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Erichtho's reanimated soldier

Aussi appelé: Erichtho, Ἐριχθώ
Folklore et mythesMort-vivantBouge à peineSorcellerieMonde antique

The necromancy of Erichtho in Lucan's civil-war epic is the most elaborate corpse-raising scene in classical literature. On the eve of the battle of Pharsalus the witch picks a dead soldier, pumps the body full of blood and poisons and bullies its ghost into returning to speak. The scene made her the archetypal necromancer for Dante, Marston and Goethe. It set the pattern of the dead raised unwillingly, by one person's power, for that person's purposes.12

⚔️ L'affronter
Première mention
61
Lucan's Pharsalia, begun around AD 61 and left unfinished at his death in AD 65
Origine
Roman (literary)
Italie, Grèce
Ce qui le provoque
Sorcellerie
A Thessalian witch forces a dead man's spirit back into his corpse to make it prophesy.
Comment on en devient un
A freshly killed soldier chosen from a battlefield because his lungs are intact and can still produce a voice.
Comment il se déplace
Bouge à peine
The corpse is made to speak; the surviving summaries do not describe it moving about.
Intelligence
Un peu d'intelligence
Points faibles
  • the rite ends with the body's burial, which releases him

Quand est-il apparu pour la première fois ?

Monde antique
Moyen Âge
1500 à 1899
1900 à 1967
1968 à 1999
2000 à 2009
2010 à aujourd'hui
61

Lucan's Pharsalia, begun around AD 61 and left unfinished at his death in AD 65

notes de terrain

Ce que disent les sources

1

Erichtho lives among graves, gibbets and battlefields and builds her spells from corpses12

2

She fills the body with warm blood, 'lunar poison' and other substances12

3

The spirit refuses to re-enter until she threatens the powers of the underworld12

4

The dead man describes civil war among the shades and gives an ambiguous prophecy to Sextus Pompey12

5

Scholars read the scene as a dark inversion of Aeneas's visit to the Sibyl in Virgil12

6

Dante has Virgil say Erichtho once sent him to the bottom of Hell12

Sources

  1. Erichtho - Wikipedia
  2. Pharsalia - Wikipedia

Chaque fait de cette page provient de ces sources, reformulé dans nos propres mots. Une erreur ? Écrivez-nous à hello@zombiewiki.app.

Du folklore des mêmes contrées

VrykolakasGreek, 1645PhilinnionAncient Greek, 150The corpse of ThelyphronRoman (literary), 170Vampire of VeniceVenetian (Italy), 1576Vrykolakas of MykonosGreek, 1701BouplagosAncient Greek / Roman, 150

Même époque : Monde antique

Ishtar's army of the deadMesopotamian (Akkadian), 1000 av. J.-C.Lugnano child burialLate Roman (Italy), 450PolykritosAncient Greek, 150