'Seal of Solomon' on a Bilingual Defixio from Carnuntum (Pannonia)
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The object of our present study is a lead lamella (25 cm × 14.5 cm) discovered in 1923 during the excavation of the amphitheatre located in the civilian quarter of Carnuntum, the capital of Pannonia Superior. The tablet features three distinctive elements: (a) a curse written in Latin, directed against Eudemus, an otherwise unknown individual whom the petitioner suspects as a culprit in the case of a theft he or she suffered; (b) magical signs and an uninterpretable sequence of Greek letters inscribed in a tabula ansata and a rectangular box; (c) a two-line inscription in Greek that mentions 'Seal of Solomon'. I first present an edition of the text and continue with a brief discussion of the Latin curse and voces magicae, which is followed by a new prosposed reading and interpretation of the Greek two-liner. |
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