L'antiquité classique

ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ. Aphrodite's magical name

Maryse Waegeman

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Waegeman Maryse. ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ. Aphrodite's magical name. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 61, 1992. pp. 237-242;

doi : 10.3406/antiq.1992.1145

http://www.persee.fr/doc/antiq_0770-2817_1992_num_61_1_1145

Document généré le 16/03/2016

 ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ. APHRODITE'S MAGICAL NAME

The secrets of magical language are very tough to unveil. Indeed, the
interpretation of magical words and formulae on amulets and in magical
papyri is the more difficult since magical language was not supposed to
be understood. Communication with higher powers through formulae
unintelligible to the common people was supposed to be more effective
than ordinary prayer. This is the "gnostic" part in magic : the magician
has first to acquire a certain knowledge of the magical language before
he can operate properly ; afterwards he keeps his secret knowledge very
carefully, so carefully that modern scholarship still has not succeeded in
the interpretation of hundreds of magical inscriptions which came down
to us from antiquity l. Nevertheless every magical formula must have a
sense, or at least originally it had a significance before it was altered and
used in a cryptic way by people who employed it purely formally and/
or ritually without knowing the exact meaning.
Secret names of gods form an important part of these cryptic inscriptions.
One of these is ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ, interpreted by Bonner as a secret name
for Aphrodite 2. Bonner however does not go further into the problem
of the significance of the word.
The word ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ appears mostly on amulets showing an
iconographical type which Delatte and Derchain call "Aphrodite se lissant
les cheveux" 3, while Bonner speaks of "Aphrodite nude and drying her
hair" 4. We rather should name this «Aphrodite binding her hair". Evidence
for this is found in the Cyranides, a compilation work on the medico-
magical properties of plants, birds, fishes, quadrupeds and stones, to be

1 C. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets chiefly Graeco- Egyptian, Ann Arbor -

London - Oxford, 1950 {University of Michigan Studies, Humanistic Series, 49),
deals with these magical words and formulae in his chapter 14, "Inscriptions II
— Cryptic", pp. 186-207. A complete dictionary of all these cryptic expressions
is still wanting and might be very useful for further research.
2 Bonner (above, note 1), p. 196. Cf. A. Delatte, Études sur la magie grecque,
in Le Musée Belge, 18 (1914), pp. 44-45.
3 A. Delatte - Ph. Derchain, Les intailles magiques gréco-égyptiennes, Paris,
1964, pp. 183-189.
4 C. Bonner (above, note 1), pp. 196 and 262 (D55).
238 M. WAEGEMAN

dated not earlier than the fourth century of our era. Here we find the
description of three gemstones which answer exactly the archaeological
material. The translation of Cyranides I, 5, 27-28 runs as follows : "in the
euanthes stone, the all golden, Aphrodite is engraved binding up her hair
and the locks onTier head" 5. The euanthes stone, which the Cyranides
call a "bloomed stone" is attested in no other text, but in my view it has
to be a kind of lapis lazuli. I will return to this question later on. The
two other stones are part of the saltire of Aphrodite. They are described
as "two stainless sapphires with Aphrodite binding up her hair and Eros
standing at her side" 6. If there still could be any doubt on this matter
the descriptions of the Cyranides give a formal prove that the figure
represented on the intaglios definitely is Aphrodite.
The Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris owes
a certain number of these amulets, all pictured and described by Delatte
and Derchain. There are five gemstones bearing the inscription ΑΡΩΡΙ-
ΦΡΑΣΙΣ or ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙ as listed below :
— Delatte-Derchain 242 = Froehner 2954
sandstone veined with blue 41X37
inscription on the verso-side, very corrupted : αρω/ ριφρασι ι τον θορο/
θου.,.ση θιυισ/προ...τνυβυχεουρω/ ... εινε πειω θενεπ . . . σερθ . . .
(quoted according to Delatte-Derchain)
— Delatte-Derchain 243 = N3498
blue chalcedon 17X12,5
inscription on the verso-side : αρωρι/φρασι
— Delatte-Derchain 244 = Fr 2859
haematite 20X10
inscription on the verso-side : αρωρι/φρασι
— Delatte-Derchain 244 = Fr 2859
haematite 20X10
inscription on the vero-side : αρωρι/ φρασι
— Delatte-Derchain 245 = F 8274
lapis lazuli 12X8
inscription on the recto-side around the figure of Aphrodite : αρωρ
ιφρασ ι ...

