The Curious Case of the Cursed Chicken: A New Binding Ritual from the Athenian Agora

by Jessica L. Lamont

Hesperia, Volume 90, Issue 1
Page(s): 79-113
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.90.1.0079
Year: 2021
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ABSTRACT:

Excavations in the Athenian Agora recovered a ceramic pot buried in the back corner of an industrial and commercial building; the exterior of the vessel was inscribed with over 30 names, many female and several new or previously unattested in Attica. The pot contained the dismembered head and lower limbs of a young chicken. The vessel was pierced with a large iron nail and buried with a coin beneath the floor of the Agora's Classical Commercial Building sometime around 300 B.C. The ritual assemblage belongs to the realm of Athenian binding curses and aimed to “bind” or inhibit the physical and cognitive faculties of the named individuals. This unique discovery offers new evidence for the practice of “magic” in the heart of ancient Athens.