who illuminate the whole world and who rekindle those (beings, animals, or foetuses) who are in the course of pregnancy (or close to becoming pregnant)." While the use of the masculine points to Helios rather than Selene, nothing indicates that the amulet bearing this text is in fact a uterine amulet, as we have no information about its design and fabric. S1 Still, the growing importance of the cult of the sun throughout the Roman Empire in the first three centuries of the Christian era might explain the presence of solar references in a domain traditionally reserved for lunar influences. And the snake aKpoupo~6po<; does appear in a 50 Mor. 368c (tr. Griffiths). Cf supra n.8. 51 Delatte 86, referring to an amulet of Berlin ("Cabinet de Berlin 9.77"): E7t\1caAou~ai