An amulet is a piece of personal jewellery that protects the wearer from misfortune, illness and even death.
While we look at the traditions and history of amulets, we will focus on symbolic elements such as horseshoes and crosses. We will save the talismanic effect of gemstones for another time.
The scorpion jewel worn on Elisabetta's forehead is thought to be related to Scorpio, the astrological sign linked to fertility. (The duchess's husband was sterile.) Detail of portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga by Raphael, 1504-1505. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
Give me an amulet that keeps intelligence with you, red when you love, and rosier red, and when you love not, pale and blue.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1842
An amulet, talisman or charm is a piece of personal jewellery that is believed to give its wearer special powers or abilities because it carries something within it (shape, material or colour). The word is derived from the Latin term amoletum : a means of defence.
Every culture has an amulet tradition. It is part of our humanity.
MAGICAL THINKING around jewellery is part of its history (and a big reason why we love it). In the past, we have already reported on the protective power of hearts, birds, snakes, scented jewellery and coral.
In ancient times, there was a belief in a malevolent power called the evil eye, which is caused by a malicious look - usually when the recipient is unaware of it. (Historians believe this concept is 5,000 years old). The evil eye was the harbinger of bad health and misfortune. It cannot be overemphasised how unsettling this was for our ancestors. Amulets offered the only known protection.
The belief in the evil eye is still very much alive today. If you have ever "knocked on wood"," you have tried to fight the evil eye (more on this in our last amulet). The Jews uttered the word "kinehora" to ward off the evil eye immediately. It is a contraction of three Yiddish words: kayn ayin hara, literally “not (kayn) the evil (hara) eye (ayin)”
Here are six powerful amulets and how they came to be.
The Phallus
Left : Gold Romano-British pendant in the shape of a phallus. Lynn Museum, Norfolk Museums Collections.
Right : Roman tintinnabulum, 1st century AD. Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya. Barcelona. Photographed by mmarftrejo, CreativeCommons.
If you saw someone wearing the pendant pictured above as a necklace, how would you react? Would you laugh? Would you be embarrassed? Exactly! You have just uncovered the reason why the Romans believed that the phallus would protect against evil. It was believed that the emotions evoked by the sight of an erect phallus would distract and diverted attention from evil. The phallic deity was called “Fascinus, “from “fascinare”, which means "to enchant" and is also the root of the English word fascinate.
Sometimes the phallus was depicted urinating or ejaculating — to literally dazzle the evil eye. And the Jews also superstitiously spat three times in the wrong direction — ptoo ptoo ptoo — which is probably due to the idea that ejaculation blinds the evil eye. Liquids, whether wine, semen, saliva or water, have always had a particularly strong folk-magical power against the evil eye.
Roman Gold Phallic Ring, c. 1st-2nd Century AD Ancient
The phallus had emotional power, but people also believed in its physical power. In ancient Greece and Rome, the rooster was equated with a weapon in the collective imagery. In popular stories, the hero explicitly punished villains with his erect phallus instead of a club.
Ancient Rome was a world in which one in four babies died in infancy and fifty per cent of those who survived infancy died before the age of eighteen. In the absence of modern medicine and surgery, phallic amulets were often used by hopeful parents to protect their male children. A sausage on a child's neck is cute, but a tail could also be hung outside houses and shops. There was even a special winged phallus, a tintinnabulum, which was a kind of wind charm/doorbell. (Fun fact: Sigmund Freud was an avid collector of ancient phallic amulets: part of his penis envy theory)
The Scarab
IN ANCIENT EGYPT, almost all jewellery had a magical meaning. Sometimes it was the material that was supposed to protect the wearer, such as shells from the Red Sea. Or it was the shape: a falcon or bull could bestow the powers of these animals. A fish, obviously a good swimmer, was carried to prevent drowning. A frog was worn to ensure fertility (because so many of them appeared every year when the Nile flooded). A very popular amulet was the scarab beetle, the symbol of the sun god Ra. As it feeds on decaying matter, it symbolised rebirth. It was known to protect the living from disease and guarantee eternal life for the dead.
Left : An Egyptian funerary mask with a blue glass scarab - a symbol of renewal - on the top of the head. Cartonnage Mask of a Woman, mid 1st century BCE - mid 1st century CE. The Walters Art Museum.
Right : Heart Scarab of Hatnefer, 1492-1473 B.C., The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bulla
For Etruscan and Roman boys, the most visible amulet was the bulla. It was given to the baby at the age of nine days and worn around the neck. A boy wore his bulla until he received his toga virilis and became a man (sometime between the ages of 14 and 17 — his father decided when he was ready. (It is not yet clear whether girls also wore bulla.) The bulla was hollow and could be filled with perfume or a pendant. Basically, they were an early form of a medallion. (For the reasons mentioned above, most bulla contained a small penis)
Left : Portrait of young boy wearing the Bulla- Roman marble statue-1st c. AD
Right: Bulla-pendant;2ndC-3rdC, the british museum
Wearing an ancient bulla, Princesse de Broglie, 1851-53 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
THE BULLA later experienced a revival that coincided with the continued excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th and 19th centuries. Each new jewellery find was a cause for excitement. Many designs (including the bulla) were imitated, but some women (such as the elegant Princesse de Broglie, above) preferred the real thing and wore genuine artefacts.
