WHETHER WORDS ARE POSSESSED OF ANY HEALING EFFICACY

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Ex homine remediorum primum maximae quaestionis et semper incertae est, polleantne aliquid verba et incantamenta carminum. quod si verum est, homini acceptum fieri oportere conveniat, sed viritim sapientissimi cuiusque respuit fides, in universum vero omnibus horis credit vita nec sentit. quippe victimas caedi sine precatione non videtur referre aut deos rite consuli. praeterea alia sunt verba inpetritis, alia depulsoriis, alia commendationis, videmusque certis precationibus obsecrasse summos magistratus et, ne quod verborum praetereatur aut praeposterum dicatur, de scripto praeire aliquem rursusque alium custodem dari qui adtendat, alium vero praeponi qui favere linguis iubeat, tibicinem canere, ne quid aliud exaudiatur, utraque memoria insigni, quotiens ipsae dirae obstrepentes nocuerint quotiensve precatio erraverit; sic repente extis adimi capita vel corda aut geminari victima stante. durat inmenso exemplo Deciorum patris filiique, quo se devovere, carmen; extat Tucciae Vestalis incesti deprecatio, qua usa aquam in cribro tulit anno urbis DXVIIII. boario vero in foro Graecum Graecamque defossos aut aliarum gentium, cum quibus tum res esset, etiam nostra aetas vidit. cuius sacri precationem, qua solet praeire XVvirum collegii magister, si quis legat, profecto vim carminum fateatur, omnia ea adprobantibus DCCCXXX annorum eventibus. Vestales nostras hodie credimus nondum egressa urbe mancipia fugitiva retinere in loco precatione, cum, si semel recipiatur ea ratio, et deos preces aliquas exaudire aut ullis moveri verbis, confitendum sit de tota coniectatione.

Prisci quidem nostri perpetuo talia credidere, difficillimumque ex his, etiam fulmina elici, ut suo loco docuimus. L. Piso primo annalium auctor est, Tullum Hostilium regem ex Numae libris eodem, quo illum, sacrificio Iovem caelo devocare conatum, quoniam parum rite quaedam fecisset, fulmine ictum, multi vero magnarum rerum fata et ostenta verbis permutari. cum in Tarpeio fodientes delubro fundamenta caput humanum invenissent, missis ob id ad se legatis Etruriae celeberrimus vates Olenus Calenus, praeclarum id fortunatumque cernens, interrogatione in suam gentem transferre temptavit, scipione determinata prius templi imagine in solo ante se: Hoc ergo dicitis, Romani? hie templum lovis optimi maximi futurum est, hic caput invenimus? constantissima annalium adfirmatione, transiturum fuisse fatum in Etruriam, ni praemoniti a filio vatis legati respondissent: Non plane hic, sed Romae inventum caput dicimus. iterum id accidisse tradunt, cum in fastigium eiusdem delubri praeparatae quadrigae fictiles in fornace crevissent, iterum simili modo retentum augurium.

Haec satis sint, exemplis ut appareat, ostentorum vires et in nostra potestate esse ac, prout quaeque accepta sint, ita valere. in augurum certe disciplina constat neque diras neque ulla auspicia pertinere ad eos, qui quamque rem ingredientes observare se ea negaverint, quo munere divinae indulgentiae maius nullum est. quid? non et legum ipsaruin in duodecim tabulis verba sunt: qui fruges excantass it, et alibi: qui malum carmen incantassit? Verrius Flaccus auctores ponit, quibus credat in obpugnationibus ante omnia solitum a Romanis sacerdotibus evocari deum, cuius in tutela id oppidum esset, promittique illi eundem aut ampliorem apud Romanos cultum. et durat in pontificum disciplina id sacrum, constatque ideo occultatum, in cuius dei tutela Roma esset, ne qui hostium simili modo agerent. defigi quidem diris precationibus nemo non metuit. huc pertinet ovorum, quae exorbuerit quisque, calices coclearumque protinus frangi aut isdem coclearibus perforari. hinc Theocriti apud Graecos, Catulli apud nos. proximeque Vergilii incantamentorum amatoria imitatio. multi figlinarum opera rumpi credunt tali modo, non pauci etiam serpentes, ipsas recanere et hunc unum illis esse intellectum, contrahique Marsorum cantu etiam in nocturna quiete. iam parietes incendiorum deprecationibus conscribuntur. neque est facile dictu, externa verba atque ineffabilia abrogent fidem validius an Latina et inopinata, quae inridicula videri cogit animus semper aliquid inmensum exspectans ac dignum deo movendo, immo vero quod numini imperet. dixit Homerus profluvium sanguinis vulnerato femine Ulixen inhibuisse carmine, Theophrastus ischiadicos sanari, Cato prodidit luxatis membris carmen auxiliare, M. Varro podagris. Caesarem dictatorem post unum ancipitem vehiculi casum ferunt semper, ut primum consedisset, id quod plerosque nunc facere scimus, carmine ter repetito securitatem itinerum aucupari solitum.

