Against all prediction has appeared recently (late May 2013) in Spanish media a story with three old flavor words that seem move us to another world: witch, spell, potion.<\/b><\/p>\n
\n\tCertainly mediums, spells, love potions<\/em> do not seem issues of our time but of the past. Yet important newspapers headlined:<\/p>\n \n\t"The big goal of the baker witch. The psychic claimed 165,000 euros to ex president of Castellón F.C. by a spell of love " or "Laparra arrested for robbing the house of a psychic who sold a fake love potion<\/em>".<\/p>\n \n\tIn short, the news was referring to the fact that a certain Laparra, chairman of a football club, had hired the services of a fortune teller (in other times would say "witch<\/em>"), which prepared a potion for obtain the love of Sandra, with whom he was madly in love. But the potion was ineffective and the lover claimed the astronomical amount paid 165,000 euros.<\/p>\n \n\tThe formula for the potion or "elixir<\/em>" (a term also used bay newspapers) consisted of washing with water which had previously been submerged some flowers during 40 days, then the lover must collect land from a cemetery and rub his body .<\/p>\n \n\tThe potions, elixirs or love filters exist from the remotest Antiquity. In Greek and Roman culture are ubiquitous in the mythological stories and daily life of people. Remember the "witch" Medea<\/em> who attracts Jason<\/em> or the sorceress Circe<\/em> who turns men into pigs with his wand and retains Ulysses <\/em>(Odysseus<\/em>) in his palace, by referring to the Greeks.<\/p>\n \n\tAmong Latins are frequent references in the poets like Horace, Ovid, Catullus, Propertius<\/em>, and in romans of Petronius<\/em> and Apuleius<\/em> to love filters to obtain the girls love. For example, we can remember Cintia’s<\/em> complaints, because she has suffered infidelity from her beloved Propertius<\/em>, in Elegies, III,6,25-30<\/em>:<\/p>\n \n\tShe won not by her morals, but by magic herbs, the bitch: he’s led by the bullroarer whirling on its string. He’s drawn to her by omens, of swollen frogs and toads, and the bones of dried snakes she’s fished out, and the feathers of screech owls found by fallen tombs, and a woollen fillet bound to a murdered man<\/strong><\/em>. (Translated by A. S. Kline)<\/p>\n \n\tNon me moribus illa, sed herbis improba vicit: \n\tOf course this formula is more complicated than this one of the modern "witch". As is it that Pliny<\/em> gives us in his Natural History XXX, 49, 141<\/em> (Book dedicated to medicinal use of animal products):<\/p>\n \n\tA lizard drowned in a man's urine has the effect of an antaphrodisiac upon the person whose urine it is; for this animal is to be reckoned among the philtres, the magicians say. The same property is attributed to the excrements of snails, and to pigeons' dung, taken with oil and wine. The right lobe of a vulture's lungs, attached to the body in the skin of a crane, acts powerfully as a stimulant upon males: an effect equally produced by taking the yolks of five pigeons' eggs, in honey, mixed with one denarius of hog's lard; sparrows, or eggs of sparrows, with the food; or by wearing the right testicle of a cock, attached to the body in a ram's skin.<\/strong><\/em> ( Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)<\/p>\n \n\tIn urina virili enecata lacerta venerem eius, qui fecerit, inhibet; nam inter amatoria esse Magi dicunt. inhibent et cocleae, fimum columbinum cum oleo et vino potum. pulmonis vulturini dextrae partes venerem concitant viris adalligatae gruis pelle, item si lutea ex ovis quinis columbarum admixta adipis suilli denarii pondere ex melle sorbeantur, passeres in cibo vel ova eorum, gallinacei dexter testis arietina pelle adalligatus.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tAnyway, if anyone is curious to know more of these magical rituals can read the Epode V of Horace<\/em> in which he describes a real black magic scene in which a child is killed slowly to make with his viscera a powerful love potion.<\/p>\n \n\tIn any case is not without interest to note the persistence of these magical practices that are lost in the mists of time for millennia.<\/p>\n \n\tAs is also of great interest to note that today as thousands of years ago are just women who are the possessors of these magical arts. They are the ones who know the herbs and their effects and prepare medicines for diseases and filters. Interestingly venenum<\/em> (herbs filter good or bad) and Venus<\/em> (love, lovemaking, love object) have the same common root. In Latin they are called "sagae<\/em>" witches. About that Pliny<\/em> said in Naturalis Historia XXV, 5, 10<\/em>:<\/p>\n \n\tand yet the greater part of the lower classes still remain firmly persuaded that these phenomena are brought about by compulsion, through the agency of herbs and enchantments, and that the knowledge of this art is confined almost exclusively to females.<\/strong><\/em> ( Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.)<\/p>\n \n\tdurat tamen tradita persuasio in magna parte vulgi, veneficiis et herbis id cogi eamque unam feminarum scientiam praevalere.