Magic and superstition have been present in human societies since the dawn of our species, and ancient Rome was no exception. Some of us would like to believe that the advancement of education and scientific knowledge should be enough to keep superstitious beliefs in check, but many signs around us tell us that superstition is here to stay. Fortune-tellers, cult leaders, horoscope writers, and casino owners (to name a few) know this very well.

This list is about the powerful effect that magic and superstition had on some of the beliefs of ancient Roman society.

10 Magic, Superstition, And Medicine

Some of the medical knowledge in ancient Rome was strongly linked to magic and superstition. Pliny the Elder records a number of health tips that few of us would take seriously. Here are some examples. Do not try this at home without medical supervision. We take no responsibility for the outcome of the following recipes:

Drinking fresh human blood was believed by some to be an effective treatment for epilepsy:

“It is an appalling sight to see wild animals drink the blood of gladiators in the arena, and yet those who suffer from epilepsy think it is the most effective cure for their disease, to absorb a person’s warm blood while he is still breathing and to draw out his actual living soul.” (Natural History, 28.4)

For treating bruises and strains:

“Strains and bruises are treated with wild boar’s dung gathered in spring and dried. This treatment is used for those who have been dragged by a chariot or mangled by its wheels or bruised in any way. Fresh dung also may be smeared on.” (Natural History, 28.237)

If you want to enhance or suppress sexual performance:

“A man’s urine in which a lizard has been drowned is an antaphrodisiac potion; so also are snails and pigeons’ droppings drunk with olive oil and wine. The right section of a vulture’s lung worn as an amulet in a crane’s skin is a powerful aphrodisiac, as is consuming the yolk of five dove eggs mixed with a denarius of pig fat and honey, sparrows or their eggs, or wearing as an amulet a rooster’s right testicle wrapped in ram’s skin.” (30.141)

9 Magic, Superstition, And Pregnancy

Pregnancy in ancient Rome was the cause of considerable anxiety. It is estimated that the number of women who died as a result of childbirth was higher to the number of men who died at war. As a result, a deficit of women suitable for marriage was always an issue in Rome. It is therefore not surprising that there were a few tips on pregnancy circulating around Roman society. Pliny the Elder tells us that:

“[ . . . ] if someone takes a stone or some other missile that has slain three living creatures (a human being, a wild boar, and a bear) at three blows, and throws it over the roof of a house in which there is a pregnant woman, she will immediately give birth, however difficult her labor may be.” (Natural History 28.33)

“If one wishes a child to be born with black eyes, the mother should eat a shrew during the pregnancy.” (Natural History 30.134)

8 Shapeshifters

Many stories circulated among ancient Romans about people changing their shape into animals and other beings. Here is one of these tales. If you think the werewolf legend is relatively new, think again:

“We came to the tombs, and my friend went to do his business among the gravestones, while I moved off singing and counting the stars. Then, when I looked back at my companion, he had taken off all his clothes and laid them at the roadside. My heart was in my mouth; I stood there practically dead. He pissed in a circle around his clothes, and suddenly turned into a wolf. Don’t think I am joking: nothing could induce me to tell lies about this. [ . . . ] He began to howl and ran off into the woods. [ . . . ] then I went to pick up his clothes, but they had all turned to stone.” (Petronius Satyricon 62)

It would not be surprising if at least some people in Rome believed stories like this one.

7 Witchcraft

Long before medieval times, witchcraft was known to the Romans. There is a famous passage in Roman literature describing a grotesque ritual performed by witches who were looking to brew a love potion. They intended to use the potion to gain the heart of a man named Varus, who had resisted the love spells cast by the witches so far.

The details of this ritual are described by the Roman poet, Horace (Epodes 5), who lived during the first century BC: A boy of high birth was kidnapped by a clique of witches. They buried the boy in the ground up to his chin, and they placed some food in the ground close to him, but he was unable to reach it. The witches hoped to starve the boy to death and make his liver grow as a result of the hunger. The boy’s liver was a key ingredient to brew the love potion.

This account is fictional, but it shows the place that witches and their dark arts had in the imagination of some Romans.

6 Interpretation Of Dreams

Like almost all other cultures, some Romans firmly believed in the idea that dreams could forecast the future. In the second century AD, Artemidorus of Daldis wrote a work named The Interpretation of Dreams, compiled in five books. Some of the ways in which he interpreted the meaning of dreams are both specific and curious:

“Dreaming about turnips, rutabagas, and pumpkins presages disappointed hopes, since they are massive [vegetables] but lack nutritional value. They signify surgery and wounding with iron implements for sick people and travelers, respectively, since these vegetables are cut into slices.” (1.67)

“Dreaming that one is eating books foretells advantage to teachers, lecturers, and anyone who earns his livelihood from books, but for everyone else it means sudden death.” (2.45)

5 Reading Animal Entrails

Hundreds of techniques to foretell the future are recorded in ancient Roman documents. We know, for example, that sacrificing animals and trying to read the future by interpreting their entrails was practiced not only in ancient Rome, but also in many other cultures. This magical art was known to the Romans as haruspicy, and a person trained in this art was a haruspex.

Cicero (On Divination: 2.52) claims that Hannibal, the renowned Carthaginian commander who defied Rome in the Second Punic War, was an expert in this technique. While he was still a military advisor (before he became commander), he used to give advice to his superiors based on the messages he could read on the organs of sacrificed animals.

