Atzmann (magic)
An Atzmann , also Atzelmann or revenge doll , is a magical object from the European cultural area, which was used in picture magic . It is a figure mostly made from wax, but also from other materials such as clay, dough or wood. In medieval magic practice, it symbolized the goal of magic. It was believed that anything you did to this character would happen to humans as well, which was the target of the spell. Atzmen were mainly used for damaging spells, but were also used in love spells.
The desk figures of large cathedral churches are also called Atzmann (see Atzmann (lectern) ). In the past, this was associated with the notion that there were evil spirits who were made available as helpers.
etymology
Etymologically the syllable depends Atz to the Middle High German word atzen , Etzen , along which a drain , can eat , can eat can be translated. Aesthetic means consumption . It can therefore be assumed that the Atzmann was originally a personification of consumption.
In Swabian there is still the phrase to put an Atzmann into the harbor for someone if you want to harm someone.
history
Evidence for the magic of images (Latin: invultuatio ) with figures made of wax or similar materials is already known from antiquity . In Ovid (.... 43 BC - 17 AD) states that "you have a witch doomed by a wool doll pierced". Among the Germanic peoples these figures were called Atzmann .
Archbishop Eberhard von Trier is said to have been killed in 1066 by means of a melted wax picture. Catherine de Medici is said to have tried to kill the Huguenot leader Coligny and Prince Condé by screwing screws into their pictures. From the 13th century, the attempt to carry out magical assassinations with the help of images became a permanent criminal offense, initially in southern France, in Bavaria in 1611, in Austria in 1656. The belief that a person could be killed with an image prevailed throughout the Middle Ages up to modern times .
At the end of the 1990s, two clay figures made of clay from the 1st - 3rd centuries were found during construction work in Mainz , which had several puncture points on the entire body. These are exhibited today at the place where they were found in the Shrine of Isis and Mater Magna in Mainz. There they are referred to as "magic dolls".
Magical use
In the magical use of the Atzmann, it was assumed that the figure and the person were in an analogical relationship, a sympathetic interrelation, which is why the Atzmanns were worked on accordingly and the hope was that the desired effect would be transferred to the real person. Sometimes the victim's name was written on the doll to enhance the effect of the spell.
There are testimonies from witch trials that report how Atzmen were roasted on a spit, nailed and coated with poison for a damaging spell.
But there were also Atzmen who served the magic of love. For a love spell, a doll representing the beloved was carried three times around an altar under incantation. The doll was also bathed in well water and lit by the sun. In this context the saying of a traveler has been handed down:
"With strange things
I will make you think of
Wahs a
goblin, Will you let him fetch it
,
And teufez (dip it) in the well
And put it in the sun."
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Leander Petzoldt : Small lexicon of demons and elemental spirits . 3. Edition. Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-49451-X , pp. 25-27.
- ↑ a b c Peter CA Schels: Atzmann . In: Small Encyclopedia of the German Middle Ages ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
- ↑ a b c d Max Haushofer : tragedies and comedies of superstition - love magic . In: The Gazebo . Issue 1, 1897, pp. 4–8 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
- ↑ Amores V, 79 f.
- ↑ Isis cults in the Roman passage . FREE.SIGHTS; Retrieved November 4, 2016
