|
| infixio/defixio |
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1993
From:
"William M. Porter"
Subject:
infixio/defixio
My
neighbor to the north, John Lenz at Texas A&M, kindly brought to
my attention the fact that I'd misused 'infixio' for 'defixio' in an
earlier posting. I've never paid much attention to Latin curses
until earlier this summer. But my blunder & John's note have
sent me to the OLD and a few other places, and I have a couple
questions. 'Infixio,' not too surprisingly, is not in the OLD at
all. But I was a bit surprised to discover that 'defixio' isn't to
be found there, either, or anything else that I can think might be
the nom. sg. of 'defixiones' and 'defixionum' (gen. pl.), the two
forms I have seen used. So what gives? The OLD does of course cite
'defigo' as "bind with a spell, bewitch" (meaning #5). But
does anybody know about 'defixio'? Is it a medieval word? Or do I
have the nominative wrong? Second question: In his Loeb vol. 4
edition of *Archaic Inscriptions* (p. 281), where I found the text
of a deliciously nasty curse cast on one Plotius, Warmington
mentions a "law against using defixiones." Can anybody
tell me where this law can be found or how we know about it? (David
Meadows, is this in your database?) There's some vaguely similar
stuff in the Twelve Tables, but the words used seem to be compounds
of cantare; I can't find defixio there. BTW, Warmington cites an
article in AJP 31 (1912) titled "The Johns Hopkins Tabellae
Defixionum", but I haven't had a chance to look for the article
yet.
Date:
Sat, 21 Aug 1993
From:
David Meadows
Subject: Re: infixio/defixio
In
my precaffeinated state (caveat!) I can find no mention of defixio
in my database nor can I find it in any of the various legal sources
I have kicking around here. I presume that Warmington is making a
reference to what in FIRA2 (eds. riccobono et al) is Tabula 8.1
which (as you say) dealt with QUI MALUM CARMEN INCANTASSIT (the
reference comes from Augustine, Civ. Dei. 2.9 citing Cicero). My
bibliography on curses has the above-mentioned article (which was
originally the author's Ph.D. thesis ... 32 pages ... sigh) plus one
more: Audollent, A.M. *Defixionum Tabellae* which is all that I
wrote down other than it seems to be a reprint (1967) of a much
older work and has much Greek stuff. I knew about this because my
office mate was working on this and had a copy of this on the shelf
next to us but I only seem to have casually looked at it. As for the
word defixio, does it not come simply from defigo (as you
mentioned). As my caffeineless brain seems to recall, the vast
majority of these tabellae contain some line like `with this spell I
bind you' vel simm. as the first line. Hence, scholars have labelled
these things tabellae defixionum (along the analogy of tabula
heracleensis); that is, the word isn't `classical' as far as I can
tell. I suspect that that is what you suspected.
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1993
From:
"William M. Porter"
Subject:
Re: infixio/defixio
Thanks to David Meadows for clarifying the matter of 'defixiones'
for me a little. I will add Audollent's 1967 piece to my list of
things to track down on the subject. You said: I presume that
Warmington is making a reference to what in FIRA2 (eds. riccobono et
al) is Tabula 8.1 which (as you say) dealt with QUI MALUM CARMEN
INCANTASSIT (the reference comes from Augustine, Civ. Dei. 2.9
citing Cicero). I have the *Confessions* at home but not the *City
of God,* so I can't check right now; but fwiw, the Loeb edition of
the XII Tables (ed. Warmington) cites this phrase ('qui malum carmen
incantassit') out of Pliny the Elder, N.H. 28.17 [28.18 in the
Penguin translation]. Augustine, Civ. Dei 2.9 (quoting Cicero, Rep.
4.12) is cited by Warmington as the source for Tablet 8.1a, "si
quis occentauisset siue carmen condidiset, quod infamiam faceret
flagitiumue alteri..."
Date:
Sun, 22 Aug 1993
From:
Barbara Rodgers
Subject: Re: infixio/defixio
TLL
s.v. defixio: defixio, -0nis f. a defigere (sub II E). Gloss. -es
nekuomantiai, katadesmos.
Date:
Mon, 23 Aug 1993
From:
Ian Tompkins
Subject:
Re: infixio/defixio
Audollent is *much* older: Paris, 1904. Note also: J.G.Gager, *Curse
tablets and binding spells from the ancient world*, Oxford
University Press, 1992. Ian Tompkins, Classical Studies, University
of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Date:
Mon, 23 Aug 1993
From:
John R Lenz
Subject:
Re: defixiones
Audollent
is on the PHI 6 disk. it could use updating....
Date:
Tue, 24 Aug 1993
From:
Brian W Ogilvie
Subject:
Re: Defixio (a possible etymology)
Having
had a few free minutes at the library today, I thought I would look
at Du Cange's Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis and see what
he said about "defixio." S.v. there was only the note "Species
sortilegii. Vide Vultivo." Looking under the latter produced
the following remark: "VULTIVOLI dicuntur (verbis utor Joannis
Sarisber. lib. 1 de Nugis Curial. cap. 12 'qui ad affectus hominum
immutandos, in molliori materia, cera forte vel lima, eorum, quos
pervertere nituntur, effigies exprimunt.' ... Atque inde forte genus
sortilegii, DEFIXIO, videtur appellatum, quod scilicet ejusmodi
incantatores acus subinde DEFIGERENT in imagines cereas, iis locis,
quibus viros ipsos pungere decreverant, qui puncturas ipsas, ac si
ipsi pungerentur, persentiebant." Du Cange defines "sortilegium"
(also a non-classical word) as a species of divinatio, presumably in
a very broad sense. I'm not an etymological expert and don't know
how reliable Du Cange is on his derivations, but it certainly looks
like a plausible etymology.
Date:
Wed, 25 Aug 1993
From:
Eugene Lane
Subject:
Re: Defixio (a possible etymology)
Isn't "defixio" a fairly transparent calque of "katadesis"
or "katadesmos"?
Date:
Thu, 26 Aug 1993
From: "E.J. MONCADA"
Subject:
Re: Defixio (a possible etymology)
DuCange
shows the user as John of Salisbury and the book "De Nugis
Curialibus." I thought that was Walter Map's book, or was it at
some early period assigned to J.S.? |
| Culled
from
classics.log9308c
and
classics.log9308d. |
|