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Richard Gordon

“UT TU ME VINDICES”: MATER MAGNA AND ATTIS


IN SOME NEW LATIN CURSE-TEXTS

The Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) notwithstanding, the literary tradi-
tion from Herodotus to Eustathius, as presented by Hugo Hepding in 1903, has
traditionally served as the privileged source of information regarding the Roman
cult of Mater Magna and Attis.1 It is the particular merit of Giulia Sfameni
Gasparro in her monograph on the cult to have shown us how to peel away the
accumulation of ‘authorised readings’ of this literary tradition, by pointing out, for
example, how Christian interpretations of Metroac symbolism have been imposed
onto a thoroughly non-Christian scenario of divine absence alternating with pre-
sence, eventuating in the quite misleading assertion of an essential equivalence
between Attis, Adonis, Dionysos and even Osiris.2 Her contribution on the Naas-
sene and Neo-platonic interpretations of Metroac cult continued this exploration
of the constant re-reading of these themes in antiquity, which, given the bias of
our surviving source-material, plays so unwarrantably large a part in the literary
record.3 Together with Robert Turcan, she was thus among the first to demonstrate
the importance of appreciating the Erkenntnisinteressen of what used to be
thought of as ‘sources’ in this area.4 These demonstrations formed part of a wider
strategy of resistance to the traditional term ‘(Graeco-Oriental) mystery religi-
ons/cults’ ‒ names that long pre-dated both Franz Cumont and Richard Reitzen-
stein ‒ and an insistence on the heuristic value of distinguishing, with Ugo Bian-
chi, between Greek mystery-cults properly so-called, i.e. mainly those of Eleusis
and Samothrace, ‘mystic’ cults, namely the Hellenistic-Roman cults originating in
the eastern Mediterraean area that projected human suffering onto the divine
world, and the religious forms of world-rejection, such as Baccho-Orphism, Gno-
sis and Hermeticism, grouped under the term ‘mysteriosophic’.5

1 Hepding 1903, 5-77; Hepding did however include 63 inscriptions (1903, 78-95), both in
Greek (19 – many from the Roman period) and in Latin (44).
2 Sfameni Gasparro 1985, 43-49, cf. Sfameni Gasparro 1982. The Italian edition, Soteriologia e
aspetti mistici nel culto di Cibele e Attis, Palermo 1979, is not listed in the meta-database of
the Karlsruhe Virtueller Katalog (KvK).
3 Sfameni Gasparro 1981 = 2009a, 249-90; cf. 1983 = 2009a, 291-327 on Ambrosiaster and
Prudentius.
4 Cf. Turcan 1975; 1996; 1997.
5 Sfameni Gasparro 2006a and b, summarising earlier positions. Though not entirely satisfacto-
ry, these basic distinctions continue to have heuristic value. For some comments on problems
inherent in such typologies, see Gordon (forthcoming); other approaches to the ‘oriental cults’
are being worked out elsewhere: Bonnet, Rüpke and Scarpi 2006; Bonnet, Ribichini and
Steuernagel 2008; Bonnet, Pirenne-Delforge and Praet 2009.
4 R. Gordon

Recently however an unexpected type of evidence for Metroac cult has come
to light in the form of lead-tablets invoking Mater Magna and/or Attis to punish
those who are alleged to have wronged the principal. The first to be discovered
and published, from Salacia/Alcácer do Sal near Setúbal in Portugal, is a classic
thief-finding text of the type classified by Henk Versnel as prayers for justice.6
But if the genre was familiar, the addressee, dominus Megarus (if that is the cor-
rect reading, see below) was quite unexpected;7 furthermore the invocation of this
deity evidently suggested to the principal quite specific ideas about the manage-
ment of the curse, which he unselfconsciously aligned with the ordinary process
of undertaking a vow.8 The second group of texts, which is also the most nume-
rous, and can be securely dated between the reign of Vespasian and c.120 CE, was
found in 1999; most come from a raised sacrificial pit situated to the rear of the
temple of Mater Magna in her joint sanctuary with Isis in the centre of the civilian
settlement of Moguntiacum/Mainz.9 Of the eighteen legible texts (fragments and
scraps of many more were found), six are relevant in the present context because
they specifically invoke Mater Magna and/or Attis; each registers more or less
significant novelties.10 All are adaptations of the model of the judicial prayer to
the malign curse (the classic defixio); several relish the thought that the target may
meet his death through public execution, jeered at and reviled by the crowd. The
last text, from Groß-Gerau in Hesse, written in good Latin by someone familiar
with Greek culture, is clearly dependent on the Mainz group, but represents a still
further adaptation of the scheme, apparently to take revenge upon a woman who
has failed to marry the principal.
Perhaps the major interest of these texts for the study of Metroac cult is the
fact that they are not in the ordinary sense votives and are therefore not confined
by the generic limitations that generally render votive inscriptions so uninformati-
ve. In seeking to activate the deities’ power (numen, cf. B5.2; C.10) in pursuit of
private claims of justice, they deliberately deploy knowledge of cultic practice ‒
however we are to imagine that knowledge to have been acquired ‒ in asserting
their right to demand the deities’ intervention. The possession of cultic knowledge
is thus perceived as instrumental in gaining the principals’ ends, either in the form

