Bonner, SMA – PDF, 95.

This heading is used more for convenience than because it is required for logical arrangement. Under it are assembled a number of amulets intended to protect against evil influences that affect the mind rather than the body, and also against vague, undefined dangers that are beyond the control of medicine, and yet cause wasting, incapacity, or death.

First, we may notice evidence that some superstitious people, aware of the distracting, nerve-racking effect of fear, sought to ward it off along with the sinister beings that caused it.

IG, XIV, 2413, 8, from Lovatti's report, Bull. dell'Inst., 1862, p. 51. An oblong black stone, with an obverse design, enclosed by an ouroboros, of Anubis, with dog's head, holding a kerykeion in his right hand. Below, a coffin containing a mummy, above which are the letters αμεν, which have not been explained. Eovatti thought they referred to Amenthes (Amentet), the Egyptian Hades. On the reverse are three lines of magical characters; on the edge, πρὸς δέμονα κὲ φόβους (read δαίμονα καί, though δαίμονας may have been intended). This inscription may have been an afterthought, for Anubis often appears on amulets whose purpose seems to have been merely to protect in a general way. The situation is similar in IG, XIV, 2413, 11, a carnelian seen in private possession by Mommsen and described by him. On the obverse it has a lion with star and crescent, on the reverse Harpocrates and the inscription Γλαυκος νεβειαψοβειτωμε. Kaibel plausibly suggests that the latter part should be read μηθὲν φοβείτω με, and shows how a combination of bad cutting and misreading resulted in the reported text. Glaukos was doubtless the owner. Here again the types used have no relation to the petition.

Du Molinet published a stone, then in the library of Sainte Geneviève, which bears no design, but is inscribed on both sides with the prayer Ιαω ΑβρασαςsΑδωναι, ἅγιον ὄνομα, δεξιαὶ δυνάμις (l. δυνάμεις), φυλάξατε Ουξβιαν Παυλείναν άπὸ παντὸς κακοῦ δαίμονος.¹ The impossible Ουξβιαν is probaby a misreading of Οὐεβίαν, i.e. Οὐιβίαν. δεξιαὶ δυνάμεις, “favorable powers,” is noteworthy.

Here belongs also a gem amulet of veined sardonyx published by Lazari.² Inscriptions cover both sides. On the obverse there are, first, three lines of letters which are not even grouped in such a manner as to be pronounceable,

¹ Le Cabinet de la bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève, p. 127, Pl. 29, 7–8. The reading was amended by Spon, who may have been more successful than Du Molinet in making out the damaged fourth line, or may have been guided by a similar formula that he saw elsewhere. See Montfaucon, II, 2, 368.

² V. Lazari, Notizie delle opere d'arte... della Raccolta Correr (Venezia, 1859), p. 128, No. 578.

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