• Throughout the ancient world, people carried out rituals and ceremonies to attract good spirits and drive away bad ones, and in many places they also sought to use the spirits and gods to accomplish tasks for them. Most of these rituals were oral, but sometimes they were written down. The first text is from a Hellenistic spell inscribed on a lead tablet, directed toward Anubis, the dog-headed Egyptian god of the underworld, through which a woman named Sophia seeks to attract a woman named Gorgonia. With the religious mixing common in the Hellenistic world, the text mentions a number of Egyptian and Greek deities of the underworld and was most likely written by a professional spell caster. The second text is from a Chinese manuscript from the third century B.C.E., written on bamboo slips (for an example of these, see “Daoism” in Chapter 4) and discovered in a tomb. It provides a series of spells designed to identify demons and instruct people in how to lessen the demons’ power.

Hellenistic Spell of Attraction

““Fundament of the gloomy darkness, jagged-toothed dog, covered with coiling snakes, turning three heads, traveler in the recesses of the underworld, come, spirit-driver, with the Erinyes [or Furies, Greek goddesses of vengeance, often shown with snake hair and whips], savage with their stinging whips; holy serpents, maenads [frenzied female followers of Dionysus], frightful maidens, come to my wroth incantations. Before I persuade by force this one and you, render him immediately a fire-breathing daemon. Listen and do everything quickly, in no way opposing me in the performance of this action; for you are the governors of the earth.” . . . By means of this corpse-daemon inflame the heart, the liver [which people also saw as a location of emotions], the spirit of Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, with love and affection for Sophia, whom Isara bore. . . . Drive Gorgonia, whom Nilogenia bore, drive her, torment her body night and day, force her to rush forth from every place and every house, loving Sophia, whom Isara bore, she, surrendered like a slave, giving herself and all her possessions to her, because this is the will and command of the great god. . . . “Blessed lord of the immortals, holding the scepters of Tartaros and of terrible, fearful Styx (?) and of life-robbing Lethe, the hair of Kerberos trembles in fear of you, you crack the loud whips of the Erinyes; the couch of Persephone delights you, when you go to the longed bed, whether you be the immortal Sarapis, whom the universe fears, whether you be Osiris, star of the land of Egypt; your messenger is the all-wise boy; yours is Anubis, the pious herald of the dead. Come hither, fulfill my wishes, because I summon you by these secret symbols.””

Chinese Spells to Repel Demons

“Spellbinding to inflict odium on demons. The Wang-hang [demons who live underground] who injure people treat people unpropitiously. Let the way for how to spellbind them be declared, to enable the people to not encounter the baleful and calamitous. What demons detest are namely reclining in a crouch, sitting like a winnowing basket, interlinked motion [with the legs apart and extended], and the leaning stand [all postures thought to make the body resistant to demons]. . . .

The dwelling places of the great spirits cannot be passed through. They like to injure people. Make pellets from dog excrement and carry them when passing through. Throw them at the spirit when it appears, and it will not injure people. . . .

If human or birds or beasts as well as the six domestic animals constantly roam through a person’s domicile, these are spirits from above who like to descend and take pleasure in entering. Have boys and girls who have never entered the domicile beat drums, ring bells with clappers, and screech at them, and they will not come.”

Sources: Bernadette J. Brooten, Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 83–87. Reproduced with permission of UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS in the format Republish in a book via Copyright Clearance Center; Donald Harper, “A Chinese Demonography of the Third Century B.C.,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 45, no. 2 (December 1985): 480, 495, 496.

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