Context

• Witchcraft 


  derived from the old English word - Wiccecraft

  Wicca/Wicce was someone who practiced sorcery
• Pan and Satyrs:


  Greek God Pan had a human upper body but had the lower body of a goat, he was horned and bearded - resembling Satan -. He was the fertility and nature God. Satyrs took a similar form and are often depicted pursuing maenads who served the Goddess.
• Diana/Artemis/Hecate: the moon goddess/ the huntress


  Against societal norms of women having to marry or have children. Identified with the moon, the night and magic. Swore not to marry and is therefore emblematic of feminine power / autonomy. Followers of Diana/Hecate earned the reputation of being witches (seen in Macbeth)
• Witches in Antiquity:

  • Witches and sorcerers were part of Greek and Roman lore and culture
  • Strix - female entities who could transform into owls, killing babies and rendering men impotent
  • tamiae - supposed to rise from the dead and attack humanity
  • Roman - Horace + Virgil described sorceresses as being hideous, sacrificial and wearing ragged clothes
  • Greek - Circe and Calypso. Circe turns Odysseus' men into swine by Odysseus was protected and forced her to change them back. Overtly sexual.
• Biblical Witches:

  • Earliest record of a witch is within the Bible is the Book of Samuel
  • King Saul seeks help from the Witch of Endor to some the dead prophet Samuel to defeat the Philistines
  • Samuel prophesied the death of Saul and his sons which occurred
  • "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live) - Exodus 22:18
• Christian Belief: Lilith


  Adam's first wife according to ancient texts. She refused to be submissive to Adam as she flew off and refused to return. Committed herself to infanticide. Related to an earlier legend of Sumero Babylonian origin (3 500 BCE of a winged female demon who kills infants).
• Christian Beliefs: Eve


  Adam's wife, succumbed to temptation and ate from the tree of knowledge. Responsible for mankind's expulsion from the garden of Eden. Legitimises notions of female weaknesses and moral frailty.
• Miracles and Christianity


  Christianity required belief in the miraculous. Christ was believed to have walked on water, raised lazarus from the dead etc. Christian communion was a miraculous event (transubstantion). Appealed to saints in their lived. Would believe in magic as it was mysterious like miracles
• North Africa and Middle East believed in the existence of evil spirits. Religion and magic was protection from these evil spirits.
• 1300 BCE - first known prosecution of witchcraft took place in Egypt