Voodoo dolls in the classical world

GYÖRGY NÉMETH

Abstract: Magic dolls play a major role in ancient literature when Greek or Roman au-
thors describe the activity of sorcerers or witches. Another group of sources applying
magic puppets includes inscriptions and magical papyri, which may contain recipes or
prescriptions and obviously provide a more authentic image of magical procedures than
poetry does. The credibility of written sources can be tested by a fortunately growing
number of magic dolls found in excavations. Still, the picture emerging from dolls and
their finding circumstances hardly matches the magical operations implied by literary
sources.
Key words: voodoo dolls, magical puppets, ancient magic, curse tablets.

Ancient magic dolls are known from four distinct groups of sources: inscriptions,
literary works, papyrus recipes, and the growing number of original figurines found in
excavations1. It is also worth examining the well-documented finding circumstances of
recently uncovered puppets.

Literary sources and inscriptions

The earliest extant reference to magic dolls is made in the foundation oath of the settlers
of Cyrene2. Although the text of the oath was formulated in the 6th c. BC, it is preserved
to us in a 4th c. BC inscription. Another inscription from Cyrene (around 300 BC) describ-
ing an apotropaic procedure mentions two figurines of wood or clay. A third inscription
from the 2nd c. AD suggests that a wax statue made by the evil sorcerer should be demol-
ished to avert an epidemic.
As for literary sources referring to dolls, we have a Sophocles-fragment (5th c. BC)
and a slightly more detailed description from Plato (4th c. BC). Theocritus’ poem is Hel-
lenistic, while the rest of our literary sources come from late republican Rome and from
the Imperial Era3.


Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
nemeth.gyorgy@caesar.elte.hu
1
The following paper was supported by the research project „Procesos de aculturación religiosa en
el mundo antiguo y en la América colonial: un análisis comparativo de la retórica y la construc-
ción de la alteridad” (HAR2014-56067-P) and by "Research on ancient magic II: magical gems"
(OTKA K 119979).
2
The Egyptian origin of magic puppets is addressed in another paper, Németh 2017.
3
I did not include the chameleon mentioned by Libanius 1.249 in my list, since it was a genuine animal
the remains of which were applied to baleful sorcery. Ogden treated it as a voodoo doll, see Ogden
2009, 259. I also ignore the Christian legend narrating the conversion of St. Cyprian, see Ogden
2009, 329–331.
180 György Németh

The Cyrenean foundation decree

"Oaths were sworn to this agreement both by those who remained in Thera and those who
sailed to settle. And they called down curses on those who should foreswear themselves
and fail to abide by their oath, be they among those settling in Libya or those remaining
behind in Thera. They molded wax dolls [kolossoi] and burned them while calling down
the curse, all having come together, men, women, boys, and girls. They prayed that the one
who did not abide by these oaths but foreswore himself should melt and dissolve just like
the dolls, he himself, his descendants, and his property, but that those that did abide by
these oaths, whether among those sailing to Libya or those remaining behind in Thera,
should have many good things, both they themselves and their descendants." 4
The wax dolls were burnt.
Sophocles Root-cutters
"After he had melted a doll [koros] with fire."5
The doll (presumably made of wax) was burnt.
Plato Laws 933b
"It is not worthwhile for us to try to tell the souls of men who mistrust each other, if ever they
see molded wax figures at doors or at crossroads or in some cases on the tombs of their an-
cestors, to ignore all such things, if we do not ourselves have a clear opinion about them..."6
The wax dolls were burnt.
Theocritus Idyll 2.28–31.
"As I melt this wax doll with the help of the goddess, so may Delphis of Myndos at once
be melted by love. And as by the power of Aphrodite this bronze bull-roarer [rhombos]
whirls round, so may he whirl round at my door."7
The wax doll was burnt.
Horatius Sat. 1, 8.
"I myself have seen Canidia coming with her black dress girt up, feet bare and hair unbound,
howling together with the elder Sagana. One shuddered to look at either of them, because of
their pallor. They began to dig up the earth with their fingernails and tear apart a dark
lamb with their teeth. The blood was poured into a pit, so that they could call forth from
it ghosts from the underworld to give them answers. There was a woollen doll, and another
one made from wax. The woollen one was larger, so that it could restrain the smaller one
with punishments. The wax doll held the pose of a suppliant, as if it were about to be exe-
cuted in slave fashion. One of the women called on Hecate, the other on cruel Tisiphone.
You could see snakes and underworld dogs wandering about and the moon blushing red
and hiding behind the great tombs, lest she witness these things. If I tell a lie, may crows

