Seldom Just Food Garlic in Magic and Medicine in European and Mediterranean Traditions
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Abstract
The notion that humans ascended to civilization in discernible stages was more popular in the past than at present. However, it has long been noted that certain premodern practices have more in common with magic per se than with religion and were held by some to precede religion and then coexist with it (Harrison 1922, Frazer 1955). These magical practices, emphasizing placation or deterrence rather than supplication (prayer) or contemplation (meditation), are termed apotropaic, and remain the subject of contemporary scholarship (Wilson 2000). Ritualistic practices for warding off harm to crops, or for protection of persons and habitations, survive as vestiges in various modern customs and holidays (Dugan 2015a). Certain plants were essential for rituals intended to protect not just the crop, but also people and dwellings. Beans (Vicia faba), for example, were “used to lay ghosts at the Lemuria,” and featured in other Greek and Roman festivals, especially those propitiating the dead (Andrews 1949). Cakes of barley (Hordeum vulgare) were offered to propitiate various chthonic spirits, including pre-Olympian snake deities (Harrison 1927). Garlic (Allium sativum), arguably the world’s most well-known apotropaic plant, acquired such functions centuries prior to its clichéd effects on vampires.
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