have you ever been really ticked off at
someone but you don't know what to do
about it because of this person have you
ever wanted to release some stress and
maybe even conjure an army of Archangels
- unless your righteous fury upon them
then look no further because today we're
demonstrating how to make a defects EO
an ancient form of magical cursing that
was particularly popular among the
Greeks and Romans in antiquity so what
is a cursed tablet over the past century
archaeologists have discovered hundreds
of lead tablets all over the
Mediterranean some are discovered in
wells some buried within temples or
tombs many more discovered in ancient
bath houses basically anywhere but all
of them have something in common
they all were used to inscribe violent
magical curses on them aimed against
some poor hapless victim you actually
see a depiction of one of these in hbo's
rome when servilia of the junii eye
tries to curse julius caesar for being a
jerk to her though a lot of the scene is
fiction cursed she utters accurately
resembles curses that archaeologists
have discovered in the field so what do
you need you need a piece of lead hammer
and nails knowledge of ancient Greek or
Latin and possibly a familiarity with
the deities and demons of the underworld
in all seriousness though don't try this
at home lead is a toxic metal and even
though it can't be absorbed through the
skin
scratching a piece of lead like this
might create shavings that could be
ingested or inhaled and you don't really
want to be fooling around with
underworld deities anyway right of
course the Greeks and Romans also use
pottery wax and limestone to write their
curses but there was something about
lead that made it perfect for the
situation lead was a perfect choice for
writing curses because it was plentiful
easy to mold into a thin writing surface
and most of all was cold dark and heavy
for example many curses try to draw a
parallel between the person they are
cursing and the metal just as this lead
is cold and useless so let them my
enemies be cold and useless so we have
the sheet of lead all we need is a
person to curse and a reason to curse
them all for the sake of good sibling
rivalry I'm gonna curse my brother Erik
for stealing my GI Joes and I was a kid
you don't mind Erik do you he doesn't
mind so I've based my curse on a spell
discovered in Corinth that dates to
about the 2nd century CE II I entrust
and consign Erik to the fates who exact
justice so that they may punish his acts
of insolence to Hermes of the underworld
to earth to the children of Earth I
adjure you and I implore you and I pray
to you
Hermes of the underworld
and the mighty names now notice two
things I've included on this tablet so
these here are actual Greek words but
this line right here is complete
gibberish called voce smudgy chi the
Greeks and Romans would put strings of
consonants and vowels on their curses as
a form of divine language we don't know
exactly why they used bouquets magicai
but it must have been viewed as some way
to draw down and deploy ritual power in
a curse we see similar practices today
when a magician says abracadabra or
Alakazam the words don't really mean
something but they're used as part of
the ritual process and these symbols are
called characters symbols that show up
everywhere in ancient Mediterranean
literature again we don't exactly know
what they're supposed to represent but
some scholars think they represent
astrological signs are possibly a divine
script all of these elements the
invocation to the gods the character EES
the VOC is Magic Eye they all combine
together to make a magical curse but the
words and symbols alone are not enough
to activate the spell hundreds of these
spells are found rolled up and pierced
with the nail it seems that the process
of rolling and piercing was a necessary
step of the ritual in fact we see the
process of nailing in the actual Latin
word for a cursed tablet de fixie o
where we fix the spell in place with a
nail so here we're going to actually
activate the spell we're gonna roll it
up let is a very malleable metal so this
is actually pretty easy and then we
pierce it with a nail so there you have
a replica of a de pixie oh now all we
need to do is put it in a place of power
archaeologists often find cursed tablets
buried in tombs and sometimes in caves
because they're dark and thought to have
some sort of connection with the
underworld deities but we also find them
in houses bath houses or even racetracks
although this seems really weird to us
living here in the 21st century it's
important to realize that cursed tablets
was just part of the normal warfare of
social life of an ancient Mediterranean
in the words of the scholar David
frankfurter from Chariot Racing to theft
from domestic rivalries to mercantile
competition from erotic desire to
judicial appeals people in every village
and city at every level of society
Christians no less than Jews or Romans
sought the extra advantage of magical
procedures magic was part of ancient
society and by studying it we encounter
ancient ritual as it was practiced on
the ground we encounter ancient
individuals up close and personal far
removed from the rarified texts of
people like st. Paul or Cicero with
archeology of magic we see evidence of
the fears and anxieties that compelled a
person to specific action and though
these rituals seem exotic to us the need
for control that they illustrate is just
as prevalent today as it was 2,000 years
ago as always thanks for watching and
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