4
Ogden 2009, 245.
5
Hesychius s.v. “melted” [aistôsas]), see Ogden 2009, 83.
6
Ogden 2009, 22.
7
Ogden 2009, 109.
Voodoo dolls in the classical world 181

drop their white crap on my head, may Julius come to piss and shit on me, and so too the
feeble Pedatia and the thief Voranus. Why should I go through all the details? Why should
I tell you how the ghosts held a conversation with Sagana, making mournful, shrill noises;
how they secretly hid a wolf’s beard together with a tooth from a variegated snake in the
ground; how the fire flared up higher because of the wax image, and how I shuddered at
the voices and actions of the two Furies, although this witness did not go unavenged?"8
The wax doll was burnt. The fate of the woollen doll is not revealed in the source.
Horatius Epodes 17.
"Or am I, who can animate wax effigies, as you yourself know from interfering, I, who can
snatch the moon down from the sky by my incantations, I, who can raise up the cremated
dead, I, who can blend love potions, am I to weep for my craft not encompassing your
death?"9
The wax doll was ‘animated’.
Vergilius Eclogues 8.80-81.
"As this clay grows hard and as this wax melts in one and the same fire, so may Daphnis
melt in his love for me. Scatter the meal, and burn the crackling bay leaves with pitch.
Wicked Daphnis burns me, so I burn these bay leaves against Daphnis. Bring Daphnis
home, my spells, bring him from the city."10
The wax doll was burnt.
Ovidius Heroides 6.93–94.
"She places binding spells [devovet] on people from afar, molds voodoo dolls out of wax,
and pushes fine needles into their pathetic livers."11
The wax dolls were tortured and presumably burnt as well.
Ovidius Amores 3.7.27–30; 77–80.
"Did my limbs grow heavy, bound [devota] by a Thessalian drug? Was I damaged by a
spell and herbs? Or did a witch bind [defixit] my name with red wax and drive fine needles
through the middle of my liver?"
"Who told you to lay yourself in my bed if you didn’t want to perform, crazy man? Either
some Circean witch [venefica] is binding you by piercing wool, or you come to me after
wearing yourself out by having sex with someone else."
The wax doll and the woollen doll was tortured by needles.
Petronius Satyricon 63.
"You see, the witches had stolen the boy and left a straw doll in his place."

8
Ogden 2009, 115.
9
Ogden 2009, 120.
10
Ogden 2009, 113.
11
Ogden 2009, 126.
182 György Németh

It is questionable if the straw doll left in the place of the boy is really a voodoo
doll or not. Although the doll was fabricated by witches, I presume this is rather a case
of tricky stealing. Nevertheless, D. Ogden treats it as a voodoo doll12.
Laying of attacking ghosts from Cyrene
"Rules for attacking ghosts [hikesioi]. An attacking ghost sent upon one: if ever an attacking
ghost is sent against one’s house, if one knows from whom it comes to attack one, one is
to give name to him, proclaiming the name over three days. If he is dead in the earth, or
dead in some other condition, if one knows his name, one is to proclaim the name. But if
one does not know the name, one is to proclaim “O person, whether you are man or woman.”
He should make dolls [kolossoi], a male one and a female one, from wood or from clay,
entertain them, and set before them helpings of all food. When you have performed the
rites, take the dolls to an unworked forest and fix them there with their helpings."13
The wooden or clay dolls are entertained to dinner, and then taken to an intact forest.
An oracle against pestilence from a Western Anatolian town
"Put her (Artemis) up in a temple, full of joy: she will provide deliverance from your afflic-
tion and will dissolve the poison (or: magic) of pestilence, which destroys men, and will
melt down [8] with her flame-bearing torches in nightly fire the kneaded works of wax, the
signs of the evil art of a sorcerer."14
A wax doll produced by an evil sorcerer induced an epidemic afflicting an Anatolian
town (otherwise not known). Destroying the wax puppet brought the epidemic to an end.
Apuleius Apologia sive de magia. 61.
"And after all this, they have also come up, on reading Pudentilla's letters, concerning the
manufacture of a statuette. This statuette, they assert, I had fashioned of the rarest wood
by some secret process for purposes of the black art. They add that, although it is loathly
and horrible to look upon, being in the form of a skeleton, I yet give it especial honour
and call it in the Greek tongue, basileus, my king."15
As Apuleius claims in his apology, the statuette is in fact not a voodoo doll but an
image of Mercurius.
Lucian Philopseudes 14.
"Eventually, the Hyperborean fashioned an eros-doll from clay and said to it, ‘Off you go,
and bring Chrysis.’ The clay flew aloft, and soon there she was knocking on the door. She
came in and embraced Glaucias as absolutely insane with love, and she slept with him
until we heard the cocks crowing."

