Ovid and the Magic Doll: Witchcraft and Defixiones In Amores 3.7

Abstract

This paper explores the depiction of magic in Amores 3.7, an elegy in which "Ovid" suffers from impotence and wonders if a witch is to be blamed for his predicament. Adding to existing metapoetic readings, I argue that the poem combines allusions to famous witches from earlier Greco-Roman literature with detailed evocations of actual rites that are familiar to us from the material record, such as the piercing of magic dolls and the casting of binding and separation spells. These acts were meant to cause the same deathlike sensations that Ovid experiences in Am. 3.7, which means that—even though the poem ultimately calls the efficacy of magic into question—it nevertheless provides a "realistic" portrayal of these spells' imagined effects.