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106 JOURNAL OF THE HELLENIC DIASPORA or the evil eye, written on a tiny piece of paper which is either folded many times or rolled up. If acquired at a monastery or church festival, these are regarded as good and effective amulets. Homemade phylacta, however, are more common. Some of these include flowers from the Good Friday service. The flowers are burned, and the ashes, mixed with flour, salt, or gunpowder, are sewn into a small cloth pocket. Often a blue bead with an eye painted on it is attached onto the pocket. Phylecta of this sort are often worn by people, especially by the young and vulnerable. At weddings they are pinned to the bride's undergarment or carried by the groom in his pocket, around his neck, or under his shirt. It is considered dangerous to wear them openly, for a person with the evil eye or malicious intentions is made especially aggressive if he should see protective signs of this nature. The use of certain flowers and wild plants at weddings is also considered efficacious. In his discussion of the wedding customs in Epiros, Hyphantes reports that, during the dressing ceremony, the godmother inconspicuously placed in the bride's sash a sprig of a trailing wild plant. From the double roots of this plant two branches, one thicker than the other, grow about one meter long. (This plant appears in May and dies late in the summer.) Every year, mothers of unmarried children would search the woods for this rare and short-lived plant. The lucky ones who found it, preserved it with great care, as it was to be used only at their daughters' and sons' weddings. According to the report, the name of the plant had been forgotten. It was known only as "the magic plant" for its power to defend brides and grooms against the evil eye, binding spells, and aggressive magic, "yia na mi pianoun to mayia tous gambrous kai tis nyfades" (Hyphantes, 150-51). Charms such as a four-leaf clover, or a tiny bone from a bat or a dog, were also carried by the bride and groom on their person on their wedding day. Sharp and pointed objects such as needles, scissors, and knives were also employed as prophylactic amulets at weddings. For instance, in Macedonia, Epiros, and Thrace, among other places in Greece, one protective formula called for the groom to carry a black-handled knife in his pocket. The bride had a long sewing needle pinned to her dress, or a pair of tiny scissors placed in her sash or in her shoe during the ceremony. One explanation
Apotropaic Devices in Greek Wedding Rituals 107 offered by a sixty-year-old woman from Serres was that the scissors and the knife would cut off the evil tongues of the enemy, while the needle would sew together the lips of gossipers and thus prevent them from speaking evil or casting spells on the bride and groom. For similar reasons, in Epiros, the groom's godmother would conceal in his clothes an old lock whose key she kept during the ceremony." Apparently, the homeopathic function of these objects derived from their association with locking, cutting, and sewing. In the Grevena region, before entering the church, the groom pulled his knife out of its scabbard. With his right hand he would move the knife from right to left, thus forming an imaginary circle around himself. The magic power with which such circles are often invested in rituals was supposed to protect the groom from aggressive magic and especially from the dreadful binding spell, apodema (Karapatakis, 122). In various parts of Greece it is considered unlucky, as well as dangerous, for the bride and groom to have any knots on their person. Knots and the ritual act of tying knots are almost always associated with aggressive magic and binding spells. During the wedding ceremony, as many reports indicate, there is a great fear and concern among the relatives for the bride and groom. Wedding guests are watched closely, lest one should whisper spells and maliciously tie knots on a string or in a handkerchief, thereby acquiring power over the couple. At some weddings, as a precaution, only a few of the very close relatives were allowed to be present at the ceremony. The rest of the guests remained outside in the churchyard until the ceremony was over. A binding spell usually includes the names of the bride and groom and the invocation of a demonic force. Thus, a common binding spell would be, "I tie you the name of the bride) and you [the name of the groom) and the devil in the middle." In their discussion of the effects of such a spell, Richard Blum and Eva Blum (252) state: The implication is that a demonstration will produce parallel effects, as long as the two are linked in the mind of the doer by his intent. This well known feature of sympathetic magic rests upon a cognitive process that .. . 15See Hyphantes, 152; Karapatakis, 123; Richard Blum and Eva Blum, 18.
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