12
Ogden 2009, 141.
13
Ogden 2009, 163.
14
Graf 1992, 268–269.
15
Translated by H. E. Butler. See Ogden 2009, 251–252, with a commentary.
Voodoo dolls in the classical world 183

The ‘animated’ clay doll shaping Eros fetches the sweetheart of Glaucias. This story
corresponds to certain recipes in the magical papyri referring to ‘animated’ statuettes16.
Heliodorus Aethiopica 6, 14.
"She made a libation of honey into the pit, another of milk from a second bowl, and another
again of wine from a third bowl. Then she crowned with laurel and fennel a dough cake
molded to resemble a man and threw it into the pit. After all that she took up a sword,
worked herself up a sword, worked herself up into an inspired frenzy and invoked the moon
with names that sounded foreign and strange. She cut her arm open, wiped up some of
the blood with a laurel branch, and threw it into the fire."17
The text describing the most detailed magic scene refers to puppets from dough. The
procedure of the witch’s sorcery is based on the Nekyia of the Odyssey (Book 11).
Pseudo-Callisthenes Alexander romance 1.
"For they say that Nectanebo, the very last of the pharaohs of Egypt, gained mastery over
all peoples by magical power. By speech he could subject all the elements of the universe
to himself. For if a cloud of war had suddenly come upon him, he did not bother with the
army-camp, processions of arms, the sharpening of steel or engines of war, but he would
retreat into his palace, take a bronze bowl, fill it with rain water, and mold some little boats
and little human figures out of wax, put them in the bowl, and recite a spell while waving
an ebony wand. He would call upon the angels and upon Ammon, the god of Libya. So it
was that he would destroy and prevail over the enemies that attacked him, with lecanomancy
of this sort and by <sinking> the boats."18
The story provides a distant echo of an official Egyptian magical practice in the
pharaonic age, during which enemy warriors (perhaps from Libya or Meroe) were moulded
as wax puppets and cast into fire19.
Orphic Argonautica 950.
"When I arrived at the enclosure and the divine abode I dug a triangular pit in some flat
ground. I quickly fetched some logs of juniper, dry cedar, prickly boxthorn and much-lamenting
black poplars, and I made a pyre of them in the pit. Knowledgeable Medea brought many
drugs [pharmaka], taking them from the coffers of an incense-laden crypt. At once I fash-
ioned figures from barley meal. I threw them onto the pyre and slaughtered three all-black
puppies as a sacrifice to the dead."20
The dough puppets are cast into the pit, similarly to the scene in Heliodorus’ novel.
The ultimate source of the scene might be the Nekyia of the Odyssey.

16
PGM XII.14–95.
17
Ogden 2009, 200.
18
Ogden 2009, 55–56.
19
Kákosy 1969; Pinch 2006; Zinn 2013, 4237.
20
Ogden 2009, 92.
184 György Németh

Fate of magic dolls (according to literary sources and inscriptions):

Source Fate of the doll

Cyrene 1. Wax doll burnt
Sophocles Wax doll burnt
Plato Wax doll burnt
Theocritus Wax doll burnt
Horatius Satires Wax doll burnt
Horatius Epodes Wax doll animated
Vergilius Wax doll burnt
Ovidius Heroides Wax doll pierced
Ovidius Amores Wax doll pierced
Ovidius Amores Woollen doll pierced
Petronius Satyricon Dead boy exchanged with straw puppet
Oracle from Western Anatolia Wax doll burnt
Pseudo-Callisthenes Wax doll submerged into water
Cyrene 2. Wooden or clay doll taken into an intact forest
Lucian Philopseudes Clay doll ‘animated’
Apuleius Sacrifice offered to wooden doll
Heliodorus Dough puppet cast into a pit
Orphic Argonautica Dough puppet burnt

