Latin — 1533, repaired
Veneficiorum tanta narratur esse potentia, ut credantur omnia inferiora subvertere, et tabescere et permutare posse, quemadmodum canit Vergilius: [†verse, ~5 lines, Eclogue 8 — Moeris/Circe herbs passage, OCR unreliable] Item alibi de sociis Ulyssis: [†verse, ~2 lines, Circe transforming Ulysses' men — likely Aeneid 7] Et paulo post: [†verse, ~3 lines, Picus transformed by Circe — likely Aeneid 7 / Ovid, Metamorphoses 14] Sunt autem huiusmodi veneficiorum species, cuiusmodi recitat Lucanus de venefica illa Thessala, manes evocante, inquiens: [†verse, ~6 lines, Lucan, Pharsalia 6 — Erichtho's ingredients] Et qualia narrat Apuleius de Pamphila illa venefica, ad amorem operante: cui Fotis ancilla pilos caprinos, ab inflatis utribus detonsos, pro Boeotii adulescentis capillis attulit. Pamphila, inquiens, illa vecors animi, tectum scandulare conscendit, quod altrinsecus aedium patore perflatili, nudarum, ad omnes orientales caeterosque aspectus pervium, maxime his artibus suis commodatum, secreto colit; priusque apparatu solito instruxit feralem officinam, omne genus aromatis, ignorabiliter laminis literatis, et infelicium navium durantibus clavis defletorum, sepultorum etiam cadaverum expositis multis admodum membris: hic nares et digiti, illic carnosi clavi pendentium, alibi trucidatorum servatus cruor, et exorta ferarum dentibus trunca calvaria — tunc decantatis, spirantibus fibris, litat vario latice, nunc rore fontano, nunc lacte vaccino, nunc melle montano libat et mulsa: sic illos capillos in mutuos nexus obditos atque nodatos, cum multis odoribus dat vivis carbonibus adolendos. Tunc protinus, inexpugnabili magicae disciplinae potestate, et caeca numinum coactorum violentia, illa corpora quorum sumebant stridentes capilli, spiritum mutuantur humanum, et sentiunt, et audiunt, et ambulant, et quo nidor suarum ducebat exuviarum veniunt, et pro illo iuvene Boeotio, ad ianuam gestientes, fores insiliunt. Augustinus quoque perhibet se in Italia audivisse mulieres quasdam venenficas, artibus adeo imbutas, ut voluissent, dato caseo, statim homines converterent in iumenta, quae necessaria portarent, et hos, finito opere, in homines iterum restituerent.
Close translation
The power of sorceries is reported to be so great that they are believed able to overturn all lower things, and to waste them away and change them, just as Vergil sings: (verse, summarized — see flag: Moeris the shepherd is turned into a wolf and made to hide in the woods by Pontic herbs and poisons gathered by Moeris himself; souls are called up from deep tombs; sown crops are magically transplanted elsewhere.) Likewise elsewhere, of the companions of Ulysses: (verse, summarized — see flag: the cruel goddess Circe, by her powerful herbs, had clothed men's faces and forms into the faces and backs of wild beasts.) And a little after: (verse, summarized — see flag: Picus, the tamer of horses, whom his own wife, seized by desire, struck with a golden wand and, changed by her poisons, made into a bird — Circe gave his wings their colors.) Now there are such further kinds of sorceries as Lucan relates of that Thessalian sorceress who calls up the shades of the dead, saying: (verse, summarized — see flag: a catalogue of monstrous and ill-omened ingredients mixed together — everything nature has produced from her most sinister womb: rabid dogs' foam, lynx entrails, the knotted innards of a hard hyena, the marrow of a stag fed on serpents, the remora that holds ships fast in calm water, and serpents' eyes.) And of the sort that Apuleius relates of that sorceress Pamphila, working toward love-magic: for whom the servant-girl Fotis brought goat-hairs, clipped from inflated wineskins, in place of the hair of a young man of Boeotia. Pamphila, he says — that woman deranged in mind — climbed up to the shingled roof, which, open on every side to a free passage of air, and accessible to every eastward and other aspect, she cultivates in secret, being especially suited to these arts of hers; and she had first equipped her funereal workshop with its accustomed apparatus: every kind of spice, tablets inscribed in unknown characters, and the enduring nails of ill-fated shipwrecks, mourned and given up; and, laid out, very many parts of buried corpses as well — here noses and fingers, there the fleshy nails of hanged men, elsewhere the preserved blood of the slaughtered, and skulls torn and gnawed by the teeth of wild beasts. Then, having chanted her charms over the still-breathing entrails, she makes offering with various liquids — now with spring-water, now with cow's milk, now with mountain honey she pours a libation, and mead as well. Thus she puts those hairs together, bound and knotted in mutual twists, and gives them, with many perfumes, to be burned on live coals. Then at once, by the unconquerable power of the magic art, and by the blind violence of the compelled divinities, those bodies whose hair, still crackling, was consumed, borrow a human spirit, and feel, and hear, and walk, and come to wherever the smoke of their own shorn hair was leading them, and, eager for that Boeotian youth, leap at the door in his stead. Augustine also reports that he himself, in Italy, heard of certain sorceresses so steeped in their arts that, if they wished, by giving a piece of cheese, they would at once turn men into pack-animals, who would carry necessary burdens, and afterward, the work finished, restore them again to men.
