Thessaly: The Land of Witches

Thessaly had a reputation in antiquity for producing magical practitioners. This was the land where witches lived, traveled, and worked their magic using the rich variety of local flora. "The Thessalian women" became synonymous with "witches," in part due to ancient Greece's most famous witch, who stopped in the region on her travels. In this video, we'll take a tour of this magic land and explore the religious and magical activities of its inhabitants.

Ancient Sources:
Plutarch, Moralia, Conjugalia Praecepta 145c-d
Plutarch, Moralia, De Defectu Oraculorum 13
Scholion to Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.59-61

Bibliography (secondary scholarship):
Bicknell, Peter. "The witch Aglaonice and dark lunar eclipses in the second and first centuries BC." Journal of the British Astronomical Association 93 (1983): 160-163.

Mili, Maria. Religion And Society In Ancient Thessaly. First Edition. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2015.
[especially ch. 6]

Theme music: "Descent from the Olympos Pentatonic." (original)

IG: @hearthofhaemonia

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:43 Thessalian Life
05:36 Witchcraft
09:21 Literary History
17:03 Aglaonike
25:04 Wrap Up / Thank you!

Stock footage and music from Envato Elements.

Images:
Map of the Balkan Peninsula: public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
Drachma depicting cavalry and infantry, Pellina, Thessaly: CNG Coins (via Wikimedia Commons)
Battle of Issus Mosaic: public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
Greek Post Card, Paysans de Thessalie: public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
Relief sculpture, Taq-e Bustan, Kermanshah, Iran: Ninara (via Wikimedia Commons)
Cover of Mili's Book: (Amazon)
Hermes depicted on a black figure kylix: Katolophyromai (via Wikimedia Commons)
Hermes guiding the dead on a lekythos vase: ArchaiOpix (via Wikimedia Commons)
Coin of Ennodia, Pherai, Thessaly: ArchaiOpix (via Wikimedia Commons)
Medea, Frederick Sandys (1866-1868): public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
The Battle of Pharsalus and the Death of Pompey, Apollonio di Giovanni & Marco del Buono Giamberti (1455-1460): public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
Braund's translation of Lucan: (Amazon)
Kenney's translation of Apuleius: (Amazon)
The Witch House, Salem, MA: SalemPuritan (via Wikimedia Commons)
Bust of Plutarch: Odysses (via Wikimedia Commons)
Modern portrait of Aglaonike (Aglaonice): Alzinous (via Wikimedia Commons)

[chrstopherblighton-sande]

The classics unfortunately still have a reputation of being dry and elitist, but there are people who have a wonderful ability to make them approachable, accessible, relevant and above all incredibly interesting - such as the wonderful Mary Beard for example. For me your channel is absolutely one of those too. You really conjured up the atmosphere that the name Thessaly resonated with for the people in the Greco-Roman world, and helped us experience a bit of that too. Many thanks to you.

[beansnrice]

Holy crap, the play you mentioned, "The Clouds." That whole thing about the man calling down the moon like the women. That's literally the plot of another From Software game, Bloodborne. Holy moly, thank you for all of the real life lore! Wow, I swear that you must be reading from Miyazaki san's notes. =)

[ΔήμοςΜετεώρων]

Many thanks for this wonderful video. I only would like to add, that from the inner Greek perspective Thessaly (Thessalía as we say) is a part of Northern Greece.

[allangardiner]

The info about death cults helps explain for me the episodes of bizarre funeral events and living dead in Golden Ass. I am back from holidays and have two Kate videos to catch up on. What a treat! Can't wait for tan episode on The Civil War.

[aliensurfer]

When I lay dead in Thessaly, The land was rife with sorcery: Fair witches howled to Hecate, Pouring the blood of rams by night With many a necromantic rite To draw me back for their delight.
My delight is your upcoming video on Erichtho of Lucan and Medea of Seneca. Warm Regards.

[nathanbuhrke]

Fantastic video, I love the amount of research you put into this

[feralfoods]

thank you, i love these fascinating insights into the ancient mind, and it is funny how everybody writes others' history, but it all makes for a great story! i never really thought about a highly Herbal Culture like that in Europe, they must have been like miracle healers, and certainly connected with powers of some sort. —i have a couple questions: is the famous witches' alphabet "Theban" based on ancient writing from the Thessaly region? and did the two Thebes cities have anything to do with each other, were Egypt & Thessaly somehow connected? —thank you for introducing me to Aglaonike, i've never heard of her. there is so much in this vid i could go on, but this is already a long msg. —thank you again, and i really like the channel name!

[lakshmimenon]

Your video was very informative and amusing. I am searching for reliable documentation on the social culture of Thessaly in 2000 BC. Could you advice me if you have any knowledge of the sources?

[kentofts]

Thumbs up.. what I was surprised to learn was how sceptical ancient romans like Pliny and Plutarch were that magic actually worked.

[MarcelVincent]

what is the book shown at 38 seconds..

this video is great.

have you done much research into the two drugs "the black death", "theriac" and the burning purple

[northboy]

I spent 5 days in thessaly. Kalambaka. And listening to this two to three times over was so awesome whilst in the mountains. It’s definitely is a magical place and getting caught in the dark in a forrest with huge old trees that were hard to describe but
was/were terrifying. Lol. Definitely a land where witches could roam

[aetherion]

Interesting vid. Came here by the algorithm. Thessaly is in Northern Greece (Macedonia, Thrace, Thessaly and Epirus) though and not central. The central part is south of Thessaly and actually insignificant, since everything south of Lamia is Southern Greece.

[beansnrice]

Lol, not to sound like a broken record but this kind of sounds like the Carian royal family of Elden ring.They are know for their lineage of sorceresses and one of then, Sellen, is known as the graven witch. Also Sellen's mother, possibly the most powerful sorceress in the game Renalla, is known as queen of the full moon.

[AndYourLittleDog]

My paternal aunt was rumored to be the kind of witch you didn’t want to cross…and she’s from that region of Greece. Really, a very malicious woman. We were very careful to not leave any personal belongings or stray hairs at her house and we never, EVER accepted any drink she offered.

[jonnymak]

Its how, why, and the Energy put into the individual erbs in what order they all used erbs but certain did spells lol most ... its alll REALLY Deep, i just moved to Greece a little over a year ago from Philly .. all Greek kids call and know out gmoms are witches 😂
Serioursly though.

[bobhope]

Lol that symbol is on the handle of my old school backpack…….. don’t have to tell me my moms a witch! Lol nothing like commercial paganism