The Strix-Witch
Published on 26. May 2021
978-1-108-95697-0 (ISBN)
Description
The strix was a persistent feature of the folklore of the Roman world and subsequently that of the Latin West and the Greek East. She was a woman that flew by night, either in an owl-like form or in the form of a projected soul, in order to penetrate homes by surreptitious means and thereby devour, blight or steal the new-born babies within them. The motif-set of the ideal narrative of a strix attack - the 'strix-paradigm' - is reconstructed from Ovid, Petronius, John Damascene and other sources, and the paradigm's impact is traced upon the typically gruesome representation of witches in Latin literature. The concept of the strix is contextualised against the longue-duree notion of the child-killing demon, which is found already in the ancient Near East, and shown to retain a currency still as informing the projection of the vampire in Victorian fiction.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
File size
1,16 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-108-95697-0 (9781108956970)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Content
1. The Roman Strix: Terminology and Texts; 2. The Motif-set and Paradigm; 3. Roman Witches: The Impact of the Strix-Paradigm; 4. The Longue Duree: Greece and the Near East; 5. Conclusion.
