User:Happyracoon/Phanagora (Greek)

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Phanagora was a known Athenian businesswoman who owned and operated a local kapeleion (tavern) in Athens during the late 5th or early 4th century BCE. In a grave pyre cache, archeologists discovered five lead curse tablets, including one which cursed the tavern operated by Phanagora. The epigraph, addressed her with business partner, Demetrios, who may be related to her (i.e. husband, son, or brother) and dates to around 400-375 BCE. The curse inscription begins with an invocation of "chthonic" Hekate, Artemis, and Hermes, followed by a line targeting Phanagora's property and possessions and seeking to ruin her life. Mentioning of the workplace may suggest that this curse tablet was written out of commercial rivalry or based upon distasteful tavern activities. The writer binds Phanagora "in blood and ashes" which could be a reference to the Homeric epic, The Odyssey, and perhaps show a change from oral to written curse tradition because the old Attic and Ionic alphabets are interchanged. The tablet also includes a line that may relate to festival cycles, that usually last 4 years, and suggests the curse won't loosen after that time period. This single binding curse phrase is used in a similar capacity in other tablets found outside the Athenian Long Walls and demonstrates the importance of private cursing in the late 5th century BCE.

The curse tablet cache was excavated in-situ outside the Athenian Long Walls, near classical Xypete; slightly northwest of the harbor port, Piraeus. It was excavated in 2003 by former ΚΣΤ’ Ephorate for Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in rescue excavations and studied by Yale's Department of Classics and American School of Classic Studies at Athens. The assemblage is stored at Piraeus Archeological Museum.