The Lore and Myths of Witches – Chapter 1: From Clay Tablets to Roman Alleyways
Tonight's Episode
Embark on a thrilling journey into the origins of witchcraft—from Mesopotamian clay curses and Egyptian resurrection spells to Greek moon-drawers and Roman curse tablets. Discover how sorcery shaped laws, literature, and everyday life in the ancient world.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-strange-history-podcast--5773362/support.
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Speaker 1: Due to the upcoming Halloween season, the Strange History Podcast
Speaker 1: will be celebrating with a multi part series on the
Speaker 1: history of witches. No, we do not mean your mother
Speaker 1: in law or the cranky lunch lady from grammar school
Speaker 1: who always skimped on the French fries and whose hairnet
Speaker 1: looked questionable at best. We mean witches, a person thought
Speaker 1: to have magic powers, especially evil ones, popularly depicted as
Speaker 1: a woman wearing a black cloak and pointed hat and
Speaker 1: flying on a broomstick. Buckle up so you do not
Speaker 1: fall off your broomstick, and get a cup of hot
Speaker 1: cider and your furriest familiar and enjoy the next few episodes.
Speaker 2: Welcome, dear listeners to the Strange History Podcast. I'm Amy,
Speaker 2: your guide through history's dustiest corners and strangest broom closets.
Speaker 2: Today we're launching an epic journey, a mega episode tracing
Speaker 2: witches through every twist of the human story. Not just
Speaker 2: the wardy cartoon for variety, but healers, rebels, midwives, and
Speaker 2: mischief makers who shaped and sometimes terrified their societies. So
Speaker 2: grab a mug of something warming or something bubbling if
Speaker 2: you're feeling theatrical because we're heading back nearly five thousand
Speaker 2: years to wear. The first whispers of witchcraft scratched themselves into.
Speaker 1: Clay Mesopotamia sorcery on clay tablets circa two thousand to
Speaker 1: six hundred BCE.
Speaker 2: The world's earliest surviving witch trials weren't held in a
Speaker 2: gloomy courthouse, but in the mind of a worried Sumerian
Speaker 2: farmer somewhere along the Euphrates. Goats were getting sick, grain
Speaker 2: was failing, and neighbors began muttering about Kishpu spells meant
Speaker 2: to blight crops or strike enemies. Cooneyformed tablets record a
Speaker 2: whole lexicon of magical worry. The ashi Po think of
Speaker 2: them as priest detectives specialized in sniffing out curses. If
Speaker 2: you suspect did someone hext your beer supply, you called
Speaker 2: an Ashipu, who would chant over clay figurines representing the culprit,
Speaker 2: then burn them in a brazier. The ashes, they believed,
Speaker 2: scorched the evil right out of the world. Sumer Akad, Babylon, Assyria.
Speaker 2: Every city had archives of charms to unbind sorcery, legal
Speaker 2: texts punishing malevolent magicians, and rituals like the maklu or burning.
Speaker 2: This wasn't superstition in isolation. It was part of law, medicine,
Speaker 2: and state craft. The king himself might order a counterspell
Speaker 2: if omens looked bad.
Speaker 3: Today's Mesopotamian segment is brought to you by Hexof, trusted
Speaker 3: since eighteen hundred BCE, whether it's kishpu or just bad irrigation.
Speaker 3: Hexof keeps your goats happy and your neighbor's nervous.
Speaker 1: Egypt heka isis and the magic papyri circa one thousand,
Speaker 1: eight hundred to three hundred BCE.
Speaker 2: Down the Nile. Magic wasn't just tolerated, It was sacred.
Speaker 2: The Egyptians called it heca, a cosmic force as essential
Speaker 2: as bread or sunlight. Priests used it to maintain harmony
Speaker 2: between the gods and mortals, carving protective spells into tomb
Speaker 2: walls or hiding amulets in linen wrappings. Ordinary people joined
Speaker 2: in a mother might whisper charms over a newborn. A
Speaker 2: fisherman might scratch prayers on a potsherd before casting his net.