6 See most recently Versnel 2010, 278-82; on thief-finding texts, Faraone, Garnand & López
Ruiz 2005; Faraone & Rife 2007; Tomlin 2010.
7 The original publications (Faria 2000, 109, d’Encarnaçâo 2001 = AE 2001, no. 1135, and
d’Encarnaçâo and Faria 2002, 262) thought the addressee was Megaira, the daughter of Creon
of Thebes. Significant improvements to the understanding of the text were made by Guerra
2003 and Marco Simón 2004 (drawing on p.81).
8 See A.13: compotem facias below; also me votis condemnes in B4.17. Compos voti is the
ordinary expression for ‘having been granted one’s prayer’ by a divinity.
9 For the excavation, see Witteyer 2004; 2005 and DTM (forthcoming). It is conceivable that
similar texts were addressed to Isis, whose temple was adjacent to that of the Mater Magna;
but the relevant part of the sanctuary was inaccessible. So far however only one such text ad-
dressed to Isis is known, namely from Baelo Claudia in Baetica (AE 1988, no. 727).
10 All the texts have been patiently deciphered by J. Blänsdorf (Mainz), with some help from P.-
Y. Lambert, and published in a variety of locations; the standard version will be DTM.
Mater Magna and Attis in Latin Curses 5

of adjuration (in the use of the preposition per), in the construction of performati-
ves, or in providing the type of forceful images required for illocutionary effect.11

1. THE TEXTS

I begin by (re-)presenting the eight texts for the reader’s convenience.12 Given the
nature of the material base and the difficulty of reading Old Roman Cursive, many
readings are doubtful, interpretation still more so. Space does not allow a fuller
consideration of the numerous textual problems; for the most part, I have simply
presented the editors’ views.

1.1. Salacia/Setúbal (Portugal)

During renovations to the ruined convent of Our Lady of Aracoeli in 1995, a lead
tablet was found at the bottom of a small cistern (1.5 x 1.50 x 0.75m), together
with a corroded coin, within the remains of a Roman-period shrine.13 At the en-
trance to the cella was an area for depositing votives; here were found, apart from
a number of lamps, two terracotta statuettes of figures wearing phrygian caps,
which perhaps indicate that the shrine was, at any rate at this period, dedicated to
Mater Magna. According to the latest editor, the text reads:
domine Megare | invicte, tu qui Attidis | corpus accepisti, accipias cor|pus eius qui meas sar-
cinas |5supstulit, qui me compilavit | de domo Hispani illius. corpus | tibi et anima(m) do do-
no ut meas | res invenia(m). tunc tibi (h)ostia(m) |10quadripede(m), do(mi)ne Attis, voveo, | si
eu(m) fure(m) invenero. dom(i)ne | Attis, te rogo per tu(u)m Nocturnum | ut me quam pri-
mu(m) compote(m) facias.14
Translation:
Unconquered Lord Megarus, you who received the body of Attis, may you receive the body
of him who who robbed me from the house of that Spaniard. I give and donate his body and
soul to you, that I may find my property. I then promise you a four-footed sacrifice, Lord At-
tis, if I find that thief. Lord Attis, I ask you through your Nocturnus, to place me in the positi-
on of having to redeem my vow as soon as possible.

Salacia, lying at the head of the great estuary of the Rio Sado, was easily accessi-
ble to external influences and famous for its woollen cloth; votive texts recording
criobolia were already known from Ossonoba (Faro de Alentejo) and the conven-
tus capital Pax Iulia (Bejo).15 The most pressing problem is the identity of the first

11 On the importance of keeping the pragmatics of these texts in mind, see Kropp 2004.
12 The texts are referred to in the subsequent discussion as A (Salacia); B1-6 (Mainz) and C
(Groß-Gerau).
13 Faria 2000, 103-105; Marco Simón 2004, 79-80.
14 Text and translation (slightly revised) from Tomlin 2010, 260-64 with drawing on p.261; see
also the remarks of Versnel 2010, 297-299.
15 Pliny, N.H. 4.166 records that Salacia had the (informal?) title urbs imperatoria. Criobolia:
IRCPacen, no. 1 (Ossobono); AE 1956, no. 255 = IRCPacen, no. 255 (Pax Iulia). CIL II 179
= ILS 4099 (Olisipo) records a Flavia Tyche who acted as a cernophora in the cult there as
6 R. Gordon

addressee. M. Meyer suggested that Megare, which is clear on the tablet, must be
an error for Megale = Mater Magna; but then the nominatives domine and invicte
must be taken as mistakes.16 Marco Simón and Versnel have therefore identified
the “great, invincible” deity as Hades/Pluto.17 I am however attracted by Tomlin’s
notion that the title is routed through the megaron of the cult, referred to in B3
below, which likewise ‘receives’ the (body of) the target.18 Lord Megaron would
then either be Hades/Pluto or the numen of the subterranean chamber where Attis
lies. In my view, the term magali, which occurs twice in B4.10 and 12 below, a
term that occurs nowhere else, must be the temple-assistants whose job it was to
take care of, and presumably on occasion disinter and open, the buried cistae pe-
netrales (see B1.5-6 below) that represented this megaron.19 That is why they are
named together with the galli and bellonarii, of which they are simply a small
sub-group, included in the enumeration to underline the claim to familiarity with
Metroac cult-practice.20

