Indo-European Poetry and Myth

Protect us from the enemy, O Mazda ̄ and holy Rightmindedness.

Begone, demon Lie,

begone, demon-sprung one,

begone, demon-created one,

begone, demon-established one;

away, Lie, begone,

away, Lie, depart,

away off, Lie, begone. (Sro ̄sˇ va ̄c 3; cf. Yt. 3. 7–9, 17; Vd. 20. 7)

Note the ordered increase in the length of phrases, from five to seven syllables
in the first anaphoric sequence, and from five to six in the second.
Latin spells are marked by accentual rhythm, alliteration, and rhyme:

Ego tui memini: medere meis pedibus.

Terra pestem teneto, salus hic maneto

in meis pedibus.

Nouom uetus uinum bibo:

nouo ueteri morbo medeor.

Nec huic morbo caput crescat,

aut si creuerit tabescat.^41

The old prayer to Mars recorded by Cato (De agric. 141), though not metrical,
is formally structured, characterized by tricola (e.g. mihi domo familiaeque
nostrae) and paired phrases, often alliterative: uiduertatem uastitudinemque,
fruges frumenta uineta uirgultaque, pastores pecuaque. The same is true of the
Umbrian sacral formulae in the Tabulae Iguvinae, as at VIb. 60 = VIIa. 49,
tursitu tremitu, hondu holtu, ninctu nepitu, sonitu sauitu, preplotatu
preuis`latu.^42
Skírnir’s curses on the giant maiden Gerðr in Skírnismál 25–36 give an idea
of the style of Norse galdrar. Stanza 34 will serve as a sample:

Heyri io ̨ tnar, heyri hrímþursar,

synir Suttunga, siálfir ásliðar,

hvé ec fyrbýð, hvé ec fyrirbanna

manna glaum mani, manna nyt mani.

Hear, giants, hear, frost-ogres,

sons of Suttung, even Æsir folk,

how I forbid, how I forban

man-joy to the maid, man-use to the maid.

(^41) Va r r o , RR 1. 2. 27, LL 6. 21; Marcell. De medicam. 8. 191.
(^42) For extended stylistic analyses of these texts cf. Watkins (1995), 197–225. He translates the
Umbrian phrases quoted above as ‘terrify (and) make tremble, destroy (and) smash(?), fall upon
(and) nullify(?), overcome (and) wound(?), trample (and) fetter’ (223).
328 8. Hymns and Spells