Magic and Witchcraft: The Ancient History. History Essay

Magic and Witchcraft: The Ancient History
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During the pre-Christian period, religion and supernatural causes have massive influence over people's lives and philosophies. The majority of the people, particularly the Romans and the Greeks, praised and believed many entities and are considered as polytheistic. "Supernatural" of today's time was considered as ordinary, and that magic was branded as either supernatural or conjuring (Irby, 2016). One of the most influential philanthropists and prose writers of the pre-Christian period, Lucius Apuleius, has left his literary works in awe of the practice of magic and witchcraft. This paper analyzes Apuleius' literary piece, entitled, "Golden Ass," on his standpoint on the role of sexually desirable and libidinous women on magic and witchcraft during the Ancient Greek and Roman period and its association with the real history of magic, sexuality, and science and religion.
Human sexuality and sexual desires are some of the hot topics in the twentieth century despite having minimal importance during the nineteenth century. Aristophanes rationalized a fable that the original human has eight limbs with two sets of faces and genitals, and three sexes, namely, the female, male, and androgyne. Because of the ambitiousness of humans, Zeus decided to punish them by separating these three identities. Zeus opted to cut their bodies into halves and gave each half a set of genitals. The only way to reunite the original body is to bind one another through marriage, but more importantly, through sex. These severed halves shall find each other in a frantic effort to return to their previous selves (Halperin, 1986).
Moreover, the individual half may perish in the world if this half cannot find its other half on time. In pity of this tragic event, Zeus decided to move their genitals to one side of their bodies, one for male and one for female genital, to end the despair of these bereaved creatures. Furthermore, Zeus stated that this is the proper judgment so that each half may devote its time and effort to other, more significant affairs (Halperin, 1986).
From here, Aristhopanes obtains the knowledge on the probable genetic explanation of the differences between sexes and their typical preference. Males who are enchanted by women stemmed from the androgyne sex, and the adulterers originated from this species. Aristophanes' explanation was followed by the majority of the literary pieces during the ancient Greek and Roman period (Halperin, 1986). One of the stories that purposively emphasized this philosophy is Metamorphoses, also known as the Golden Ass.
Apuleius (1932) highly differentiated the roles between men and women, especially their duties concerning magical crafts. Women are considered as powerful and formidable creatures who have control over men's sexual desires and sexuality. Apuleius characterized men as weak, humble, harmless, and immaculate beings, in contrast to the current view on men in society. This makes them susceptible to the malevolent women's spell casters, whose main purpose is to enchant men to cause them grief and nuisance, which are only mild cases of ill-enchantment. Sometimes, these wicked women go as far as killing men gradually by imposing physical torment, disfigurement, and mental anguish through enchantments.
In Apuleius' stories, it is observed that all occasions of witchcraft are committed by charismatic and sexually-alluring women (Apuleius, 1932). The novel implied that men believed in the inexplicable powers vested on women, whether or not this is just men's perception or the truth. In an effort to demonize women in his novel, Apuleius starts his novel with common phrases that entail the danger that lies behind a woman's beautiful face. The supremacy of sex and its impelling effects over the characters in the Golden Ass are discernible throughout the novel. However, the criteria required (or perceived) for women to engage in sexual activities and witchcraft are less specific in the novel.
The story starts with Lucius, who insisted on hearing Aristomenes' seemingly unbelievable story. Aristomenes, a friend of Socrates, followed him on his journey and discovered that the latter had committed an unfaithful relationship with his concubine named Meroe. Before meeting with Meroe, Socrates explained to Aristomenes not to express doubt or dismay to Meroe since she is a powerful witch who can cast dangerous, black magic. Meroe intended to kill Socrates while the two men were about to sleep. The witch did not want Aristomenes dead since he needed to bury his friend's body. Upon realizing what might happen, Aristomenes doubted the situation and thought that he was caged inside a dream. Upon asking Socrates, he answered that he had the same strange dream. However, Socrates started to become pale and suddenly collapsed and died. This left Aristomenes ran away, both from fear and disbelief. Lucius, who was seriously listening to Aristomenes' story, trusted him and did not show any judgment or vindication. This instance made Apuleius states that (in an attempt to strengthen the character of Meroe),
"beavers escape their pursuers by biting off their balls the idea being that something like that would happen to him (Apuleius, 1932)."
This scene identifies the cruelest vengeance to a man, the loss of his manhood, and the end of his bloodline by cutting through his virility. Book One of the Golden Ass portrayed Meroe as a terrifying creature capable of massive destruction through manipulation of the will of any "unlucky" man who wishes to be unfaithful to their beloved behalf. Meroe was capable of execution without pity and turning herself to be the performer of evil witchcraft and act as a goddess of her own who can pass judgment over a man's wrongful desires. This is only the first instance where Apuleius described the heinous crimes that a woman can do.
In Book 2, Lucius, who was traveling to Thessaly, the capital of magical arts, attended a celebration in anticipation of the Laughter Festival. Here, he encountered a young man who told his story on necromancy (magic concerning the dead) to the visitors at the dinner party. The storyteller named Thelyphron told the crowd that because of his desire for money, he accepted a job that forced him to guard corpses. While guarding the corpse of a man who was allegedly "poisoned" by his wife, Thelyphron was induced into a deep sleep state where everything seems to become unreal. The speculations were proven by a man who interrupted the party and said that a prophet named Zatchlas could resurrect the dead over a good barter. Once the corpse in Thelyphron's story has been resurrected, the man proved tha...