In altogether 18 sources, 9 references are made to the burning of puppets, 3 to piercing

them, one to cast it into a pit, and another one to cast it into water. Taking the puppet
into uncultivated nature is part of a purification rite, while animating the doll is obviously
the product of poetic fantasy, although the procedure is also referred to in magical papyri.
21
Papyri

A number of papyri provide a recipe for making a magic doll. The figurine is not always
anthropomorphic: it can also shape a dog, a hippopotamus, or even a three-headed chimaera.
According to recipes, the figurines are manipulated in various ways but they are never
fully destroyed, not even if it was made from wax.
PGM IV. 296-335.
Take some wax or some clay from a potter’s wheel and mould two figures, male and female.
Arm the male one like Ares, brandishing a sword in his left hand and striking the female’s
neck on her right side. Put the female doll’s hands behind her back and make her kneel.
You will fasten the stuff [ousia] on her head or on her neck. Inscribe the doll of the woman

21
An excellent summary for magical papyri: Maltomini 2008.
Voodoo dolls in the classical world 185

being attracted: on her head, “ISEÊ IAÔ ITHI OUNE BRIDÔ LÔTHIÔN NEBOUTO-
SOUALÊTH”; on her right ear, “OUER MÊCHAN”; on her left ear, “LIBABA ÔI-
MATHOTHO”; on her face, “AMOUNABREÔ”; over her right eye, “ÔRORMOTHIO
AÊTH”; over the other one, “CHOBOUE”; on her right collarbone, “ADETA MEROU”;
on her right arm, “ENE PSA ENESGAPH”; on the other one, “MELCHIOU MELCHIEDIA”;
on her hands, “MELCHAMELCHOU AÊL”; on her breast, the name of the woman
being attracted, with her metronymic; over her heart, “BALAMIN THÔOUTH”; under
her stomach, “AOBÊS AÔBAR”; on her vulva, “BLICHIANEOI OUÔIA”; on her bottom,
“PISSADARA”; on the soles of her feet, on the right one, “ELÔ”; on the other one,
“ELÔAIOE.” Take thirteen bronze needles and insert one of them into the brain while
saying, “I pierce your brain (insert her name)”; insert two into her ears, two more into
her eyes, one into her mouth, two below her rib cage, one into her hands, two into her
vulva and anus, and two into the soles of her feet, while on each occasion saying once, “I
pierce the (insert name of part) of (insert her name), so that she may think of no one,
except me alone, (insert your name).” Take a lead tablet, inscribe the same spell on it, and
say it through. Bind the tablet to the figures with the warp from a loom, in which you
have made 365 knots while saying, as you know how to, “Abrasax, constrain her.” Lay it
as the sun sets beside the grave of one untimely dead or dead by violence, and lay flowers
of the season there with it. The inscribed and recited spell is this...22
The recipe prescribes the following manipulations concerning the female magic doll:
1. The arms shall be bound behind her back.
2. Ousia shall be fastened on her head or neck.
3. Magic words shall be inscribed on the doll
4. The doll shall be pierced by 13 bronze needles on specified parts of her body
5. The spell (logos) shall be bound to the doll with a thread with 365 knots.
During this procedure, the magician had to recite continuously the spell and every-
thing he wished to happen to the woman. For sure, not every doll was exposed to all these
actions, but magicians definitely had to perform some manipulation during the course of
the magic rite.
PGM III. 424.
"Take cow's milk and pour it. Put down a clean vessel and place the tablet under [it]; add
barley meal, mix and form bread: twelve rolls in the shape of female figures. Say [the for-
mula] three times, eat [the rolls] on an empty stomach, and you will know the power."23
The female figurines shaped from milk and barley meal had to be eaten on an empty
stomach.
PGM XXIVb. 1-15.
The highly fragmentary text instructed the magician what spells to inscribe on specified
parts of the magic doll24.

