Fusiform Intaglios and Prisms, in Les savoirs magiques et leur transmission de l’Antiquité à la...

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Attilio Mastrocinque

FUSIFORM INTAGLIOS AND PRISMS

The ‘spindles’

Spindle-shaped intaglios represent a mysterious categoryamong the so-called «magical gems». The name is conventionaland the use of these objects is still unknown. The notion of«magical gems» is modern too, it classifies every magical oralledgedly magical object that refers to neither Olympic norChristian religion. This category includes not only amulets, butalso magical instruments 1. Magical axes, for example, are known,which, in some cases, were true prehistoric objects reworked andengraved with inscriptions and images typical of magical gemsand papyri; others were imitations dating to the time of theRoman Empire. They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder 2 asbelonging to the instruments of magicians. Stones used byancient magicians were supposed to prophesy 3, to break chains

Abbreviations used: PGM = K. Preisendanz (ed.), Papyri graecae magicae, 3vols., Leipzig 1928-41; cited from ed.2 in 2 vols., by A. Henrichs, Stuttgart1973-74; H.-D. Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation including theDemotic Spells, I, The Texts, Chicago 1986; 19932.

1. See A. Mastrocinque, in A. Mastrocinque (ed.), Sylloge gemmarum gnos-ticarum, I, Rome 2003 (Bollettino di numismatica, Monografia, 8.2.I), 52-53.

2. Pliny, HN 30, 14; 37, 135.3. Lapidaire orphique, 360-87; Kérygmes lapidaires d’Orphée, 16.5, 101-3 and

157 (ed. R. Halleux, J. Schamp, Les lapidaires grecs, Paris 1985); TzetztesPosthomerica, 574; cf. J. Schamp, «Apollon prophète par la pierre», Revue belgede philologie et d’histoire, 59 (1981), 29-49. On another kind of propheticstones: A. Mastrocinque, «Studies in Gnostic Gems: The Gem of Judah»,Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period, 33,2 (2002), 164-70.

«Micrologus’ Library» 60, SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2014

and rocks and to drive out demons 4. Other magical stones werebrought to practitioners by sea falcons 5. Magical rings withengraved figures were used to seal prophetic skulls 6. Small rockcrystal multifaceted prisms 7 and spheres 8 were used by magiciansand theurges 9.

Magical stones were placed into divine statues in order to ani-mate them 10. A green stone in the Cabinet des Médailles wasanother magical instrument 11, however, its meaning is unknown.Other so-called magical gems were votive offerings to the gods,especially to Nemesis 12. Very rare magical gems could be instru-ments for aggressive magic 13. Véronique Dasen 14 has recentlyshown that magical gems of a specific category could be con-ceived as printed pills, sphragides. Haematite gems, in particular,were equated with the famous clay sphragides produced inLemnos. Extant gems bear the image of a goat, as on the Lemn-

ATTILIO MASTROCINQUE

4. PGM XII, 279-350; Kyranides, 1.24 (ed. D. Kaimakis, Die Kyraniden,Meisenheim am Glan 1976, 107).

5. PGM I, 65-69.6. PGM IV, 2125-39; cf. A. Mastrocinque, Studi sul mitraismo, Rome 1998

(Il mitraismo e la magia), 32-34; 92-94.7. Cf. the rock crystal prism edited by W. M. Brashear, Magica varia,

Bruxelles 1991 (Papyrologica Bruxellensia, 25).8. A. Nagy, «Pilula crystallina», Bulletin du Musée hongrois des Beaux-Arts,

73 (1990), 11-19; A. L. Meaney, Anglo-Saxon Amulets and Curing Stones,Oxford 1981 (BAR, 96), n° 91. Other specimens of crystal spheres areknown in the Middle Ages. On other kind of magical spheres: A. Delatte,«Études sur la magie grecque I Sphère magique du Musée d’Athènes», Bul-letin de correspondance hellénique, 37 (1913), 246-78.

9. See Psellus, Opuscula, 38 (Philosophica minora II Opuscula psychologica,theologica, daemonologica, ed. D. J. O’Meara, Leipzig 1989, 133).

