| Manuscript: | M72 |
| Sigla: | PCM 1 3 |
Text no. 
Position of the text within the manuscript. | 1 |
| Coptic Scriptorium: | |
| Date: | 401 – 600 |
| Text position: | Ro col. 1 ll. 1-34 |
| Type of text: | Curse to cause uterine bleeding (magical, formulary) |
| Original title: | |
| Original title (translated): | |
| Conventional title: | Curse to make a woman bleed |
| Language: | Egyptian (Coptic) |
| Dialect: | Sahidic (non-standard) |
| Script: | Coptic |
| Image: | https://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/apis/x-1328/1190ro.tif |
| Text: | Translation: |
| Recto Column 1 Translation [2] I invoke you Athrak, the great [3] angel who stands at the right [4] side of the sun, he to whom all the authorities [5] of the sun are subject, for if I [6] sent you to the abyss, you would destroy it; [7] silver, that you would destroy it; steel, that you would [8] break it; iron, you would melt [9] it; stone, you would break it; [10] the waters of the seas, you would make them [11] go dry; the mountains, you make them move; [12] the rocks, you would make them dissolve; [13] a pregnant woman, you would tear open her [14] right side and you would bring out the [15] child. It is not these things that I ask you, [16] nor other things, but […] [17] […] Sabaoth […] [18-20] […] [21] […] womb to her side, [22] opening from the crown of her head down [23] to the nails of her feet, may (?) you draw out [24] from under her polluted blood [25] and darkened water from [26] her right side to her left side. [27] May you cause it to weigh upon her [28] like a millstone! May it flow [29] under her like the source of the [30] four rivers! Neither magician nor [31] sorcerer nor heavenly ⟨being⟩ [32] nor underworld ⟨being⟩ nor ⟨the⟩ hand [33] of man will be able to contain this [34] blood which is under NN ⟨child of⟩ NN, except me! |
[2] I invoke you Athrak, the great [3] angel who stands at the right [4] side of the sun, he to whom all the authorities [5] of the sun are subject, for if I [6] sent you to the abyss, you would destroy it; [7] silver, you would destroy it; steel, you would [8] break it; iron, you would melt [9] it; stone, you would break it; [10] the waters of the seas, you would make them [11] go dry; the mountains, you make them move; [12] the rocks, you would make them dissolve; [13] a pregnant woman, you would tear open her [14] right side and you would bring out the [15] child. It is not these things that I ask you, [16] nor other things, but […] [17] […] Sabaoth […] [18-20] […] [21] […] womb to her side, [22] opening from the crown of her head down [23] to the nails of her feet, may (?) you draw out [24] from under her polluted blood [25] and darkened water from [26] her right side to her left side. [27] May you cause it to weigh upon her [28] like a millstone! May it flow [29] under her like the source of the [30] four rivers! Neither magician nor [31] sorcerer nor heavenly ⟨being⟩ [32] nor underworld ⟨being⟩ nor ⟨the⟩ hand [33] of man will be able to contain this [34] blood which is under NN ⟨child of⟩ NN, except me! |
| Tableau: | |
| Tracing by: |
| Apparatus: | Recto Column 1 |
| Notes: | We count the initial staurogram of col. 1, as a line, so that in recto col. 1, Worrell’s line 1 is our line 2. Recto Column 1 1-34. Curse to cause menstrual bleeding: Worrell understands this as a ritual to cause childbirth through a caesarian section, while Skiles suggests that it is rather a call for angelic protection during childbirth. Ritner (in Meyer/Smith 1994: 126) suggests that it is a spell to induce abortion. All understand the whole manuscript as a single ritual. The description of a child being torn out of a pregnant woman in ll. 13–15 is explicitly not requested (cf. note to ll. 15–16), and instead the request is for “polluted blood and water” to come out of the woman. The negative force of this is clear: it is to weigh upon her like a millstone (cf. the imagery of a millstone as punishment in Matthew 18.6, Mark 9.42, Luke 17.2), the blood is to come from her entire body (ll. 21–22), and it is to be of an extreme quantity, compared to the source of the four rivers of Eden (cf. Genesis 2.10). For other curses to cause a woman to bleed, see Crum ST 399 (KYP M536); P.Lond.Copt. 1223 (KYP M533); GEMF 34/PGM LXII (KYP M526) ll. 75–105, perhaps also BKU I 11 (KYP M78). Cf. the curses to make a woman bleed pus in PCM I 35 front ll. 7–17, 21–23. Compare also the recipes to heal menstrual bleeding, discussed in the note to PCM I 2 l. 1; cf. Preininger forthcoming c: ch. 4. |
| Bibliography: | Bélanger Sarrazin, Roxanne. Les divinités gréco-égyptiennes dans les textes magiques coptes: Une étude du syncrétisme religieux en Égypte tardo-antique et médiévale. Leuven: Peeters, forthcoming. |
| Editor: | Transcription from DDGLC checked with a photograph of the verso of the original (recto not online) by EL (24/1/20); translation, apparatus and notes by EL (24/1/20); added some notes based on Worrell MPS (24/1/2020), incorporated into notes by EL (24/1/20), revision by KD (25/1/2020); corrections to recto based on image by KD (27/1/2020); MPS addition to apparatus MPS (31/1/2020); KD + MPS based on image (9/2/2022); updated to PCM version by SG + KD (22/7/2026) |
How to cite:
[Editor names]. "KYP T610: Curse to make a woman bleed," Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts and Objects, Korshi Dosoo, Markéta Preininger, & Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin (principal editors), www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/index.php/text/kyp-t-610. Accessed on 28/07/2026For the "editor names", see the abbreviated names in the field "Editor", and to resolve the abbreviations, see the help page.