Antaura, the Demoness of Migraines
Summary and additional sources on the Greco-Roman daemon of migraines.
"The text is written on a lamella found in a stone sarcophagus (third century A.D.) discovered in Althenburg, Austria, the Roman Carnuntum.
The Greek term for ‘‘migraine,’’hemikranion, literally ‘‘half of the head,’’ is the root of our modern word.
Antaura, the daemon that causes migraine, is represented as a wind that comes from the ocean and is on the way to someone’s head.
Artemis, the great goddess of Ephesus, stops the daemon and sends it somewhere else, possibly into the head of an animal (a deer or an ox).
A little story, a mini-myth, sometimes called historiola, is attached to certify the potency of the charm. Amulet against Migraine (R. Kotansky, 1994, no.13)
Antaura came out of the sea. She shouted like a deer. She roared like an ox.
Artemis of Ephesus meets her: ‘‘Antaura, where are you headed?’’
‘‘Into the half of the head.’’
‘‘You surely will not go into . . .’’"
Quoted from:
Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. A Collection of Ancient Texts (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, 2nd ed. 2006), p. 281
Additional sources:
Roy Kotansky
Faraone, Christopher A.
A. A. Barb