Libet hanc partem singulorum quoque conscientia coarguere. cur enim primum anni incipientis diem laetis precationibus invicem faustum ominalmur? cur publicis lustris etiam nomina victimas ducentium prospera legimus? cur effascinationibus adoratione peculiari occurrimus, alii Graecam Nemesin invocantes, cuius ob id Romae simulacrum in Capitolio est, quamvis Latinum nomen non sit? cur ad mentionem defunctorum testamur, memoriam eorum a nobis non sollicitari? cur inpares numeros ad omnia vehementiores credimus, idque in febribus dierumn observatione intellegitur? cur ad primitias pomorum haec vetera esse dicimus, alia nova optamus? cur sternuentes salutamus? quod etiam Tiberium Caesarem, tristissimum, ut constat, hominum, in vehiculo exegisse tradunt, et aliqui nominec quoque consalutare religiosius putant? quin et absentes tinnitu aurium praesentire sermones de se receptum est. Attalus adfirmat, scorpione viso si quis dicat duo, cohiberi nec vibrare ictus. et quoniam scorpio admonuit, in Africa nemo destinat aliquid nisi praefatus Africam, in ceteris vero gentibus deos ante obtestatus, ut velint. nam si mensa adsit, anulum ponere translatitium videmus, quoniam etiam mutas religiones pollere manifestum est. alius saliva post aurem digito relata sollicitudinem animi propitiat. pollices, cum faveamus, premere etiam proverbio iubemur. in adorando dextram ad osculum referimus totumque corpus circumagimus, quod in laevum fecisse Galliae religiosius credunt. fulgetras poppysmis adorare consensus gentium est. incendia inter epulas nominata aquis sub mensam profusis abominamur. recedente aliquo ab epulis simul verri solum aut bibente conviva mensam vel repositorium tolli inauspicatissimum iudicatur. Servi Sulpicii principis viri commentatio est quamobrem mensa linquenda non sit, nondum enim plures quam convivae numerabantur. nam sternumento revocari ferculum mensamve, si non postea gustetur aliquid, inter diras habetur...... aut omnino inane esse? haec instituere illi, qui omnibus negotiis horisque interesse credebant deos et ideo placatos etiam vitiis nostris reliquerunt. quin et repente conticescere convivium adnotatum, set non nisi in pari praesentium numero, isque famae labor est ad quemcumque eorum pertinens. cibus etiam e manu prolapsus reddebatur utique per mensas, vetabantque munditiarum causa deflare, et sunt condita auguria, quid loquenti cogitantive id acciderit, inter execratissima, si pontifici accidat dicis causa epulanti. in mensa utique id reponi adolerique ad Larem piatio est. medicamenta, priusquam adhibeantur, in mensa forte deposita negant prodesse. ungues resecari nundinis Romanis tacenti atque a digito indice multorum persuasione religiosum est, capillum vero contra defluvia ac dolores capitis XVII luna atque XXVIIII. pagana lege in plerisque Italiae praediis cavetur, ne mulieres per itinera ambulantes torqueant fusos aut omnino detectos ferant, quoniam adversetur id omnium spei, praecipue frugum. M. Servilius Nonianus princeps civitatis non pridem in metu lippitudinis, priusquam ipse eam nominaret aliusve ei praediceret, duabus litteris Graecis PA chartam inscriptam circumligatam lino subnectebat collo, Mucianus ter consul eadem observatione viventem muscam in linteolo albo, his remediis carere ipsos lippitudine praedicantes. carmina quidem extant contra grandines contraque morborum genera contraque ambusta, quaedam etiam experta, sed prodendo obstat ingens verecundia in tanta animorum varietate. quapropter de iis ut cuique libitum fuerit opinetur.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

