Ideas of justice and fairness in the Greco-Roman magic tablets: a comparative-historical aspect

• Main Author: Kudryavtseva Tatyana Vladimirovna
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Theological Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), 2014-12-01
• Series: Религия, церковь, общество
• Subjects: magic; athens; greco-roman world; trial; tabellae defixionum (curse tablets); judicial prayer
• Online Access: http://rcs-almanac.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2014_%D0%BA%D1%83%D0%B4%D1%80%D1%8F%D0%B2%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0.pdf

The article examines the use of magic arts by ancient litigants, in particular, the lead curse tablets (defixiones) in order to guarantee a favorable outcome of a trial. In the Hellenistic and Roman period of the Ancient history the judicial magic underwent certain changes: a supplicant more often asked deities to help in the lawsuit, to bind the opponent’s tongue or speech etc. It other words, he requested the gods to take the responsibility of judge, to punish the guilty, i. e. to revenge and to carry out divine justice; the emphasis was made on the idea of justice and retaliation. These innovations have allowed some scholars even to distinguish a special group of the judicial prayers. The author marks several reasons for the changes in the traditional judicial magic: monarchical consciousness that developed in the Hellenistic period, and some disappointment in the human justice or certain perception of its weakness and limits, which resulted in seeking justice and retribution from the supernatural powers — typical of the religious mentality. In a broader context, it is possible to speak about the shift in emphasis in the resolution of criminal scenarios and even more — of a conflict situation: from the contest in which “a winner is always right” and “the winner will get all” to the exercise of jurisdiction as the triumph of Justice, protection of “the insulted and humiliated”. The magic “prayer for justice” becomes a kind of harbinger of a Christian prayer.