Plinivs - Vol. 4 Ch. 27 - Christ

[MangaDex]

 

[OmegaKaiser]

I thought that kind of cursing dolls were not part of the Roman empire.

 

[freakofnature]

I thought that kind of cursing dolls were not part of the Roman empire.

Oh no, there were many different types of curses common to the Roman empire of the time — the most widespread of these being the defixio, or "curse tablet". Many of these tablets are preserved, and the inscriptions on them offer a fascinating glimpse into the personal hatreds that flourished among the people of the time.

Tretia(m) Maria(m) defico et
illeus vita(m) et me( n )tem
et memoriam [e]t iocine-
ra pulmones interm{x}ix{i}-
ta fata cogitata memor-
iam sci no( n ) possitt loqui
(quae) sicreta si( n )t neque SIṆITA
MEṚE possit neque ̣
[ ̣ ̣ ̣] C̣Ḷ ṾDO

"I curse Tretia Maria and her life and mind and memory and liver and lungs mixed up together, and her words, thoughts, and memory; thus may she be unable to speak what things are concealed, nor be able … nor … ."

(Curse tablet found in London 1934; in the British Museum, museum number 1934,1105.1)

 

[Jaytop]

This made me look up cursed dolls in the Roman Empire and I realised that the doll in this chapter seems to be heavily inspired by a doll found in egypt that was made in the 3rd or 4th century that is exposed at the Louvre
https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010011467
https://archaeostore.com/blog/roman-voodoo-doll/