Apotropaic and Other Magic Devices in Greek ... - Triceratops Home

102 JOURNAL OF THE HELLENIC DIASPORA
that carried the dowry have now been replaced by small pickup
trucks. On the day the dowry is transported, the mother of the
bride may provide the driver with various charms which he
hangs from the rearview mirror of his truck or places on the
dashboard. In addition to the traditional blue beads, the charms
may also include wool or silk tassels or a small icon of a saint.
The protective and apotropaic qualities of these charms are further
reinforced by various prophylactic rituals. In the village of
Nigrita, before the dowry left the house, it was customary for
the bride's mother to sprinkle the heads of the animals with
water and flour, and the goods with rice and kouf eta (sugarcoated
nuts, which she had mixed on a plate. Then she made the sign
of the cross and broke the plate, while the rest of her relatives
sang wedding songs appropriate to the occasion. In some village
communities in western Macedonia, in Crete and Epiros, men with
guns used to escort the bride's dowry to the groom's house. The
guns are fired at intervals as the procession moves along the
streets of the village. Acting on the principle of sympathetic magic,
the gunshots are supposed to destroy any evil eye that glanced
at the dowry. Moreover, they are intended to ward off malevolent
spirits which are believed to be envious of human happiness and
thus notoriously active at weddings.
A set of preliminary rituals observed before the wedding
ceremony also includes the initiation rite of bathing the bride
and groom, which is performed on the night before or early in the
morning of the wedding day. While the ritual once required the
bathing of the entire body, in more recent times it has been modified
to washing the hair only. The ritual is intended not only to
prepare the young couple for the new life they are about to enter
as a husband and wife, but also to neutralize the various dangers
associated with sexual contact and the evil influences emanating
from the world of the supernatural and magic. The water for
the bath must be fresh and pure. Before indoor plumbing was
introduced, a common spring or fountain served as the main supplier
of water for all the people in a neighborhood or village. To
avoid meeting any potential enemies of the couple, the water
was fetched at midnight or very early in the morning, preferably
before dawn, lessening possibility of contact with people. According
to Karapatakis (84-85), in the district of Grevena the water