4 Astrology

Trying to predict events based on the position of the celestial bodies was also widely practiced in the Roman world. Some Roman emperors, including Tiberius, Domitian, and Hadrian, believed in divination and astrology and even had some degree of training in these arts. Cassius Dio (Roman History 57.15) claims that Tiberius had a man executed after he had a dream in which he was giving money to that same man. Tiberius believed that he had that dream under the influence of some sort of enchantment.

However, there is evidence that not everyone was persuaded by the astrologer’s claims:

“I am amazed that anyone could continue to put their trust in such people, when the falseness of their predictions is every day made clear by what actually happens.” (Cicero, On Divination: 2.99)

The love-hate relationship that Rome had with astrologers was expressed by Tacitus with his typical directness:

“Astrologers are treacherous to the powerful and unreliable to the merely hopeful; they will always be banned from our state, and yet always retained.” (Histories 1.22)

3 The Shield Of Mars

The Romans believed that the god Jupiter gave the very shield of the god Mars to Nula Pompilius (the second king of Rome). This relic was known as the Ancile. It was believed that if the Ancile was harmed in any way, so would the nation of Rome. In other words, the prosperity of Rome was dependent on the integrity of the Ancile. Therefore, it was decided that the safest place to keep this relic was the Temple of Mars.

The nymph Egeria advised the king of Rome to create eleven identical copies of the shield in order to confuse potential thieves and keep the shield safe. A body of priests known as the Salii were responsible for protecting the Ancile and, ultimately, the prosperity of Rome.

2 The King Of The Wood

A shocking ritual was recorded at the grove of the goddess Diana at Aricia, south of Rome along the Via Appia (the road connecting Rome with Capua), by the shores of Lake Nemi. The grove of Diana had a priest, known as Rex Nemorensis. Those who held the position were always fugitive slaves who became priests by murdering the acting priest. This was the accepted norm of succession for the priesthood of Diana. As a result, the Rex Nemorensis was always on alert, carrying a sword, waiting for the next candidate to challenge him, and fearing for his life. (Strabo, Geography 5.3). This practice is summed up by T. Macaulay:

“From the still glassy lake that sleeps
Beneath Aricia’s trees—
Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign,
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain”

The exact justification for this succession rule is not fully understood, and it has sparked the imagination of many historians and writers. Nobody has explored this issue in more depth than Sir James George Frazer, who used the institution of the Rex Nemorensis as a starting point of his colossal anthropological work The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion, published in 1890.

1 Imaginary Beasts

Ancient Roman writers left a number of accounts describing several imaginary animals. Interestingly, most these beasts were exotic, coming from remote locations.

Pliny (Natural History 8.75) describes a half-human, half-horse animal named the hippocentaur. According to his doubtful account, he personally saw one of these beasts shipped from Egypt to the emperor Claudius, preserved inside a container filled with honey.

Aelian also describes some peculiar species of one-horned donkeys and horses found in India. Drinking vessels made out their horns had a unique property: If poison was poured into them, the horns would cancel the effect of the poison, acting as an antidote. (On Animals 3.41).

Aelian (On Animals 9.23) reports the existence of the amphisbaena, a snake with one head at both ends:

“When it is going forward, it uses one head as a tail, the other as a head, and when it is going backward, it uses its heads in the opposite manner.”

Aelian fails to explain what relevance the terms “forward” and “backward” may have when applied to a being with a head at both ends, but we get his point.

Magic tricks have been tools of entertainment for centuries, awing children and adults alike with pure showmanship and excitement. Sitting in the crowd and witnessing one of these stunts can be an amazing experience. Most of the time, regular folks have no idea how the trick behind the illusion works. But we all know it’s not real magic, right?

Well, these 10 tricks have been unexplainable, so they may as well be real magic.

Of course, plenty of expert magicians are most likely familiar with these tricks, especially with the more famous and simple ones. But that doesn’t in any way mean that the secrets are out. Here are 10 magic tricks and illusions with secrets that are really well-hidden.

10 David Copperfield—Portal

Teleporting is something that’s widely considered impossible. Although scientists have produced many theories on how it could be done, so far it just remains an element of sci-fi and a pure feat of magic.

In the video above, David Copperfield seeks to demonstrate the latter of the two as he goes onstage. He prepares to awe the audience, pulling up a live video from Hawaii and claiming he’ll attempt to teleport himself there. Sounds crazy, right?

The footage shows otherwise. An audience member writes his initials on Copperfield’s arm with a marker. A Polaroid picture is taken of other audience members.

These items of proof go with Copperfield and his assistant as they disappear from a simplistic portal at the magic show. Nothing is near the portal—not on any side or above or below—that could remove the trick’s seeming legitimacy.

Moments later, Copperfield and his assistant appear on a beautiful beach in a seemingly live video from Hawaii. The magician proudly shows his signed arm and the picture of the audience members.

While it’s obviously not real magic, the explanation has yet to be found. Some have attempted to debunk it, but nothing has proven to be quite this perfect and satisfactory.

9 The Indian Rope Trick

The infamous Indian rope trick is an exciting stunt where the magician commands the rope to actually do his bidding!

In the video above, a man is outside in a fenced circle. With a crowd gathered around, he shows a rope so that everyone can see that nothing has been done to alter it.

Afterward, he proceeds to place the rope in a basket and commands it to “come alive.” It rises from the basket by itself like a snake would. This is accompanied by the magician’s funky music, which adds quite a lot to the performance.

If this wasn’t enough, a boy then climbs the rope that seemingly isn’t attached to anything. Shortly after he gets down, the rope collapses on command like nothing ever happened.

So far, no one has debunked this trick with complete success.

