Book contents
- Religious Violence in the Ancient World
- Religious Violence in the Ancient World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- A Note on Abbreviations
- General Introduction
- Part I Methodology
- Part II Religious Violence in the Graeco-Roman World
- Chapter 3 Ancient Greek Binding Spells and (Political) Violence
- Chapter 4 The Expulsion of Isis Worshippers and Astrologers from Rome in the Late Republic and Early Empire
- Chapter 5 Religious Violence? Two Massacres on a Sabbath in 66 ce: Jerusalem and Caesarea
- Chapter 6 Religion, Violence and the Diasporic Experience: The Jewish Diaspora in Flavian Rome and Puteoli
- Chapter 7 Animal Sacrifice and the Roman Persecution of Christians (Second to Third Century)
- Chapter 8 The Great Persecution and Imperial Ideology: Patterns of Communication on Tetrarchic Coinage
- Chapter 9 The Violent Legacy of Constantine’s Militant Piety
- Part III Religious Violence in Late Antiquity
- Index of Sources
- General Index
Chapter 3 - Ancient Greek Binding Spells and (Political) Violence
from Part II - Religious Violence in the Graeco-Roman World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2020
- Religious Violence in the Ancient World
- Religious Violence in the Ancient World
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Contributors
- A Note on Abbreviations
- General Introduction
- Part I Methodology
- Part II Religious Violence in the Graeco-Roman World
- Chapter 3 Ancient Greek Binding Spells and (Political) Violence
- Chapter 4 The Expulsion of Isis Worshippers and Astrologers from Rome in the Late Republic and Early Empire
- Chapter 5 Religious Violence? Two Massacres on a Sabbath in 66 ce: Jerusalem and Caesarea
- Chapter 6 Religion, Violence and the Diasporic Experience: The Jewish Diaspora in Flavian Rome and Puteoli
- Chapter 7 Animal Sacrifice and the Roman Persecution of Christians (Second to Third Century)
- Chapter 8 The Great Persecution and Imperial Ideology: Patterns of Communication on Tetrarchic Coinage
- Chapter 9 The Violent Legacy of Constantine’s Militant Piety
- Part III Religious Violence in Late Antiquity
- Index of Sources
- General Index
Summary
As the anthropologist Michael Taussig argued, in discussion of Roger Casement’s Putumayo report, ‘To an important extent all societies live by fictions taken as reality’.1 His was a paper that explored ‘the mediation of the culture of terror through narration’,2 exploring specifically how everyday narratives of different kinds are woven together to create the mundane reality of violent ideologies. In this chapter, I will follow his lead by tracing the evidence for a culture of terror in ancient Greek, especially Athenian, society, as expressed in specific fragmentary narratives of magic and law, or, more specifically, of legal and magical violence. My argument will focus on the violence against the individual depicted in binding spells (or katadesmoi), examining the cultural significance of the spectacle of the body depicted in parts.3 I will be focusing, where possible, on spells found in Attica, using further material, including literary, archaeological and visual evidence, that sets it in its socio-political context.4
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- Religious Violence in the Ancient WorldFrom Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, pp. 71 - 86Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020