Until my student @pookastanley did a research project on the role of the Evil Eye in the Ancient Greek tradition, I had not realized how enduring and powerful this idea has been. Its history extends at least as far back as the 6th century BCE when Greek “eye cups” appear in the archaeological record, as shown in the first image. The Greek author Heliodorus of Emesa described it thus: “when anyone looks at what is excellent with an envious eye he fills the surrounding atmosphere with a pernicious quality, and transmits his own envenomed exhalation into whatever is nearest to him”.
The evil eye is of course imaginary, but according to Wikipedia, in 1982 40% of the world’s population still believed in it. In Islam, Judaism, in the modern Carribean and Mediterranean and Latin America various concerns of the power of the glance of a (usually ill-intentioned) person to commit harm still exist, and alongside this belief often appear charms, rituals, or gestures to ward the evil eye magic away. The “nazars” that are widely available today – most associated with Turkey — and shown in the fourth slide are one such example.
In other cultures warding off the evil eye is performed with the sexual imagery of a phallus. Penis-shaped amulets and images appear in the Ancient Roman world. Called “fascinum”, this symbol’s etymology comes from the Latin verb meaning “to cast a spell,” as the image in the second slide shows — it is a phallus ejacualting towards an evil eye to destroy its power (from the Roman city Leptis Magna). The power of a phallus to keep away the evil eye exists today in an old Italian gesture shown in the third image. There, you can see the “mano cornuta”/horned hand, where the fist with the thumb pressed between the index and middle fingers represents a penis within a vagina. WHO KNEW?.
The Ancients might be forgiven for their belief in a superstition that we know today is unsupported with science, but I also love the fact that the Greek philosopher Plutarch tried to come up with a scientific theory as to why the evil eye might actually work. He argued that the human eye released invisible energy rays that could do harm — even enough to kill children!
Shout out to @pookastanley for the idea!
Source(s): “The strange power of the ‘evil eye'” BBC, Quinn Hargitai, Feb 19, 2018. Wikipedia. Frederick Thomas Elworthy _The Evil Eye: the Classic Account of an Ancient Superstition”.
