Chapter Eight. Prayers For Justice, East And West: New Finds And Publications Since 1990

Abstract

In a number of papers published in the 1980s and early-1990s, the author argues for a distinction between (or within) the general category of Greek and Latin defixiones, on the one hand, and a more specific group of curses on the other. He has proposed a variety of names for this group: 'judicial prayers', 'prayers for justice', 'prayers for revenge'. The benefits of comparing Latin texts with Greek analogies is still more obvious in the case of a supposed defixio from Wales that had repeatedly been studied without producing a convincing interpretation. The proper location of the prayer for justice is a sanctuary where the cult of a great god is regularly and legitimately performed. The phrasing of the Acrocorinth texts, just quoted, leads us to a last reservation with respect to an all too rash use of the notion 'borderline-curse'.Keywords: Acrocorinth texts; Greek analogies; judicial prayers; Latin defixiones

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