8 Penn & Teller—Shadows

Penn & Teller are a wonderful duo of magicians and entertainers who constantly amaze fans with new tricks and a lack of explanations. This time is no different!

This simple, beautiful trick has Teller practically deflowering a shadow—yes, a shadow!

With a simple knife, he attempts to cut the flowers off the shadow as if he was doing the same to the actual flower casting the shadow. Of course, he succeeds.

The flowers begin falling, both from the shadow and the real plant.

After this spectacular display, blood begins dripping heavily from Teller’s hand. It’s only visible on the shadow at first. Then his hand moves closer to the canvas where the real blood appears. He proceeds to actually smear it.

This simple but largely unexplainable trick is surely memorable and should get plenty of folks interested in the world of magic. Such a wonderful world indeed!

7 Berglas Effect

Originally created by David Berglas, the Berglas Effect has attained legendary status among fans of the art. A small number of people can pull it off, and they do so consistently.

The trick is simple on paper. It’s a card trick, something you’ve seen plenty of times. But this one definitely takes the cake.

The cards are visible before the magic begins. Then a random spectator freely names any card from the deck of 52. Another participant chooses a number between 1 and 52. Afterward, a third random spectator, who is holding the deck, counts out cards to the specified number.

And voila, when the third spectator counts out the number of cards specified by the second participant, the last card shown is the same card that the first spectator named—without the performer ever touching the cards at all!

This wonderful trick may never be released, but we definitely think it’s much better that way.

6 Richard Osterlind—Penny Bender

This is the seemingly simplest trick on our list, but it’s still sure to cause plenty of headaches. The performer, Richard Osterlind, asks for a nice, sturdy, regular penny, which is confirmed by the audience to be completely ordinary.

After this is done, Osterlind places the penny in the palm of his hand, lightly pressing it with one finger. Suddenly, the penny magically bends. He releases the bent coin and shows it to the audience. Then, with only a bit more effort, he bends the penny back to its normal state.

Richard may not have the muscles to attempt such a feat, but he surely has the skill. As simple as this trick is, it’s still a mind-boggling magician’s secret to this day.

5 Reza—Switchblade

Another exciting trick involving cards comes from a young illusionist called Reza. As usual, the trick starts out really simple. He asks a girl to pick a card, any card, and to sign it with a marker. So far, so good.

Reza places his hand on the girl’s hand as they’re holding the card together. Once he lets go, the card isn’t there. Fun trick, you might think. But as usual, this is very far from being all of it!

He takes a switchblade from his pocket and proceeds to stick it into a nearby door. As the knife hits the door, the card appears right where the knife entered.

It’s unclear how he does it, but it is fun to watch!

4 Cyril Takayama—Lacoste

Lacoste is a fascinating illusion by Cyril Takayama, a young Japanese magician who certainly has a knack for showmanship. Even at first glance, this trick is far more complicated than the ones before, but it really pays off!

Takayama goes into a clothes shop, picks up a plain orange shirt, and places it on a glass counter. He puts his hand on the shirt. However, once he lifts his hand, a small plastic alligator appears on the shirt.

Then he takes a simple, old-school flip phone and places it on the shirt while using his finger to command the little plastic alligator to enter the phone. As it does, it eats a digital hamburger on the phone screen. But this is definitely not enough for Takayama!

The alligator disappears from the phone, and a larger plastic cutout of the animal appears outside of the phone instead. Takayama places a pamphlet with pictures on top of the plastic alligator (which is sitting on the shirt). Lo and behold, a real alligator scurries out from under the pamphlet.

Even though the audio is in Japanese, we recommend watching this one. It’s absolutely fascinating!

3 David Blaine—Teeth

The amazing magician David Blaine has certainly made a name for himself, but this is his most unexplainable trick—as well as the author’s personal favorite.

Blaine approaches a crowd and asks a random girl if he can pull out two of her teeth. Yes, two of her actual teeth. After he does, the girl stands there with visible, confused annoyance and two of her front teeth clearly missing. But not to worry. David isn’t done yet!

He takes her two teeth and places them in his own mouth. Then he actually spits the teeth back into the girl’s mouth perfectly where they belong as if nothing had changed.

It’s a confusing and very fun trick, although we don’t recommend that you try it out on your friends.

2 Liu Qian—Coins

Liu Qian is a fairly well-known Taiwanese magician who starts his trick out simply. He sits near a plexiglass table and places a black mat on top. Then he drops some ordinary coins through the seemingly solid mat and plexiglass effortlessly.

A woman sitting near him thinks that the trick may have something to do with the mat. Liu is definitely looking for an opportunity to show off a bit, so he removes the mat entirely and does the trick again.

Then he repeats the trick without his hands covering the coins at all. Liu lets the lady choose one coin and the spot where it will go through the table, and he succeeds again.

Still not enough, he decides to take everything one step further. Slowly, he slides his hand through the supposedly solid plexiglass. He grabs some coins from another man’s hand beneath the table. Then Liu slowly slides his hand out of the plexiglass and spills the coins on the table.

1 Penn & Teller—Magic Bullet

Penn starts the show by getting some real bullets out of his pocket and asking for audience members who have experience with firearms. Two men decide to help out. They’re asked to sign the bullets to make sure that there is no funny business going on. Of course, they do.

Then Penn and Teller are suddenly pointing real Colt Pythons at each other with the signed bullets loaded. They aim at each other’s mouths and fire.

With a loud bang, their protective helmets fall off and we see them completely fine with the signed bullets in their mouths. The thin sheet of glass in front of each magician is visibly shattered. They even show the bullet casings to the two previously mentioned audience members who can easily tell, even by smell, that the guns were fired.