1.2. Moguntiacum/Mainz

The foundation of the temples by an imperial liberta, Claudia Icmas, and an impe-
rial slave, Vitulus, can be firmly dated to the period 71-80 CE.21 All but three of
the recovered lead tablets came from the ash-altar behind the temple; the ritual
involved sacrificing an animal or other offering and melting the inscribed lead
tablet in the flames so that its message passed ‘into’ the other world. The melting
lead was thus a metonymy for the passing of the message. Those that survive for
us to read are thus those that failed to be properly transmitted. Other tablets, and
numerous poppets made of clay, mud and organic substances, which have mostly
not survived sufficiently well to be recovered, were deposited elsewhere in the
temple area. The entire complex was levelled and covered with tiles early in the
reign of Hadrian.
B1: Inv., no. 201 B 36 = DTM, no. 5 = Blänsdorf 2010, 166-167, no. 2:22
Obverse (A):

early as 108 CE. Garcá y Bellido 1967, 50 took her, perhaps rightly, to have been a liberta
Caesaris.
16 See AE 2001, no. 1135 (p.361)
17 Marco Simón 2004, 86; Versnel 2010, 298 (translating “Lord, great and invincible”).
18 Tomlin 2010, 262.
19 I imagine that magalus is a non-standard, even popular term, for a position that might have
been more properly *megarensis, corrupted under the influence of the words gallus and bel-
lonarius; but it could equally be a vulgar form of Matris gallus or even Ma-gallus.
20 Cf. Seneca, Agam. 686-688: non si molles comitata viros / tristis laceret bracchia ...turba.
Baslez 2004 unfortunately throws little light on the theme of (nominal) self-castration and
blood-letting.
21 See AE 2004, no. 1015. From 1014, it seems likely that they were in some capacity attached
to the office of the imperial procurator responsible for the tax-receipts of the area. The only
known joint priest of Isis and Mater Magna is a roughly contemporary case at Ostia (CIL XIV
429 = RICIS 501/0116).
22 Previously published in Blänsdorf 2004a = AE 2004, no. 1026; Blänsdorf 2005b, 16, no. 6.
Mater Magna and Attis in Latin Curses 7

Bone sancte Atthis tyranǀne, adsi(s), aduenias Liberaǀli iratus. Per omnia te rogo,ǀ
domine, per tuum Castorem,ǀ5Pollucem, per cistas penetraǀles, des ei malam mentem,ǀ
malum exitum, quandius ǀ uita uixerit, ut omni corǀpore uideat se emori praeǀ10ter oculos
Reverse (B):
neque se possit redimere ǀ nulla pecunia nullaque reǀ neq(ue) abs te neque ab ullo deoǀ
nisi ut exitum malum.ǀ15Hoc praesta, rogo te per maǀiestatem tuam.
Translation:
Side A:
Good, holy Att(h)is, Lord, help (me), come to Liberalis in anger. I ask you by everything,
Lord, by your Castor (and) Pollux, by the cistae in your sanctuary, give him a bad mind, a
bad death, as long as he lives, so that he may see himself dying all over his body - except his
eyes.
Side B:
And may he not be able to redeem himself by (paying) money or anything else, either from
you or from any other god except (by dying) a bad death. Grant this, I ask you by your maje-
sty.

B2: Inv., no. 1, 29 = DTM, no. 3 = Blänsdorf 2010, 172, no. 7:23
Obverse (Side A):
Rogo te, domina Mater ǀ Magna, ut tu me uindices ǀ de bonis Flori coniugis mei.ǀ qui me
fraudavit Ulattius ǀ5Seuerus, quemadmod<um> ǀ hoc ego auerse scribo, sic illi ǁ
Reverse (Side B):
omnia, quidquid agit, quidquid ǀ aginat, omnia illi auersa fiant. ǀ ut sal et aqua illi eueni-
at.ǀ10quidquid mi abstulit de bonis ǀ Flori coniugis mei, rogo te, ǀ domina Mater Ma<g>na, ut
tu ǀ de eo me uindices.
Translation:
I entreat you, Mistress Mater Magna, to avenge me regarding the goods of Florus, my hus-
band, of which Ulattius Severus has defrauded me. Just as I write this in a hostile way, so
may everything, whatever he does, whatever he attempts, everything go awry for him. As salt
(melts in) water, so may it happen to him. Whatever of the goods of Florus, my husband, he
has taken away from me, I entreat you, Mistress Mater Magna, to avenge me for it.
B3: Inv., no. 111, 53 = DTM, no. 4 = Blänsdorf 2010, 173-174, no. 8:24
Obverse (Side A):
Tiberius Claudius Adiutor ǀ in megaro eum rogo te, M<a>ǀt<e>r Magna, megaro tuo
reǀcipias. et Attis domine, te ǀ5precor, ut hu(n)c (h)ostiam accepǀtum (h)abiatis, et quit aget
agiǀnat, sal et aqua illi fiat. Ita tu ǀ facias, Domna, it quid cor eoconora ǀ c(?)edatǁ
Reverse (Side B):
10
deuotum defictum ǀ illum menbra, ǀ medullas, AA (?). ǀ nullum aliud sit, ǀAttis, Mater
Magn<a>.
Translation:
Tiberius Claudius Adiutor – In the temple − I ask you, Mater Magna, to receive him in the
temple. And Lord Attis, I ask you that you may enter him in your accounts under “Offerings”;
and whatever he does or busies himself with, may it become salt and water for him. May you

23 Previously published as Blänsdorf 2005a, 672-674, no.1 = AE 2005, no. 1122; idem 2005b,
21, no.9; idem 2005c, no. 1.
24 Tr. Blänsdorf (adapted). Previously published as Blänsdorf 2005a, 683-86, no. 4 = AE
2005, no. 1125: Blänsdorf 2005b, 18, no.7; 2005c, no. 4.
8 R. Gordon

do, Mistress, what may cut his heart and liver - // Him cursed and ‘caught’ - in his limbs,
strength − let there be nothing else − Attis, Mater Magn(a).

