Human and divine power in the speech-acts of ancient greek healing and cursing

Lecture by Christopher Faraone, Edward Olson Professor in the Classics Department at the University of Chicago, organized by Markham Geller, Research Fellow at the Paris IAS, with Cléo Carastro, lecturer at EHESS, Chair: Religious Anthropology and Cultural History of Ancient Greece.

Presentation

Some scholars claim that one can divide the ritual speech-acts of the ancient Greeks into incantation and prayers, this lecture will try to complicate this approach by presenting three case studies: (i) the evidence from Greek myth that the gods themselves invented incantations and either gave them as gifts to humankind or provided convenient explanations for other kinds of human incantations; (ii) an intermediate role for gods, who in some curses are implicated as helpers or allies in incantations, but not directly invoked as agents; and (iii) a persistent diachronic development, whereby the gods and other superhuman actors begin to infiltrate healing incantations and thereby undermine the claim that they work by the power of human speech alone. 

Christopher Faraone is the Edward Olson Professor in the Classics Department at the University of Chicago. His work is primarily concerned with ancient Greek religion and poetry. He is co-editor (with D. Dodd) of Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives: New Critical Perspectives (2003), (with L. McClure) of Prostitutes and Courtesans in the Ancient World (2005), (with F. Naiden) Ancient Victims, Modern Observers: Reflections on Greek and Roman Sacrifice (2011) and (with D. Obbink), The Getty Hexameters: Magic, Poetry and Mystery in Ancient Selinous (Oxford 2013).  Recent books include The Stanzaic Architecture of Ancient Greek Elegiac Poetry (2008), The Transformation of Ancient Greek Amulets in Roman Times (2018) and numerous articles on Ancient Greek magic, poetry and religion.

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