How they did it is unclear, and that’s part of what makes it so amazing. But beware: Never attempt to perform this trick with a real firearm. You could easily hurt yourself or someone else.

Just a curious guy who loves writing!

The Middle Ages are an enduring staple of our popular culture; many films, books, and television series draw on the medieval period as a backdrop for their plots and characters. These fictional works often represent a view of magic in medieval Europe that lacks the fascinating (and often bewildering) complexity of beliefs medieval people held.

10Belief Was Considered A Pagan Superstition

In the early Middle Ages, it was not respectable to admit to a belief in magic. St. Augustine, an influential late antique theologian, denied that demons could grant people magical powers, allowing only that they could deceive people into thinking they had magical powers. This line of thought was followed by most early medieval legal and theological writing.

A Carolingian capitulary issued for the newly conquered (and newly Christianized) region of Saxony forbids killing a woman on suspicion of witchcraft on penalty of death, describing the crime as something done, “in the pagan manner.” The 10th-century text the Canon Episcopi instructs priests to preach to their flocks that the “phantasms” sent by the devil are false.

9Sailors From A Realm Of Clouds Would Steal Crops

Of course, church condemnation doesn’t mean people stop believing. Around the same time as the Capitulary for Saxony was written, the Bishop of Lyons, Agobard, composed a treatise denouncing belief in magic. In the process, he tells us a lot about what people actually believed.

Agobard mentions that it was thought that weather mages could raise storms—and, most remarkably, sailors from the land of clouds sailed the sky and stole crops in collaboration with these weather mages. Although he does not mention crop stealing, Gervise of Tillsbury repeats stories about aerial sailors, including one who “drowns” in the earthly atmosphere almost 400 years after Agobrad. A possible explanation for the commonness of these stories is the phenomenon of the superior mirage, which can fool the eye into thinking there are indeed ships in the air.

8Most Witchcraft Trials Involved A Single Defendant

While early medieval authorities were skeptical of the reality of magic, changing philosophical and theological opinions meant that by the 14th century, magic was considered a crime. However, these medieval witchcraft trials were different from the mass hysteria around witches that consumed the 16th and 17th centuries. There were very few cases where large numbers of unrelated people were tried at once.

The vast majority of witchcraft trials involved a single defendant or occasionally a small group. In cases were a group was tried, there was usually a relationship connecting them all, like belonging to the same household (servants being charged along with their masters or mistresses seems to be a common combination) or being political conspirators. The one exception is Philip the Fair’s mass executions during the suppression of the Templar order.

7Religious Figures Practiced Magic As Well

The popular image of the medieval witch hunt would not be complete without an accompanying priest or monk to signify the supposed role of the church in the persecution of suspected witches. But sometimes, clergy themselves practiced magic, particularly forms that required learning and access to written materials.

The monks of St. Augustine’s in Canterbury kept 30 magic books in their library. The texts gave information on the rituals needed to summon spirits. Priests, particularly rural parish priests, might also be called upon to perform rituals that mixed magic with orthodox rites. A 12th-century English ritual to make fields fertile involved sprinkling clumps of earth with milk, honey, oil, herbs, and holy water, reciting passages from the Bible, and saying four Masses over them.

6Not All Magic Was Serious

Medieval people also enjoyed that staple of Las Vegas stage and child’s birthday parties: sleight of height and magic tricks. A 14th-century book with the lofty title Secretum Philosphorum is mainly devoted not to the weighty matters of the Queen of the Sciences but to fun little experiments and tricks. One section instructs the reader on how to use invisible ink to play pranks on their friends, make an object appear to turn by itself, and escape after having their hands tied behind their back.

5The Norse Were More Suspicious Of Male Magicians

Temporarily turning away from medieval Christendom, we look to pre-conversion Scandinavia. While the Norse considered respectable for a man some things we would recognize as magic, like using runes or poetry to supernatural affect, they saw seidr as a woman’s domain. Men who practiced seidr were considered to have demeaned themselves.

In the sagas, male characters who practice seidr are portrayed in negative terms, and the texts comment on their unmanliness. Despite this, the chief god Odin is explicitly identified with seidr. But even Odin could not avoid being mocked, for Loki denounces him for it. This is in contrast to the respect paid to women practitioners when they appear in the sagas, as shown by the ritualistic and reverent welcoming of Thorbjorg in Eirik the Red’s Saga, “when she entered, all men thought it their duty to offer her becoming greetings.”

4Late Medieval People Thought Magic Respectable Science

In the High and Late Middle Ages, ideas such as astrology were part of respectable intellectual discourse. As an example, Albertus Magnus, who was one of the leading theologians in medieval Europe and wrote widely on natural philosophy, believed that stones had special curative powers and astrology was a genuine predictive science.

Many medieval royal and noble courts patronized astrologers and alchemists and even consulted the stargazers about important political decisions.

3Most Witchcraft Trials Were Carried Out By Secular Courts

We often assume that the Inquisition, the body of clergy authorized to combat heretics, played a leading role in witchcraft trials. Although some Inquisitors pursued suspected witches, most witchcraft trials were carried out by the secular authorities.

According to a survey of records of English witch trials, not only were most carried out by the government, but the alleged magic use was to carry out another crime like murder or treason. In 1258, Pope Alexander VI decreed that Inquisitors should not involve themselves in witchcraft cases unless there was a clear element of heretical thought. (However, authors of inquisitorial handbooks, like Bernard Gui, continued to advise inquisitors about how to question and prosecute sorcerers.)

