Episodes

  • The pact with the devil

    The pact with the devil
    Jul 29 2024
    The magical ability most emblematic of the medieval wizard and witch is the evocation of demons, and more precisely, the Devil himself. This association might seem like a product of contemporary imagination, but it's actually a cultural cornerstone of European folklore from the year 1000 onwards.The concept of making deals with the Devil as a shortcut to gain advantages arose during the Middle Ages. This period saw a confluence of ancient superstitions and burgeoning economic and commercial activity, leading to a metaphorical "legalized exchange" between mortals and supernatural beings.While there are certainly older examples of supernatural evocations, as evidenced by the necromancers and psychagogues of Ancient Greece, the legal concept behind the pact with the devil is rooted in the contractual instruments and legal system of the Middle Ages. This system arrogantly permeated all aspects of daily life, including religious and esoteric ones.The idea that a divine or otherworldly being would require a signed document to enforce agreements with humans might seem strange today. However, in the Middle Ages, the concept of contracts, both written and oral, became increasingly important for dealings with demons. This shift in thinking can be seen by some historians as the origin of capitalism.
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    16 mins
  • The Medieval and Modern Witch

    The Medieval and Modern Witch
    Jul 22 2024
    Latin terms strix or striga referred to nocturnal travelers. Ancient authors, like Pliny the Elder, described them as flying spiritual beings that fed on human blood. The word "strix" gives us the modern name for the strigidae family, which includes nocturnal birds of prey like owls and tawny owls. More importantly, it's the root of the word we still use for girls persecuted by treacherous inquisitors, a term associated with a specific era in our collective imagination: the Middle Ages. Ironically, the witches burned at the stake during the Inquisition weren't even medieval.The idea of midwives and healers living on the village outskirts, labeled as devil-cooperating witches and seen as innocent victims of an ignorant society, is actually quite modern. This concept first appeared during the dawn of the Renaissance.The most famous treatise on witchcraft is the Malleus Maleficarum, published in 1487 in Germany by two Dominican friars. Despite its popularity, it was never officially endorsed by the Church.
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    11 mins
  • The magic potion

    The magic potion
    Jul 15 2024
    The enchanting of liquids to create magical potions has been a practice within literary fantasy culture for millennia. In Homer's Odyssey, Circe, the goddess skilled in potions, rituals, and metamorphosis, serves as the specialist in the art of pharmakon, a term encompassing remedies that can be both poisonous and medicinal, just like medicinal plants, drugs, and magical potions themselves. After administering her poisoned concoction to Odysseus' crew, she transforms them all into beasts – all except Odysseus.The hero receives help from Hermes. Hermes grants him the effects of another, beneficial medicine: the moly plant. This plant has a black root and a white flower resembling milk, and only gods could effortlessly pluck it from the ground.Here's a quote from the text: "'Behold,' Hermes said, 'go to the houses of Circe with this beneficial medicine, which the mortal day can remove from your head. I will reveal to you all Circe's deadly wiles. She will make a drink for you, she will throw poisons into the food, but even in this way she will not be able to bewitch you: the beneficial medicine that I will give you will prevent it, and I will reveal everything to you.' (...) 'He handed me the medicine, tearing it from the ground and showed me its nature. Black was the root and the flower similar to milk. The gods call it moly, and it is hard for mortal men to tear it away: but the gods can do anything.'"
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    10 mins
  • The Celtic Druids

    The Celtic Druids
    Jul 8 2024
    The Druids, the high priests of a largely enigmatic religion, occupied the pinnacle of Celtic society. They were considered custodians of ancient wisdom rooted in natural magic. But what do we truly know about them? What traces have they left behind?Historians have identified possible Druidic ritual sacrifices in the necropolises of pre-Roman Gaul, practices long associated with Druidic rituals. Others point to astronomical references, like those found on the Coligny calendar, as evidence of Druidic connection to the stars. However, these remain hypotheses. To date, no archaeological sources directly document the Druids. Our knowledge comes solely from Greek and Roman chronicles of the time, as the Celts themselves left behind no written record.

    Posidonius of Apamea, writing in the 1st century BCE, is among the first to mention the Druids. He describes Gallic society as having three revered classes: the bards, the seers (prophets), and the Druids. Bards were composers of hymns and poems. Seers held religious positions, officiated at sacred ceremonies, and studied nature. Druids, however, were considered the most just. They served as judges in public and private disputes, influenced warfare, and even participated in battles. They preached the immortality of the soul and the universe, prophesying "that a time will come when fire and water will prevail over everything else."

