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This paper looks at our term ‘curse tablet’ in the light of the Greek distinction between ἀραί (‘curses’) and κατάδεσμοι (‘binding spells’). It analyses the role of cursing in Greek culture and sketches a short history of research that led German and Anglophone scholars to coin a modern terminology that disregards the ancient distinction.

Summary

This chapter offers a reconsideration of the well-known letters–atoms analogy in Lucretius’ DRN. By reviewing two readings of this analogy and then turning to the anagrammatic ‘readings’ of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (who in three unpublished cahiers found significant names hidden in DRN), the chapter highlights gaps and omissions in the two existing interpretations. In particular, whereas the previous interpretations use the analogy as license to focus on either the sound of syllables or the arrangement of letters, Saussure instead allows us to think that the force of the analogy may lie not only in the written or spoken properties of letters but also in their creative power, their performative ability to create new words and denote new objects in the world.

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GREEK CURSING, AND OURS

Chapter 7 - Saussure’s cahiers and Lucretius’ elementa: A Reconsideration of the Letters–Atoms Analogy

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GREEK CURSING, AND OURS

Chapter 7 - Saussure’s cahiers and Lucretius’ elementa: A Reconsideration of the Letters–Atoms Analogy

Summary