Pella Curse Tablet

The Pella curse tablet is a text written in a distinct Doric Greek idiom, found in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedon, in 1986. Ιt contains a curse or magic spell (, '' katadesmos'') inscribed on a lead scroll, dated to the first half of the 4th century BC (BC). It is held in the Archaeological Museum of Pella. It was published in the ''Hellenic Dialectology'' Journal in 1993. The Pella curse tablet exhibits some of the typical Northwest Greek features, as well as a cluster of unique Doric features that do not appear in other subdialects of this family (e.g. Epirote, Locrian). It represents the same or a very similar vernacular dialect that is also attested in the other Doric inscriptions from Macedonia. This indicates that a Doric Greek dialect was not imported, but proper to Macedon. As a result, the Pella curse tablet has been forwarded as an argument that the Ancient Macedonian language was a dialect of Northwest Greek, and one of the Doric dialects.

The spell was written by a woman, possibly named Dagina or Phila. It was intended to prevent the marriage of her love interest, Dionysophon, with Thetima, and secure that Dionysophon would marry and live a happy life with her instead. The spell was entrusted to the corpse of a deceased man, named Macron.

Interpretation

The Pella curse tablet includes a magic spell or love charm written by a woman, perhaps named Dagina () or Phila (), whose love interest, Dionysophōn () sometimes thought to be a former lover, is apparently about to marry Thetima (). As such, she invokes "Makron and the demons" to cause Dionysophon to marry her instead. The text opens with the verb followed by the objects of the curse, which seem to be the fulfillment (''telos'') and marriage (''gamos'') of the couple. The former may refer to any type of consummation, like that of a marriage, while the latter can refer to marriage as a ritual, as well as the couple's sexual union. Arius Didymus mentions that the Dorians referred to marriage as ''telos'', a detail that might explain this somewhat unusual choice of words by the writer. Dagina writes that no woman should marry Dionysophon, unless she herself recovers and unrolls the scroll. The language of the spell suggests that the writer perceived herself as having been wronged, perhaps by Thetima, who appears to be forcefully cursed, while no curse throughout the text is explicitly directed to Dionysophon. The writer's wish to have her rival 'destroyed' and for herself to be 'happy and blessed' is a typical motif that is commonly found in curse tablets. On the other hand, her wish to grow old by Dionysophon's side () appears to be a particular sign of tenderness that has no other parallel in epigraphic tradition. The tablet is described as a "mixed curse" due to the supplicative nature of the appeal. The word "abandoned" referring to herself is quite common in appeals to divine powers, while the word is expressly used when speaking to the ''daimones''. The spell was intrusted to the body of a deceased man, named Macron (), reflecting the practice of Greek magicians to place their spells at the sanctuary of a deity or along a recently buried body, securing that the spell would be successfully carried to the underworld.

Magic practices in ancient Macedon are of particular interest, as they shed light on popular religious beliefs and not exclusively on the practices of the Macedonian elites. Though previously ignored as being of minor significance, magic has been proven to be widely practiced throughout the ancient Greek world in conjunction with official religious beliefs. That said, magic remained a marginal practice, largely performed in secret, and associated with the underworld and the ''daimones'' (lesser guiding spirits, navigating between the gods and the humans). It was not uncommon for professional sorcerers to provide their guidance for payment, helping individuals with the composition of their curse, which may have also been the case for the Pella tablet. Though not unlikely, it is noted that the text appears to be particularly personal, making it possible for it to have been composed by the woman herself. Whatever the case, the text seems to reflect the woman's local dialect, while the curse itself follows the traditional structure, as it was used throughout the Greek world. ''Katadesmoi'' or '' defixiones'' were spells written on non-perishable material, such as lead, stone or baked clay, and were secretly buried to ensure their physical integrity, which would then guarantee the permanence of their intended effects. The language of the Pella curse tablet is a distinct form of North-West Greek, and the low social status of its writer, as (arguably) evidenced by her vocabulary and belief in magic, strongly suggests that a unique form of West Greek was spoken by lower-class people in Pella at the time the tablet was written. This should not, however, be taken to indicate that only those of middling or low social status practiced magic in the Ancient Greek world; quite wealthy individuals would also use lead katadesmoi (curse tablets) for love, revenge, and to bind their opponents in athletic contests.