This principal views the transaction as an antecedent votive, using the animal’s
death as a ‘source of advice’ about how graphically to envisage the target’s death.
Membra and medullae, as words for vaguely-understood inner parts, fit neatly
with ordinary assumptions about how divine (and malign magical) punishment
could be recognised as such. The reading of the finale is uncertain.
B4: Inv., no. 182, 18 = DTM, no. 2 = Blänsdorf 2010, 180-181, no. 16:25
Quisquis dolum malum adm[isit--], hac pecun[i]a[---nec] ǀ ille melior et nos det[eri]ores su-
mus [----------------------] ǀ Mater deum, tu persequeris per terras, per [maria, per locos]ǀ
ar(i)dos et umidos, per benedictum tuum et o[ro et obsecro, eum qui] ǀ5pecunia(m) dolum ma-
lum adhibet, ut tu perse[quaris--- Quomodo] ǀ galli se secant et praecidunt uir[i]lia sua, sic
il[le--] R S Q ǀ intercidat MELORE pec[tus ? or pec[uniam .....]BISIDIS [ne]que se admisis-
se nec[...] ǀ hostiis si[n]atis nequis t[...] neque SUT . TIS neque auro neque ǀ argento neque
ille solui [re]fici redimi possit. Quomodo galli, ǀ10bellonari, magal[i] sibi sanguin[em] fe-
ruentem fundunt, frigid[us ǀ ad terram venit, sic et[...]CIA, copia, cogitatum, mentes. [Quem-
] ǀ admodum de eis gallo[r]u[m, ma]galorum, bellon[ariorum ---] ǀ spectat, qui de ea pecu-
nia dolum malum [exhibet --------] ǀ exitum spectent, et a[d qu]em modum sal in [aqua li-
ques-]ǀ15cet, sic et illi membra m[ed]ullae extabescant. Cr[ucietur] ǀ et dicat se admisisse
ne[fa]s. D[e]mando tibi rel[igione,] ǀ ut me uotis condamnes et ut laetus libens ea tibi refe-
ram, ǀ si de eo exitum malum feceris.
Translation:
Whoever has committed fraud with this money, [neither] is he the better (for it) nor we the
worse (?) ..... Mother of the gods, you pursue (your enemies) across land and [sea], arid and
humid [places], [I implore and beseech you], by your dear departed (= Attis) to hunt down the
person who has taken the money by fraud ... [Just as] the galli lacerate themselves and sever
their genitals, so may .... he cut … his breast (?) or: the money … And if he says he has not
committed …, may you not permit him to redeem himself with sacrificial offerings nor … nor
be he able to free or restore or redeem himself with gold or silver. Just as the adherents of
Mater Magna and the priests of Bellona and the magali spill their hot blood, which is cold
(when) it touches the ground, so his …, his abilities, his thinking and wits ... Just as … of the
galli, the magali and the priests of Bellona ... (Just as) he watches the person who commits
fraud concerning this money, so let (the people) watch his death and ... Just as salt will <melt
in water>, (15) so may his limbs and marrow melt, may he be tortured and may he confess
that he has committed sacrilege. I solemnly entrust (this) to you, in order that you may fulfil
my wishes and I gladly and willingly fulfil my vow to you, if you make him die a horrible
death

B5: Inv., no. 72, 3 = DTM, no. 1 = Blänsdorf 2010, 183-185, no. 17:26
Obverse (Side A):

25 Tr. J. Blänsdorf (adapted). Not yet fully deciphered; previously published in varying forms as
Blänsdorf 2005a, 674-677, no.2 = AE 2005, no. 1123; idem 2005b, 21-22, no.10; idem 2005c,
no.2. The tablet was rolled up and then folded; in the course of the ritual it was badly dam-
aged by fire - the lower part of the tablet is partly melted away. About one third of ll.1-5 and
12-16 is lost.
26 Tr. Blänsdorf (adapted). Previously published in slightly different forms as Blänsdorf 2005a,
677-680, no.3 = AE 2005, no. 1124; idem 2005b, 19-21, no.8; idem 2005c, no.3.
Mater Magna and Attis in Latin Curses 9

Mater Magna, te rogo, ǀ p[e]r [t]ua sacra et numen tuum: ǀ Gemella fiblas meas qualis ǀ sus-
tulit, sic et illam REQVIS ǀ5 adsecet, ut nusquam sana si[t]. ǀ Quomodo galli se secarunt, ǀ sic
ea [velit] nec se secet sic, uti ǀ planctum ha[be]at quomodo ǀ et sacrorum deposierunt ǀ10 in
sancto, sic et tuam vitam ǀ valetudinem, Gemella. ǀ Neque hostis neque auǀro neque argento
rediǀmere possis a Matre ǀ15 deum, nisi ut exitum ǀ tuum populus spectet. ǀ Verecundam et Pa-
terǀnam: sic illam tibi comǀmendo, Mater deum ǀ20 Magna, rem illorum ǀ in AECRVMO DEO
UIS quaǀle rogo co(n)summent[.], ǀ quomodo et res meas vireǀsque fraudarunt, nec se ǀ25 pos-
sint redimere ǀ nec hosteis lanatisǁ
Reverse (Side B):
nec plum{i}bis ǀ nec auro nec arǀgento redimereǀ30 a numine tuo, ǀ nisi ut illas uorent ǀ canes,
ǀ vermes adque ǀ alia portenta, ǀ35 exitum quarum ǀ populus spectet, ǀ tamquam quae {C}
FORRO ǀ L auderes comme...ES ǀ duas ǀ40 TAMAQVANIVCAVERSSO ǀ scriptis istas ǀ AE RIS
. ADRICIS . S. LONǀa . illas, si illas cistas ǀ caecas, aureas, sacras ǀ45 E[--]I[-]LO[--]AS ǀ O
{OV}[-]EIS mancas A.
Rough translation:
I beg you, Mater Magna, by your sacred rites and your divine power: - Gemella, who stole
my brooches ‒ so may (something) cut (?) her too 5 ... so that no part of her be healthy. Just as
the galli have cut themselves, so (may) she want to do (?). And may she not cut herself so that
she may lament herself (?). As they have deposited the holy things 10 in the sanctuary, so also
your life and health, Gemella. Neither by offerings nor by gold nor by silver may you be able
to redeem yourself from the Mother of the 15Gods, except that the people may watch your
death. – Verecunda and Paterna: for thus I give her to you, Great Mother 20of the Gods, their
property … I ask they may be destroyed just as they have defrauded me of my property and
resources; nor may they 25be able to buy themselves free either by offering sheep // or by lead
(tablets); neither by gold nor silver may they buy themselves free 30 from your divine power,
until dogs devour them, worms and other horrible things; 35may the people watch their death
just as ... two ... 40 ... with writings .... them (acc.), if [someone takes?] those hidden, gilded,
holy containers 45 …. holy ones (acc. plur. fem).

