Eternal Vengeance: Ancient Greeks Used 'Curse Tablets' to Torment Foes Beyond the Grave
Imagine a time where your personal gripe with someone could lead you to literally “send them to hell” with a magically inscribed tablet. No, I’m not talking about today’s internet trolls and their keyboards; I’m talking about ancient Athenians and their penchant for what we might call “the dark arts of passive aggression.” These folks didn’t just unfriend or leave snarky comments; they went straight to the underworld with their grievances. Archaeologists have unearthed a bevy of “curse tablets,” lead inscriptions meant to curse the living and the dead alike, at the ancient Kerameikos cemetery in Athens.
These aren’t your standard post-it notes of doom; they’re fascinating insights into human nature, or perhaps, just really petty old-world revenge. From curses over love and money, to public hexes against high-ranking officials (imagine General Alcibiades getting his karma’s due, the poor guy!), these tablets tell stories as wild and petty as any modern-day feud.
It’s enough to make you wonder about the lengths one might go to for a bit of cosmic spite, isn’t it? Now, what would Craigslist have been like in ancient Greece? ploys And just how accommodating do you think local deities were to a well-paying customer seeking a bit of underworldly mischief?
Well, if you find this dive into ancient hexes as riveting as I do, then there’s plenty more to unearth LEARN MOREabout Glykera’s jealous in-laws, Athenian law on curse disposal, and the intriguing world of professional curse writers. Plus, it’s not just curses; there’s wine mixing vessels, ceramics, and so much more buried magic from the past. Dive in and let your inner archaeologist of the absurd wander.
These 30 “curse tablets” meant for the dead show what lengths Athenians would go to hex their enemies.
Jutta Stroszeck/German Archaeological InstituteTablet curse containing incantation against the newlywed Glykera by someone jealous of her marital bliss.
Have you ever wished ill on those you disliked, like a hex or a curse? You’re obviously not alone, but as it turns out, even the ancient Greeks dabbled in the dark arts.
Based on a recent discovery at the excavation site of Kerameikos, where the main graveyard of ancient Athens once stood, the Greeks inscribed lead tablets with curses meant to target their enemies both before and after they died.
As Haaretz reports, 30 such tablets were unearthed in a 38-foot, 2,500-year-old well that also contained other historical Greek artifacts, such as wine mixing vessels (krater), cooking pots, water-fetching clay pots, wooden artifacts, and more.
The most fascinating find from this trove, however, was no doubt the tablets. According to Jutta Stroszeck, director of the Kerameikos excavation under the German Archaeological Institute in Athens, these hex texts were an attempt to “invoke the gods of the underworld” to bring ill-will to whomever the curse was prescribed.
To read the tablets, scientists used a digital technique known as reflectance transformation imaging which makes even the tiniest inscriptions readable.
Jutta Stroszeck/German Archaeological InstituteA Grecian curse tablet in the shape of a liver found in Kerameikos where at least 30 such hexes have been discovered.
Based on ancient texts found in Cyprus in the 1930s, curses varied on whether the victim was living or dead. To curse a living enemy, one needed to place their hex tablet inside the tomb of a fresh corpse that died prematurely or under untimely circumstances. Such corpses included unmarried persons, casualties of war, or children.
The belief was that this corpse, unable to complete a “full life cycle,” could carry the curse from the living world to the underworld.
Such hexes from the Classical period (480-323 BC) have been discovered in tombs before but rarely inside a well. So why were these tablets found inside one?
It may have to do with a change in the law in ancient Athens.
Demetrios of Phaleron, who ruled over the city between 317 to 307 BCE, implemented a new law related to the management of tombs which explicitly banned residents from dumping their curses into people’s graves.
Greeks considered hexes and spells to be a part of the black arts and this law was likely meant to discourage people from practicing it. Instead, the law only forced those casting curses to become more creative in ensuring how their curse reached the underworld.
To the ancient Greeks, water was sacred and provided a direct connection to the underworld. But water was also believed to be protected by nymphs who “could become very mischievous when their water was treated badly,” according to Stroszeck.
To appease these nymphs then, the Greeks would also include offerings when dropping their hexes down the well, which is likely why archaeologists found so many other things with the tablets.
Jutta Stroszeck/German Archaeological InstituteThere have been more than 6,500 burials unearthed since excavations began in the necropolis of Kerameikos in 1913.
The ancient Greeks deployed curses for various reasons: money, opportunity, love, and hate. Curses were typically written by professional curse writers and were usually performed discreetly. Yet, there have been instances where people were hexed publicly.