    At the end of this brief description, however, another aspect of the druidic profession is mentioned. This aspect has unleashed the imagination of chroniclers since its first appearance in the sources. Over the centuries, these chroniclers have embellished the story with increasingly macabre and bloody details. I am, of course, referring to the celebration of ritual sacrifices.
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    13 mins
  • Human sacrifices in the Greco-Roman world

    Human sacrifices in the Greco-Roman world
    Jul 1 2024
    The last thing that comes to mind when we think of human sacrifices perpetrated for magical-religious purposes is Rome itself: the cradle of civilization, military art, hydraulic engineering, etc. Maybe it is easier to think of the pre-Columbian aborigines who chopped off heads and then threw them from the stepped pyramids, yet, even in the history of the Italian peninsula there are testimonies of ritual, propitiatory sacrifices to obtain divine favor. Pliny the Elder, a very important Roman author whose work can be considered a true encyclopedia of period knowledge, tells us about it. These are his words:“It was only in the year 657 of the city of Rome, during the consulate of Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus and Publius Licinius Crassus, that a senatusconsultum was held, so that no man would be sacrificed again. It is therefore clear that until then monstrous sacrifices were made.”The year 657 of the city of Rome, mentioned by Pliny, corresponds to 97 BC for us. Because the way of counting the years was different. The Romans in the Republican era measured time starting from the origin of Rome, dated 753 BC. We, instead, start counting after the birth of Christ. Maybe it's a bit confusing, but do not bother so much. I'm do the counting for you.So, according to Pliny, it took 657 years to achieve the abolition of such a bloody practice, a requirement for us today, indispensable in a civil society. But what do we know about these sacrifices that occurred in Ancient Rome?
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    12 mins
  • Necromancy: divination and evocation of the dead

    Necromancy: divination and evocation of the dead
    Jun 24 2024
    The afterlife has always held a strange allure, depicted as a place teeming with "life" despite the absence of the living. We are familiar with the numerous legends from Greek mythology that tell of heroes like Odysseus, Heracles, Theseus, and Orpheus who descended into the Underworld for various reasons. This recurring narrative trope is even given a name: katabasis, meaning "to go down" in ancient Greek. Later figures like Aeneas, the founder of Rome, and even Dante Alighieri went in the place below, all united by a desire to explore the realm of the dead, even if it meant encountering lost souls and dry bones.However, lurking on the fringes of these heroic journeys were figures far more unsettling. These practitioners of a dark and macabre magical art – necromancy – were considered powerful and evil. Necromancy, derived from the Greek words "necros" (dead) and "manteia" (divination), literally translates to "divination by the dead."
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    13 mins
  • The Necromancer Erichto

    The Necromancer Erichto
    Jun 21 2024
    “She lived in abandoned tombs” this is how the description of Erictho, the necromancer of Thessaly, begins. Yet Erichto was alive, a mortal woman, a characteristic that is underlined right from the start to highlight her evil nature. Because there is no divine justification for such cruelty: only evil for its own sake.I warn you that now we are bordering on real horror. A historical horror, taken from authentic ancient sources, which will amaze you with its literary power, and perhaps will send a few shivers down your spine.The time has come to thoroughly investigate mystery religions, sifting through the manuscripts that deal with what will later be called black magic. One of these is De bello Civili, a Latin poem by Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, from the 1st century AD: a source of inspiration for the horror genre of the 20th century and beyond.
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    15 mins
  • The Origins of the Witch

    The Origins of the Witch
    Jun 21 2024
    Who is the whitch?

    Circe, therefore, seems to embody the archetype of the ancestral witch, the source from which everything began. She concocts potions, wields a wand, practices divination and prophecy, and occupies a role that straddles antagonist and helper to the hero, as seen in the later stages of her encounter with Ulysses. Everything aligns perfectly, except for one crucial aspect that defines Circe's magical nature: she's not actually a sorceress, as the common label "Circe the Sorceress" suggests. Circe is a goddess, a divine being within the realm of Greek religion, where magic doesn't exist.

    The term "magic" itself is anachronistic. It didn't exist in Homer's time, the 8th century BC.The concept of magic emerged later, in the 5th century BC, with Herodotus. He described the Persian priests who performed sacrifices, funeral rites, divination, and dream interpretation – the Magi.

    The episode that could be considered the origin story of magic (at least etymologically) occurred during the Persian Wars under Xerxes' rule, more precisely in 480 BC. The Persian magi sacrificed their emperor's white horses to aid the army in crossing the Strymon River.Herodotus, needing to describe this feat by the priests, couldn't categorize it as something mortals could achieve. Perhaps for the first time, the Greeks became aware of powers beyond those of the Olympian gods. The West had encountered magic...
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    15 mins