Beware the Evil Eye Volume 2: The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World—Greece and Rome

396 Pages·2016·3.28 MB·English

by  Elliott

Beware the Evil Eye
The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World
—Volume 2—
Greece and Rome
JOHN H. ELLIOTT
BEWARE THE EVIL EYE
The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World
Volume 2: Greece and Rome
Copyright © 2016 John H. Elliott. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or
reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the
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PAPERBACK ISBN: 978-1-49820-499-6
HARDOVER ISBN 13: 978-1-4982-8577-3
EISBN 13: 978-1-4982-7366-4

Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Elliott, John Hall.

Beware the evil eye : the evil eye in the Bible and the ancient world / John H. Elliiott.

xxxvi + 334 p. ; 23 cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN: 978-1-49820-499-6

Vol. 2: Greece and Rome.

1. Evil eye. 2. Evil eye—Greece. 3. Evil eye—Rome. 4. Envy. I. Title.

GN475.6 E45 2016 v. 2

Manufactured in the U.S.A. 03/10/2016
Table of Contents
Title Page
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Evil Eye Belief and Practice in Greece and Rome
Chapter 3: Salient Features of Evil Eye Belief and Practice
Chapter 4: The TRanscendental Good Eye
Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion
Bibliography
Frederick William Danker in memoriamlexicographer supreme, expert
in Hellenistic Greek and biblical exegesis, demanding teacher,
intrepid colleague, dear friend, and energetic partner in projects of
justice and mercy
“If I tell not the whole truth,let white turds of crows disgrace my
head,and let Ulius and frail Pediatia and that thief Voranus come to
piss and shit on me!”
(H , S 1.8, P )
ORACE ATIRES RIAPUS SPEAKING
PREFACE
This four volume study traces evidence of Evil Eye belief and practice in the
ancient world from Mesopotamia (c. 3000 BCE) to Late Roman Antiquity (c.
600 CE), with particular attention to the Bible and post-biblical traditions of
Israel and early Christianity.
Belief in the Evil Eye is a long-standing and widespread folk concept that
some persons are enabled by nature to injure others, cause illness and loss, and
destroy any person, animal or thing through a powerful noxious glance
emanating from the eye. Also known as “fascination” (Greek: baskania; Latin:
fascinatio), this belief holds that the eye is an active organ that emits destructive
emanations charged by negative dispositions (especially malevolence, envy,
miserliness, and withheld generosity). These emanations arise in the heart or
soul, and are projected outward against both animate and inanimate objects. The
full constellation of notions comprising the Evil Eye complex includes the
expectation that various prophylactic words, gestures, images, and amulets have
the power to counter and avert the damaging power of the Evil Eye.
From its likely origin in ancient Sumer (3000 BCE) and its early spread to
Egypt and the Circum-Mediterranean region, to its later movement eastward to
India and westward and northward to Europe, the belief eventually made its way
from “old worlds” to “new.” It now constitutes a cultural phenomenon with
personal, social implication, and moral implications that has spanned the
centuries and encircled the globe.
Beware the Evil Eye concentrates on the Evil Eye phenomenon in the ancient
world, with new and extensive attention to mention of it in the Bible and the
biblical communities of Israel and early Christianity. Volume One opens with an
introductory overview of references to, and research on, the Evil Eye from the
ancient past to the modern present (Chapter One). Chapter Two of Volume One
examines Evil Eye belief and practice in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Volume Two is devoted to evidence on the subject in ancient Greece and Rome.
The analysis of Evil Eye belief and practice in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and
Rome summarizes a century of research since the milestone two-volume study
of Siegfried Seligmann, Der böse Blick und Verwandtes (1910), and describes
the ecological, historical, social, and cultural contexts within which the biblical
texts are best understood. Within the geographical and cultural matrix detailed in
these first two volumes, the evidence of Evil Eye belief and practice in the Bible
is then examined in Volume Three. A final volume considers post-biblical
evidence of Evil Eye belief and practice in Rabbinic Israel (Chapter One) and
early Christianity (Chapter Two) through Late Antiquity (c. 600 CE).
Concluding reflections on the import and implications of our study (Chapter
Three) close this final volume. Throughout this study we are treating the Evil
Eye in antiquity not as an instance of vulgar superstition or deluded magic, but
as a physiological, psychological and moral phenomenon whose operation was
deemed explicable on rational grounds; for discussion see Vol. 1, pp. 26-27.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As with Volume One, I am most grateful to the host of friends and informants in
North America and abroad who have so generously supplied me with first-and
second-hand accounts of Evil Eye incidents, Evil Eye amulets, and Evil Eye
research. My special thanks, once again, to Dick Rohrbaugh for his critical
reading and feedback on the content and shape of Volume 2.
Thanks too to editor in chief K. C. Hanson as well as Ian Creeger, patient and
expert typesetter, for advice on this second volume and getting it into final
shape.
ABBREVIATIONS
ANCIENT TEXTS/SOURCES
Josephus Ant. Antiquities of the Jews Life The Life War
Jewish War Philo of Alexandria Drunkenness On
Drunkenness/De Ebrietate Flaccus Against Flaccus/In
Flaccum Post. On the Posterity of Cain/De Posteritate
Caini Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Test. Sol.
Testament of Solomon Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs T. Benj. Testament of Benjamin T. Dan
Testament of Dan T. Gad Testament of Gad T. Sim.
Testament of Simeon RABBINIC WRITINGS
b. Babylonian Talmud (Babli) m. Mishnah GREEK AND ROMAN WRITINGS
Adesp. Adespota [fragments of unknown authors]
Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta. 3 vols. Edited by T. Kock. Leipzig: Teubner,
Vol. 1, 1880; Vol. 2, 1884
Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta. Edited by G. Kaibel. Vol. 1.1. Berlin:
Weidmann, 1899
Aelian Nat. An. De natura animalium. On Animals Var.
hist. Varia Historia. Historical Miscellany Aeschylus
Agam. Agamemnon Choephori/Libation-bearers
Prometheus Bound Persians Aesop Vita Aes. Vita Aesopi
Agathon Frag. Fragment Alciphron Ep. Epistles
Alexander (Pseudo-) of Aphrodisias Probl. phys.
Problemata physica Antisthenes Frag. Fragment
Apuleius Met. Metamorphoses Aristophanes Ach.
Acharnenses Frag. Fragment Knights/Equites Peace/Pax