Protecting the Tombs and Seeking Justice through Curse Formulas in Lydia and Phrygia
Protecting the Tombs and Seeking Justice through Curse Formulas in Lydia and Phrygia

Summary/Abstract: In the regions of western Asia Minor, Greek and Hellenized populations of these regions employed various means to protect the funerary space from potential desecrators. Among the measures they undertook for protection were the consecration of the tomb or the complex to one or many deities, and providing different forms of addressing the gods through more or less standardized formulas that warned the culprits regarding the eventual divine punishment. Eumeneian and Laodicean formulas are particularly interesting as they were used by pagans, Jews and Christians alike in the same areas. The article seeks to provide methodological tools to make further distinctions related to their identification. The aspect of intentionality is what makes the distinction between Jewish, pagan, and Christian inscriptions using the same type of formula, as explained at the end of the article.

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