Curse Tablets

In today's world, we expect people to speak their mind if they are feeling aggravated or annoyed. We expect them to talk to others and find healthy ways to move past difficult times. This can not be said for the people of ancient Rome and ancient Greece. During those days people would write curse tablets.  The main purpose for these tablets was for humans to send their wishes to the spirits and Gods for them to work on their behalf, to do them a favor by bestowing illness on their hated ones. This magic was used every day and by almost everyone. These curse tablets were used to put "spells" on others. These "spells" could consist of wishing illness upon others as well as death. Curse tablets can be dated back to 500 B.C.E. to 500 C.E. 

This one seen above would be your typical curse tablet.

Usually the curse tablets were made of lead and the people who wanted to use them would inscribe their wishes upon the lead. Then after doing that they would travel to the baths and toss them in and pray to the Gods for their help and support. For example, in 1979, curse tablets were found at Aquae Sulis, better known now as Bath, England.

It is clear that times have changed since ancient Roman times but have they really? Even though people today may not write on curse tablets, they still from time to time wish they could bestow evil on the ones they dislike. So, with that being said, people today can not look at these curse tablets and think "How could they do such a thing?" we are all victims. Just as most people do this today, 1,000s of people did the same thing years ago. It was been recorded that over 1,600s curse tablets were found all over Europe. You can check it out for yourself here. Some tablets were more extravagant than others. Some tablets go into more detail about the evil they wish upon others and other tablets had more details on the tablets themselves. Some of the more elaborate tablets would specifically curse people who took part in theater, legal professions, lovers, and more (Project MUSE). 

Above you will see a modern curse tablet made by three juniors at East Greenwich High School. The translation comes out to be "We call upon the devil, whoever you are and wherever you lay to curse our mid-term. We ask for floods and snow storms to make the attendance of this dreaded exam impossible."

Thank you. 

Works Cited

"Aquae Sulis." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2014.

Bradley, Colleen M. Romano-British Curse Tablets: The Religious and Spiritual Romanization of Ancient Britain. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

"Curse Tablet." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 21 Dec. 2014.

Gager, John G. Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. Print.