CAPITALS: CURSES

MS 1700
MS Short Title CAPITALS: CURSES
Text LEGAL CURSES: AS FRUITLESS OLTIS WAS DESTROYED AT GOING TO TELOS, SO LET RATON AND MYSKELOS AND LEPTON FRUITLESSLY PLEAD IN COURT BOTH IN WORD AND DEEDS. NOTHING BE ACCOMPLISHED IN COURT
Description MS in Doric Greek on lead, Sicily, 5th c. BC, 1 tablet, 6x10 cm, with 4 fold lines, (4x9 cm), 10 long lines in Greek capitals
Binding Barking, Essex, 1994, blue quarter morocco gilt folding case, by Aquarius.
Provenance 1. Private Collector, Switzerland (-1993); 2. Christie's 7. 7.1993:38.
Commentary Curse tablets were used in the Graeco-Roman world from second half of the 6th c. BC to 5th c. AD. The lead tablets were folded and deposited in places associated with the underworld. The most common curses were prompted by participators in trials, victims of thievery, jealous lovers, and rival sportsmen. In a trial, like on this tablet, the curse is directed against the tongues of the witnesses or the prosecutor. Doric Greek is extremely rare in MS.
Published Jordan, Rocca and Threattle: Una nuova Defixio dalla Sicilia (Schøyen Collection MS 1700), in: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 188 (2014) pp. 231-236.
See also MS 108
MS 5236
Place of origin Greece
Dates 5c BC