Restless Dead

by Sarah Iles Johnston

  i On the control of threatening forces (ghosts, demons, gods) through statues, see Faraone 1992 and 1991a, as well as discussion in chapters z and 3 above.

  I Sophocles' Electra describes Agamemnon as having died dishonored (atimos) and having been subjected to maschalismos (emaschalisthe) at Clytemnestra's hands (444-46). Aeschylus's Orestes describes Clytemnestra as having treated Agamemnon dishonorably (atimos) with dishonorable acts (atimosin), and the Chorus responds by further describing her maschalismos of the corpse and ends by referring to her treatment as bringing dishonors (atimous) upon Agamemnon (434-43). Kittredge discusses the dishonor inherent in maschalismos briefly as well.

  113. Od. zz.474-77•

  I. Portions of this chapter were published in a somewhat different and shorter form, but with a fuller discussion of ancient methods of averting the ghosts described herein, as Johnston i995b•

  z. Lith. Dam.-Ev. 34.23.

  3. AOre is found in the plural in the magical papyri, e.g., PGM IV.34z, and cf. Martinez for further examples of the word's use in curse tablets based on this spell. In the newest supplement to LSJ (Oxford, 1996) the editor, Peter Glare, cites two instances of the variant aora from late imperial Asia Minor (MAMA 7.345) and Egypt (SEG 26.1717).

  4. Zen. Prov. 3.3 = Sapph. fr. 178. See p. 173 below for the full passage.

  5. Hsch., s.v. gello. Psell. ap. Leo Allatius De Graecorum hodie quorundam opina tionibus epistola (Cologne, 1643), 53. Many other Mediterranean examples also combine these functions of killing virgins, pregnant women, fetuses, and infants; see the texts concerning Lamashtu collected by D. West i99i; the comments of Scholem and the description of the demon Obizoth in the Testament of Solomon S57.

  8. Cyr. z.31.zo-23 and 2.40.35-38. For discussion of the date of the Cyranides, see Kaimakis, 3.

  6. Joa. Dam. Peri stryngon = Migne PG 94 1064.

  7. Stewart, s.v. gello in the index.

  9. I refer to the lithica as given by Halleux and Schamp; on dating and origin of material, see their introduction.

  1o. Orph. lith. zz4-z5 and Lith. Dam.-Ev. 34.23; cf. Orph. lith. keryg. z.4, which says that it protects babies from phthonos, sicknesses, and demonic attacks. Lith. Dam.Ev. 34.27-z8 says that a woman who is having trouble delivering should tie galactite to her right thigh with the wool of a fecund sheep.

  i I. Lith. Dam.-Ev. i; Cyr. 3.1.91-3. Further on the use of aetite in the ancient Near East, ancient Greece, and medieval Europe, see Barb 1950, 316-zz, and Thompson, 104-8. Note that the text promises that aetite will protect infants and girls from delirium and night terrors; as we shall see in the next chapter, young girls were liable to suicidal delirium that was believed to have be caused by precisely the same sort of creatures as those who might attack babies.

  1z. Lith. Dam.-Ev. z8. Cf. Psellus Lap. 13, p. z03; Orph. lith. 271-74; and Halleaux and Schamp ad loc.

  13. Usually, nuctalops describes someone or something that cannot see at night (e.g., Plin. HN z8 5170), but the meaning here, "something that sees well [i.e., is active] at night" also is found (e.g., Theod. Prisc. i, io).

  14. Lith. Dam.-Ev. 31; cf. Epiphanius, De xii gemmis 8, p. 197 Ruelle. Lynguros = "lynx's urine" = amber; see Plin. HN 37 S34 and cf. 37 §S51-53•

  15. Fest. P. 414 Lindsay (as taken from Paul the Deacon's eighth-century epitome of Festus, pp. 457-58) = PMG 859. Discussion of the spell's nature and origin, and of the textual problems, at Henrichs 1991, 178 n. 35; Versnel 1978, 41-4z; Weinreich, 1z-13 n. zz; Wilamowitz 1925, 391-9z; Heim, 500-501.

  i6. At Phd. 77e3-9, Cebes says to Socrates, "Do not assume that we are afraid, but rather that there is a child within us, who has such fears [of death]. Let us try to persuade that child not to fear death in the way he fears the mormolukeia." Socrates replies, "Ah, you must sing spells [epaidein] every day, until you charm away [eksepaisete] his fears." Cognates of epaidein are used several more times in the passage as the metaphor is played out. On the use of magic by midwives, see Tht. 149c-d; cf. Sor. Gyn. i.4.4.