B6: Inv., no. 31, 2 = DTM, no. 6 = Blänsdorf 2010, 186-187, no. 18:27
Obverse (Side A):
Quintum in hac tabula depono auersum ǀ se suisque rationibus uitaeque male con-
sumǀmantem. ita uti galli bellonariue absciderunt concideǀruntue se, sic illi abscissa sit fides
fama faculitas. nec illi ǀ5in numero hominum sunt, neque ille sit. quomodi et ille ǀ mihi frau-
dem fecit, sic illi, sancta Mater Magn<a>, et relegis ǀ cu[n]cta. ita uti arbor siccabit se in
sancto, sic et illi siccet ǀ fama fides fortuna faculitas. tibi commendo, Att{i}hi d(o)mine, ǀ ut
me uindices ab eo, ut intra annum uertente[m] ….. exitum ǀ10illius uilem malum.ǁ
Reverse (Side B), at 90° to obverse:
ponit nom(en) huius mariǀtabus / si agatur ulla ǀres utilis, sic ille nobis ǀ utilis sit suo corpore.
ǀ15 sacrari horr<e>bis.
Rough translation:
In this tablet I turn Quintus upside-down, (so that) it may go ill with him and his plans and his
well-being.28 Just as the galli or the priests of Bellona have castrated or cut themselves, so
may his good name, reputation, ability to conduct his affairs be cut away. Just as they are 5not
numbered among mankind, so may he too not (be so numbered). Just as he cheated me, so

27 Tr. by Blänsdorf (adapted). Previously published: Blänsdorf 2005a, 686-89, no. 6 = AE 2005,
no. 1126; Blänsdorf 2005b, 23f., no. 11; idem 2005c, no. 6.
28 Here I follow the suggestion of Faraone and Kropp 2010, 386 regarding the meaning of Quin-
tum in hac tabula depono aversum. As they point out, in A.7 the words Quinti nomen appear
upside-down (omitted in the printed text here).
10 R. Gordon

may you (deal with him), holy Great Mother, and take everything away from him. Just as the
tree shall wither in the sanctuary, so may his reputation, good name, fortune, and ability to
conduct his affairs wither. I hand (him) over to you, Lord Atthis, that you may punish him for
me, so that by the end of the year (he may suffer a) horrible bad 10death …. (The reading of
the reverse is full of uncertainties, and I omit a translation).

C. Groß-Gerau late Ip- early IIp


The tablet was found by chance by M. Hübner in the course of last-minute rescue-
work on a new housing-estate, a site on the edge of the Roman vicus, which was
established at the same time as the castellum, c. 70 CE. The latter was part of the
forward defences of Mainz, pushing out into the Agri Decumates. The date sugge-
sted by the editors on the basis of the letter-forms and a nearly-new as of Vespasi-
an found nearby falls within the period of military occupation (until c. 120-130),
exactly contemporary with the finds in the joint temple in Mainz.29 The archaeo-
logical context, with many fragments of painted plaster, suggests that the prove-
nience was a half-timbered dwelling-house. The AE text, slightly improved over
the reading of the original editors, runs:30
Obverse (Side A):
Deum Maxsime Atthis Tyranne ǀ totumque duodecatheum, commeǀndo deabus iniurium fas ut
me vindicǀ(e)tis a Priscil(l)a Caranti (f.) quae nuberi er(r)aǀ5vit. Pe[r] Matrem Deum vestrae
{ut} ǀ [v]indicate sacra pater[na or-ni?] ǀ P[ri]scil(l)[a] ǀ pere[at]
Reverse (Side B):
Per Matrem Deum intra dies C(?) cito ǀ10vindicate numen vestrum magnum ǀ a Priscilla quae
detegit sacra, Prisǀcillam usqu(a)m nullam numero, nu[p]ǀsit gentem tremente Priscilla ǀ
quam ǀ15er(r)ante.
Translation:
Side A:
Greatest of all gods, Atthis, Lord, and all the Twelve Gods! I lay the wrong done me as a
claim before the goddesses, that you may punish Priscilla, the daughter of Carantus, for me,
who has done wrong in getting married (?). By the Great Mother, may you punish (her be-
trayal of) the ancestral rites (or: sacred objects)! May Priscilla die!
Side B:
By the Mother of the Gods, may your grand divine power punish Priscilla within X days,
quickly, who betrays the sacred rites! I value Priscilla as nothing worth. She has married a
worthless fellow(?), because Priscilla is as weak as she is unsteadfast (?).