2The 15th Century Started The Panic Around Witchcraft

The 15th century is critical in the history of witchcraft because it laid much of the intellectual foundation for the mass witch hysteria of the early modern period. It also marks a critical departure in legal practice from earlier medieval witch trials. There was a new focus on the alleged nature of the demonic pact that supposedly underlay all sorcery, as opposed to trials focusing on magic as the means by which another crime was committed.

It is in the early 15th century that the notion of the witches’ Sabbath, wherein witches gathered to commune with the devil, became both widely acknowledged as fact and a key element of witchcraft prosecutions. The stories about witches’ Sabbaths may have spread particularly quickly as a result of their strongly sensationalistic and prurient character.

1The Author Of The Malleus Maleficarum Was Unsuccessful In Convicting Witches

Possibly the most famous medieval text on magic, the Malleus Maleficarum was written in the 1480s as a practical guide for conducting your own witch hunts but also to justify its primary author, Heinrich Kramer, and his ideas about magic. Kramer was a member of the Dominican order and an inquisitor active in Germany in the late 15th century. Prior to writing the Malleus Maleficarum, Kramer tried to prosecute suspected witches but provoked outrage from the local citizenry.

Between 1482 and 1484, Kramer was stymied by local churchmen, who objected to his questioning local women about their sex lives in the course of his inquisition. Kramer sought to confirm the authority of inquisitors to investigate witchcraft, and the pope backed him. Even armed with this, he made little headway.

Initially, the Bishop of Innsbruck, Golser, acceded to Kramer. However, Kramer’s heavy-handedness caused the bishop and the local archduke to intervene. Bishop Golser halted the trial and ordered all the suspects to be released. It was only after this failure that Kramer wrote the Malleus, justifying his methods and exaggerating his own successes in witch-hunting.

+ Further Reading

For a further education on witches, warlocks, magic, and more, check out the following lists from our archives:

10 Ancient Books That Promise Supernatural Powers
10 Surprising Facts About Magic And Superstition In Ancient Rome
10 Folk Magic Traditions Of The Early Modern Era
Top 10 Magical Societies

Jim Lyons is a student who is passionate about history, speculative fiction, and traditional music.

Even today, horoscopes can be found in most newspapers, fortune tellers are present in every town and city, and many of us avoid walking under ladders (just in case). The rational Greeks were as superstitious as we are, and perhaps even more so. They left hundreds of writings and other material evidence behind attesting to how magic and superstition affected them in their daily life.

10Necromancy

Necromancy is about invoking the spirit of the dead for divinatory purposes and to get their help in magical affairs. In ancient Greece, people condemned necromancy publicly yet seemed to have accepted in private.

The amount of evidence on necromancy in ancient Greece is overwhelming. One of the earliest recorded examples comes from the Odyssey, where Odysseus performs a complicated ritual to contact the spirits of the dead by combining sacrifices, prayers, and offerings. Other literary evidence comes from Plato, who sounds skeptical about necromancy. Herodotus describes a necromantic ritual performed on the river Acheron where the Oracle of the dead is consulted by a messenger of Periander, the Tyrant of Corinth.

Material evidence on necromancy has been found on hundreds of inscribed curse tablets, placed in graves (along with other objects such as figurines) and asking the spirits of the dead for their aid.

9Superstition And Mathematics

The square root of 2 is an irrational number (i.e., it cannot be expressed by any simple fraction). When the Pythagoreans came across this seemingly harmless information, it undermined the very core of their beliefs. Mathematics, for the Pythagoreans, was inseparable from mysticism and religious life, and the structure of the cosmos was believed to be linked to mathematical harmony.

The Pythagoreans tried to keep this issue secret, but one of member divulged it outside the brotherhood. The traitor was thrown into deep waters and drowned. Many authors describe this person as early martyr to science. A case could be made that this person was a martyr of superstition, since it was not the scientific aspect of irrational numbers that motivated the homicide but rather its religious extrapolations.

8Concoctions

Recipes for all kinds of concoctions were known to the ancient Greeks. Their functions were truly diverse, and many were both amusing and useless.

To make a woman fart uncontrollably: “Take some hairs from a donkey’s rump, burn them and grind them up, and then give them to a woman in a drink.”

How to become invisible: “Engrave a quail on an onyx stone with a sea perch at its feet [and] put under the stone some of the mixture used in lamps. Smear your face with the concoction, and no one will see either who you are or what you are doing.”

To make a woman confess the name of the man she loves: “Put a bird’s tongue under her lips or on her heart and ask the question. She will say his name three times.”

7A Living Goddess

Peisistratos was tyrant who ruled Athens several times during the sixth century BC. According to Herodotus, Peisistratos regained the power of Athens in one occasion by taking a tall and beautiful peasant girl and dressing her as the goddess Athena, wearing her armor and riding a chariot into the city.

Peisistratos rode next to the girl. Meanwhile, a group of heralds announced that the goddess was bringing Peisistratos back to take control of the city. The trick worked, and Athens became under the rule of this clever tyrant.

6Animal Sacrifices

Oxen, goats, and sheep were the top choices for animal sacrifices in ancient Greece, but there were also some unconventional choices. According to Plutarch, puppies were sacrificed by the Spartans to honor the war god Enyalius

Sometimes, animal sacrifices went out of control, like it did after the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Xenophon reported that the Athenians promised the goddess Artemis that they would sacrifice one goat in her honor for every enemy they killed. Herodotus reports that the Athenians killed 6,400 enemies during the battle, and there were simply not enough goats. Instead, the Athenians agreed to perform a ritual every year in which they would sacrifice 500 goats to Artemis. Xenophon’s report said this ritual was still observed 100 years after Marathon.