10. Corpus Hermeticum Asclepius III, 24; 37-38; PGM IV, 3142: a magnetiteshaped as a heart; cf. PGM IV, 2630.

11. B. Montfaucon, L’antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures, II, 2, Paris1719, pl. 166 (= Antiquity Explained, II, London 1721, pl. 52); Mastrocinque,Sylloge gemmarum Gnosticarum, I, 400.

12. A. Mastrocinque, «Le gemme votive», dans J.-P. Brun (ed.), Artisanatsantiques d'Italie et de Gaule. Mélanges offerts à Maria Francesca Buonaiuto,Napoli 2009, 53-65.

13. One specimen: M. Guarducci, Epigrafia greca, IV, Roma 1978, 182 =Sylloge gemmarum Gnosticarum I, 317.

14. V. Dasen, «Magic and Medicine: the Power of Seals», in Chr.Entwistle, N. Adams (ed.), ‘Gems of Heaven’. Recent Research on EngravedGemstones in Late Antiquity c. AD 200-600, London 2011, 69-74.

ian seal 15, or images of Salomon on horseback. These gems werepulverised and soaked with water or another liquid 16. The med-ical use of pulverized haematite is known for the treatment ofseveral diseases. This practice explains why a number of suchgems are broken with only one half preserved.

Uncommon uses of these ‘magical gems’ can be recognized inother cases as well. In fact, many intaglios were not phylakteria orperiammata, to be worn on the neck or on the finger as a ring. Atypical case is that of the so-called ‘spindles’ or fusiformhaematites (Fig. 1) 17. They are oblong haematite intaglios, withtapered ends. Sometimes they are more curved on one side andless on the other. The cut images are those found on magicalgems: the anguipede cock, the Gorgon, Hekate, the lion, Osiris,Nemesis, Anubis, Seth and so on. Likewise, the inscriptions arecommon to magical gems, such as Salamaza, Iao, Semesilam,Chnoubis. These objects were clearly produced by the same spe-cialists who produced the amulets, merging Egyptian and Greekiconography with Jewish theonyms. These objects were not usedas pendants or ring-stones, since it was impossible to wear them,there being no trace of piercing or framework on the preservedspecimens. Their length varies from ca 2 cm to ca 7 cm. Onepartially preserved specimen in the British Museum 18 has twogrooves around the preserved end.

The ancient authors do not speak of them and therefore it isonly possible to make suppositions about their use. CampbellBonner 19 noticed similarities with Oriental cylinder seals, but headmitted that unlike these no ‘spindle’ is perforated longitudi-nally: one ‘spindle’ is bored through transversely at the middle,

15. Dasen, «Magic and Medicine», 70-71, pl. 3a-b.16. In the same manner pieces of haematite were used as medicaments:

Dioscorides, De materia medica, 5, 126.17. See several specimens in C. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets Chiefly

Graeco-Egyptian, Ann Arbor, London 1950, D 365-67; A. Delatte, P. Derchain,Les intailles magiques gréco-égyptiennes, Paris 1964, n° 284; Cabinet desMédailles, inv. n° 973 bis; coll. Seyrig, 55, 62, 64.

18. S. Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, London 2001,n° 585.

19. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, 241. The same author supposed aritual use of the fusiform intaglios during Isiac ceremonies; «A Miscellanyof Engraved Stones», Hesperia, 23 (1954), 147.

but the perforation is probably not original 20. The spindles arerather similar to bronze age haematite weights from the nearEast. But they could not be «magical weights».

Some observations can be put forward about these objects.First of all, the material is always haematite, a stone which was

20. J. L. Myres, Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities fromCyprus, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York 1914, 444 and n°4426-33; cf. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, 315-16, D 368.

Fig. 1a-b. Haematite, Cabinetdes Médailles de la BNF. Photo© A. Mastrocinque.

thought to be a medical astringent and dryer 21, and thereforecould be used to dry a pathological blood’s flow 22. Haematitewas indeed the stone of blood, haima. Haematite amulets wereused to control the menstrual flow 23, they depict the image ofAres, a bloody god, and an inscription which invites Tantalos todrink blood. Christopher Faraone 24 has convincingly argued thatthose gems were aimed to let the menstrual blood flow when itwas stopped by a disease or a malfunction.