22
Ogden 2009, 247–248.
23
Betz 1996, 29.
24
Betz 1996, 264.
186 György Németh

PGM XCV. 1–6.

The highly fragmentary text may have instructed the magician what spells to inscribe on
specified parts of the magic doll25.
PGM CXXIV. 1–43.
"Take unsmoked beeswax and make a little manikin. Write the characters on a tiny piece
of papyrus and place it inside the beeswax. Also write the three "ô's" and the letters that
follow, on the head of the manikin, and the bones of the victim (?). Prick the left one' into
the left eye of the manikin and the right one into the right. Hold the figure upside-down
on its head and put it into a new pot. Leave the pot in the dark and fill it with water, up to
the [shoulder] of the [manikin] only. Crush rhododendron plants with some vinegar and
sprinkle the entrances to the tomb. Take a garland made from the plant, and while pronounc-
ing the formula, attach it to the tomb: "Principal angel of those below the earth, BAROUCH,
and you, angel of many forms, OLAMPTER; in this hour do not disobey me, but send to
me . . . without fear, without harm, doing my every. . . ."26
The letter omega shall be inscribed three times on the wax figurine, then both eyes
shall be pierced by bone, and the doll has to be put upside down into a new pot left in the
dark and filled up with water to the shoulder of the manikin.
PGM IV. 1875–1910.
"Take 4 ounces of wax, 8 ounces of fruit from the chaste-tree, 4 drams of manna. Pound
each of these fine separately and mix with pitch and wax, and fashion a dog eight fingers
long with its mouth open. And you are to place in the mouth of the dog a bone from the
head of a man who has died violently, and inscribe on the sides of the dog these characters:
(9 charaktêres), and you are to place the dog on a tripod. And have the dog raising its right
paw. And write on the strip of papyrus these names and what you wish: "IAÔ ASTÔ
IOPHÊ," and you are to place the strip of papyrus on the tripod and on top of the strip you
are to place the dog and say these names many times. And so, after you have spoken the
spell, the dog hisses [or barks], and if it hisses, she is not coming. Therefore address the
spell to it again, and if it barks, it is attracting her. Let a censer stand beside the dog, and
let frankincense be placed upon it as you say the spell..."27
A bone of a murdered man shall be placed into the mouth of a dog moulded from
fruits, wax, and manna. The ritual must be performed in the presence of the dog placed
on a tripod. No reference is made on destroying the statuette.
PGM IV. 2359–2372.
"Take orange beeswax and the juice of the aeria plant and of ground ivy and mix them and
fashion a figure of Hermes having a hollow bottom, grasping in his left hand a herald's
wand and in his right a small bag. Write on hieratic papyrus these names, and you will

25
Betz 1996, 105.
26
Betz 1996, 321.
27
Betz 1966, 71.
Voodoo dolls in the classical world 187

see continuous business: "CHAIOCHEN OUTIBILMEMNOUÔTH ATBAUICH. Give

income and business to this place, because Psentebethm lives here." Put the papyrus inside
the figure and fill in the hole with the same beeswax. Then deposit it in a wall, at an incon-
spicuous place, and crown him on the outside, and sacrifice to him a cock, and make a
drink offering of Egyptian wine, and light for him a lamp that is not colored red."28
A hollow statuette of Hermes shall be prepared from wax and herbal components. Papy-
rus sheets with writing were often found in extant wax dolls29.

PGM IV. 2379–2399.

"Take beeswax that has not been heated, which is known as bee glue, and fashion a man
having his right hand in the position of begging and having in his left a bag and a staff. Let
there be around the staff a coiled snake, and let him be dressed in a girdle and standing
on a sphere that has a coiled snake, like Isis. Stand it up and erect it in a single block of
hollowed-out juniper, and have an asp covering the top as a capital. Fashion him during
the new moon and consecrate it in a celebrating mood, and read aloud the spell over his
members, after you have divided him into three sections – repeating the spell four times
for each member. For each member write on strips of papyrus made from a priestly scroll,
with ink of cinnabar, juice of wormwood, and myrrh. When you have set it up high on
the place you have chosen, sacrifice to it a wild [ass] with a white forehead and offer it
whole and roast the inward parts over the wood of willow and thus eat it..."30
The wax beggar statuette is to be cut into three parts, and the magic spell must be recited
over these members. No reference is made on burning or melting the wax31.