  IT General discussion of the passage and the incantatory effect at Richardson 1974, 229-31. Also on the incantatory effect, see Maas 194z and 1944.

  118. On "attack" cf. the use of epelusie at h. Merc. 37 and of ephodoi at E. Ion 11049. The word Demeter uses that I have translated as defense, erusmon, is also interesting; at Paus. Gr. fr. 1182, it refers to something useful in protecting parturient women, which again suggests that the same demonic agency might attack babies and parturient women. Cf. further the cognate eruthmos, a plant that also was called ephialton and used to avert the attacks of the nightmare-bringing ghost Ephialtes.

  19. In agreement with Richardson, z3o. Faraone 1996, 88 and n. 40, argues that these words refer to demons who will "cut" the child, but his two comparanda, both of which are very late, seem to me to offer only very distant parallels.

  zo. Pl. R. 381e1-6: "Nor must mothers, under the influence of the poets, terrify their children with evil tales, according to which there are certain divinities who take on strange forms of all kinds and wander through the night." We know that Lamia was the subject of plays by Crates and Euripides (Crates fr. zo = schol. Ar. Ec. 77; E. fr. 92.z Nauck = D.S. zo.41.6), and that early historians told tales about her as well (D.H. Th. 6); Stesichorus mentions her as the mother of Scylla in a poem (fr. zzo = schol. A.R. 4.825-31); Sappho mentions Gello in her poetry, and Erinna mentions Mormo in hers (see p. 179 below). It is possible that fuller poetic treatments of their aitological stories originally existed, to which Plato here alludes. The phrases "take on strange forms of all kinds" and "wander through the night" fit aorai precisely, as discussed below.

  ii. Str. r.2.8.

  zz. Burkert 199z, 8z-87; cf. M. L. West 1997, 58-59, and D. West r99i (both of whom agree with Burkett).

  z3. Johnston 1991; van Gennep, ch. z.

  z4. This idea has been explored in depth by anthropologists, including Stewart, esp. ch. 6; Needham, z3-5o; and J. Buxton.

  z5. Herzfeld, 566-67.

  z6. Zen. Prov. 3.3 = Sapph. fr. 178; Campbell's Loeb translation, adapted.

  z7. D.S. 10.41, 3-5; Duris FGrH 76 F 17; Phot. and Suda, s.v. Lamia, and schol. At. Pax 758; cf. Apostol. ap. Leutsch Paroem. Gr. 2.497-98, schol. Aristid. P. 41 Dindorf, and Hot. AP 340.

  z8. Schol. Aristid. P. 41 Dindorf.

  z9. In Johnston 1997a, I have argued that the myth of Mormo as we see it in the scholiast to Aristides was influenced by the myth of Corinthian Medea, who purposefully killed her children and then flew away in a dragon chariot.

  30. Mormo is related to a whole complex of Greek words that convey "fright" (see n. 39 below). Lamia is related to laimos, "gullet" or "throat"; cf. "Lamos" as discussed in n. 6o below. The meaning of gello is hard to determine. Classical scholars have associated it with the Sumerian/Akkadian gallu (Burkett 199z, 82-87; D. West i99r). Scholars of Sumerian/Akkadian languages, such as E. Ebeling, have rejected this derivation, however.

  31. Similar explanations are given for the existence of aorai in other cultures, particularly in the ancient Mediterranean: Scurlock 1991; T. H. Gaster. Egyptian texts mention dead women (and even dead men) who come to attack the child; sometimes, a ghost wants to kiss the child or take it into her lap or arms, which seems to allude to the paradigm of the aore: see Erman, esp. Iz-13, 32-33, 39, 40-45.

  3z. Cf. Suda, s.v. gellous paidophilotera, which seems to paraphrase Zenobius.

  33• Discussion at Loraux 11998, iz; Cantarella, 47; King, esp. 111111-112, and cf. van Gennep, 87; Dowden (frequently throughout); and Stewart, 174; cf. van Gennep, 87. E. AIc. 168-69.

