Roots Deep in Heaven Indo-Iranian ritual concepts in a cross ...

14 th Fachtagung of the Indogermanische Gesellschaft, Copenhagen, September 17–22, 2012 2
● κατα-δῶ Χαρίαν ... καὶ ψυχὴν τὴν Χαρίου
καὶ γλῶταν τὴν Χαρίου ... κατα-δῶ ψυχὴν τὴν
Καλλίππο καὶ χεῖρας τὰς Καλλίππο
(Kerameikos [5 th c. BC, ed. D. JORDAN, SGD 95]):
I bind down Charias... and the soul of Charias and the tongue of
Charias... I bind the soul of Kallippos... and the hands of Kallippos.
For the stylistic form of body parts enumeration cf. Attica, beg. of 4 th c. BC (DTA, ed. WÜNSCH, no. 49):
● Side A: (1) I bind down Theagenes, his tongue and his soul and the words he uses; (2) I also bind down the hands
and feet of Pyrrhias, the cook, his tongue, his soul, his words; [...] (8) I also bind down the tongue of Seuthes, his
soul, and the words he uses, just like his feet, his hands, his eyes, and his mouth; (9) I also bind down the tongue of
Lamprias, his soul, and the words he uses, just like his feet, his hands, his eyes, and his mouth.
All these I bind down, I make them disappear, 1 bury them, I nail them down.
● Side B: τούτους ἅπαντας κατα-δῶ ἀ-φανίζω
κατ-ορύττω κατα-πασσαλεύω.
All of them, I bind them down, I make them disappear, I
bury them ‘down’, I nail them down.
● Most usual form in Greek καταδεσμοί – Defixionum Tabellae Atticae (= IG 3,3, ed. WÜNSCH) 86: “I bind Dromōn
... feet and hands ...”. “I bind Isias before Hermes the Restrainer – the hands, the feet of Isias, the whole body”.
4.2. Indo-Iranian tradition – binding, tormenting, piercing spells. S. § 6 and the genre subtypes:
4.2.1. ‘Body-binding’ mantras against competitors:
́
́
● AVŚ. 7,73[70],4–5:
ápāñcau ta ubháu bāhū
Turned back/behind are your two arms.
ápi nahyāmiy āsíyàm |
I bind (up) your mouth.
agnér devásya manyúnā
With the wrath of god Agni
téna te ʹvadhiṣaṃ havíḥ ||4||
I destroyed your oblation.
ápa nahyāmi te bāhū
I bind back/away your arms,
ápi nahyāmy āsyàm |
I bind (up) your mouth.
agnér ghorásya manyúnā
With the wrath of terrible Agni
téna ʹvadhiṣaṃ havíḥ ||5||
I destroyed your oblation.
4.2.2. ‘Piercing-and-seizing spells’ from the Atharvaveda (AVŚ. 16,7):
téna enaṃ vidhyāmiy
ábhūtyā enaṃ vidhyāmi
nírbhūtyā enaṃ vidhyāmi
párābhūtyainaṃ vidhyāmi
grā́ hiyā enaṃ vidhyāmi
támasā enaṃ vidhyāmi ||1||
evā́nevā́va sā
1. With that I pierce him;
with ill-success I pierce him;
with extermination I pierce him;
with calamity I pierce him;
with seizure I pierce him;
with darkness I pierce him.
́ garat ||4|| 4. Like this (‘So’), not like this (‘not so’), may she [Grāhi/
Seizure] swallow [him] down.
nír dviṣántaṃ divó níḥ pr̥ thivyā ́
6. Let us deprive our hater of share of heaven, of earth, of
nír antárikṣād bhajāma ||6||
intermediary space / atmosphere (antárikṣa-).
súyāmaṃś cākṣuṣa ||7|| 7. O you of good ways, provided with sight (cāksuṣá).
idám ahám āmuṣyāyaṇè 'múṣyāḥ
8. Now do I wipe off this evil-dreaming on him of such-
putré duṣvápniyaṃ mr̥ je ||8||
and-such lineage, son of such-and-such a mother.
táṃ jahi téna mandasva tásya pr̥ ṣṭī́r ápi śr̥ ṇīhi ||12|| Smite him, amuse yourself with him, crush in his ribs. (after
WHITNEY – LANMAN).
● Note the matri-lineal indication of origin (more about which see below).
● Cf. ritual act of piercing live animals instead of statuettes, e.g. the tomcat from Santones buried with head
twisted back (AUDOLLENT, Defixionum tabellae, no. 112; GRAF): aversos [...] esse quo/modi [sic] hic catellus
aversus / est nec surgere potest / sic nec illi, sic transpecti sint / quomodo ille ‘Let them be turned away [...] in
the same way that this little cat is turned away and cannot get up. Let it be thus for them as well’.
5. Binding spells and rites “beyond Indo-European”: Rituals of binding, piercing and burying
figurines (“voodoo dolls”) of enemies and beloved persons.
5.1. Egyptian evidence. Magical recipes, on tablet inscriptions and papyri.
5.2. Assyrian data. Maqlû incantation series (ed. MEIER etc.). Utukkū Lemnūtu spells (ed. GELLER).
5.3. Greek, Graeco-Egyptian and Roman testimonies: Binding and seizing enemies, lovers, gods.
[On ‘seizing names’ and ‘binding gods’ cf. below].
Various forms of BINDING / PIERCING / BURYING spells both in hostile and in erotic spells:
6. ‘TO BIND + (WITH) BOND(S)’ – between figura etymologica and variatio formae:
● Ved. DĀ, dyáti (+ ní, ā́ , sám) and Indo-Iranian ritual tradition:
AVŚ. 6,104[,1–3]:
ādā́ nena saṃdā́ nena
amítrān ā ́ diyāmasi |
apānā ́ yé caiṣāṃ prāṇā ́
ásunā́sūnt sám achidan ||1||
idám ādā́ nam akaraṃ
tápaséndreṇa sáṃśitam |
1. With tying-up, with tying-together,
we tie up the enemies;
the expirations and breaths of them,
lives with life (ásu) have I cut off.
2. This tying-up have I made,
sharpened up with fervor by Indra;