PGM IV. 2943–2956.

"Love-spell of attraction through wakefulness: Take the eyes of a bat and release it alive,
and take a piece of unbaked dough or unmelted wax and mould a little dog; and put the right
eye of the bat into the right eye of the little dog, implanting also in the same way the left
one in the left. And take a needle, thread it with the magical material and stick it through
the eyes of the little dog, so that the magical material is visible. And put the dog into a new
drinking vessel, attach a papyrus strip to it and seal it with your own ring which has croco-
diles with the backs of their heads attached, and deposit it at a crossroad after you have
marked the spot so that, should you wish to recover it, you can find it."32
The dog figure has to be moulded from clay and wax, eyes of a bat must be placed into
the eyes of the dog, then the eyes are to be pierced with a needle, and the doll has to be
placed into a drinking vessel and deposited (probably buried) at a crossroad.

28
Betz 1996, 81.
29
Pinch 2006, 91.
30
Betz 1996, 81–82.
31
Suarez de la Torre 2011.
32
Betz 1996, 94.
188 György Németh

PGM IV. 3125.

"This is how to make [the phylactery]: Taking Etruscan wax, mold a statue three hand-
breadths high. Let it be three-headed. Let the middle head be that of a sea falcon; the right,
of a baboon; the left, of an ibis. Let it have four extended wings and its two arms stretched
on its breast; in them it should hold a scepter. And let it be wrapped [as a mummy] like
Osiris. Let the falcon wear the crown of Horus; the baboon, the crown of Hermanubis;
and let the ibis wear the crown of Isis. Put into the hollow inside it a heart [made] of mag-
netite, and write the following names on a piece of hieratic papyrus and put them into the
hollow. Next, when you have made it an iron base, stand it on the base and put it into a
little juniper wood temple at moonrise on the third day of the goddess. Then, having fixed
it [firmly] in whatever place you choose, sacrifice to it a wild white-faced [falcon?], and
burn [this offering] entire; also pour to it, as a libation, the milk of a black cow, the first-
born [of its mother] and the first she suckled. [By these sacrifices you will have completed
the deification of the statue.] And [now] feast with [the god]."33
The wax figurine must be consecrated and dined with34.
PGM XIII. 310–319.
"To send dream: Make a hippopotamus of red wax, hollow, and put into the belly of this
hippopotamus both gold and silver and the so-called ballatha of the Jews and array him in
white linen and put him in a pure window and, taking a sheet of hieratic papyrus write on
it with myrrh ink and baboon's blood whatever you wish to send. Then, having rolled it
into a wick and using it to light a new, pure lamp, put on the lamp the foot of the hippopota-
mus and say the Name, and he sends [the specified dream]."35
After hiding magic stuff into a wax hippopotamus, its foot has to be placed onto a
new lamp, though it is not clear whether the foot needs to melt or not. The body of the
hippopotamus surely did not burn or melt down.

Magic dolls

The modern starting point of studying ancient magic dolls is an article by C. A. Faraone,
or more precisely its Appendix, which includes 34 groups of finds from the Graeco-Roman
world.36 The decades that have passed since this publication have seen the emergence of
a number of new finds that extended our knowledge on magic dolls considerably. The most
significant find is undoubtedly the magical ensemble of the Anna Perenna sanctuary in
Rome, which contained seven puppets37. One of them is a peculiar item: the doll is attacked
by a snake that is biting its face38. Excavations at the Isis – Mater Magna sanctuary (Mainz)

33
Betz 1996, 98–99.
34
Cf. the prescription on the second Cyrenean inscription.
35
Betz 1996, 181.
36
Faraone 1991, 200–205.
37
Piranomonte 2002; Piranomonte 2012; Piranomonte 2015.
38
Inventory number of the wax doll attacked by snake: 475550. Cf. Sánchez 2015, 194–202.
Voodoo dolls in the classical world 189

yielded three magic dolls39. The study of Hans-Jörg Nüsse is an excellent summary of the
finds from Germania. Recent finds from Great Britain and France are presented by Magali
Bailliot, whose publication also provides us with a detailed description of the finding cir-
cumstances of items uncovered in Germany and Austria40. A surprising number of Romanian
and Moldavian finds are known from the comprehensive work of Valeriu Sîrbu41. However,
the latter volume (written in Romanian) provides little information on finding circum-
stances, therefore international scholarship would find a new, more detailed and linguis-
tically more accessible survey very useful.
The following table presents the provenance of known items and indicates the material
of magic dolls. The data concerning dolls found before 1991 comes from C. A. Faraone’s
mentioned article, whereas the data concerning more recent items is given after the table.