In reference to the remedies derived from man, there arises first of all one question, of the greatest importance and always attended with the same uncertainty, whether words, charms, and incantations, are of any efficacy or not? For if such is the case, it will be only proper to ascribe this efficacy to man himself; though the wisest of our fellow-men, I should remark, taken individually, refuse to place the slightest faith in these opinions. And yet, in our every-day life, we practically show, each passing hour, that we do entertain this belief, though at the moment we are not sensible of it. Thus, for instance, it is a general belief that without a certain form of prayer it would be useless to immolate a victim, and that, with such an informality, the gods would be consulted to little purpose. And then besides, there are different forms of address to the deities, one form for entreating, another form for averting their ire, and another for commendation.

We see too, how that our supreme magistrates use certain formulæ for their prayers: that not a single word may be omitted or pronounced out of its place, it is the duty of one person to precede the dignitary by reading the formula before him from a written ritual, of another, to keep watch upon every word, and of a third to see that silence is not ominously broken; while a musician, in the meantime, is performing on the flute to prevent any other words being heard. Indeed, there are memorable instances recorded in our Annals, of cases where either the sacrifice has been interrupted, and so blemished, by imprecations, or a mistake has been made in the utterance of the prayer; the result being that the lobe of the liver or the heart has disappeared in a moment, or has been doubled, while the victim stood before the altar. There is still in existence a most remarkable testimony, in the formula which the Decii, father and son, pronounced on the occasions when they devoted themselves. There is also preserved the prayer uttered by the Vestal Tuccia, when, upon being accused of incest, she carried water in a sieve—an event which took place in the year of the City 609. Our own age even has seen a man and a woman buried alive in the Ox Market, Greeks by birth, or else natives of some other country with which we were at war at the time. The prayer used upon the occasion of this ceremonial, and which is usually pronounced first by the Master of the College of the Quindecimviri, if read by a person, must assuredly force him to admit the potency of formulæ; when it is recollected that it has been proved to be effectual by the experience of eight hundred and thirty years.

At the present day, too, it is a general belief, that our Vestal virgins have the power, by uttering a certain prayer, to arrest the flight of runaway slaves, and to rivet them to the spot, provided they have not gone beyond the precincts of the City. If then these opinions be once received as truth, and if it be admitted that the gods do listen to certain prayers, or are influenced by set forms of words, we are bound to conclude in the affirmative upon the whole question. Our ancestors, no doubt, always entertained such a belief, and have even assured us, a thing by far the most difficult of all, that it is possible by such means to bring down lightning from heaven, as already mentioned on a more appropriate occasion.

L. Piso informs us, in the first Book of his Annals, that King Tullus Hostilius, while attempting, in accordance with the books of Numa, to summon Jupiter from heaven by means of a sacrifice similar to that employed by him, was struck by lightning in consequence of his omission to follow certain forms with due exactness. Many other authors, too, have attested, that by the power of words a change has been effected in destinies and portents of the greatest importance. While they were digging on the Tarpeian Hill for the foundations of a temple, a human head was found; upon which deputies were sent to Olenus Calenus, the most celebrated diviner of Etruria. He, foreseeing the glory and success which attached to such a presage as this, attempted, by putting a question to them, to transfer the benefit of it to his own nation. First describing, on the ground before him, the outline of the temple with his staff—“Is it so, Romans, as you say?” said he; “here then must be the temple of Jupiter, all good and all powerful; it is here that we have found the head”—and the constant asseveration of the Annals is, that the destiny of the Roman empire would have been assuredly transferred to Etruria, had not the deputies, forewarned by the son of the diviner, made answer—“No, not here exactly, but at Rome, we say, the head was found.”