Modern rendering
Sorceries are said to have such power that people believe they can overturn everything in the lower world, wasting it away and transforming it — as Vergil sings: (verse, summarized — see flag: the shepherd Moeris is turned into a wolf and made to hide in the forest through Pontic herbs and poisons he gathered himself; the dead are called up from their graves; standing crops are magically moved from one field to another.) And elsewhere, about the companions of Ulysses: (verse, summarized — see flag: the savage goddess Circe used her powerful herbs to change men's faces and bodies into the faces and hindquarters of wild animals.) And a little further on: (verse, summarized — see flag: Picus, a breaker of horses, was struck with a golden wand by his own wife, driven by desire, and turned by her poisons into a bird — Circe gave his new wings their colors.) There are also sorceries of the kind Lucan describes in the Thessalian witch who summons the dead, where he writes: (verse, summarized — see flag: a grotesque list of ingredients drawn from nature's most sinister products — rabid dogs' foam, lynx guts, a tough hyena's innards, deer marrow from an animal fed on snakes, the fish that can stop a ship dead in calm water, and snakes' eyes, all mixed together.) And of the kind Apuleius describes in the sorceress Pamphila, working love-magic — for whom her maid Fotis brought goat hairs, clipped from blown-up wineskins, passing them off as the hair of a young Boeotian man. Pamphila, he says — out of her mind — climbed up onto the shingled roof, open on every side to the wind and facing every direction, a spot she cultivated in private because it suited her particular arts so well; she had already set up her grim workshop in the usual way: every kind of spice, tablets inscribed with unreadable writing, nails pulled — after mourning rites — from wrecked ships, and, laid out besides, quite a number of pieces taken from buried corpses: here noses and fingers, there the fleshy nail-stubs of hanged men, elsewhere blood saved from murder victims, and skulls gnawed and broken by the teeth of wild animals. Then, chanting over organs that still seemed to breathe, she made offerings with different liquids — spring water at one point, cow's milk at another, mountain honey and mead at another. She twisted and knotted the hairs together, and, with many perfumes added, set them to burn on live coals. Immediately then, by the unstoppable power of the magical art and the blind force exerted over the compelled spirits, the bodies whose crackling hair was being burned borrowed a human spirit — they could feel, hear, and walk, and they came toward wherever the smoke from their own hair was drawing them, eager to reach the door in place of the young Boeotian man and throwing themselves at it. Augustine also says he personally heard, in Italy, of women so skilled in sorcery that by giving someone a piece of cheese, they could instantly turn people into pack animals to carry loads, and then, once the job was done, turn them back into people again.
Editorial flags — draft status
- verse: Lines beginning 'Has herbas, atque haec Ponto mihi lecta venena...' — Vergil, Eclogue 8 (Moeris turned to wolf, souls raised, crops transplanted). OCR of verse unreliable; kept as OCR lines in latin, prose-summarized in close/modern per spec rule 2.
- verse: Lines 'Quos hominum ex facie dea saeva potentibus herbis / Induerat Circe, in vultus, ac terga ferarum' — likely Vergil, Aeneid 7 (Circe's transformed men), possibly conflated with Ovid Metamorphoses source; not versified, prose-summarized per spec rule 2.
- verse: Lines 'Picus, equum domitor... Circe... partitque coloribus alas' — Picus transformed into a bird by Circe; content matches Ovid, Metamorphoses 14, though positioned here as continuing the same Vergilian citation in Agrippa's text — flagging the attribution as uncertain. Prose-summarized per spec rule 2.
- verse: Lines beginning 'Huc quicquid fetu genuit natura sinistro...' — Lucan, Pharsalia (De Bello Civili) book 6, the Erichtho passage (Thessalian witch raising the dead). OCR of verse unreliable; prose-summarized per spec rule 2.
- uncertain: The Apuleius passage (Pamphila/Fotis, from the Metamorphoses/Golden Ass book 3) is prose in the original and was translated in full rather than summarized, per spec rule 2's scope (verse only) — flagging this editorial boundary decision for review.