download PDF

Abstract

The article is dedicated to one of the least researched aspects of the Ancient magic – its sound component. A number of Ancient sources is analyzed in the article in an attempt to answer the question, whether an instrumental music was a part of the ancient Roman magic of any kind; moreover, comparative ethnographic sources are used as well. The ancient authors describe the Roman tradition to emit noise applying various items made of copper alloys (including musical instruments) during lunar eclipses. Those actions were meant to inhibit the very occurence of an eclipse, which, along with other unusal natural phenomena, instilled fear and could be perceived as a sinister omen or gods’ anger. A number of sources, mainly poetic ones, explain eclipses as a manifestation of witсhcraft: according to them, it is the witches, who brought the Moon down from the sky. Expansion of those beliefs in the Roman literature and emergence of the image of a witch, posessing power over natural forces and an ability to bring heavenly bodies down from the sky, are closely tied with the Romans’ enthusiasm for magic practices in the 1st century BC and with the Greek sources’ infl uence. In popular beliefs, that are refl ected in the Roman poetry, tinkling copper coins and loud wind instruments sounds could be used as tools to challenge witchcraft and bring the Moon back to the sky. Based on the sources, the conclusion was drawn, that this noise had a defensive nature and was supposed to protect from evil. The emerging proto-musical forms cannot be called a “music-making” in a narrow sense, as the use of musical instruments in this case didn’t have the aesthetic function.

Keywords

Ancient Rome, ancient magic, lunar eclipse, apotropaic noise, musical instruments.

Alyona V. Zubareva

Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Saint Petersburg, Russia

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Agapkina, T.A. 1995: Zvukovoye pole traditsionnogo kalendarya [Sound fi eld of traditional calendar]. In: E.A. Dorokhova, N.I. Joulanova, O.A. Pashina (eds.), Golos i ritual [The Voice and the Ritual]. Moscow, 9–11.

Baiburin, A.K. 1993: Ritual v traditsionnoy culture [Ritual in the Traditional Culture]. Saint Petersburg.

Belova, O.V., Tolstaya, S.M. 2004: Luna [Moon]. In: S.M. Tolstaya (ed.), Slavyanskie drevnosti. Etnolingvisticheskiy slovar [Slavic antiquity. Ethnolinguistic dictionary]. Vol. 3. Moscow, 143–147.

Burriss, Е.Е. 1936: The Terminology of Witchcraft. Classical Philology 31, 2, 137–145.

Edmonds, R.G. 2019: Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World. Princeton–Woodstock.

Gasparov, M.L. 1978: Primechaniya [Notes]. In: Publius Ovidius Naso, Skorbnyye elegii. Pis’ma s Ponta [Sorrows. Letters from the Black Sea]. Moscow, 225–266.

Herzman, E.V. 1995: Muzyka Drevney Gretsii i Rima [Music of Ancient Greece and Rome]. Saint Petersburg.

Kagarov, E.G. 1929: Sostav i proiskhozhdeniye svadebnoy obryadnosti [Composition and origin of wedding rituals]. In: Sbornik muzeya antropologii i etnografi i [Publication of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography]. Vol. 8. Leningrad, 152–195.

Kudryavtseva, T.V. 2014: Magicheskiye praktiki v Zakonakh XII tablits [Magic in the XII Tables]. Vestnik drevney istorii [Journal of Ancient History] 4, 40–55.

Landels, J.G. 2002: Music in Ancient Greece and Rome. London–New York.

Levkiyevskaya, E.E. 1995: Golos i zvuk v slavyanskoy apotropeicheskoy magii [Voice and sound in Slavis apotropaic magic]. In: E.A. Dorokhova, N.I. Joulanova, O.A. Pashina (eds.), Golos i ritual [The Voice and the Ritual]. Moscow, 45–47.

Luck, G. 1999: Witches and Sorcerers in Classical Literature. In: B. Ankarloo et al. (eds.), Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome. Philadelphia, 91–158.

Moroz, A.B. 1995: Zvuk / otsutstviye zvuka kak kharakteristiki “sego” i “togo” sveta (Na primere serbokhorvatskikh zagovorov) [Sound / lack of sound a means of characterizing “this” and “the other” worlds (illustrated by Serbian-Croation incantations)]. In: E.A. Dorokhova, N.I. Joulanova, O.A. Pashina (eds.), Golos i ritual [The Voice and the Ritual]. Moscow, 85–88.

Ogden, D. 2002: Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Source Book. New York.

Parker, A. 2018: ‘The Bells! The Bells!’ Approaching Tintinnabula in Roman Britain and Beyond. In: A. Parker et al. (eds.), Material Approaches to Roman Magic. Occult Objects and Supernatural Substances. Oxford–Philadelphia, 57–68.

Petrova, M.S. 2000: Priroda dushi i mira v dialoge Plutarkha “O like, vidimom na diske Luny” [The nature of the soul and the world in Plutarch’s dialogue “Concerning the face which appears in the orb of the moon”]. In: P.P. Gaidenko, V.V. Petrov (eds.), Filosofi ya prirody v antichnosti i v Sredniye veka [Philosophy of nature in antiquity and the Middle Ages]. Мoscow, 122–131.

Plotnikova, А.А. 1999: Zatmeniye [Eclipse]. In: S.M. Tolstaya (ed.), Slavyanskie drevnosti. Etnolingvisticheskiy slovar [Slavic antiquity. Ethnolinguistic dictionary]. Vol. 2. Мoscow, 276–279.

Roscher, W.H. 1894–1897: Mondgöttin. In: W.H. Roscher (ed.), Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie Bd. II. Abt. II. Leipzig, 3119–3200.

Shtaerman, E.M. 1987: Sotsial’nyye osnovy religii Drevnego Rima [Social Basis of the Religion of Ancient Rome]. Moscow.

Suoni silenti 2011: R.Viccei (ed.), Suoni silenti: Immagini e strumenti musicali del Civico Museo Archeologico di Milano. Milano.

Tolstoy, N.I. 1995: Magicheskaya sila golosa v okhranitel’nykh ritualakh [Magic force of voice in protective rituals]. In: E.A. Dorokhova, N.I. Joulanova, O.A. Pashina (eds.), Golos i ritual [The Voice and the Ritual]. Moscow, 103–106.

Tvorogov, O.V. 1995: Astronomicheskiye yavleniya v “Slove” [Astronomical phenomena in “The Tale”]. In: O.V. Tvorogov (ed.), Entsiklopediya “Slova o polku Igoreve” [Encyclopedia of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”]. Vol. 1. Saint Petersburg, 73–76.

Vinogradova, L.N. 2010: Iz slovarya “Slavyanskie drevnosti”: Striga [From the dictionary “Slavic antiquity”: Striga]. Slavyanovedeniye [Slavic Studies] 6, 41–44.

Wille, G. 1967: Musica Romana. Die Bedeutung der Musik im Leben der Römer. Amsterdam.

Zubareva, A.V. 2016: Muzyka i muzykanty v pogrebal’nom obryade Drevnego Rima [Music and musicians in the funeral rite of Ancient Rome]. In: T.V. Kudryavtseva (ed.), Gertsenovskiye chteniya – 2015. Aktual’nyye problemy vseobshchey istorii [Herzen Conference – 2015. Actual problems of foreign history]. Vol. 1. Saint Petersburg, 41–50.