This article examines the relationship between oral traditions of cursing and the oldest Greek curse tablets from Selinous and Himera in western Sicily. As much early Greek writing is thought to record or reflect the spoken word, it is perhaps unexpected that these early Sicilian texts carry few signs of orality or speech. There are no verbs of speaking, incanting, cursing, singing, binding; no deictic language; no metre. Rather, the oldest curse tablets in the Greek world show clear signs of written literacy. Sicilian curse tablets from 500–450 bce employ verbs of writing to curse their victims (ἐνγράφω, ‘I inscribe’; καταγράφω, ‘I write down’; ἀπογράφω, ‘I enrol’), and exhibit textual distortion, scribal symbols, abbreviations, and columnar lists of names – features that ground these texts in the realm of writing. It is suggested that Greek curse practice developed alongside and in response to the spread of legal writing in the late sixth-century law courts of western Sicily.
as phones and DVD players are therefore employed in rituals. A very different mode of interaction comes through 'spirit pots', treated as persons, which are used in domestic cult. Thus, the local powers of the Sora sometimes manifest distinct personalities, particularly in situations of direct interaction, but in other contexts they are represented as depersonalised forces. Such contradictions are familiar to students of religion, yet as H. Versnel points out in his paper on omnipotence, the temptation to explain them away should be avoided. Vernant's relational model led him to the conclusion that polytheism was incompatible with omnipotence, since each Greek god was defined and limited by the power of others. But already in the Odyssey (4.237) Zeus 'can do all things'. Thus omnipotence is part of traditional Greek religion, yet it is often attributed in a vague manner to ho theos or hoi theoi. Attributions of unlimited power, typically found in prayers and hymns, reflect the orant's hope that the god can solve any problem. These texts represent 'henotheistic moments in a polytheistic world'. Another form of contradiction is found in Tamil Nadu (Avdeef), where the kirakam are represented in several modalities: as gods in devotional literature, as planets in astrological texts and as demons who cause illness through possession in the medical and tantric literature. Although astrological interpretation is constructed on the predictability of planetary movements, it also includes the attribution of agency to the planets, who are referred to in terms of respect ('Lord Mars'). Magical procedures may be used whereby persons acting under malign planetary influence (for example, a straying wife) are coerced by the local Goddess. Astrological destiny thus exists in stark logical contradiction with the ritual practitioner's ability to reverse planetary influences. Many edited collections resulting from conferences suffer from a lack of thematic unity. In the present case, the proposal to investigate Vernant's thesis about the Greek puissances divines from a comparative perspective has had the happy result of honouring his memory through a collection of unusual coherence, in which the contributions belong together because they shed light on each other. This hefty volume of (mostly) Francophone papers holds abundant rewards for students of world religions in general and Graeco-Roman religion in particular.
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