Provenance Lead Bronze Clay Wax/flour

Attika 9 1
Arkadia 6
Kephallonia 1
Delus 4 4
Crete 2
Euboia 1
Sicily 1 1
Italy 3 1 9 7
N.-Africa 3
Egypt 3 6
Palaestina 16
Asia Minor 1
Britannia 1
Germany 8
Carnuntum 1
Poiana/Romania 32
Hanska/Moldavia 1
Total 38 16 55 13

The dolls preserved various marks created during the ritual, providing us with an
insight into the magicians’ workshop. An important type of manipulation is writing vari-
ous names or magic words onto the puppet42. The Mnesimachos doll in a coffin from the

39
Witteyer 2004.
40
Bailliot 2015.
41
Sîrbu 1993, 58–62.
42
This is prescribed by several magical papyri, e.g. PGM IV. 296–335; PGM XXIVb. 1–15; PGM XCV.
1–6; PGM CXXIV. 1–43.
190 György Németh

Athenian Ceramicus cemetery is a good example. The name Mnesimachos is inscribed

into the right leg of the lead puppet43. The magician placed the doll into a small lead
coffin and buried it into a grave44.
Another inscribed wax doll was found in the Anna Perenna sanctuary in Rome. The
puppet is peculiar in two respects: it was made from pure beeswax, and it has an inscription
that not only includes magic words and letter combinations but also names the target of
the ritual:
• PETRONIUS CORNIGUS
• FB EΘ Ω ΘΙΘΩ ΘΑΟΙ
• ΩΣΧΙΘ GΩ
• X
• Θ ((((
• A
• I
• AP
• Cornigus45
The clay puppet found in Carnuntum has traces of piercing, and the doll was broken,
therefore only the upper part was preserved46.
Several dolls from Germany have been published in recent years.
1. Two clay dolls have been found in Straubing that are hollow and make a clinking
noise, thus they were assumed to be actually rattlers for children47. The detailed finding
circumstances are unknown, but one of the puppets has traces of piercing, which leads us
to the conclusion that the items are not rattlers but magic dolls.
2. Two clay figurines have been found in Eining (Bavaria), but unfortunately their
archaeological context is unknown. Both items had been broken and show traces of piercing48.
3. The clay doll uncovered in the area of Frienstedt (Erfurt) is hollow inside, and
shaking it makes a rattling noise. It excels other magic dolls in size (15.7 cm)49. Several
injuries can be observed on the item, but the most explicit ones are around the genitalia50.
4. The clay doll found in Beutow (Lüchow-Dannenberg) was first published in
the 19 century, and it was erroneously interpreted as of Slavic origin51. The doll is hol-
th

low inside and rattles similarly to those found in Straubing52.

43
Ogden 2009, 246.
44
For detailed discussion see Németh 2013, 69–74.
45
Friggeri 2012, 621.
46
Gassner 2008, 225–226; Bailliot 2015: 102–103.
47
Spindler 1983; Nüsse 2011, 135; Bailliot 2015: 101–102.
48
Spindler 1983. The photos of magic dolls from Germany are published by Nüsse on pages 134–135;
by Bailliot on page 99.
49
Nüsse 2011, 133.
50
Not included in Bailliot 2015.
51
Nüsse 2011, 133.
52
Not included in Bailliot 2015.
Voodoo dolls in the classical world 191