  34• Hsch., s.v. mormonas. On the Odyssean passages, see Johnston 1994; Bremmer 1983, 103; Lattimore, 187; Merkelbach, 189; and Meuli 1975, I: 316. Odyssey zo.618z is also discussed in chapters 6 and 7.

  37. Stewart, ch. 6. A similar point can be made about ghost beliefs in virtually any culture; see, e.g., Winkler. It is interesting that the contemporary Greek word for demons is exotika, literally, "the things outside [of normal life]." The word
itself expresses the intrinsic negativity of the phenomenon and its utter separation from what "normal" people do.

  35• Cf. the earliest (and still an important) scholarly exploration of this premise at van Gennep, 151-65.

  36. Joa. Dam. Peri stryngon = Migne PG 94 1 064.

  3 8. Stewart, ch. 6.

  39. On Lamia's proverbial hideousness, see Ps. Diogenian. ap. Choerob. in Crameri Anecdot. Oxon. 2.293, Duris FGrH 76 F 17; further at Schwerin, "Lamia," RE iz col. 545. On Mormo as the essence of fearsomeness or mormo as a synonym for Phobos, see At. Eq. 693; X. HG 4.4.17; schol. At. Ach. 582; schol. At. Pax 474 and often elsewhere. Hsch. and Phot. explain cognates of mormo by cognates of Phobos.

  41. Crates fr. zo = schol. A. Ec. 77. Other fragments from Crates' Lamia are at PCG IV 96-8.

  4z. Skutale = phallus at At. Lys. 991.

  40. At. V. 1177; At. V. 1035 = Pax 758.

  43. At. Ec. 74-78. We know that Aristophanes is alluding to the passage in Crates here because Aristophanes names the thieving woman's husband "Lamias" and one of the thief's friends asks whether the club she stole is the same one as her husband had when he farted (Crates portrayed Lamia as farting).

  44• Lekythos in the National Museum of Athens, inv. 11 z9; discussed most recently by Boardman and Halm-Tisserant, who cite the previous scholarship both on the vase itself and on the proposal that it represents Lamia, and who provide photographs of the vase.

  45• Halm-Tisserant, 76. The paint on this portion of the vase is damaged, but incised lines still show the phallus. A satyr holds a torch just under the phallus.

  46. Cf. the modern Greek Lamia who has monstrously large breasts (or else one monstrously large breast): Bernhard Schmidt, 134.

  47• See pp. 18z-83 below.

  48. We know that Euripides, too, wrote a satyr play in which she appeared; this would be later than the lekythos, but bespeaks her popularity as a comic subject. Fr. 9zz Nauck = D.S. zo.41.6: rig TOUPAV Ovo a TOUTTEVEd8LaTOV RPOTOLS / / OUK OLSE Aaµiac Tfls ALI3uaTLK71S yEvos; and cf. POxy. 2455 fr. 19 and POxy. 3651 line z3.

  49. Mormo as shape-shifter: Erinn. z6-z7. Lamia as a beast: Ant. Lib. 8 = Nic. fr. 51, schol. At. V. 1035, D.S. zo.4i.z-6. Mormo as horse: Theocr. Id. 15.40. Striges as birds: Scobie; Oliphant. Lamiai as birds: a mosaic from Pesaro shows two birds with human heads wearing Phrygian caps; the inscription reads "LAMIE" (illustrated and discussed in Weicker, 33, zo8). Gelloudes as birds: e.g., Joa. Dam. Peri stryngon = Migne PG 94 io64; Psell. ap. Leo Allatius De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus epistola [Cologne, 1643], 5 3.On the various versions of the myth of the Minyads' transformation, see Burkett 1983, 174-79. For further examples of theriornorphic Greek demons, see Faraone 199z, 44-48.

  5o. Reproductions or discussions of plaques that show Lamashtu with the feet and forelegs of a bird can be found in Farber, Nougayrol, Myhrman, and Goldman; a particularly good source of drawings is Klengel. On Lilith and other Near Eastern aorai as birds of prey, see Scholem, col. z46.

  51. See the survey by Scobie, although his tendency to see all or most such beliefs as having their origin in the ancient Near East seems to me incorrect. A particularly interesting piece on the association between owls and both ghosts and witches is Ruel.

