Kolossus: The Making of Greek Poppets

In ancient Greece, poppets were typically made for defensive purposes. Their use was aimed at containing hostile forces or binding protective forces, warding off an invading enemy, or protecting one's home and family.

The ancient Greek practice of constructing and using ritual effigies (poppets, voodoo dolls) dates from the fourth century BCE. Called Kolossos (kaw-lawss-SAUCE), these poppets were typically made for defensive purposes. Their use was aimed at containing hostile forces, as opposed to destroying them, or binding protective forces, warding off invading enemies, or  protecting one's home and family.

Kolossoi (kaw-lawss-SOY) have two general purposes: binding and restraining. Today when we talk about binding spells we typically think of binding a person. The Greeks, on the other hand, used their poppets to bind certain deities for reasons of public and private defense. For example, dangerous deities such as Ares, the God of war, could be bound to prevent war or death or the battlefield. Protective deities could be bound to keep them from leaving. Sometimes, the reason for binding deities had a dual purpose:  to keep them from leaving as well as to secure their protection from enemies.

The second function of Kolossoi was that of restraining ghosts and other hostile energies referred to as Hikesioi Apaktoi.  Often a binding ceremony would follow a funeral in order to restrain the ghost of those passing to ensure proper protocol was in place to guide them to the Land of the Dead. Kolossoi may also be used to bind and restrain mortal enemies. For example, one fashioned a Kolossoi to restrain an Eidôlon or Phasma (ghost) that was sent by a Goês (Sorcerer). If the antagonist was unknown, then a pair of Kolossoi, a male and a female, were used. If the enemy is an army or a family, then three Kolossoi were used.

Kolossoi were regularly used to protect boundaries. Hence, they would be buried at a wall or fence line to protect a building or a home. Certain Kolossoi were rebound regularly to protect whole cities and states. For example, Ares was unbound "once a year during a period of general license analogous to the Saturnalia" (Sophistes, 1996), then rebound for thirteen months in a cauldron (as indicated in Book 5 of the Iliad).

Finally, a Kolossus could be constructed and consecrated in response to a particular crisis. It was bound and buried once, and if successful, was offered yearly sacrifice.

Types of Kolossoi

Erotic Kolossoi:  Intended to bind someone in love, to constrain them to be faithful, or to restrain a rival.

Protection Kolossoi: Artemis, Dionysos, Hera, Ares, and Athena.

Restraining Kolossoi: For restraining hosts and mortal enemies.

Defensive Kolossoi: For public and private defense of boundaries, or warding off enemies.

Binding Deities

• Hermes Katokhos (Restrainer)
• Hermes Khthonios
• Gê
• Hecate (Khthonia)
• Persephone
• Hephaistos, God of Binding and Unbinding
• Ares

Binding Formulas

Simple binding chants:

I hereby bind (name of target)!

May (name of target) be defeated!

Let (name of target) be restrained!

Binding prayers to specific deities:

        O Hermes Katokhos, restrain (name of target)!

        I commit (name of target) to the Gods,
        to Gê, Hecate and Persephone!

        I bind (name of target), born of (name of target's parents),
        in Your presence, Hermes Katokhos.
        May s/he be restrained
        in hand and foot and body!

As the dead are powerless and still,
just so powerless and still will NN be,
his feet and hands and body!

Just as this image melts and flows away,
Let he who breaks this promise likewise melt,
And perish all his seed and property!

As long as savage Ares lies within the ground,
So long in this our land will foemen not be found!

The power of the spell is increased by the use of repetition and the invocation of multiple deities.

References

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/GP.html

Faraone, Christopher A., “Binding and Burying the Forces of Evil: The Defensive Use of ‘Voodoo Dolls’ in Ancient Greece,” Classical Antiquity, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Oct. 1991), pp. 165-205, with 7 figs. & 13 pls.

Faraone, Christopher A., “The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding Spells,” in Christopher A. Faraone & Dirk Obbink (eds.), Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 3-32.

Ogden, Daniel, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, esp. ch. 12.

Opsopaus, John, Guide to the Pythagorean Tarot, St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2001.  See also the online version, omphalos.org/BA/PT.

Sophistes, A. (1996). Construction and Use of Ancient Greek Poppets. Retrieved:

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/GP.html

Strubbe, J. H. M., “‘Cursed Be He That Moves My Bones’,” in Christopher A. Faraone & Dirk Obbink (eds.), Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 33-59.

Winkler, John J., “The Constraints of Eros,” in Christopher A. Faraone & Dirk Obbink (eds.), Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 214-43.