If we suppose that the ‘spindles’ were instruments for treatingsome diseases and were concerned with blood, how could theybe used? The spindle shape is suitable to be inserted into a part ofthe body. Wounds are excluded because an insertion could provepainful and detrimental. The anus and earholes could also be dam-aged by the insertion of those objects. The nostrils, on the contrary,are shaped in a suitable form to receive this kind of instruments.

A spell reported by the thirteenth century Greek physicianNicolaus Myrepsus says:

Exorcism for nosebleeding sounding somewhat like this: ‘In thename of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen’. But who-ever is going to recite this exorcism must hold in his hand a jasper-stone or a haematite 25.

21. E.g. Theophrastus, On Stones, 37; Galen, De complexionibus 12.720Kühn; Paul., Epit. med. VII.3.11 (Corpus medicorum graecorum, 9.1 and9.2, book 7, ch. 3, section 11, line 106); Aetius Amidensis, Libri medicinalesII.13 (Corpus medicorum graecorum, 8.1. Ch. 13); Stephanus Med., Phil.,Collyrium ophthalmicum (olim sub auctore Stephano Archiatro) Index lec-tionum in universitate litterarum Vratislaviensi per hiemem anni 1888-1889 (ed. W.Studemund, Breslau 1889, 13); Pseudo-Dioscorides Med., De lapidibus, ed. C.E. Ruelle, Paris 1898 (Les lapidaires de l'antiquité et du Moyen Age, 2.1),section 4.

22. Damigéron-Evax, 9.8 (ed. R. Halleux, J. Schamp, Les lapidaires grecs,Paris 1985); Dioscorides, De material medica 5.126 (ed. M. Aufmesser, Hilde-heim 2002); A. A. Barb, «Lapis Adamas», dans Hommages à Marcel Renard, I,Brussels 1969, 67–82, esp. 72.

23. A. Barb, «Bois du sang, Tantale», Syria, 29 (1952), 271-84. 24. Chr. A. Faraone, «Does Tantalus Drink the Blood, or Not? An Enig-

matic Series of Inscribed Hematite Gemstones», in U. Dill, Chr. Walde(hg.), Antike Mythen. Medien, Transformationen und Konstruktionen. Fritz Grafzum 65. Geburtstag, Berlin, New York 2009, 203-28.

25. A. Barb, «St. Zacharias the Prophet and Martyr», Journal of the Warburgand Courtauld Institutes, 11 (1948), 44-45.

Alphonse Barb has gathered many medieval spells which resortto the help of St. Zacharias and Veronica, in order to stop nosebleeding, and they often remember that the blood of Zachariasthe martyr was transformed into stone 26.

Moreover, their varying length and diameter makes it possiblefor them to enter either large or narrow nostrils, be it for adultsor children. Their ends are never sharpened, but rounded andsmooth. This shape makes them appropriate for entering thenose. The capillaries of this part of the human body are particu-larly sensitive to high blood pressure and can rupture and pro-duce nose bleed, which is called epistaxis.

The insertion of a haematite ‘spindle’ is however, unsuitable tostop nose bleeds and a softer and more elastic substance isrequired to stem the flow. Many substances were ordered byancient physicians as a tampon or a plug; a popular prescriptionof a different nature involved snails taken from their shells as aprescription 27. Scribonius Largus 28 prescribed tampons made ofsnail flesh, or a sponge soaked in vinegar shaped in a suitableform; eventually those tampons could be reinforced by othersubstances as well such as one mentioned by Scribonius, namelythat of unwrought wool with astringent substancies such aspomegranate peel, alum, and calcite.

We may thus suggest that the use of the spindles was for push-ing wool or sponge plugs up into the nostril. Pliny the Elder, ina famous passage, writes about magic arts 29:

That it first originated in medicine, is not doubted by anyone; orthat, under the plausible guise of promoting health, it established itselfamong mankind as a higher and holier branch of medical art.

The magical ‘spindles’ may thus be tools to promote health byimproving the effect of a medical plug 30.

