The eye of Theseus

Θησεύς
ἔα ἔα:
τί δή ποθ᾽ ἥδε δέλτος ἐκ φίλης χερὸς
ἠρτημένη; θέλει τι σημῆναι νέον;
ἀλλ᾽ ἦ λέχους μοι καὶ τέκνων ἐπιστολὰς
ἔγραψεν ἡ δύστηνος, ἐξαιτουμένη;
860θάρσει, τάλαινα: λέκτρα γὰρ τὰ Θησέως
οὐκ ἔστι δῶμά θ᾽ ἥτις εἴσεισιν γυνή.
καὶ μὴν τύποι γε σφενδόνης χρυσηλάτου
τῆς οὐκέτ᾽ οὔσης οἵδε προσσαίνουσί με.
φέρ᾽ ἐξελίξας περιβολὰς σφραγισμάτων
865ἴδω τί λέξαι δέλτος ἥδε μοι θέλει.

Theseus What's this? What can it be, this tablet hanging from her dear hand? Does it want to tell me of something I do not know? Has the poor woman written me a message of entreaty about our marriage and children? [860] Fear not, poor woman: there is no woman who shall take possession of the bed and house of Theseus. (He takes up the tablet.) See, the impress of the dead woman's gold-chased seal attracts my eyes. Come, let me open its sealed wrappings [865] and see what this tablet wishes to tell me.

The tablet hangs from Phaedra's dead hand -- Euripides uses the same word here -- ἠρτημένη -- that was used to describe Phaedra's body hanging from the rafter. His eyes are drawn to it, and the language dwells upon seeing and the intricate thing being seen:

καὶ μὴν, Why look!, he says, τύποι γε σφενδόνης χρυσηλάτου the impress (form, shape) of the bezel (or seal) of beaten gold προσσαίνουσί με -- literally: fawns on me, pleases, coaxes my attention.

He continues:

ἐξελίξας περιβολὰς σφραγισμάτων
Let me unfold the wrappings, (garments, twinings) of the impression of the signet, the seal  

ἴδω τί λέξαι δέλτος ἥδε μοι θέλει.
to see what the tablet wants to say to me.

Theseus's speech shifts from deluded speculation about what the tablet might say to a curiously vivid and concrete description of the appearance of the seal which has caught his eye. The usual rhetorical term for this sort of vivid showing is hypotyposis (enargeia)

Gk hypotypōsis, fr. hypotypoun to sketch, outline, fr. hypo- + typoun to stamp, form (fr. typos impression, cast)

He is about to read something that speaks of a deed which he'll say dishonors "the eye of Zeus," that is, the sun. It's worth pondering why Euripides chose to present such a vivid description of the seal, the tablet, the act of unwrapping it, all this in the eye of Theseus, as he is about to read a text depicting a deed never seen by the eye of Theseus, or by the sun.

A curse tablet in Jerusalem

Speaking of curses and charmed language: 1,700 years ago, a tablet in Jerusalem called upon a motley assortment of gods to curse Iennyes:

A lead curse tablet, dating back around 1,700 years and likely written by a magician, has been discovered in a collapsed Roman mansion in Jerusalem, archaeologists report. 

The mansion, which is being excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Givati Parking Lot, is located in what is known as the "City of David," an area that holds at least 6,000 years of human occupation. The mansion itself covers at least 2,000 square meters (about half an acre) and contains two large open courtyards adjacent to each other. It was in use between the late third century and A.D. 363, when it was destroyed in a series of earthquakes on May 18 or 19. 

The text is written in Greek and, in it a woman named Kyrilla invokes the names of six gods to cast a curse on a man named Iennys, apparently over a legal case. [See Photos of the Ancient Curse Tablet]

"I strike and strike down and nail down the tongue, the eyes, the wrath, the ire, the anger, the procrastination, the opposition of Iennys," part of the curse reads in translation. Kyrilla asks the gods to ensure that "he in no way oppose, so that he say or perform nothing adverse to Kyrilla … but rather that Iennys, whom the womb bore, be subject to her…" 

To obtain her goal Kyrilla combined elements from four religions, Robert Walter Daniel, of the Institut für Altertumskunde at the University of Cologne, told LiveScience in an email. Of six gods invoked, four of them are Greek (Hermes, Persephone, Pluto and Hecate), one is Babylonian (Ereschigal) and one, Abrasax, is Gnostic, a religion connected to early Christianity. Additionally, the text contains magic words such as "Iaoth" that have a Hebrew/Judaism origin.