  5 z. Weicker is still a useful survey of Greek and Roman examples of bird demons, and includes some other Mediterranean types. Malten includes a discussion of Greek and Roman birdlike demons, z39-5o.

  53. Stories that made Lamia the mother of the sea monster Scylla (Stesich. fr. zzo = schol. A.R. 4.8z8) and the daughter of Poseidon himself (Plu. De Pyth. orac. 398c); Paus. 1o.1z.1 similarly linked the demon to the frightening, marginal area of the sea.

  54• Johnston i99za, esp. sec. z.

  56. For a survey of the wolf's associations in ancient Greece, see R. W. B. Buxton 1987.

  55. See discussion of Poseidon and his hippomorphic consorts in chapter 7 below and Johnston 199zb and Malten, both with notes to ancient sources. On Poseidon and the horse more generally, see Burkert 1985, 138, with notes.

  57. Schol. Id 15.40: ['H ujrTlp] 'OTrEOTpELIIE TOV XO'YOV Trpo TO TraLSLOV TO KXOIOV, KaL lTJGLV, OUK a~w QE, TEKVOV, lLET' ElioO, 6TL Tl iLOpll(il LTiTros SQKVEL.

  58. Lamia as Belus's daughter: schol. At. Pax 758 (and cf. Burkett 199z, 83). As Poseidon's daughter: Plu. De Pyth. orac. 398c; Paus. 1o.rz.1; Clem. Al. Strom. 1.15.70, vol. z 45.4 Stahlin.

  6o. E. fr. yzz Nauck (cf. n. 48 above); cf. Duris ap. FGrH 76 F 17 = Phot. and Suda, s.v. Lamia; schol. Ar. V. 1035 and Apostol. ap. Leutsch Paroem. Gr. 2.497-98; schol. Aristid. P. 41 Dindorf. Paus. io.lz.i makes her the mother, by Zeus, of the Libyan sibyl. A different idea is expressed by the schol. to Theocr. Id. 15.40, which makes Lamia the queen of the cannibalistic Laestrygonians (although this surely draws on the fact that in Od. io.81 and thereafter, "Lamos" is king of the Laestrygonians).

  59. See the articles on "Belus" by Amelie Kuhrt and H. J. Rose, in the third and second editions (respectively) of OCD.

  61. D.H. Th. 6.

  6z. Myhrman, esp. 147-48; Erman, 14, zz, z4, 41.

  63. Stewart, ch. 6, esp. 165. Stewart goes on to show how contemporary practices have built on the traditional attachment between demons and spatially distant areas. For example, churches now are built as close to the center of a village as possible, as if to locate "God" as far from the outlying margin of demons as possible. Dionisopoulos-Mass explains the association between witches and foreigners as owing to a fear among the villagers that if they name a local woman as a witch, she will avenge herself upon them; this is probably true, although the strong association between the concept of "witch" and places that are "other" surely reflects the idea I have discussed here as well.

  64. M. Douglas 1963, iz8.

  65. Compare the analysis of Parker 1983, 239-56.

  66. PI. Ti. 91b7-c6 A starting point for further study of this means of explaining reproductive problems is Hanson's excellent essay.

  67. Hanson; cf. Lloyd 6z-83; 168-zoo.

  68. Hanson, 319 n. 52, cites a full catalogue of such techniques from Hippocrates, Soranus, and Galen. See also Dean-Jones, ch. z.

  69. The sloughed skin of a snake tied to a woman's loins as an amulet, for example, was believed to make childbirth easier, although it had to be taken off immediately after delivery or else the uterus would be expelled as well as the child. Plin. HN 30 §129; cf. z8 §34•

  70. Aubert; Barb 1953; Bonner 1950, esp. 90-91; cf. Orph. H. 1.5, where the birth goddess Prothuraia is addressed as kleidouchos. More generally on the cervix as an os liable to inappropriate closures and openings, see Hanson, 3z4-30.

  71. E.g., PGM XXXVI.z83-94• Interestingly, this spell is to be used by a man who wants to make sure that the woman he has intercourse with will conceive. He must speak the spell that commands the womb to open and also must also rub his penis with a mixture that includes honey, the gall of an electric eel, crow's egg, and the plant "crow's foot."