5 The Cyranides are edited by D. Kaimakis, Die Kyraniden, Meisenheim am

Glan, 1976 {Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie, 76).
6 Cyranides I, 10, 78-79.
 ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ. APHRODITE'S MAGICAL NAME 239

Bonner published an amulet of his own collection :

— Bonner 41 (formerly Wyndham Cook), D55
lapis lazuli 14X12X3
inscription on the verso-side : αρρωριφρασις
These are only a few examples. Further research could certainly bring
to the light more similar amulets.
A superficial comparative study of the external characteristics of these
intaglios reveals already some important clues. It is quite significant that
in five of the six examples listed above a blue or bluish stone has been
used, lapis lazuli appearing to be the most common one. Indeed, lapis
lazuli designated in Greek by the word σάπφειρος 7, is a stone dedicated
to Aphrodite as is said in the Cyranides and also by Pseudo-Callisthenes 8.
Another interesting point is that the inscription ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙ(Σ) is often
split up into two parts, ΑΡΩΡΙ and ΦΡΑΣΙ(Σ). Of course this splitting
up has a lot to do with the shape of the amulets, which is always oval,
and the artistic composition of the whole. But we should also ask the
question whether it is not related to the significance of the name itself.
The final Σ in ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ, which is attested clearly in only one
example, can be considered as a secondary suffix giving the name a more
Greek appearance.
To understand the significance of the magical name it is also very
important to find out where the Aphrodite amulets were used for. Here
literary attestations show themselves most valuable.
Cyranides I, 5, 27-31 gives the following information : "In the euanthes
stone, the all golden, Aphrodite is engraved ... Wear it after setting. And
you will be loved by everybody and you will be well-known and seem
sweet-voiced not only to human beings but also to gods and demons. Every
wild animal will flee you." Without going further into details 9 it is clear

7 Cf. Cyranides I, 18, 8-11. R. Halleux- J. Schamp, Les lapidaires grecques.

Lapidaire orphique, Kérygme lapidaire d'Orphée, Socrate et Denys, lapidaire
nautique, Damigéron-Evax, Paris, 1985, p. 250, n. 1, refer to Theophrastus, Lap.,
42-50; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 38, 119-120; Dion. Per. 1105 Schol. Dion. Per., 714,
p. 453, 3 Müller ; Isidor., Orig., 16, 9, 2 for similar descriptions. G. Hoeschler,
Das Buch Hiob, Tübingen, 1952, p. 71 likewise remarks that the stone saphir or
sappheiros in Job, 28, 6 is to be identified with lapis lazuli, since the real sapphire
was practically unknown before the Roman period. See also J. M. Riddle,
Marbode of Rennes' (1035-1123) de lapidibus, Wiesbaden, 1977 {Sudhoffs Archiv.
Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Beiheft 20), p. 41.
8 Cyranides I, 18, 8 ; Ps.-Callisthenes, Alex., I, 4 (ed. Lauenstein, p. 12,
25; p. 14, 11-12).
9 The description of this amulet has been discussed in M. Waegeman, Amulet
and Alphabet. Magical Amulets in the First Book of Cyranides, Amsterdam, 1987,
pp. 40^6.
240 M. WAEGEMAN