It is related also that the same was the case when a certain four-horse chariot, made of clay, and intended for the roof of the same temple, had considerably increased while in the furnace; and that on this occasion, in a similar manner, the destinies of Rome were saved. Let these instances suffice then to show, that the virtues of presages lie in our own hands, and that they are valuable in each instance according as they are received. At all events, it is a principle in the doctrine of the augurs, that neither imprecations nor auspices of any kind have any effect upon those who, when entering upon an undertaking, declare that they will pay no attention whatever to them; a greater instance than which, of the indulgent disposition of the gods towards us, cannot be found.

And then besides, in the laws themselves of the Twelve Tables, do we not read the following words—“Whosoever shall have enchanted the harvest,” and in another place, “Whosoever shall have used pernicious incantations”? Verrius Flaccus cites authors whom he deems worthy of credit, to show that on the occasion of a siege, it was the usage, the first thing of all, for the Roman priests to summon forth the tutelary divinity of that particular town, and to promise him the same rites, or even a more extended worship, at Rome; and at the present day even, this ritual still forms part of the discipline of our pontiffs. Hence it is, no doubt, that the name of the tutelary deity of Rome has been so strictly kept concealed, lest any of our enemies should act in a similar manner. There is no one, too, who does not dread being spell-bound by means of evil imprecations; and hence the practice, after eating eggs or snails, of immediately breaking the shells, or piercing them with the spoon. Hence, too, those love-sick imitations of enchantments which we find described by Theocritus among the Greeks, and by Catullus, and more recently, Virgil, among our own writers. Many persons are fully persuaded that articles of pottery may be broken by a similar agency; and not a few are of opinion even that serpents can counteract incantations, and that this is the only kind of intelligence they possess—so much so, in fact, that by the agency of the magic spells of the Marsi, they may be attracted to one spot, even when asleep in the middle of the night. Some people go so far, too, as to write certain words on the walls of houses, deprecatory of accident by fire.

But it is not easy to say whether the outlandish and unpronounceable words that are thus employed, or the Latin expressions that are used at random, and which must appear ridiculous to our judgment, tend the most strongly to stagger our belief—seeing that the human imagination is always conceiving something of the infinite, something deserving of the notice of the divinity, or indeed, to speak more correctly, something that must command his intervention perforce. Homer tells us that Ulysses arrested the flow of blood from a wound in the thigh, by repeating a charm; and Theophrastus says that sciatica may be cured by similar means. Cato has preserved a formula for the cure of sprains, and M. Varro for that of gout. The Dictator Cæsar, they say, having on one occasion accidentally had a fall in his chariot, was always in the habit, immediately upon taking his seat, of thrice repeating a certain formula, with the view of ensuring safety upon the journey; a thing that, to my own knowledge, is done by many persons at the present day.

I would appeal, too, for confirmation on this subject, to the intimate experience of each individual. Why, in fact, upon the first day of the new year, do we accost one another with prayers for good fortune, and, for luck’s sake, wish each other a happy new year? Why, too, upon the occasion of public lustrations, do we select persons with lucky names, to lead the victims? Why, to counteract fascinations, do we Romans observe a peculiar form of adoration, in invoking the Nemesis of the Greeks; whose statue, for this reason, has been placed in the Capitol at Rome, although the goddess herself possesses no Latin name? Why, when we make mention of the dead, do we protest that we have no wish to impeach their good name? Why is it that we entertain the belief that for every purpose odd numbers are the most effectual; —a thing that is particularly observed with reference to the critical days in fevers? Why is it that, when gathering the earliest fruit, apples, or pears, as the case may be, we make a point of saying—“This fruit is old, may other fruit be sent us that is new?” Why is it that we salute a person when he sneezes, an observance which Tiberius Cæsar, they say, the most unsociable of men, as we all know, used to exact, when riding in his chariot even? Some there are, too, who think it a point religiously to be observed to mention the name as well of the person whom they salute.