Although the readings and (especially) the translation are at several points uncer-
tain, if not indeed wrong, the details do not affect my concerns here, which relate
specifically to the appeal to Attis and the Mater Magna.31 The correct transpositi-

29 Scholz and Kropp 2004, 33.


30 Scholz and Kropp 2004, 34-35 = AE 2004, no. 1006. Scholz 2004, 71 speculates that the
house may have been that of Priscilla herself.
31 My translation differs in several details from those offered by the first editors and AE. Vers-
nel 2010, 301-303 offers several improvements over the first editors’ efforts. He rightly dis-
misses the idea that deum maxsime (A.1) might be Jupiter rather than part of the address to
Attis; and suggests iniuriam in l.3 rather than iniurium (which the editors take with fas to
mean “mein ungerechtes Schicksal”, which to my mind too is quite unwarranted). I think
iniurium could stand, but in the sense of a neuter noun, derived from the common expression
iniurium est. His suggestion of reading fac for fas in the same line, however, forgets that the
addressees are now plural; I take it in apposition to iniurium, in the sense of ‘claim’. Carantus
Mater Magna and Attis in Latin Curses 11

on of δώδεκα θεῶν into duodeca theum (A.2), otherwise known in Classical La-
tin only as the name for a powerful medicinal plant, and the device of the ritual
διαβολή, both indicate an educated writer at home in Greek religious culture.32
The time-frame and the physical proximity to Moguntiacum, as well as the aspira-
tion in Atthis and the appellation tyrannus, all suggest a relatively close depen-
dence on the usages of that centre.33

Fig. 1: Parabiago lanx: detail of Mater Magna and Attis in their car, surrounded by armed Cory-
bantes, evoking the galli (IVp). Photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici per la Lombardia.

2. CULTIC KNOWLEDGE AS SUASIVE RESOURCE

The first question relates to the selection of these particular divinities. Is there an
elective affinity of some sort between Magna Mater and the punishment of those
who can be claimed to have wronged the principal? In general, in the case of
prayers for justice and analogous texts, it is the standing of the deity in the local
pantheon, such as Sulis (Minerva) at Bath or ‘Mercurius’ at Uley, that seems to be

(A.4) is a relatively common cognomen in northern Gaul and the Germanies, e.g. CIL XIII
3301, 7248, 11655 etc.; cf. OPEL s.v. Versnel may be right to see sacra in A.6 and B.3 as the
sacred objects of the sanctuary, thought pater[na or Pater[ni rather urge against the idea. It
seems more likely to me that sacra refers to the private family rites, so we should prefer pa-
ter[na. At any rate they can hardly be the speaker’s secrets, as the first editors thought. In ll.
B.4-7 one despairs of finding much sense. Gentem as ‘worthless fellow’ seems far-fetched,
unless it is somehow routed through expressions such as unde gentium .... The meaning ‘pa-
gan’ in late Latin is routed though the term gens/gentes used for the Jews and barbarians.
32 Knowledge of Greek: Scholz and Kropp 2004, 35-36. Versnel 2010, 303 rightly notes the use
of a ritual diabole, to arouse the gods’ particular wrath. Dodecatheon (hesitantly identified by
W.H.S. Jones as the primrose, for reasons unclear to me): Pliny, N.H. 25, 28; 26, 107; the
plant is otherwise unknown under this name and is not mentioned by e.g. Diosc., Mat. med.
33 Atthis: B1.1 and 6.8; tyrannus: B1.1-2. The aspirated form also occurs in CIL XIII 6664
(Mainz). A second vigorous curse text from Groß-Gerau has also turned up recently: Bläns-
dorf 2007.
12 R. Gordon

decisive.34 In relation to Mater Magna, one might invoke mythic precedent, for
example the version in which Agdistis in frenzy breaks up the marriage-party.35
But this is not the kind of knowledge of the cult that the principals seem to have
been interested in, or that seemed to them an effective communicative resource.
We should rather invoke the very common representation of Mater Magna with a
lion or a pair of lions by her throne; and especially those versions in which her car
is drawn by bounding lions (fig.1).36 A sub-type developed for lamps shows the
goddess alone seated on a leaping lion.37 Once an iconographic item is establis-
hed, its evocation cannot be controlled. Moreover, at least in Mainz, there was
evidently a contrapuntal relationship between public processions, particularly du-
ring the so-called March festival, where the galli and other servants of the goddess
slashed themselves and bespattered the by-standers with their blood, and the wri-
ting of the tablets demanding punishment – the blood forming a metonymic link,
among other things, to the spectacle of public execution.38 Again, the idea of Ma-
ter Magna pursuing the guilty across land and sea, wet and dry (B4.3-4) plausibly
derives from the image, so familiar that in Rome and Ostia it was used for tile-
revetments, of the goddess sailing in her ship to Ostia, accompanied, naturally, by
lions (fig.2).39 Here again it is not the ‘official’ significance of the image we
should insist on, but the possible evocations of it by spectators of and participants
in the processions – the goddess sailing over the sea suggested the thought, ex-
pressed in a double catch-phrase, that her anger could reach everywhere.
Perhaps the most unexpected feature of these texts, however, is the high va-
luation placed on Attis: deum maxsime (C.1), tyranne (B1.1-2, C.1), domine

