Patreon Dispatches from the Curiosity Shop 07: Weirdly Specific Curses

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Patreon Dispatches from the Curiosity Shop 07: Weirdly Specific Curses

Go ahead, pick your poison. It doesn’t cost much, just your soul.

Curiosity Shop Show Notes:

Links to research materials: 

Execration Texts

• Spiritual Defense: Execration Rituals in Ancient Egypt: https://www.ancient.eu/article/1053/spiritual-defense—execration-rituals-in-ancient-/
• Wikipedia: Execration Texts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execration_texts

Photo credit: Egyptian Execration Figure by Rob Koopman (CC BY-SA)

Further Patreon Reading:

• Ancient History Encyclopedia Article: The Magical Lullaby of Ancient Egypt: https://www.ancient.eu/article/965/the-magical-lullaby-of-ancient-egypt/

The Magical Lullaby

The following translation comes from Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt by James Henry Breasted. The ‘Efet-herb’ mentioned is understood to be lettuce:

Run out, thou who comest in darkness, who enterest in stealth, his nose behind him, his face turned backward, who loses that for which he came.

 

Run out, thou who comest in darkness, who enterest in stealth, her nose behind her, her face turned backward, who loses that for which she came.

 

Comest thou to kiss this child? I will not let thee kiss him.

 

Comest thou to soothe him? I will not let thee soothe him.

 

Comest thou to harm him? I will not let thee harm him.

 

Comest thou to take him away? I will not let thee take him away from me.

 

I have made his protection against thee out of Efet-herb, it makes pain; out of onions, which harm thee; out of honey which is sweet to living men and bitter to those who are yonder (i.e. the dead); out of the evil parts of the Ebdu-fish out of the jaw of the meret; out of the backbone of the perch. (201)

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