26. Barb, «St. Zacharias», 35-67.27. See Pliny, HN 30, 112.28. Scribonius Largus, Compositiones, 46-47.29. Pliny, HN 30, 2: «natam (scil. magicem) primum e medicina nemo

dubita<b>it ac specie salutari inrepsisse velut altiorem sanctioremque medic-inam, ita blandissimis desideratissimisque promissis addidisse vires religionis».

30. See the article of E. Zwierlein-Diehl in this volume, with fig. 4 from

The prisms

Prisms are another unexplored category of magical gems. Alist of examples will contribute to clarifying the nature of thoseobjects.

Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, 314, D 360: limonite; 1,9 !8 !8;from Alep; Kore, Hekate; inscr. «Saint Zeus who expells the evil».

E. Weber, «Zeus Kasios und Zeus Sarapis, zwei kleine Amulette mitInschriften», Wiener Studien, 8 (1974), 201-7: two bronze specimens per-forated longitudinally; kept in Haifa; 12,5 !13 !4; 12,5 !13 !3; inscr.«One Zeus Kasi(o)s»; on the other: «One Zeus Sarapis».

P. Fossing, The Thorvaldsen Museum. Catalogue of the Antique EngravedGems and Cameos, Copenhagen 1929, n° 1863: haematite; 2,9 !0,9;Hekate, leontocephalic god and goddess with a hand over her mouth.

Paris, Cabinet des Médailles, coll. Seyrig inv. B. 10: bronze pierced bya hole; 2,21 !0,69 !0,69; Seth (?) and series of vowels.

Delatte et Derchain, Les intailles magiques gréco-égyptiennes, n° 451:bronze with a suspension loop at the top; 1,5 !0,7 !0,7; mummy, skele-ton, monkey, falcon, magical words, also on the base (Fig. 2).

Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, n° 589: haematiteperforated at the top for suspension; 2,4 !1 !0,8, very similar.

E. Brandt, A. Krug, W. Gercke, E. Schmidt, Antike Gemmen in deutschenSammlungen (AGDS) I, München, München 1972, n° 2891: steatite perfo-rated longitudinally; inscr.: «Nemesis, help (me!)».

H. Seyrig, «Notes archéologiques. 4. Amulette et sortilèges d’Anti-oche», Berytus, 2 (1935), 48-50 bronze perforated longitudinally; 1,1 !0,4;inscr.: «Phoebus orders the feet not to produce pain».

Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, 314, D 358: steatite perforated lon-gitudinally; 1,4 !1,1 !0,9; Anubis (?); snake, Harpokrates, inscr. «Iao».

Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, n° 591-93: threespecimens similar to the preceding; one of serpentine, 1,7 !1,3 !0,9, twoof steatite, 1,9 !1,25 !0,9; 1,85 !1,1 !0,8.

Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, n° 594: steatite,1,7 !1,6 !0,7; a god, the anguipede cock, inscr. «Iao», two charakteres.

Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, 238: a similar steatite was in theNewell collection.

the Hortus Sanitatis by Jakob Meydenbach (1491 depicting a doctor stoppinga nosebleed with a haematite).

Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, n° 595: steatite,1,2 !1,1 !0,9; the anguipede cock, inscr. «Iao», crossed S within anouroboros snake, Sarapis within a saeptum.

Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, n° 596: two ser-pentine from Tartus; 2 !1,5 !1,2: Seth or Anubis, inscr. «saint», a godholding a snake, inscr. «Iao». The second: 1,9 !1,7 !1,2; a man in front ofan altar, holding a branch, moon and two stars, seated man holding abranch and a beard, a branch.

Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, 314, D 361: glass paste perforatedlongitudinally; 2,4 !0,6 !0,6; inscr. «Iao, Sabao, Michael, Thoth andmonogram.

O. Coloru, «Old and New Magical Inscriptions», Zeitschrift für Papy-rologie und Epigraphik, 176 (2011), 135-38: soft semi-precious stone;0,6 !0,6 !0,18; Anubis, inscr.: magical words, two of which are AktiophiEreschiga(l) (Fig. 3).

Other specimens of slightly different forms are presented byCampbell Bonner 31.

