Medicus invidiae
The Fascina of Poetovio and Their Use
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/keria.24.2.85-110Keywords:
phallus, amulet, evil eye, envy, Roman Age, archaeology, PtujAbstract
Fascinum, the magical phallus, is the most common device for averting the evil eye and envy, and as such it occurs in a variety of forms. This may also be observed in Ptuj (ancient Poetovio), where the fascinum may be encountered in various renditions and combinations – from amulets and jewelry to pictorial representation on practical objects and statues. The phalli on such objects guarded a variety of persons, things, and places: children, horses and vehicles, seals or sealed contents, practical objects, habitations and their inhabitants, workshops and their products, space and community. As personal protection, they take the form of amulets, which could be pendants in their own right, figures within an object, or parts of a cluster (crepundia). Of the materials used for their production, Ptuj has so far yielded those which were certainly (gold, amber) or probably (faience) credited with special powers. Judging by the grave contexts, they were worn in Poetovio primarily by children. The rest of the many-shaped Ptuj amulets, which may be associated with the protection of a horse, a cart, or a space, are made of bronze. The phallus is also used to decorate two bronze objects intended for practical use: in those cases it represents an additional precaution. The stone monuments with a phallus represent the syncretism of Terminus and Priapus. While the herm and the two reliefs differ in style, the phallus depicted always represents vital energy and fertility, as well as a protective force guarding a certain boundary or area and driving away all forms of malevolence, including envious people. The ceramic statuette belongs among the images which protected through their grotesque and phallic qualities those estates and crafts which were particularly vulnerable. The broken-off ceramic phallus may have belonged to a similar statuette: both objects were found on the site of a pottery workshop. The bowl with a phallus has so far defied a definite interpretation, but there, too, the phallus seems to be at least partly apotropaic.
The origins of the objects are as varied as the objects themselves. While some of them must have been crafted by local craftsmen, there are also noticeably exotic products hailing from Italy and Aquileia (amber amulets, a winged pendant), from the eastern Mediterranean (faience), or from the western provinces (a seal box). They may be dated between the 1st and 3rd centuries. More narrowly delimited are the amulets in clusters, which are typical of the 1st or early 2nd centuries; the same applies to the pendants from horse gear and the winged tintinnabulum.
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