34 Kropp 2008, 98-101. In ‘normal’ defixiones, however, underworld deities are pre-eminent – a
point which, given the subterranean hot spring, may even apply to Sulis at Bath.
35 Agdestis scatens ira convulsi a se pueri et uxoris ad studium derivati convivantibus cunctis
furorem et insaniam suggerit: Arnob., adv. nat. 5.7 = Hepding 1903, 39. But in this version
Agdistis is explicitly distinguished from Mater deum. In Ovid’s version, Cybele is angered by
the nymph Sagaritis: hinc poenas exigit ira deae: Met. 4.230 = Hepding 1903, 19. On the
theme of madness that destroys the impious, see Sfameni Gasparro 1985, 69.
36 Lucr., Rer. nat. 2.601; 621-23: sedibus in curru biiugos agitare leones..(galli) telaque prae-
portant violenti signa furoris,/ ingratos animos atque impia pectora vulgi / conterrere metu
quae possint numini’ divae. The Parabiago lanx is CCCA 3, p.107-109, no. 268 pl. CVII. A
fine example of the lion-drawn car, though the animals are not leaping but sedately walking,
is the bronze group in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv., no.184012 (= CCCA
3 p.39, no. 205, pls CIII-CV), illustrated for example in Beard, North & Price 1998, 2: 47 fig.
27c; also the well-known altar of L. Cornelius Scipio Orfitus from the Via Appia, now in the
Villa Albani, where the goddess approaches Attis’ pine tree in her lion-drawn car: CCCA 3 p.
101, no. 357 (= CIL VI 505 = 30781 = ILS 4143) .
37 E.g. CCCA 7, p.2, no. 3 pl. III; p.9, no. 29; p37, no. 59; p.39, no. 134.
38 The warm blood provides a key image of decay and death in B4.6, 9-10, 12; cf. B5.6, B6.3.
Execution: B4.14; B5.15-16, 35. In B6.4-5 the fact that the galli are castrated and so not
‘men’, grounds the claim that they are not human, which in turn provides a telling image for
the fate of the target.
39 A terracotta relief with the same theme now in a private collection in Basle probably came
from the shrine near the Alamo: CCCA 3, p. 96, no. 340; other antefixes: ibid. pp. 99-100, nos
350-354.
Mater Magna and Attis in Latin Curses 13

(A.10-11, B3.4). Here again the myths are of no value, nor the repeated imagery
of a youth falling asleep or joyfully re-awakening.40 It is rather to the cultic valua-
tion of Attis that we should look. One aspect of this is the iconographic type of
deified Attis, as represented by the famous statue dedicated by C. Cartilius Euplus
in the campus at Ostia (fig. 3).41

Fig. 2: Enthroned Mater Magna entering Ostia Fig. 3: Head of the Attis dedicated by C. Carti-
by ship, accompanied by lions. Tile-antefix lius Euplus in the campus at Ostia (mid-IIp).
from the campus Matris Magnae at the Porta Photo: Rieger 2004, 141 Abb.108b.
Laurentiana, Ostia. Photo: Rieger 2004, 249
Abb. 211 (b).

Here, through the complex play of iconic references to other deities, Attis appears
as himself a sovereign lord: “Nicht im Bild sondern auf einer Ebene außerhalb der
Figur des Attis tritt die Göttin auf” – in the reference by Euplus to a dream sent by
the goddess.42 Another aspect is the iconographic evidence – stars placed on his
phrygian cap, notably on a plate in the Hildesheim treasure ‒ that already from the
late first century CE Attis was being understood as a cosmic deity, with implicitly

40 Cf. Vermaseren 1966; 1981a; 1986.


41 Found in the south portico, apparently deliberately placed in a cache; now in the Vatican
Museums MGP inv., no. 10785. See Vermaseren 1977 pl. 44 = CCCA 3 p.123, no. 394 =
Vermaseren 1986 (LIMC), no. 312 = Rieger 2004, 282, no. MMA3. The inscription is dedica-
ted numini Attidis ...ex monitu deae (CIL XIV 28).
42 Fine observations by Rieger 2004, 139-41.
14 R. Gordon

universal powers.43 The appellation Deum Maxsime Atthis Tyranne in C exactly


resumes this tendency, and indeed reinforces it by implying, in the appeal to the
totum duodecatheum, that Attis is on a par with these grand, universal divinities of
the Empire.44

Fig. 4: Representation of the sacred pine-tree,


with its decoration; the snake signals both time
and renewal (mid-IIp). From the Attideum of
the campus in Ostia. Mus. Arch. Ost. inv. no.
172. Photo: Rieger 2004, 132 Abb.96.

In other cases, however, it seems to be Attis’ unfathomable or mysterious aspects


that evoked the principals’ interest: the vanishing of his body and its preservation
in the megaron (A.1-3), the cistae in the temple, which seem to be where the ‘bo-
dy’, but also the vires lie (B1.5-6; B5.43-45) – a recently-published inscription
from Alzey indicates that priests of the Mater Magna ‒ Roman citizens, that is ‒
continued to castrate themselves well into the second quarter of the third centu-