Text and translation

Greek

:1. �ΕΤΙ�ΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΦΩΝΤΟΣ ΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΝ ΓΑΜΟΝ ΚΑΤΑΓΡΑΦΩ ΚΑΙ ΤΑΝ ΑΛΛΑΝ ΠΑΣΑΝ ΓΥ-
:2. �ΑΙΚ�Ν ΚΑΙ ΧΗΡΑΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΘΕΝΩΝ ΜΑΛΙΣΤΑ ΔΕ ΘΕΤΙΜΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΡΚΑΤΤΙΘΕΜΑΙ ΜΑΚΡΩΝΙ¹ ΚΑΙ
:3. �ΟΙΣΔΑΙΜΟΣΙ ΚΑΙ ΟΠΟΚΑ ΕΓΩ ΤΑΥΤΑ ΔΙΕΛΕΞΑΙΜΙ ΚΑΙ ΑΝΑΓΝΟΙΗΝ ΠΑΛΕΙΝ ΑΝΟΡΟΞΑΣΑ
:4. �ΟΚΑΓΑΜΑΙ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΦΩΝΤΑ ΠΡΟΤΕΡΟΝ ΔΕ ΜΗ ΜΗ ΓΑΡ ΛΑΒΟΙ ΑΛΛΑΝ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑ ΑΛΛ᾽ Η ΕΜΕ
:5. �ΜΕ Δ� ΣΥΝΚΑΤΑΓΗΡΑΣΑΙ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΦΩΝΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΜΗΔΕΜΙΑΝ ΑΛΛΑΝ ΙΚΕΤΙΣ ΥΜΩΜ ΓΙΝΟ-
:6. �ΑΙ ΦΙΛ�Ν² ΟΙΚΤΙΡΕΤΕ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΕΣ ΦΙΛ �ΙΔΑΓΙΝΑ³ ΓΑΡΙΜΕ ΦΙΛΩΝ ΠΑΝΤΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΡΗΜΑ ΑΛΛΑ
:7. �ΑΥΤ� ΦΥΛΑΣΣΕΤΕ ΕΜΙΝ ΟΠΩΣ ΜΗ ΓΙΝΗΤΑΙ ΤΑ ��Α ΚΑΙ ΚΑΚΑ ΚΑΚΩΣ ΘΕΤΙΜΑ ΑΠΟΛΗΤΑΙ
:8. ...�Λ ΥΝΜ .. ΕΣΠΛΗΝ ΕΜΟΣ ΕΜΕ Δ᾽ ΕΥ ��ΙΜΟΝΑ ΚΑΙ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΑΝ ΓΕΝΕΣΤΑΙ
:9. �Ο ..Ε.Ε.Ω �. �..ΜΕΓΕ

English

Points of interpretation

#"Makron" (line 2) is most probably the name of the dead man in whose grave the tablet was deposited. This was commonly done in the belief that the deceased would "convey" the message to the Chthonic spirits of the Greek underworld (the "daimones" in lines 3 and 6).
#The missing word in line 6 between "I am your supplicant" and "have pity" (here reconstructed as '' hil?'') is carved at the edge of the tablet and the only things we can read of it are that it is a short word that ends in-''AN''. "''PHILAN''" is a likely reconstruction, but by no means the only one possible. If true, the word "''PHILAN''" could equally well be either the personal name "Phila", a familiar ancient Macedonian name, or the feminine adjective "phila", "friend" or "dear one". In the latter case, an alternative reading of line 6 would be: "Have pity on your dear one, dear daimones". In the former case, a personal name would be perfectly placed but, as the name of the person who wrote the curse is not mentioned elsewhere, it is impossible to know with certainty what the missing word is.
#The word "DA''G''INA" (line 6) is inexplicable and previously unattested, even as a personal name. Dubois (1995) has suggested that the initial delta is a voiced tau, while the gamma should be seen as a misspelling of pi; as such, the writer may have intended to write "da''p''ina" (the difference between Γ and Π being a single stroke). If true, this may mean that ''dapina'' is an (also unattested) Macedonian rendering of what would be written ''tapeina'', and in standard Attic ''tapeinē'' ( ). In this case the inscription reads: "for I am lowly from all my dear ones and abandoned" etc. Another possibility is that Dagina is perhaps related to , a doll or puppet, especially as used in magic (cf. '' LSJ'' p. 364). Similarly, ΙΜΕ is also unexplained, but seems to be taken as a misspelling of ΕΜΙ (); i.e. Attic .