5Amulets

The belief in the magical properties of amulets was shared by many in Greece. Farmers, constantly worried about the weather, were especially vulnerable to deposit their hopes in the magic properties these items. Many of them wore amulets around their necks or wrists to ensure the right level of rainfall for their crops to prosper.

Other properties of amulets included: to keep way robbers, good luck, contraception, to attract a lover, and to protect its wearer from spells and harmful magic aimed against. Some had curious shapes which enhanced their power, which included Egyptian crabs, hands making obscene gestures, phalluses, eyes, and vulvas.

4Magic Spells

Spell have been found inscribed on numerous tablets all over ancient Greece. Many were linked to medical practices, either to help someone get better, improve the efficiency of medicines, or even to poison or harm enemies. Although spells ware mainly spoken, it was believed that their efficiency would increase if they were supported by specific actions such as inscribing the words and using images of humans, animals, demons, and mystical symbols.

Thessaly was one region strongly linked to witchcraft. Literary sources suggest that professional witches in this area were in the business of selling spells tailored to their customer’s specification. Aristophanes describes one of his characters, Strepsiades, thinking about contacting the Thessalian witches so he could buy a spell from them. Strepsiades was in debt, and his idea was to trap the Moon using one of this spells. If the Moon did not rise again, the monthly interest of his debt could not keep building.

3Oracles

Oracles in ancient Greece could mean two closely related things: a statement made by different deities (some of which could come through an intermediary), or the sites where such statements were made. Many of these statements were responses to human questions. Some would be simply “yes” or “no,” while some other could come in a cryptic or ambiguous form.

The oracle of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus is one of the oldest Greek oracles. During the fifth century BC, the priestesses spoke on behalf of the god Zeus and provided affirmative or negative answers to questions inscribed on lead tablets. About 80 of such tablets survive to our days and can be found in the museum at Ioannina in Greece. A few examples:

“Lysanias asks Zeus and Dione whether he is the father of the boy borne by Annyla.”

“Cleoutas asks Zeus and Dione if it is profitable and beneficial for him to graze sheep.”

2Astrology

Astrology influenced the Greek mind in two ways: either by claiming that planetary behavior had an inescapable influence on human affairs, or by acting as a guideline in relation to human personalities and trends according the position of celestial bodies at the time when individuals were born.

Many ancient Greek astrological works have survived. One of the most famous was written by the astrologer Vettius Valens (second century BC) who, judging by his tone and words, does not sound very optimistic in relation to personality trends linked to the signs of the zodiac. In his work The Astrological Anthologies, for example, he said that being born under Taurus is shameful, and that such people are likely to suffer from “pain in the nostrils through injury and disease, broken limbs, throat tumors, sciatica, and abscesses. Capricorn, Valens adds, is a “wicked and inconsistent” sign, and such people are “prone to making mistakes, fickle, criminal, dishonest, censorious, and disgusting.”

1Dreams

The idea the dreams could foretell the future was widespread in ancient Greece. The ancient diviner Artemidorus compiled a work named Interpretation of Dreams, where he reveals some intricate meanings linked to number games

“Seeing a weasel in a dream signifies an evil and tricky woman and a lawsuit, for ‘lawsuit’ and ‘weasel’ are isopsephic [so if we add the numerical value of the letters in these words, they are both equal].”

“Seeing an old woman in a dream foretells death to a sick person, since [the words] ‘old woman’, adds up to 704, and ‘the funeral’ adds to 704. An old woman symbolizes a funeral in any case, since she is going to die in the not very distant future.”

Food is where we get the nutrients to fuel our bodies. We create and preserve intimate social relationships by breaking bread, and we often heal different ailments through our diets. In the developed world, we have shopping centers filled with all types of foods, and we mostly partake without a thought about the history of what we’re eating.

But thousands of years ago in some of the earliest civilizations on the planet, these basic foods were believed to be a sort of magic. At one time, they were worshiped and revered. Besides being used to heal specific physical and emotional conditions, certain foods were believed to bring loved ones back from the dead, protect people from evil, and more.

10 Amaranth

We are probably all familiar with ancient grains. Whether we incorporate quinoa into our daily diets or see different varieties gracing the feeds of Instagram in the all-too-trendy smoothie bowls, we could each name a few if we had to.

But one ancient grain was thought to provide supernatural powers by the Aztecs over 500 years ago. Not only was it a major component of their diets, but it played a vital role in their religious practices.

Using honey and sometimes blood from human sacrifices, the Aztecs would often make a paste from the grains and use it to create statues of their gods. During ceremonies of worship, the statues would be broken into parts and passed out to members of the tribe for consumption. Supposedly, this paste was also used to create shields, bows, and arrows to give to newborn boys to symbolize their manly duties later in life.

When the Spanish invaded in 1519, the cultivation of this grain was forbidden along with the Aztecs’ religion. This was a way of forcing Christianity onto the civilization, and anyone who did not abide by the rules was punished severely.^[1]

9 Artichokes

Before we learned to dip these beauties in cheese sauce, artichokes were thought to have a variety of medicinal powers. We can find mention of artichokes as far back as Greek mythology.

Cynara was a beautiful mortal girl whom Zeus came across during a trip to see his brother Poseidon. Zeus took her to Olympus and made her a goddess. Then in typical Zeus fashion, he became enraged when Cynara sneaked home for a weekend visit with her mother. He threw her off Olympus and turned her into an artichoke.