at first sight that the amulet is meant as a love spell working on gods
and demons as well as on human beings, being at the same time a protection
against wild animals. The image of Aphrodite as the πότνια θηρών is very
old 10. A cosmic concern is certainly involved.
Cyr anides I, 10, 39^42 attests another use of the Aphrodite amulets :
"If someone bears the right eye (of the iynx, the wryneck) under a stainless
sapphire in which Aphrodite is engraved, the bearer will be charming, he
will be famous (or listened to) amongst people and he will gain every law
suit" ».
First, something should be said about the iynx, the wryneck. This bird
was frequently used in love magic : it was bound on a four-spoked wheel
and spun round to bring back a stayed lover. The word iynx thuswise
came early to mean the magic wheel itself and even got the metaphorical
sense of "love", "seduction" and "desire". The relationship of the bird and
the wheel with the love goddess Aphrodite is thus obvious 12.
That an Aphrodite amulet would make a person charming, give him
charts, is quite evident. That it would help him in court needs some more
explanation.
Χάρις, charm, always goes with πείθω, persuasiveness 13. Therefore the
wearer of the amulet will be ¿ξακουστός, which means that he will be
famous, but also that he will be heard, understood and convincing. The
sexual connotation is left behind in this text : persuasiveness will assist
the amulet wearer especially in court.

10 Homer, Hymn 6, 65 sqq.

1 ' Analysis of this amulet in M. Waegeman (above, note 9), pp. 78-87.
12 On the iynx and its magical function see A. S. W. Gow, ΙΥΝΞ, ΡΟΜΒΟΣ,
rhumbos, turbo, in JHS 54 (1934), pp. 1-13 ; d'Arcy Thompson, A Glossary of
Greek Birds, London, 1936, pp. 124-128 with references to ancient authors and
illustrations ; O. Keller, Die antike Tierwelt, II (Leipzig, 1913 ; Hildesheim, 1963),
pp. 52-54 ; Ε. Tavenner, Iunx and Rhombus, in TAPhA, 64 (1933), pp. 109-127 ;
M. Détienne, Les Jardins d'Adonis, Paris, 1972, pp. 160-172 ; S. S. Ingallina,
Orazio e la magia, Palermo, 1974, pp. 158-165 ; A. M. Tupet, La magie dans la
poésie latine, Paris, 1976, pp. 50-52 ; J. Pollard, Birds in Greek Life and Myth,
London, 1977, pp. 130-131 ; Sarah I. Johnston, Birds, Wheels and Daemons.
Elucidating the Varied Portrayal of the lynx, Summary in AAPhA, 1987, p. 72.
A. B. Cook, Zeus, I (Cambridge, 1914), pp. 197-198 and 253-254, thinks that the
wheel behind the wryneck might represent the solar disk, the iynx thuswise being
a sun emblem.
13 lynx is sometimes personified as a magician, daughter of Peitho! About the
connection between iynx, peitho and charis see M. Détienne (above, note 12),
pp. 162-172. E. Simon, Aphrodite Pandemos auf attischen Münzen, in
Numismatische Rundschau, 49 (1970), pp. 5-24, in her analysis of an Athenian
tetradrachm of the sixth century B.C. representing Athena on the obverse and
a female head bifrons on the other, pointed out that this might be Aphrodite
Pandemos and Peitho honoured together.
 ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙΣ. APHRODITE'S MAGICAL NAME 241

Philostratus' description of the court-room in Babylon is very significant

in this matter. The translation of his Vita Apollonii 25 runs as follows :
"But they say that they also visited a man's appartment of which the roof
had been carried up in the form of a dome, to resemble in a manner
the heavens and that it was roofed with lapis lazuli, a stone that is very
blue and like heaven to the eye ; and there were images of the gods, which
they worship, fixed aloft, and looking like golden figures shining out of
the ether. And it is there that the king gives judgement, and golden wrynecks
are hung from the ceiling, four in number, to remind him of Adrastea,
the goddess of justice and to engage him not to exalt himself above
humanity. These figures the Magi themselves say they arranged ; for they
have access to the palace, and they call them the tongues of the gods."
Cook 14 compared this passage of Philostratus with a stone tablet found
in Abû-Habbah, the site of the old Babylonien city Sippar. The tablet
currently preserved in the British Museum is sculptured with a scene
representing the worship of the Sun-god in the temple of Sippar. Cook
notes the following analogies with the Babylonian court-room described
by Philostratus : the throne-room has a ceiling vaulted like the sky, there
is lapis lazuli and gold, and above all there is the solar disk suspended
by cords and the emblems of the sun, the moon and the planet Venus ;
furthermore the cardinal points are represented by four small golden disks
upon which the Celestial Ocean rests. These are of course analogous with
the four iynges mentioned by Philostratus. Cook however does not enter
into the differences between Philostratus' description and the Babylonian
stone-tablet. It is remarkable that nothing in the tablet seems to refer to
Adrastea or judicature, while Philostratus on the other hand does not
mention the planet Venus which occupies an important place in the stone-
tablet, above the Sun-god's head.
Babylonian astrology assigned the several planets to different divinities.
In this system the planet Venus is Ishtar, the Assyro-Babylonian fertility
and love goddess, later identified with the Greek Aphrodite. So the gap
between Philostratus and the Babylonian stone-tablet is bridged by the
Aphrodite amulet described in the Cyranides : here Aphrodite replaces
Adrastea as an aid in the court-room 15.
It goes without saying that this Aphrodite, pictured on the blue lapis
lazuli and the Venus under the lapis lazuli ceiling is also the Greek Aphrodite