Speaker 2: The famous magical papyri spanning the late Ferionic to Greco
Speaker 2: Roman periods read like a grab bag of life, hacks,
Speaker 2: protection from crocodiles, formulas for seduction, recipes, to compel spirits,
Speaker 2: to fetch information. Isis, queen of sorcery, set the bar
Speaker 2: high by resurrecting Osiris with her words, proof that language
Speaker 2: itself could restitch the world. But Egyptians also told cautionary
Speaker 2: tales about necromancers overstepping, like setnikamwas a prince who stole
Speaker 2: forbidden spells and almost doomed himself.
Speaker 3: This portion of our cruise up the Nile is brought
Speaker 3: to you by Papyrus plus the only scroll tough enough
Speaker 3: for resurrection spells and grocery lists alike.
Speaker 1: Greece wise women, moon drawers, and tragic potions eight hundred
Speaker 1: to one hundred BCE.
Speaker 2: Cross the Mediterranean and you find witches with theatrical flare.
Speaker 2: Circe in Homer's Odyssey, lives on an island surrounded by
Speaker 2: bewitched lions and wolves previous guests who didn't mind their manners.
Speaker 2: She lures Odysseus's crew with wine and turns them into pigs,
Speaker 2: but later, over a polite dinner, gives him directions to
Speaker 2: the underworld. Hospitality counts even in sorcery. Medea, granddaughter of Helios,
Speaker 2: mixes her potions with a side of tragedy. She rescues
Speaker 2: Jason within chi panted Salves, then betrayed unleash's vengeance that
Speaker 2: makes every later breakup look mild. Philosophers argued about whether
Speaker 2: charms were real or clever psychology, while poets wrote of
Speaker 2: Thessalian witches who could draw down the moon, either a
Speaker 2: metaphor for astronomy or a wild herbal harvest under moonlight.
Speaker 3: This moonlit tail is sponsored by Luna Hook for safe
Speaker 3: effective lunar extraction. Always follow ethical moon harvesting guidelines.
Speaker 1: Rome Law, satire and lead curse tablets first BCE to
Speaker 1: fourth CE.
Speaker 2: When Rome inherited Greek culture, it imported the witch, along
Speaker 2: with olives and drama. Romans loved a good law, and
Speaker 2: as early as the Twelve Tables, they banned anyone from
Speaker 2: enchanting another's crops. That didn't stop people from sneaking cursed
Speaker 2: tablets to phixiones into wells, calling on underworld gods to
Speaker 2: blight competitors or make lovers more attentive. Poets gave witches
Speaker 2: a bad pr team Horace's Canidia stalked graveyards, brewing poisons
Speaker 2: with wolf liver and screech owl feathers. Ovid turned spells
Speaker 2: into punchlines, describing love charms alongside beauty tips. But satire
Speaker 2: couldn't erase demand. Market stalls sold amulets, charms, and powders
Speaker 2: for everything from toothache to treason. Roman witchcraft sat at
Speaker 2: the crossroads of religion, gossip and state anxiety. Emperors occasionally
Speaker 2: expelled astrologers and magicians when politics got tense, proving that
Speaker 2: even the Caesars worried about the power of a good hex.
Speaker 3: This Roman interlude is brought to you by cursed tab
Speaker 3: lead sheets. For every occasion, Ride it, fold it, toss
Speaker 3: it in a fountain, and remember the gods aren't liable
Speaker 3: for side effects.
Speaker 2: And there you have it. Our broomstick has flown from
Speaker 2: river valleys and royal tombs to moonlit Aegean cliffs and
Speaker 2: Roman back alleys. In every corner, magic lived alongside daily life,
Speaker 2: shaping laws, stories, and dinner party gossip. Next up, we
Speaker 2: head north, where Vikings, Celts and Slavs carved their own
Speaker 2: witchy legends into ice stone and spinning huts on chicken legs.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to like, subscribe and tell all your spooky
Speaker 1: friends
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