Apotrope

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Apotrope

Apotrope (adj.: apotropaic) refers to objects such as amulet

Amulet

An amulet , a close cousin of the talisman consists of any object intended to bring good luck and/or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include: Gemstone or simple Gemstone, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, jewelry ring, plants, animals, etc.; even words said in certain occasions?for example: vade retro satana?, to repe...
s and talismans or other symbol

Symbol

A symbol is something such as an entity, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention....
s intended to "ward off evil" or "avert or combat evil."

The word is of Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
origin and literally means "turning away" which was seen in the apotropaic eye, an exaggerated eye paint

Paint

Paint is any liquid, liquifiable, or mastic composition which after application to a Substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film....
ed on drinking vessels in the 6th century BC to ward away spirits while drinking

Drinking

Drinking is the act of consuming water through the mouth. Water is required for many of life?s physiological processes. Both excessive and inadequate water intake are associated with health problems....
. Curiously, eye

Eye

Eyes are Organ that detect light, and send signals along the optic nerve to the visual system and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system....
s were often painted to ward off the evil eye

Evil eye

The evil eye is a belief that the envy elicited by the good luck of fortunate people may result in their misfortune. The perception of the nature of the phenomenon, its causes, and possible protective measures, varies between different cultures....
.

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Encyclopedia

Apotrope (adj.: apotropaic) refers to objects such as amulet

Amulet

Symbol

Greek language

Paint

Drinking

Eye

Evil eye

Vampire

Vampires are mythology or folklore Revenant who subsist by feeding on the blood of the living. In folkloric tales, the undead vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighbourhoods they inhabited when they were alive....
fiction

Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
and folklore

Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
in reference to symbols such as crucifix

Crucifix

A crucifix is a Christian cross with a representation of Jesus' body, or corpus. It is a principal symbol of the Christianity religion. It is primarily used in the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican churches, and Eastern Orthodox churches, and it emphasizes Christ's sacrifice— his death by crucifixion, which they believe brought about th...
es, the Holy Sacraments, silver bullet

Silver bullet

The metaphor of the silver bullet applies to any wikt:straightforward solution perceived to have extreme effectiveness. The phrase typically appears with an expectation that some new technology or practice will easily cure a major prevailing problem....
s, wild rose

Rose

A rose is a perennial plant flower shrub or vine of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae, that contains over 100 species and comes in a variety of colors....
s and garlic

Garlic

Allium sativum L., commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion family Alliaceae. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, and chive....
that can ward away or destroy vampires. The Yiddish expression, "Kain ein horeh" is apotropaic in nature, and literally translates to "no evil eye

Evil eye

Knocking on wood

Knocking on wood, and the spoken expression "knock on wood" or "touch wood" are used to express a desire to avoid "tempting fate" after making some boast or speaking of one's own death....
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Because of the shared meaning, an "apotropaic amulet" would be redundant; rather, an apotropaic symbol can be an amulet.

This term is also related with the Chthonic

Chthonic

Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Ancient Greek religion.Greek khthon is one of several words for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the Landscape or the land as territory ....
gods in Greek mythology. It represented the mentality of turning away from these gods. The Uranian/Olympic gods were invited into people's lives. The Cthonic gods were still worshiped, but they were appeased from a distance, rather than being directly invited into a life.

Apotrope

See also