And then, besides, it is a notion universally received, that absent persons have warning that others are speaking of them by the tingling of the ears. Attalus assures us, that if a person, the moment he sees a scorpion, says “Duo,” the reptile will stop short, and forbear to sting. And now that I am speaking of the scorpion, I recall to mind that in Africa no one ever undertakes any matter without prefacing with the word “Africa;” while in other countries, before an enterprise is commenced, it is the practice to adjure the gods that they will manifest their good will.

In addition to this, it is very clear that there are some religious observances, unaccompanied by speech, which are considered to be productive of certain effects. Thus, when we are at table, for instance, it is the universal practice, we see, to take the ring from off the finger. Another person, again, will take some spittle from his mouth and place it with his finger behind the ear, to propitiate and modify disquietude of mind. When we wish to signify applause, we have a proverb even which tells us we should press the thumbs. When paying adoration, we kiss the right hand, and turn the whole body to the right: while the people of the Gallic provinces, on the contrary, turn to the left, and believe that they show mere devoutness by so doing. To salute summer lightning with clapping of the hands, is the universal practice with all nations. If, when eating, we happen to make mention of a fire that has happened, we avert the inauspicious omen by pouring water beneath the table. To sweep the floor at the moment that a person is rising from table, or to remove the table or tray, as the case may be, while a guest is drinking, is looked upon as a most unfortunate presage. There is a treatise, written by Servius Sulpicius, a man of the highest rank, in which reasons are given why we should never leave the table we are eating at; for in his day it was not yet the practice to reckon more tables than guests at an entertainment. Where a person has sneezed, it is considered highly ominous for the dish or table to be brought back again, and not a taste thereof to be taken, after doing so; the same, too, where a person at table eats nothing at all.

These usages have been established by persons who entertained a belief that the gods are ever present, in all our affairs and at all hours, and who have therefore found the means of appeasing them by our vices even. It has been remarked, too, that there is never a dead silence on a sudden among the guests at table, except when there is an even number present; when this happens, too, it is a sign that the good name and repute of every individual present is in peril. In former times, when food fell from the hand of a guest, it was the custom to return it by placing it on the table, and it was forbidden to blow upon it, for the purpose of cleansing it. Auguries, too, have been derived from the words or thoughts of a person at the moment such an accident befalls him; and it is looked upon as one of the most dreadful of presages, if this should happen to a pontiff, while celebrating the feast of Dis. The proper expiation in such a case is, to have the morsel replaced on table, and then burnt in honour of the Lar. Medicines, it is said, will prove ineffectual, if they happen to have been placed on a table before they are administered. It is religiously believed by many, that it is ominous in a pecuniary point of view, for a person to pare his nails without speaking, on the market days at Rome, or to begin at the forefinger in doing so: it is thought, too, to be a preventive of baldness and of head-ache, to cut the hair on the seventeenth and twenty-ninth days of the moon.

A rural law observed in most of the farms of Italy, forbids women to twirl their distaffs, or even to carry them uncovered, while walking in the public roads; it being a thing so prejudicial to all hopes and anticipations, those of a good harvest in particular. It is not so long ago, that M. Servilius Nonianus, the principal citizen at Rome, being apprehensive of ophthalmia, had a paper, with the two Greek letters P and A written upon it, wrapped in linen and attached to his neck, before he would venture to name the malady, and before any other person had spoken to him about it. Mucianus, too, who was thrice consul, following a similar observance, carried about him a living fly, wrapped in a piece of white linen; and it was strongly asserted, by both of them, that to the use of these expedients they owed their preservation from ophthalmia. There are in existence, also, certain charms against hail-storms, diseases of various kinds, and burns, some of which have been proved, by actual experience, to be effectual; but so great is the diversity of opinion upon them, that I am precluded by a feeling of extreme diffidence from entering into further particulars, and must therefore leave each to form his own conclusions as he may feel inclined.