Fast-forward to the first-century Romans, and they believed that parts of the artichoke could help to cure baldness and even aid with the conception of boys.

Artichokes were also rumored to be an aphrodisiac. This gossip was given a lot of steam when the French queen, Catherine de Medici, was said to have consumed a great quantity of them. At this time, women were banned from eating artichokes due to their sexual power.^[2]

8 Chives

These little babies are more than just a flavor of a chip. Some people have also produced different flavors of this plant’s magical history. Today, we know that chives are native to certain areas of Asia, Europe, and North America. However, there are at least two different stories about their first appearance in Europe and how they were once believed to be magic.

In one version, chives first appeared in Europe in the 13th century when Marco Polo brought them over from China. From there, the British created a tradition that hanging chives from the rafters and above doorways would provide protection against evil spirits.

However, a conflicting story says that chives were in Europe before Marco Polo. In this version, the ancient Romans used chives in their diets because they believed that the plant’s strong taste would bring greater strength. Racehorses, workers, and wrestlers ate chives regularly to enhance their strength. Chives were also a Roman remedy for sore throats and sunburns.^[3]

7 Cucumbers

Today, one of the most notable varieties of this refreshing vegetable is the English cucumber. However, they actually originated in India and have been grown for approximately 3,000 years.

One of the most unexpected uses of cucumbers goes all the way back to the Roman Empire. According to Pliny the Elder, these vegetables were used to promote fertility. Women would wear them around their waists, and midwives would carry them around and then dispose of them once a child was born.^[4]

In ancient Rome, cucumbers were also used to scare away mice, cure bad eyesight, and soothe scorpion bites.

6 Onions

This seemingly ordinary piece of produce was once anything but. Long before onions were bringing us to tears, they were objects of worship. In fact, onions are found throughout historical Egyptian art in a variety of shapes and sizes. These vegetables are painted into scenes of pyramids and the altars of certain gods.

The Egyptians related onions to eternal life due to their concentric layers and would bury their pharaohs with them. Onions have also been found in various body parts of mummies, such as the thorax and the pelvis.

So, why was the onion such a revered food to the Egyptians, especially when exploring the theme of death?

According to experts, it was a common belief that these beautiful bulbs could bring breath back to the deceased. Others say that the antiseptic properties may have been thought to be magical and therefore useful in the afterlife.^[5]

5 Apples

An apple a day keeps the doctor away—or so “they” say.

The belief that apples can cure all diseases or at least keep you healthier has been around for centuries. In fact, it is a common thread connecting multiple cultures.

But the apple is more than just a healer; it is a symbol that appears in folklore all the way back to Greek mythology. According to Irish folklore, heroes would eat apples to stay young and strong. In historical Chinese culture, the apple was given as a gift of peace.^[6]

The apple also represents love. The Balkans believed that when a woman accepted an apple from a man, she was engaged to him. In some Italian cultures, when a man was in love with a woman, he would present her with an apple to show and solidify his affection for her.

4 Corn

Today, corn is used for more than we even realize. Whether it is the buttery, fluffy movie snack or feed for countless types of livestock, corn is everywhere.

To the Aztecs, corn (or maize) was more than just a food source. They believed that the growth and harvest process was synced with the cycle of life: birth, regeneration, and death. They even had three female deities of maize to represent each cycle, and they were worshiped and thanked heavily throughout the cycle of the crop.

The deity Xilonen, representing the first or earliest crop of the summer, was worshiped with an elaborate festival. A young female slave was made to dress up as Xilonen during the eight days leading up to the festival. Men and women would dance, and the people were fed maize-focused foods.

On the last night of celebrations, the Xilonen impersonator was sacrificed as a way to show gratitude to Mother Earth for the life-sustaining crop and to ensure that the cycle of crops and life would keep coexisting harmoniously.^[7]

3 Dill

Dill is another herb that is plentiful in gardens today. However, before dill was a welcomed weed, it was thought in old folklore to bring people both love and happiness. Specifically, in Germany and Belgium, sprigs of dill would be attached to the bride’s dress or floral bouquet to bring the new couple blessings on their marriage.

Dill also has a grim side in mythology and old beliefs. European monks believed that dill could cause infertility and had the power to drive away male demons with an appetite for sexually preying on women.

Dill did find its place in witchcraft, too. Ironically, it had two uses, one on each of the extreme ends of the spectrum. Many believed that drinking a glass of dill water could reverse the effects of a spell cast on you and hanging sprigs around a home could protect from any impending spells. But others believed that witches used dill in their potions and while casting spells.^[8]

2 Figs

Figs appear as far back as the Bible and were considered to be highly spiritual. However, it isn’t just this beautiful fruit itself that is used for spiritual and magical purposes. The Kikuyu women in Africa took the sap from fig trees and spread it on themselves to increase fertility.^[9]

But not every belief surrounding the fig is as wonderful and welcomed as fertility. In Bolivia, people thought that evil spirits stayed in the canopies of fig trees and that walking under a fig tree could cause grave illness. In Papua New Guinea, figs are feared because they are believed to be haunted by evil spirits that will be released when the fruit is opened.

1 Poppy Seeds

Today, poppy seeds are famous in baked goods. Many are also aware of the relationship between poppy seeds and opium. But the magical history of the poppy seed predates what is common knowledge to us in the Western world.

