Words for envious: a new Latin inscription from Roman Africa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/emerita.2018.09.1707Keywords:
Latin Inscription, Magical Nail, Roman Africa, Vulgar Latin, Envy, Magic, ApotropaicAbstract
The goal of this paper is to offer a lecture of an unpublished Latin inscription carved on a bronze nail that is currently kept at The Hunt Museum, Limerick (Ireland). The allegedly incomprehensible text and its medium had been previously related to a Modern Age masonic and/or drinking context. However, we propose to read the inscription as a 4th-5th century A. D. protective text against envious people, which was written in Vulgar Latin and engraved on a magical nail from the Roman province of Africa.
Downloads
References
Alfayé, S. 2010: «Nails for the dead: a polysemic account of an ancient funerary practice», en Gordon, R.L., y Marco, F. (eds.), Magical Practice in the Latin West, Leiden-Boston, pp. 432-443.
Alfayé, S. 2014: «La magia de las peque-as cosas: nuevos clavos mágicos grecoromanos», en Duplá, A., et al . (eds.), Homenaje a Guillermo Fatás, Zaragoza, pp. 83-94.
Alfayé, S., (e.p.): «Nailing Down Ancient Magical Nails», en Bosselman-Ruickbie, A., y Ruickbie, L. (eds.), The material culture of magic , Leiden-Boston, en prensa.
Alvar, A. 2014: Envidia y fascinación. El mal de ojo en el mundo romano, Huelva.
Bailliot, M. 2010: Magie et sortilèges dans l'Antiquité romaine, París.
Bevilacqua, G. 2001: «Chiodi magici», Archaeologica Classica 52, pp. 129-150.
Cugusi, P. 2014: Carmina Latina Epigraphica Africarum Provinciarum post Buechelerianam collectiones editam reperta cognita, Faenza.
Diehl, E. 1925: Inscriptions Latinae Christianae Veteres (ILCV), vol. I, Berlín.
Dundabin, K. M. C. y Dickie, M. W. 1983: «Invida rampantur pectore . The iconography of Phthonos/Invidia in Graeco-Roman Art», JbAC 26, pp. 7-37.
Elliot, J. H. 2016: Beware the Evil Eye. The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World. Volume 2. Greece and Rome, Eugene. PMid:28923262
Ferrua, A. 2001: Tavole lusorie epigrafiche, Ciudad del Vaticano. PMCid:PMC57739
Ghalia, T. 1991: «À propos d'une inscription à valeur apotropaïque d'un contrepoids de pressoir découvert dans la région de Kélibia», en Mastino, A. (ed.), L'Africa Romana VIII, Sassari, pp. 253-262.
Iulius Polux 1824: Onomasticon cum adnotationibus interpretum, V 2, Leipzig.
Kaster, R. A. 2003: «Invidia, nemesis, phthonos and the Roman Emotional Economy », en Konstan, D. y Rutter, K. (eds.), Envy, Spite and Jealousy: the rivalrous emotions in Ancient Greece, Edimburgo, pp. 252-276.
Leumann, M. 1926: Lateinische Grammatik: Bd. Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre, Vol. 1, Múnich.
Lindsay, W. M. 2010: The Latin Language: An Historical Account of Latin Sounds, Stems, and Flexions, Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511708190
López de Ayala, M. J. 1989: Efectos de la persistencia del grafema K en la ortografía latina, Madrid.
López de Ayala, M. J. 1991: «Pervivencia del grafema K en la onomástica latina epigráfica», Emerita 59, pp. 53-62. https://doi.org/10.3989/emerita.1991.v59.i1.524
Ma-as, I. 2014: «La envidia y la maldición con palabras: las inscripciones sobre el invidus », en Neira, L. (ed.), Religiosidad, rituales y prácticas mágicas en los mosaicos romanos, Madrid, pp. 167-174.
Perea, S. 2011: «Un polífalo apotropaico inédito, con inscripción griega, contra la envidia», MHNH 11, pp. 59-82.
Purcell, N. 2004: «Literate games: Roman urban society and the game of alea », en Osborne, R. (ed.), Studies in Ancient Greek and Roman Society, Cambridge, pp. 177-206.
Sichet, S. 2000: La magie en Afrique du Nord sous l'Empire Romain. Vols. I-II, Lille.
Trzcionka, S. 2007: Magic and the Supernatural in Fourth-Century Syria, Londres- Nueva York.
Wilmans, G. 1873: Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum in usum praecipue academicum. Tomus posterior, Berlín.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read here the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
