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.
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