the animals that haunted Ancient Rome and Greece
- Written by Rebecca Willis, PhD Candidate, Classics and Ancient History, University of Newcastle
You wake up at night sensing a weight on your legs that you thought was your pet dog – only to remember they died years ago. Or perhaps you know someone who swears they can still hear their childhood cat moving around the house, scratching at the door at night.
Tales of ghost animals in our modern world are often framed as a comfort; the beloved pet returning to visit. But this has not always been the case.
In ancient Greece and Rome, you might assume that the close relations between humans and animals would result in many tales of animal ghosts, but this is not the case. In fact, such stories are actually incredibly rare.
And the handful of examples that do exist depict the ghostly animals not as friendly visitors but as mere tools for humans – often to do evil.
1. Revenge of the ghost cat
One such example comes from the Greek Magical Papyri, a document from Graeco-Roman Egypt that’s written mostly in ancient Greek.
This handbook of spells and magic rituals was used by professional magicians dating from the second century BCE to the fifth century CE.
It includes a spell that allows a practitioner of magic to use a ghost cat to get revenge on their enemy.
This spell, listed in the document as “PGM III 1-164” does not have a specific goal but is described as suitable for:
every ritual purpose: a charm to restrain charioteers in a race, a charm for sending dreams, a binding love charm, and a charm to cause separation and enmity.
A translation note observes that all of these are forms of malicious magic.
The focus of this spell is the ritual drowning of a cat. While holding the cat’s body underwater, the magician recites an incantation and calls to the “cat-faced god[ess]” to inform them of the mistreatment that their sacred animal is suffering.
However, the magician boldly lies to the god, claiming that it is their chosen human target who is responsible for the killing.
The enterprising magician then offers a solution to this affront, asking the god to allow the cat to return as a ghost to serve them as a daimon (a supernatural being with mystical powers).
With the god’s support the magician was then free to curse or bind their chosen victim, suitably reframing the action as the cat’s own revenge against its presumed murderer.
2. The divorce lizard
Our second example also comes from the Greek Magical Papyri (listed as “PGM LXI. 39-71”).
Like many erotic spells of antiquity, this spell was designed to attract a chosen target to the magician.
However, some targets were easier to attract than others.
This text offers a ritual solution to would-be magicians whose chosen victim was already married. By harnessing the power of another ghostly animal daimon, this ritual aims to destroy the marriage.
The text begins by instructing the magician to find a spotted lizard “from the place where bodies are mummified”, kill it with hot coals and make it into a ghostly daimon.
While the lizard is dying, the magician recites an incantation. This spell aims to destroy the couple’s relationship by making them hate each other.
Later, hiding outside the couple’s home with the lizard’s ashes, the magician calls upon the newly dead lizard to return as a ghost daimon and force the target to abandon her marital home using its supernatural powers.
Once complete, the target would become especially vulnerable to an attraction spell.
3. The ghostly cavalry
The final example comes from a document known as Descriptions of Greece, written by Greek traveller and geographer Pausanias in the second century CE.
The author recounts a local tale about a haunted field where the Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BCE.
Here, Pausanias claims, the sounds of “horses neighing and men fighting” can be heard every night as the ghosts of fallen Greek and Persian soldiers continue to do battle.
Interestingly, Pausanias is careful to warn his readers that those who deliberately seek out these ghosts will suffer their wrath. Thankfully, though, anyone that stumbles upon them by accident will remain safe.
Unlike the first two examples, these ghost horses are not facilitated by magic or divine power. So, why were they believed to return as ghosts when other horses did not? Just as the ghosts of infantry men retained their swords and shields so they could continue to battle each night, the horses remained an essential tool for the ghosts of the cavalrymen.
The sound of ‘horses neighing and men fighting’ can be heard at one battlefield, Greek traveller Pausanias reports.
knight of silence/Shutterstock
Animals with a ghostly purpose
These examples provide a fascinating window into the perception of animals in antiquity.
It is well evidenced that the Greeks and Romans adored their pets, and in everyday life animals were given many different roles in society.
However, after death these roles are drastically narrowed. In ancient times, animals seem only to return as ghosts in situations where they exist as tools for human use.
It remains to be seen what afterlife the ancients believed would be experienced by animals without a ghostly purpose.
Authors: Rebecca Willis, PhD Candidate, Classics and Ancient History, University of Newcastle
