This curse tablet, like many curses found in Athens, was intended to secure a favourable outcome in an impending court case. Curiously, in this instance some of the names of the cooks are known from elsewhere: two of them were mentioned by poets of New Comedy.
The translation is adapted from J.G. Gager, "Curse Tablets and
Binding Spells from the Ancient World" (Oxford, 1992), no. 44. Another translation has recently been published by J.L. Lamont, "In Blood and Ashes: Curse Tablets and Binding Spells in Ancient Greece", pp.4-6 ( academia.edu ).
Theagenes the cook, I bind the tongue and soul and speech that he is practising. Pyrrhias, I bind the hands and feet and tongue and soul and speech that he is practising. I bind the wife of Pyrrhias, her tongue and soul. Also Kerkion the cook, I bind and Dokimos the cook, the tongue and soul and speech that they are practising. I bind Kineas, his tongue and soul and speech that he is practising with Theagenes. And Pherekles, I bind the tongue and soul and evidence that he gives for Theagenes. Seuthes, I bind the tongue and soul and speech that he is practising and his feet and hands and eyes and mouth. Lamprias, I bind the tongue and soul and speech that he is practising, and his hands and feet and eyes and mouth. All of these I bind, I hide, I bury, I nail down. If they lay any counterclaim before the arbitrator or the court let them seem to be of no account, either in word or in deed.
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