AMULETS


A circular object made of a translucent red material set in silver. The red center has been carved with a male figure holding a trident.
The front and back of an oblong, horizontally oriented stone of a blackish-blue hue. On the left, a frontal view shows a carved male figure cutting grain; on the right, a reverse view shows a carved line of text, possibly Roman numerals.
Oblong, yellowish-orange stone with a beveled edge. A scorpion is carved into the center.
The front and back of a gold ring inset with a blue circular stone. On the left, the circle is inscribed with a bunch of grapes; the right shows seven lines of Greek text in the shape of a downward pointing triangle.
The front and back of a red, vertically oriented, oval stone. On the left, the stone is inscribed with crocodiles, goats, birds, scarab beetles, and dragons around a snake-like monster. On the right, the stone displays a lion-headed creature with some text symbols.
The front and back of a greenish-brown stone. On the left, the front view shows a lion-headed creature; on the right, the flat beveled back has been inscribed with lines of text.
A glittery square mosaic that shows a large eye surrounded by animals, insects, and weapons. A nude male figure faces away from the eye, playing a pipe. The copper-colored field is bordered by a pattern of dark blue waves.

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Amulets are engraved gemstones or charms that were believed to protect or heal through magic. They were frequently worn on the body—set as jewelry or carried in pouches as loose stones—and were used to prevent everything from bad luck in general to specific kinds of misfortune. In many cases, the image carved into the stone corresponded with an amulet’s power. A stone with an engraving of the sea god Poseidon and his trident, for example, was likely intended to protect sailors from shipwrecks and other harm. Yet the correspondence between an image and its magical function is not always immediately obvious to us today, and amulet iconography was often at a remove from religious signification. This is especially true of healing amulets, which seldom represent Asclepius, Apollo, or other healing deities, and instead harness a different set of magical pictorial conventions. A stone depicting a farmer reaping his field was thought to protect against sciatica, a painful nerve inflammation caused by the physical strain of gathering a crop. An amulet representing a bunch of grapes was believed to heal the throat—the uvula especially—since this fleshy anatomical feature hangs just above the throat like a bunch of dangling grapes. The Greek word appearing on the verso of this amulet, “staphyle,” meaning “bunch of grapes,” is shaped like the fruit itself, and some historians believe the graphic treatment of the lettering might have further expressed a curative wish, such as a desire for reduced swelling.

The type of gem used to create an amulet was part of its magic as well. Yellow-brown stones engraved with scorpions were believed to protect against the poisonous sting of this insect, and the color of this jasper is the same as the color of the most dangerous kind of scorpion in the Mediterranean. The relationship between a specific stone and its magical function can sometimes be known from textual references or from phrases carved onto the stone itself. One of the more common healing amulets from antiquity—a lion-headed serpent called Chnoubis or Chnoumis—was believed to prevent and cure digestive troubles. Although Galen was mostly dismissive of magical healing and called amulets “ridiculous,” in one of his pharmaceutical writings he acknowledged that green jasper stones may be beneficial in treating conditions of the stomach, but noted that there was no need to engrave a lion-headed serpent, as the gem worked just as well uncarved.

A belief in the power of magic and its related iconography was a pervasive part of the Roman world. Representations found on amulets also appear in other visual contexts. In a floor mosaic from the so-called House of the Evil Eye in ancient Antioch (present-day Antakya, Turkey), an illustration of this “cursing look” is attacked by the same weapons and animals that frequently appear on amulets: trident, scorpion, snake, raven, dog, centipede, cat, and others. This mosaic also includes a horned dwarf with an oversized phallus—it is unclear if this potent figure is a good guy or a bad guy—but either way, you’re meant to laugh, as laughter is also a kind of medicine. Unlike a small charm, a mosaic could not be worn, but such installations are nevertheless connected with a bodily performance that surely could make someone feel better: a person entering the House of the Evil Eye was meant to walk and stomp on the bad-luck eye—adding injury to the insults being delivered by the protective, amuletic symbols.