  73. The advocated "cure" for such ailments was often intercourse, even for those who normally would not be sexually active, such as prepubertal girls. See discussion at Hanson, 3z3-z4, and King.

  74. Ap. Met. 1.9; Plin. HN z8 559; cf. Ov. Met. 9. z95-3oo and Ant. Lib. z9 = Nic. fr. 6o.

  7z. Hanson, esp. 316-zo; King.

  75. E. And. 3z, 157, 205, 355• It is impossible to discern whether pharmaka in these passages means a simple poison or a magical potion; the dividing line was quite hazy for the Greeks. In any case, what concerns us here is the source of the problem-another mortal-rather than the exact means of causing it.

  76. Plu. QC 7 68o c-f; Plin. HN 7 §z; Aul. Gel. NA 9 S4.7-8.

  77. There are two further possible examples of magical spells that could cause sterility, although one is late and neither seems compelling to me. (1) PGM LXIL103-6 reads: "`Let the genitals and the womb of her, NN, be open, and let her become bloody by night and day.' And [these things must be written] in sheep's blood, and recite before nightfall, the offerings [? approx. 9 letters missing] ... firs
t she harmed ... and bury it near sumac, or near.... on a slip of papyrus" (J. Scarborough's translation in Betz, 294). Aubert, 428 - 3 5, understands this to be a spell to induce miscarriage in another person; his argument is based mainly on understanding the phrase "first she harmed" as part of some justification for asking the gods to cause the miscarriage. The word "harmed" (r)SiKri0E) is an uncertain reading, however, as all letters but the E are unclear. Even if we are to accept the reading, the passage is too fragmentary to allow certain interpretation of the spell's intent. (z) In n. 13, Aubert mentions that personal communications with D. R. Jordan, R. D. Kotansky, and M. Smith confirmed his own suspicion that there are no defixiones intended to cause sterility, with one possible exception. Jordan 1985a, 159 no. z1 (= SEG 30 316.23 ff.), mentions a first-century Attic defixio directed against thieves, which asks Hecate that the "the earth be unwalkable, the sea be unsailable [for the thieves]; let there be no enjoyment of life, no increase of children, but may utter destruction visit them or him" (trans. = Gager #84). Here, however, the curse of sterility is merely a part of a much greater curse intended to ruin the victim's life overall. Neither PGM LXII.1o3-6 nor SEG 30 316.23 ff. provides good evidence for any supposition that magical attacks were made specifically against other mortals' reproductive capacities. I am excluding contraceptive spells from this discussion, all of which include actions that would have to be performed by the woman herself or at least performed with her knowledge, such as the hanging of amulets around the neck (e.g., PGM XXXVI.3zo-3z, 63.24-z8). It does not seem possible that they could be used to damage the sterility of an unwilling woman.

  78. E.g., Medea, the foreigner par excellence, uses her Evil Eye to overcome Talus in the Argonautica (A.R. 4.1669 ff.). On the Evil Eye in ancient Greece generally and the passages discussed here in particular, see the information collected by Dickie 199o, esp. 267- 7z, and 1991. Jahn remains a thorough and useful source as well. On the Evil Eye and other envious emanations in later antiquity, see most recently Limberis.

  79. For example, Mair, passim, e.g., 11, 111-13; J. Buxton, 103. The topic is mentioned in several of the essays collected in Douglas 1970 (see the index under "children, death of," and "children, illness of") although not analyzed in any depth. In the European Middle Ages and Renaissance, devotion to Satan emerged as a new, additional reason that mortals were assumed to kill their neighbors' children or festuses. The Malleus Maleflcarum includes a section entitled "That Witches who are Midwives in Various Ways Kill the Child Conceived in the Womb, and Procure an Abortion; or if they do not do this Offer New-born Children to the Devil," according to which wicked mortals bring about sterility and infant deaths both through the agency of demonic helpers and through knowledge of herbs and other medicines. On the link between midwives and reproductive witches in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, see further Forbes. Another reason sometimes adduced during this period (but found as early as Hot. Ep. 5) was the witch's or magician's need to use fetuses and children's body parts in magical spells. On sterility and children's deaths being blamed on mortal magic during this period, see, more generally, Klaits, esp. z, 94-103; Ginzburg 1983, passim, and 1991, esp. 71-76; Flint, z35-37.