43 Sfameni Gasparro 1981, 389 = 2009a, 283-284; Turcan 1996; Alvar 2008, 38. Hildesheimer
Schatz: CCCA III, p.123, no. 394 = Vermaseren 1986 (LIMC), no. 345. The very existence of
the two dishes, which are equal in size, and differ only in the central tondo, implies the equa-
lity of Mater Magna and Attis.
44 Images on which Attis and Mater Magna are represented as equals are not uncommon, e.g.
CCCA 2, p.92-93, nos. 308-309 (both from Piraeus, now in Berlin); 3, p.101, no.357 pls
CCVIII-CCIX; 4 p.11, no. 21 (lamp from Herculaneum); 5, p.53, no.175 (Arepanum, Mace-
donia); Vermaseren 1966, 23 with pl. XII.1 (Venice). For the coin evidence, see Turcan 1983.
Mater Magna and Attis in Latin Curses 15

ry;45 the ritual of the nocturnus or nocturnum, presumably the night-long bewai-
ling of his death (A.12); the drying out and withering of the felled pine-tree,
which was evidently left for a considerable period in the temple (B6.7), and who-
se fantastic decoration was central to the thematic imagery of presence and ab-
sence in the cult (fig. 4).46 The reference to Attis’ Castor and Pollux (B1.4-5) must
likewise refer to some (supposed) feature of the cult; I would suggest that it is an
interpretation of the twin figures that seem to have featured in processions as sup-
porters or attendants of the goddess’ throne, for example on the ba se in the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (where the throne is vacant).47 In this context,
we may also note the re-assertion of the asymmetry between the goddess and her
erstwhile favourite in the phrase benedictus tuus – benedictus being the proper
expression for a beloved person now dead (B4.4); here the mythic 48
allusion is in-
strumentalised as a pathetic device to sharpen the goddess’ anger.
We may note finally the repeated use of quasi-jural formulae based on cultic
knowledge in the attempt to arouse and focus the deities’ attention.49 It seems
highly probable that the basic pattern was provided by the standard testamentary
oath-formula under the Principate, per Iovem et genium Caesaris or variations
upon that style.50 The adjuration obtains its illocutionary effect by setting up sa-
cred or sacralised institutions as quasi-mediatory instances; they are not explicitly
guarantors, but nor are they mere decoration. In contexts such as the quasi-judicial
prayers, their communicative function is even less clear – we might call them as-
severation-tokens. The most unspecific are those that invoke the deity’s self-
respect as a divine power: per maiestatem tuum (B1.15), per numen tuum (B5.2).
Per Matrem Deum (C5-6) in an address to Attis immediately segues into a com-
mand in the plural, as though both deities were now to act together. As we have
seen, per benedictum tuum (B4) alludes indirectly to a mythical background, ho-
wever that was made operative in the cult. The most insistent and unusual of these

45 AE 2007, no. 1047: [M(atri) d(eum) M(agnae) et v]iribus Patrici Cybelici ... (Alzey, 237
CE); the same man acts as a priest in ibid. 990 (Trier); see Boppert 2007 (with reservations).
Note also viribus sacrum on an altar from Rome in the Louvre (CCCA 3, p.85, no. 313 with
pl. CLXXIX). I assume that these human vires were kept, either actually or notionally, in the
cistae, where notionally Attis also lay. With the development of the tauro-/criobolum, these
animal vires presumbly were added.
46 Cf. Arboris excisae truncum portare per urbem: Poet. lat min. (ed. Baehrens) 3 p.292 l.108.
The pine-tree was evidently also employed performatively by individual galli: according to
Statius, Theb. 10.172 (= Hepding 1903, 22) they beat their chests with (some of) the bran-
ches.
47 CCCA 7, p.11-13, no.39 with pls XXVIII-IX. L. Budde and R. Nichols identify the figures as
galli. Once again, it is a question of not ‘facts’ but of how such figures in the processions we-
re perceived.
48 So rightly Blänsdorf 2010, 182.
49 It is unnecessary here to emphasise the illocutionary force of the numerous performatives,
e.g. commendo, depono, do dono; and the (polite) imperatives dependent upon request-verbs:
vindices, vindicate, advenias, recipias ....
50 E.g. AE 1974, no. 274: fateor autem et iuravi per Iovem et numen dei Aug(usti); 1951, no.
217: iuravique per IOM et genium [imp. Vespasiani]; 1937, no. 112: iuravitque per IOM et
numina divorum Augustorum geniumque imp. Caesaris Traiani Hadriani ....
16 R. Gordon

tokens however allude not to myth but to cultic objects or events: per tuum Noc-
turnum (A.12), probably a night-long vigil over the pine-tree; per ... tua sacra
(B5.2), either the sacred objects, or, more generally, the rituals as a whole, are
turned into grounds for the speaker’s appeal, a thought that elsewhere includes
everything, every sacred detail: per omnia te rogo .... per tuum Castorem, Pollu-
cem, per cistas penetrales ....(B1.3-6).
These new texts have of course no special privilege, they do not provide a
new key to the cult of the Mater Magna and Attis as practised in the north-western
and extreme western provinces in the high Principate. But they are of special in-
terest in that they suggest the areas of cultic activity that seemed to lend themsel-
ves to imaginative exploration for the principals’ proximate aims; cultic events
and objects hardly known to our other sources of information that caught the ima-
gination of participants and which they could exploit, not against the divinities
concerned but, as they were determined to ensure, with them.51 The justice they
seek to restore is the implied justice the gods themselves stand for and wish for,
and which is also represented quite clearly – if very remotely – by the public
authorities, with their tortures and executions. As such, these texts offer a most
unusual documentary insight into the lived experience of an ancient ‘oriental’ cult,
and the ways it could be made to make moral sense. An inherent constituent of
that experience was violence, especially the violence done to themselves by the
galli, bellonarii and magali. Although some texts do refer to mala mens, the vio-
lence is scarcely psychologised, it remains at the level of the suffering body. One
might almost say that it is this non-sacrificial ‘good’ blood that is required to start
up the motor of divine vengeance. But then again, what is such an appeal to the
gods? Itself a discourse, where the speaker must make certain kinds of assumpti-
ons about the nature of gods and the proper ways they can be served or be of ser-
vice, and where he needs to claim certain kinds of justification, claims which the
text itself can never validate. The histories we write are necessarily our histories.

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Mater Magna and Attis in Latin Curses 17

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