Lunula
A gold lunula dating from the Early Bronze Age, British Museum.
A mummy portrait from Roman-Egypt depicting a woman wearing a lunula pendant, 55-70 AD. From the Fayum Portraits, The British Museum.
WHILE YOUNG BOYS were protected by the fascinum, the divine phallus, young girls had the power of the moon behind them. The lunula, which was worn by children, women and even animals, was an amulet in the shape of a crescent moon. The shape placed women and children under the protection of the Greek goddesses Artemis, goddess of hunting and nature, who used the moon to her advantage, and Selene, goddess of the moon. The moon was also a reminder of the menstrual cycle, so the amulet was intended to protect women's health and fertility.
THE LUNULA was one of the Roman amulets that the early Christian church had difficulty dissuading women from wearing. In the fourth century, Gregory of Nazianzus wrote in On Baptism: "You do not need amulets... with which the evil one invades the minds of ordinary men and steals for himself the honour that belongs to God." He then deplores the way in which "foolish old women" bind moon-shaped plates of gold, silver or cheaper material to babies.
Horseshoe
Sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the Romans commenced the worship of Epona, the protector of horses and patroness of the Roman cavalry. She distinguished herself as the sole Celtic deity venerated within Rome. It is probable that during this era, the ancient Romans adopted the Celtic custom of safeguarding horse hooves by affixing nailed-on shoes.
Antique pearl and diamond horseshoe earrings
The origins of the horseshoe as a talisman are intertwined with the patron saint of goldsmiths and jewellers. Legend has it that in the 10th century, a farrier named Dunstan, plying his trade in England, encountered the devil who entered his forge demanding his horse be reshod. Employing either the method of affixing iron shoes to the devil himself or by gripping his nose with heated tongs (the exact method varies in the telling), Dunstan inflicted considerable pain upon the devil. This compelled the devil to vow never to approach a horseshoe and to steer clear of any dwelling where one is displayed.
Antique gold locket with horseshoe motif
Victorian horseshoe bracelet
Part of the luck associated with the horseshoe is attributed to its seven nails. For millennia, the number seven has been regarded as auspicious by various cultures. Numerous ancient civilisations held the belief that the seventh son would be endowed with mystical abilities, encompassing both benevolent and malevolent forces. In the Christian doctrine, it is said that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, leading to the frequent appearance of the number seven in the Bible as a symbol of completeness. Similarly, in Islam, Judaism, and certain ancient Mesopotamian beliefs, the concept of seven heavens is prevalent. Confucianism, too, reflects this pattern, with yin, yang, and the five elements combined symbolising harmony – a total of seven elements. Hinduism speaks of seven higher worlds and seven underworlds, while in Buddhism, it is noted that the newborn Buddha took seven steps. This reverence for the number seven extends even to secular beliefs, as evidenced by the seven colours in a rainbow. Therefore, the presence of seven nails in a horseshoe is just one among the myriad instances of the mystical significance of the number seven.
Cross
Cross pendant, 5th-8th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Details of Portrait of an unknown woman ca 1540 -Frans Hals Museum
The initial form of the cross was the ankh, a venerable egyptian hieroglyph utilised in inscriptions to denote "life," "living," or "alive." during the 4th century, the coptic christians of egypt adopted it as a symbol representing christ's assurance of eternal life. Concurrently, early christians in rome embraced the fertility emblem of the fish as a signifier of their faith. While christian ecclesiastical bodies did not advocate for the use of the cross as a talisman, they recognised it as an emblem of faith.
In the year 1683, christian blichfeld, the provost of st. Bendt's church, commenced the reorganisation of certain graves within the church grounds to accommodate a sepulchre for his wife. During this process, he displaced two royal interments and unearthed a byzantine reliquary cross, believed to have belonged to queen dagmar who passed away in 1212. This cross, subsequently known as the dagmar cross, ascended to the status of a national symbol in denmark. In contemporary times, replicas of this cross are frequently bestowed upon danish girls during their baptism or confirmation ceremonies, underlining its enduring cultural significance.
Left : Queen Alexandra wearing the Dagmar cross (underneath those ropes of pearls) at the coronation in 1902.
Right : The Dagmar Cross, 11th century. National Museum of Denmark.
When King Frederick VII of Denmark's daughter, Alexandra, married the Prince of Wales in 1863, it was deemed appropriate that he present her with a replica of this ancient cross to accompany her to England. This was no ordinary museum shop item. King Frederik VII incorporated a piece of silk from King Canute's grave and a fragment of wood purported to be from the True Cross into the reliquary. Alexandra, renowned for her extravagant taste in jewellery, took this further by commissioning the Danish court jeweller, Julius Dideriksen, to set the pendant into a necklace adorned with 118 pearls and 2,000 diamonds. Notably, it included two substantial pearls showcased at the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851. Queen Alexandra notably donned the necklace and cross at the coronation in 1902. The cross became so coveted that jewellers struggled to satisfy the burgeoning demand.