Fwd: All known historical cultures have believed in witches
Cornelius Hamelberg
Did the ancient Greeks also believe in witches? Were sorceresses incorporated into their storytelling culture?
When I lecture on witchcraft persecutions in the Swedish and Dutch-speaking areas – the only parts of the world where my books have a reasonably large readership – sooner or later questions arise about the oldest known predecessors of the stories and folk beliefs that guided the witch-burners of the early modern era. And the answer is: yes, people have always been convinced that witchcraft existed and that there were specialists who practiced magic better than others. There are references in both the Bible and ancient literature. The Greeks were no exception.
Among the lesser-known figures in Greek witchcraft is Agamede. We first meet her in the 8th century BC, when Homer in the "Iliad" depicts her as a herbalist princess from the region of Elis in the Peloponnese. Over the centuries that followed, her character changed, and by Hellenistic times she had developed into a magician skilled in witchcraft. Another example is Pasiphaë, who in myth is married to King Minos of Crete, and who, through a love affair with a bull, is said to have become the mother of the monster Minotaur. Judging from the myths, Pasiphaë is not only supposed to have been a powerful queen but also to have been experienced in spells, curses and herbalism. A third example is the first inhabitants of Rhodes, the Telchines, who are said to have been known for their magical powers. According to Greek mythology, they could cause rain, snow and hail and, if necessary, assume any form they wanted.
A much more famous female sorceress in ancient Greek literature is Circe, daughter of the sun god Helios. Her main attribute is her knowledge of magical potions and plants, which she uses to transform enemies into animals. In “The Odyssey,” Odysseus and his men come to her island, where all but the hero are transformed into pigs. Odysseus, who would also have been transformed if he had not received help from the god Hermes, then forces her to restore the men to their true forms. The hero and his crew remain on the island for a year, during which time Circe – now a much more pleasant acquaintance – bears a pair of sons to Odysseus.
In another story, narrated by the Roman poet Ovid, who lived at the time of the birth of Christ, Circe transforms the Italic king Picus into a woodpecker, and in another myth she becomes jealous of the nymph Scylla, who is transformed into a monster. In later tradition, Circe came to be portrayed as an archetypal femme fatale , dangerous and seductive. The combination of her witchcraft and sexual liberation has exerted a strong attraction on European artists from the Renaissance to the present day, such as George Romney and John William Waterhouse. Circe is also closely associated with another prominent witch figure of ancient myth, Medea. In the legends, this sorceress is the daughter of Circe's brother, King Aietes of Colchis, a kingdom in modern-day Georgia, and she plays one of the main roles in the stories of Jason and the Argonauts.
At the heart of all these myths is a divinity named Hekate. She had several functions and was often associated with borders and crossroads, including walls and doors. She was often depicted with keys and torches that could illuminate the area at gates. This contributed to Hekate also becoming associated with the world beyond the human dimension, where no living creature resided, and with the border zone between the human and the divine. It was common to place sculptures of Hekate, depicted as a goddess with three bodies, at three-way intersections. As a consequence of this, she also came to be perceived as a goddess of the underworld, associated with ghosts and witchcraft. During the Roman Empire, when the ancient springs flowed most abundantly, the latter aspect had become the dominant one, and Hekate was perceived as the truly great and awe-inspiring witch goddess.
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