In ancient Greece, the poppy was representative of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and so it was thought to aid sleep. Hypnos was believed to bring about dreams of a prophetic nature while also soothing emotional trauma. While this sounds all warm and fuzzy, the poppy seed was also believed to be associated with Hades, representing an eternal sleep or death.

In the Middle Ages, poppy cake was used by young women to determine the direction from which their one true love would come. A young woman would throw a piece of poppy cake out the door and have a dog fetch it. The direction from which the dog returned would be the same as that from which her true love would appear.^[10]

Poppy seeds also played contradictory roles in fertility. For example, poppy seeds put in the bottom of a bride’s shoe would result in infertility. Alternatively, eating sweetbreads made with poppy seeds on New Year’s Eve was believed to aid in abundance for the year to come.

Halsey is a freelance writer splitting time between Canada and the US. Always curious.

Spells, enchantment, magic, whatever you may call it, has always attracted people. The movies based on magic, in fact, are a favorite of not only kids but also teenagers and adults alike. In those 60-90 minutes being in a world where anything can happen give us immense pleasure and for this short period we forget everything else and get completely engrossed. Such is the power of magic and this is why movies based on magic do really well. And, here we present you the top 10 of them right below.

You can watch some of these Movies Based on Magic on Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu.

Best Magic Movies – Top 10 Movies Based on Magic

10. Enchanted

This perhaps is the only Disney movie in our list of magic movies. The film, in which the classic fairytale meets the present day reality when the evil queen Narissa casts a magic spell on the bride-to-be and princess Giselle and she lands in the modern day New York City.

She then gets to meet Edward Philips, the lovable lawyer with whom she falls in love with. The movie is a fantasy, comedy musical, filled with old-school magic.

See also; 10 Most Watched Movies of All Time.

9. Practical Magic

A curse is cast on a family of witches which does not let them fall in love as it otherwise will take the lives of their beloveds. Two sisters of this family fight with all their courage and magic skills to battle against the supernatural force and end the curse.

Though the movies did not do as well compared to most others in this list it still does manage to entertain because of the great performance of the artists, particularly the wild aunts who managed to make everybody laugh their hearts out.

See also; Top 10 Movies Based on True Stories.

8. Hugo

Asa Butterfield did full justice to the character of the twelve-year-old boy who lives all by himself in Paris in the walls of 1930s railway station and steals food to satiate himself. After the death of his loving watchmaker father, he had no option but to repair clocks for his alcoholic uncle. Also, Hugo would spend time working on the last project of his father, the automaton – a mechanical man who could write.

He was very keen on finding out if his dad had left behind any message in the automaton and thus he did everything possible, even stealing, to attain the parts he required. During one such theft, he met the owner’s daughter, Isabelle, who planned to help him in his projects. An adventurous journey begins with a key that will help them disclose a secret from a magician’s past.

7. Narnia

Directed by Andrew Adamson, the series is made in three parts, each of them equally amazing. The Chronicles of Narnia has its focus on the life of three kids who belong to the time of World War II and are sent to the home of a relative so they could be safe.

It is here that their adventure starts when the youngest kid, Lucy, finds a parallel world in one closet. This is basically the world of Narnia but the Evil White Witch has brought it under her control. Now the children and the real ruler of the world, Aslan, plan to save Narnia.

See also; 10 Must Watch Hollywood Movies Before You Get Old.

6. Spirited Away

Spirited Away is the story of a young girl, Chihiro, who gets trapped in the world of spirits. After the witch Yubaba transforms her parents into pigs, Chihiro had to work in her bathhouse so that she could free her family and go back to her world. The English-version of this movie was spearheaded by John Lasseter. It was the highest grossing movie ever in Japan and had even won the Best Animated Feature Oscar.

5. Oz the Great and Powerful

This is a fantasy adventure film directed by Sam Raimi. The film is about a magician who is driven out from Kansas and then comes to stay in the land of Oz. People think he is the great wizard who has come to Oz to bring an end to their sufferings, and the magician takes advantage of their belief. Soon after, three witches come to Oz to destroy his plans of taking advantage of the innocent people.

See also; Top 10 Highest Grossing Hollywood Movies.

4. The Craft

This is one of the most famous films about witches. The Craft is remembered for the realistic portrayal of spell-casting consequences. Though most witches’ movies made for Disney channel is a morality tale, this one bravely gets dark. It is the story of 4 high school girls who have incredible powers and thus is also about spells, curses, and more than one murder. The great acting and great story paved the way to a huge success.

3. Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings series, directed by Peter Jackson, takes you to an amazing mystical and adventurous journey that is undertaken by Frodo, Elijah Wood. The film is about his adventure to reach a mysterious ring that he came across just by chance. He undertook the dangerous mission for a noble cause that is to prevent the rule of the Dark Lords.

2. Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus is a Halloween film for children of all ages. It is full of extravagant costumes, buck teeth, and silly spells and you will thoroughly enjoy watching it. The performances are quite campy but if you have enjoyed watching Halloweentown or Sabrina the Teenage Witch then you will love watching this one as well.

1. Harry Potter

Talking about movies based on magic and not mentioning Harry Potter is just not possible. J. K. Rowling’s world-record-setting and award-winning movie on a wizard boy of Hogwarts turned into eight series and is mainly about Harry Potter and his dear friends Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasely. The series was extremely popular as were the books and this also resulted in video and computer games being made, which are loved and played till date.

See also: Awesome Fictional Characters That We Wish Were Real

Each of these 10 magic movies is stunning, fun, and you are going to have a thoroughly amazing time watching them. If you have not seen either of them yet, then you have the perfect weekend plan.

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