5-7. Excavations at the Isis and Mater Magna sanctuary of Mogontiacum (Mainz)
yielded three clay puppets53. The intensive magical activity performed in the sanctuary is
also proved by 34 local curse tablets found54. The clay dolls had been broken, and one of
them shows traces of piercing. The upper part of one broken item was buried face down,
while the bottom part was buried with feet upwards.
The following description of the most recent finds from Britannia and Gaul is based
on the study of Magali Bailliot.
8. Britannia: Fishbourne, Sussex55. Though the lead puppet was found in a villa, evi-
dence of frequent ritual activities (probably connected with Cybele and Attis) is detected
in the surrounding area. The figurine was probably twisted during the ritual56.
9. Gallia: The excavation of a cellar under a Roman building at Durocortorum (Reims)
yielded two clay puppets of obviously magical context, however, the group of finds has
not been published57. One of the puppets was better preserved, while the other one is merely
a pile of fragments. The legs are broken off the larger puppet, and traces of piercing by
needle or nail are visible. The puppet was closed into a clay bowl.
10. Piriac-sur-Mer (Pays de la Loire): A lead puppet (13 cm high) was found in a
Roman villa with a wine-press in 2004. The masculinity of the doll is clearly indicated58.
Both arms and one leg were twisted during the ritual. The right arm is bent as if bound
behind its back. The puppet was broken due to twisting.

The provenance of magic dolls is summarized in the following table:

Provenance Grave Sanctuary Water Pit House Box/vessel
Athens 6 1 Ilissus 5
Delus 4 4
Etruscan 2
Rome 2
Italy 8 7 7 pool 7
Morocco 2 canal
Egypt 6
Palaestine 16
Britannia 1
Gallia 3 1
Germania 3 1

53
Witteyer 2004, 42–47; Bailliot 2015: 100.
54
Blänsdorf 2012, 50–180.
55
Bailliot 2015, 103.
56
Bailliot 2015, 103: "The damage to the upper limbs may be due to twisting."
57
Bailliot 2015, 103–104.
58
Bailliot 2015, 104–105. The find has not been published satisfactorily.
192 György Németh

Carnuntum 1
Poiana 32
Hanska 1
Total 18 32 10 1 7 52

Considering the above, the following types of manipulation can be observed in magic
dolls:
• Twisting the head back (bronze, lead)
• Piercing (clay, wax, lead)
• Burning (wax – written sources)
• Breaking the body (clay, wax, lead)
• Placing it into coffins / capsules
• Burial or submerging into water
• Writing names onto it (Rome, Athens, Etruria, Puteoli, Sicily)59.
The material of the doll affected the available means of manipulation: it was obviously
impossible to pierce a bronze puppet, and there was little chance to melt it by casting it
into fire. On the basis of the above, a manikin statuette can be considered a magic doll
only if we can observe typical ways of representation (e.g. bending an arm back, bind-
ing) or one of the mentioned manipulations60.
The surviving dolls prove that most manipulations formulated in literary sources
did exist, but magicians applied numerous other methods in practice, and not all wax statu-
ettes were destined to perish in fire.61 If the procedure required, the doll was pierced, closed
into a capsule, buried, or thrown into water, but destroying it was not necessary, because
the spell worked until the doll rested in a grave or in water62. The destruction of the doll
could surely not have secured the same result.

Primary sources
Betz 1996: Hans Dieter Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation
including the Demotic Spells, 2nd Edition (Chicago–London,
1996).
Blänsdorf 2012: Jürgen Blänsdorf, Die Defixionum Tabellae des mainzer Isis-
und Mater Magna-Heiligtums, (Mainz, 2012).
Daniel/Maltomini 1990: Robert W. Daniel, Franco Maltomini, Supplementum Magicum I.
(Opladen, 1990).

59
Faraone 1991, 200.
60
This condition rules out the identification of most Romanian manikin statuettes in magical context
(Sîrbu 1993).
61
Naturally, the probability of finding archaeological traces of actually burnt wax dolls is rather low.
62
Cf. the inscription of a curse tablet from Savaria, SEG (40, 1990, 919).
Voodoo dolls in the classical world 193

Daniel/Maltomini 1992: Robert W. Daniel, Franco Maltomini, Supplementum

Magicum II. (Opladen, 1992).
Ogden 2009: Daniel Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and
Roman Worlds (Oxford, 2009).
PGM Karl Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae (PGM) (Stuttgart,
1973).
Preisendanz 1973: Karl Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae (PGM) (Stuttgart,
1973).

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