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tIn any case, if this modern lover had read Ovid’s<\/em> work would have avoided some problems. Just started his booklet "Remedia Amoris<\/em>" (Remedies of Love)<\/em>, in verses 21-22<\/em>, we suggest either:<\/p>\n \n\tLet him who’ll die of wretched passion unless he quits it, \n\tQui, nisi desierit, misero periturus amore est, \n\tAnd if he had known the famous Ovid’s Ars Amandi<\/em>, would have read in Book II, verses 99-102<\/em>, how disqualifies the value of potions and herbs to woo the woman he loved or desired:<\/p>\n \n\tIs wrong who uses arts of Haemonia \n\tFallitur, Haemonias si quis decurrit ad artes \n\tAnd if none of this will come good, could use another formula or spell, but this time to forget a elusive love , like does Scylla<\/em> in Appendix Vergiliana, Ciris, 369-374<\/em>:<\/p>\n \n\tBut the nurse, mixing sulphur in a flat bowl, \n\tAt nutrix patula componens sulpura testa \n\tEither approach would have been preferable to suffer the fraud or scam of a crazy formula for a crazy purpose for which they are paid 165,000 euros.<\/p>\n \n\tWe could end these reflections with some consideration about the terminology used in newspaper. They speak of a modern "witch<\/em>" without doubt on the meaning, which supports the Royal Spanish Academy<\/em>, of charming, bewitching, and which is derived from the function of ancient Pythia<\/em> or priestess of the temple of Apollo<\/em> at Delphi<\/em>, where came faithful from anywhere of the Greek world to ask the god about their future or their designs and projects. Has little to do, then, the modern witch of newspapers with the function of old Pythia as an intermediary between mortals and Apollo.<\/p>\n \n\tHe is also called "seer<\/em>", a word that clearly means "one who sees", even supernatural visions, and who "intends to foretell the future or clarifying what is hidden<\/em>" (curiously, many times these seers of the future or of the supernatural are physically blind about the world in which they live; let us remember the famous seer of the tragedy Oedipus<\/em> named Tiresias<\/em>, blind,). Shortly should see the modern witch, who guessed neither foresaw the backlash of gullible customer who swindled 165,000 euros. Therefore, the use of this word in this context is absolutely inadmissible.<\/p>\n \n\tNor is it a "potion", because this word comes from the Greek “apó<\/em>”, \u1f00π\u1f79 gr. 'away from', 'from' and “zema<\/em>”, ζ\u1f73μα, 'cooking', 'decoction' of herbs and here only refers to "flowers submerged in water" .<\/p>\n \n\tIt is not more appropriate to use the term spell,<\/em> because although we assume that beside the water bath of flowers and smeared with mud from the cemetery, there was some magic verbal formula, nothing is told about it.<\/p>\n \n\tNor is the situation exactly fits the term "elixir<\/em>", according to the Royal Academy<\/em> a word from scientific Latin “ elixir”, this from classic Arabic “ al'iks\u012br<\/em>” , and this from Greek. ξηρ\u1f71, dry substances<\/em>, because it is not a liqueur or medicinal liquid to drink. It could only be admitted as a generalization of its meaning.<\/p>\n \n\tNeither seems very appropriate to speak in the subentry of the headline as "fake love potion," as if there were any "real" and effective potion.<\/p>\n \n\tIn short, if these linguistic lacks of precision are curious , what really is striking is that these magical practices come from the dawn of humanity and have gone through all historical periods, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Modern and Contemporary, and now survive at present in various forms, (sometimes covered with cultural costumes as Donizetti <\/em>famous opera "L'elisir d'amore<\/em>"): beliefs, ceremonies, horoscopes, necromancy, fortune-tellers, TV spots large audiences and, of course, thousands of web pages absolutely despicable.<\/p>\n \n\t So weak, imperfect and irrational is our human constitution? Against all prediction has appeared recently (late May 2013) in Spanish media a story with three old flavor words that seem move us to another world: witch, spell, potion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-gods-religion","category-habits","category-language-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tstaminea rhombi ducitur ille rota.
\n\tIllum turgentis ranae portentae rubetae
\n\tet tecta exsectis anguibus ossa trahunt,
\n\tet strigis inventae per busta iacentia plumae,
\n\tcinctaque funesto lanea vitta rogo.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tquit it: and you’ll be the cause of no one’s funeral.<\/strong><\/em>
\n\t(Translated by A. S. Kline)<\/p>\n
\n\tdesinat: et nulli funeris auctor eris.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tand gives what springs from the tender front of a foal.
\n\tMedea's herbs will not make love survives,
\n\t nor Marsi spells, mixed with magical sounds.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tDatque, quod a teneri fronte revellit equi;
\n\tNon facient ut vivat amor Medeides herbae
\n\tMixtaque cum magicis naenia Marsa sonis.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\tkindles narcissus and cassia, savoury herbs;
\n\tand thrice tying nine threads, marked eith three different hues, she cries:
\n\t“Spit thrice into your bosom, as I do, maiden;
\n\tspit thirce, maiden: heaven delights in an uneven number<\/em><\/strong>
\n\t(by H.R. Fairclough, rev. G.P. Goold; Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, MA 2001; )<\/p>\n
\n\tnarcissum casiamque herbas incendit olentis
\n\tterque novena ligans triplici diversa colore
\n\tfila «ter in gremium mecum» inquit «despue, virgo,
\n\tdespue ter, virgo: numero deus impare gaudet.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"