Newton, Charles T. [Hrsg.]; Pullan, Richard P. [Hrsg.]: A history of discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae (Band 2, Teil 2) (London, 1863)

GREEK INSCRIPTIONS. 727

and also in several passages in the Septuagint, and

in oilier authors, means the handing over of a person
into the power of another, as if they were a slave
or a eh ait el sold for a price. Sophocles nses this
word in the same sense, Philcct. 978, Dindori',
wsTrpcLfJuou xcuroXtoTux.

Thus, too, a person devoted to the Infernal
Deities might he said to he sold to them as a
bond-slave during life, and the magical words xa-ra-
f)B(T[xog, xtxTococtt), defixionea, vincula, may be regarded
as analogous modes of expressing the idea of what
may be termed spell-bondage. Hence Hermes
and (ie are called xaroyjoi Beoi; and the same
epithet in a passive sense is applied to those who
are under some special divine influence. (See
Bockh, C. I. No. 5:51), and Heinsius, Comment, in
Ovid. Amor. iii. 7, 29, ed. Fischer, Lips. 1758.)

Viewed in connection with the passages quoted
above, the phrase iraoa Au^iTf,'/. jrerprjpJvog might
he regarded simply as a metaphor adopted, perhaps,
from an euphemistic motive.

It seems, however, more probable that this ex-
pression refers to a particular rite supposed to give
efficacy to the words of the imprecation.

Ancient magic consisted not in words merely,
hut in acts accompanied by a spell or set form of
words, as we learn from the Pharmacentria of
Theocritus (Idyll. 2), where a number of rites are
described, several of which reappear in the magic
of tin' Middle Ages.

The expression -j-^ueV,-- may thus refer to
some ceremony by which the sale of the accursed

cipatua emtusque; A.pnleius, Metam. ix. c. 14, tnero et stupro
corpus manciparat.