14 A. B. Cook (above, note 12), pp. 259-265.

15 This function of Aphrodite can be compared with her function as a guardian
of magistrates attested in mainland Greece as well as in Asia Minor. Cf. V. Pirenne-
Delforge, Epithètes cultuelles et interprétation philosophique apropos d'Aphrodite
Ourania et Pandemos à Athènes, in AC, 57 (1988), pp. 152-153.
242 M. WAEGEMAN

Ourania, the Heavenly Aphrodite whose worship prevailed among the

Semites of Babylonia, Syria, Assyria and Phoenicia. This, I think, must
help us to explain the magical name ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙ(Σ) of the goddess on
the blue stones. The blue stone of the amulets, like the lapis lazuli ceiling
mentioned by Philostratus and represented on the Babylonian tablet is
obviously the sky, heaven. The name of the stone, in Greek σάπφειρος,
is the Hebrew saphir, which can be transliterated in Greek by ΣΑΦΙΡ.
Could it be a coincidence then that the second part of Aphrodite's magical
name, ΦΡΑΣΙ, is nothing else but an anagram of ΣΑΦΙΡ? We must indeed
bear in mind that the use of Hebrew for Aphrodite's magical name can
indeed be explained by her origins. Pausanias tells us explicitly that "the
first men to establish the cult of the Heavenly Aphrodite were the Assyrians,
after the Assyrians the Paphians of Cyprus and the Phoenicians who live
in Ascalon in Palestine ; the Phoenicians taught her worship to the people
of Cythera" 16, while Herodutus attests that the temple of the Heavenly
Aphrodite in Ascalon "is the oldest of all the temples of the goddess, for
the temple in Cyprus was founded from it as the Cyprians themselves say ;
and the temple on Cythera was founded by the Phoenicians from this
same land of Syria" 17.
ΣΑΦΙΡ being a symbol of heaven and the celestial character of Aphrodite
Ourania it is not surprising to find it back in Aphrodite's magical name
ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙ(Σ).
The first part of her name ΑΡΩΡΙ might then refer to the other aspect
of Aphrodite's twofold character where sexuality and fertility are more
emphasized. I would therefore like to relate ΑΡΩΡΙ to the verb άρόω, "to
plough, to sow, to beget" and "Αρουρα, the poetical name for the fertile
woman 18.
If this interpretation is valuable, the magical name of Aphrodite,
ΑΡΩΡΙΦΡΑΣΙ(Σ), would express perfectly the goddess's duality by calling
her goddess of fertility and goddess of heaven in one name, thuswise
combining for the amulet wearer and magician all the powers of the celestial
Aphrodite Ourania and the popular Aphrodite Pandemos 19.

Chancellor College, Maryse Waegeman.

University of Malawi.

16 Pausanias, I, 14, 7.
17 Herodotus, I, 105.
18 Cf. P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire
des mots, Paris, 1968-1980, p. 113.
19 On the multiplicity of Aphrodite's powers see Pirenne-Delforge (above,
note 15), pp. 142-157.