Desire, Gossip, Uncertainty and Magic in Graeco-Roman Antiquity

Abstract

This paper frames what is loosely known as ‘love magic’ in the Graeco-Roman world as a matter of individual strategies in highly-charged contexts involving not merely two (or more) individuals but fundamental social necessities such as family stability, generational reproduction, the proper ordering of social life, and moral sensibilities. It pursues two main issues: the playing out of the gender asymmetry institutionalised in ancient societies in different situations (heterosexual marriage or quasi-marriage; heterosexual pre-marital relationships; contexts in which sexual favours are exchanged for cash or presents) and the centrality of narratives of all kinds – selfexculpations, rumours, reports, accusations, and explicitly fictional scenarios – in positioning individuals in the face of what they perceived as more or less critical situations.