A Historical Account of the Depiction and Evolution of Witchcraft and its Users

Since the ancient world, there have always been depictions of magic and witches. From Greece and Rome to England, literary depictions have always influenced the image of witches, and there is almost always an underlying connotation of females being involved. If a man is involved with witchcraft, it is always under the assumption that he had a close female relation that pulled him in, or that he was performing an evolved version of witchcraft. Gendered witchcraft is also an important distinction. When females practiced magic, it was diabolical or devious, sexual, and base, while when men practiced magic is was intellectual and strictly distinct, usually coming from a place of heresy. 

The stereotype of the witch evolved as different cultures interacted with the idea. Christians drew heavily from Greek and Roman ideas and so there are many examples of parallels or verbatim crossovers. Social events also played an integral part to the portrayal of witches. Witchcraft became a means of explaining external factors that hindered society at large, such as in times of the plague when there was no obvious reason for the mass death that assaulted society. Witchcraft served as a scape goat to persecute those that believed something different as in the case of the Jews, and to explain the unexplainable.

Ancient inheritance served an important role in how magic and witchcraft was later classified. In Greek and Roman society, magic was always something to be feared, and usually an act coming from a place and desire to cause harm. Literature in particular offered a perspective, though always from the male point of view, that portrayed evil females willing to sacrifice everything, even children, for power: Medea, Circe, Canidia, and Morgana le Fay are all women depicted thus. 

Medea murders her children to punish Jason and is known for powerful magic. Circe is known for magic of transformation and punishing Odysseus's men and turning them to swine. Canidia is known for her erotic magic, and she is also portrayed as an anti-mother figure, similar to Medea where she threatens to kill a child if she does not receive her lover. Morgana le Fay is a bit of an outsider here as in the first accounts of Morgana from the 12th century, she is seen as a beautiful healer, and only later, by the 15th century, is she depicted as a dark sorceress who wants to kill her half-brother Arthur. 

These early stories and depictions justified a poor view of women and served as an inspiration for the murderous, anti-mother figure seeking power by whatever means necessary. It is clear how this propaganda was later employed.

Men were typically only persecuted if they were close with a "known witch". When men performed witchcraft, it was portrayed as an intellectual art and strictly different. In early medieval Europe, it was scholars (i.e.: men) who were practicing witchcraft as it was in written in Latin. Only those in the church were sufficiently educated enough to even read the manuscripts. To blame any group outside of the church at this time is hypocrisy, and yet it was the church that blamed women when it was an internal issue, not an external one. 

Interestingly, the region mattered greatly as some regions left men alone for the most part, and in others, it was mostly men. According to the chart supplied, northern regions were more likely to persecute male witchcraft, with Iceland having a male rate of 92% with only 8% being female (Apps. 45). Culture matters as does the reasoning behind persecution. For some, it was to remove political opponents, and elsewise as a result of close affiliation with a female seen as “non-traditional”; for others, it was because genuine witchcraft was believed. A takeaway here is that while women were persecuted more, it does not mean that men avoided persecution.

The stereotype of the witch tended to serve as a scape-goat figure to assign blame when things did not go well for the elite, or for those in power. These ideas are severely heightened when mass illness and death are at play with religious societies: something has upset God, so we need to do something about it and remove the thing that has upset the balance. Therefore, women and other religious groups, such as the Jews, fell victim to unjustified accusations of witchcraft simply because they were outside the realm of power. 

Later on, when the Sabbath became prominent, brooms were introduced to explain how women arrived at the Sabbath, so that was a relatively modern and impractical invention that emerged as a means of explaining how women could possibly have attended; it was supposedly held far away to remove suspicion, hence the broom to fly. Further cementing the idea that women are "lesser" or "other", the four humors as seen from Galen, a physician from the Roman Empire, indicated a natural predisposition for women being inferior to men. Of the four humours: hot, cold, wet, and dry, Galen assigns wet and cold to women and hot and dry to men, alluding to women being "cold" and "fluid" or fickle. This stereotype is later used to justify the accusations of women in the middle ages. 

Women have often times been seen as "lesser", and from the Christian perspective, even the bible seemingly corroborates this idea in Eve and in Lilith, the destroyer of paradise and mother of evil respectively. These figures tarnish the reputation of woman in general and are used as a weapon.

In terms of confessions, although many were likely coerced and received via torture, there may be more to the story. As time evolved, women very well may have identified as witches as a means of empowerment in a time of severe oppression. Due to the fact that witchcraft was depicted solely as female power and that men had nothing to do with it, some women may have gravitated to the idea to feel powerful if they identified with such things. The fear surrounding witchcraft gave women a certain power they'd never had before. This attachment to power and the chance to have a voice would have been an exciting prospect. 

In addition, since magic throughout history has always maintained a natural healing aspect, some women may have seen witchcraft as a means to heal loved ones or to fix infertility. This plays into the maternal role that is so perversely tainted with ancient sources, such as Medea and Canidia, one that is unfairly pressed onto real women who dearly loved their children and wanted better health and a family.

In conclusion, witchcraft evolved as ideas and people did. Witchcraft and magic is not something that can be understood in logical terms, and the knee-jerk reaction to things we don't understand is usually to stamp it out. The wielding of magic had many purposes: to gain a sense of control, to understand the future, to harm, to heal, to explain the unexplainable, to suppress minorities, and the usage was entirely dependent on who used it and why. In times of peace and in the beginning, magic to heal was accepted. However, as illness and plague spread, it was twisted and seen as the cause.

[WORKS CITED]

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