Spirits of this kind were supposed to haunt the place where their bodies lay. Hence they were regarded as demons, and were frequently entrusted with the carrying out of the strange curses, which have been found in their tombs, or in wells where a man had been drowned, or even in the sea, written on leaden tablets, often from right to left, or in queer characters, so as to be illegible, with another tablet fastened over them by means of a nail, symbolizing the binding effect it was hoped they would have—the "Defixiones," to give them their Latin name, which are very numerous among the inscriptions. So real was the belief in these curses that the elder Pliny says that everyone is afraid of being placed under evil spells;[24] and they are frequently referred to in antiquity.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Tusc. Disp., i. 16.
[2] Ov., Fast., iv. 821; Fowler, Roman Festivals, p. 211.
[3] Macrob., Sat., i. 16.
[4] Cic., De Leg., ii. 22.
[5] "Deum parentem" (Corn. Nep., Fragm., 12).
[6] Cp. Fowler, Rom. Fest.
[7] Rohde, Psyche, p. 216. Cp. Herod., iv. 26.
[8] Tusc. Disp., i. 12, 27.