Dating and language

The Pella curse tablet is dated to the first half of the 4th century BC. Jordan (2000) says the tablet has been dated to the "Mid-IV enturyor slightly earlier"; Engels (2010) writes that it is dated from mid- to early 4th century BC. In particular, the tablet is most commonly dated between 380 and 350BC, such as by Hall (2014), Brixhe (2018), Foxhall (2020), Van Beek (2022), and Lamont (2023).

The text is written in a distinct Doric Greek idiom. It shares the typical features that appear in other Northwest Greek dialects, such as Epirote or Locrian Greek, a portion of which is also shared with Thessalian. It also displays a number of distinct Doric features that do not coincide with other Doric or Northwest varieties. Among the typical Northwest features of the curse tablet are the apocope in the proverbs κατ- and παρ-, the dative pronoun for , the temporal adverbs in -κα (τόκα, , which cannot be Thessalian, i.e. Aeolic), the genitive pronoun for , contraction of a: + o: to a: ( for ), and an indication of spirantization of aspirates ( for ); the last two and the apocope also being features of Thessalian. The variety displays instances of alternative spellings between <Ε, Ι, ΕΙ> and <Ο, Υ>, such as in words for , for , for , and for . Among these examples may be the word ΔΑΠΙΝΑ (), a potential alternative spelling of ταπεινά, which displays the occasional phenomenon of voicing the unvoiced consonants; also shared with Thessalian.

Additional features, like the dative case in and the assimilation of /g/ in , may be an indication of some Attic- Ionic influence on this Doric variety. Based on the dating of the tablet, a degree of Attic influence can be seen as plausible, as by the 4th century BC a common '' koine'' dialect based on Attic began to be favored over local dialects, including in the territory of Macedon. Nevertheless, Attic influence on the text remains limited, visible mostly in syntax, and much less in morphology and phonetics. Regardless of potential influences, the features attested in this variety remain unique within the Doric family, as they are not documented anywhere else, indicating that a Doric dialect was not imported, but proper to Macedon.

Significance

The discovery of the Pella curse tablet, according to Olivier Masson, substantiates the view that the ancient Macedonian language was a form of North-West Greek:

Yet in contrast with earlier views which made of it .e. Macedonianan Aeolic dialect (O. Hoffmann compared Thessalian) we must by now think of a link with North-West Greek (Locrian, Aetolian, Phocidian, Epirote). This view is supported by the recent discovery at Pella of a curse tablet (4th cent. BC), which may well be the first 'Macedonian' text attested ..the text includes an adverb "opoka" which is not Thessalian.

Of the same opinion is James L. O'Neil's (University of Sydney) presentation at the 2005 Conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies, entitled "Doric Forms in Macedonian Inscriptions" (abstract):Scientific Analysis of the Pella Curse Tablet by James L. O'Neil, (University of Sydney)
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A fourth‐century BC curse tablet from Pella shows word forms which are clearly Doric, but a different form of Doric from any of the west Greek dialects of areas adjoining Macedon. Three other, very brief, fourth century inscriptions are also indubitably Doric. These show that a Doric dialect was spoken in Macedon, as we would expect from the West Greek forms of Greek names found in Macedon. And yet later Macedonian inscriptions are in Koine avoiding both Doric forms and the Macedonian voicing of consonants. The native Macedonian dialect had become unsuitable for written documents.

Professor Johannes Engels of the University of Cologne argues that the Pella curse tablet provides evidence to support that Macedonian was a North-West Greek dialect:

Another very important testimony comes from the so-called Pella curse tablet. This is a text written in Doric Greek and found in 1986 ..This has been judged to be the most important ancient testimony to substantiate that Macedonian was a north-western Greek and mainly a Doric dialect.

Lamont (2023) notes that the discovery of the tablet supports the view that the Macedonian language was a variety of Northwest Doric. Besides that, the tablet provides significant cultural insight, as it suggests that the Macedonians were familiar with Greek social and ritual practices well before Philip II conquered the southern Greek mainland and exposed his kingdom to wider Greek influence.

See also

*Curse tablet
* Mandaic lead rolls
* Phiale of Megara
* Pydna curse tablets

Notes

References

Sources

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Further reading

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External links

PHI Greek Inscriptions (Epigraphical Database): Makedonia (Bottiaia) — Pella — ca. 380-350 BC, SEG 43:434

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pella Curse Tablet
4th-century BC manuscripts
1986 archaeological discoveries
Ancient Pella
Archaeological artifacts
Archaeological discoveries in Macedonia (Greece)
Curse tablets
Doric Greek inscriptions
Greek religion inscriptions
Religion in ancient Macedonia
European witchcraft