It is possible to identify one workshop that produced prisms ofglass; another specialized in prisms of bronze, another of steatiteor serpentine with the name of Iaô, the Jewish god, and veryschematic figures. Bronze and rare stone specimens have a sus-pension loop and an inscription at their base. Stone or glassspecimens are normally perforated longitudinally.

Hypothetically one could assume that they were worn on theneck as beads of a necklace 32 or as pendants. The bronze prismshowever, are shaped like seals or even like weights33. But the

31. Studies in Magical Amulets, 238-40, who does not put forward a pre-cise hypothesis about their use.

32. It is the opinion e.g. of Weber, «Zeus Kasios». 33. See the specimen described by Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets,

239, D 362.

words are not cut in reverse writing, as if they were for sealing.On the other hand some oculist stone seals have exactly thesame form, and were used to seal collyria 34. The Fig. 4 shows aspecimen from Saalburg 35, in Germany, made of porphyry, whichis shaped like a magical prism. The engravings for collyria usu-ally bear the name of the physician and/or the name of themedication itself. Rarely can one see magical or astrologicalsigns 36 on those objects. They have only been found in the West-ern part of the Roman empire, whereas the magical prisms ofdefinite origin come from the East.

The magical gems «are not cut for seals» 37. This is a typicalfeature, which distinguishes them from the anuli signatorii (i.e. theseal-rings), which have inverted images and writings. These anuliwere seals, whereas the magical gems had to be seen and readdirectly. This does not mean that the magical gems have nothingto do with seals, because many of them bear the words: sphragistheou, «the seal of God» 38. At the beginning of this paper we

34. See J. Voinot, Inventaire des cachets d’oculistes gallo-romains, Annonay1981; J. Voinot, Les cachets à collyres dans le monde romain, Montagnac 1999.For several comparisons: Voinot, Inventaire, nos 21, 25, 27, 39, 41 etc.; the pic-tures and the descriptions are sometimes imprecise.

35. Voinot, Inventaire, 448 n° 224.36. See Voinot, Inventaire, 480-1: the sun and seven stars. Dasen, «Magic

and Medicine», 69, pl. 1-2.37. Studies in Magical Amulets, 10.38. Especially those with Salomon on horseback; see for ex. P. Perdrizet,

«!"#$%&! !'(')'*'!», Revue des études grecques, 16 (1903), 42-61;Michel, Die magischen Gemmen im Britischen Museum, n° 430-44.

mentioned seals for prophetic skulls. Véronique Dasen hasrecently shown that some gems with the image of a goat repro-duced a sacred image which was used to seal Lemnian earth, asubstance which was used as a medicine 39. A Lemnian seal wasused as an image for a magical gem, whose inscription «make(the pain) cease» can be read on the stone 40.

The prisms are similar to some medical seals and conse-quently, we can infer that they could be used as seals to transmita divine force to medical substances.

ABSTRACT

The so-called «spindles» and the prisms are two categories of scarcelystudied magical intaglios. The «spindles» are always made of haematiteand bear inscriptions and iconographies like the magical gems. Egyp-tians gods, several gods recurring on magical gems (for ex. the angui-pede cock), or the Gorgo are depicted on them. Haematite was used forits hemostatic properties. Also the form of «spindles» suggests a medicaluse in treatments of bleedings. The nostrils are shaped in a suitable formto receive this kind of instruments, and the «spindles» could be usefulfor pushing wool or sponge plugs up into the nostril in order to stopan epistaxis. Magical stone and glass prisms, in form of parallelepipeds,are known. Several of them resemble the shape of stone seals for col-lyria. The universally accepted idea that magical gems were never usedas seals is contradicted not only by those finds, but also by some gemsdepicting a goat, which were studied by V. Dasen, that can be regardedas sphragides.

Attilio MastrocinqueUniversité de Vérone

attilio.mastrocinque@univr.it

39. Dasen, «Magic and Medicine». For a magico-medical haematite gemwith a goat: C. Bonner, «Amulets chiefly in the British Museum», Hesperia,20 (1951), 342 n° 73; cf. Id., Studies in Magical Amulets, 322. On the seal ofLemnian earth: Dioscorides, De materia medica 5.97.

40. See the note above.

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