MALOCCHIO. — A superstitious popular belief, prompted by instinctive impression or by chance unfortunate coincidences, according to which it is held that from certain individuals there emanates a harmful influence causing injury to persons or things. In general, the eye is regarded as the principal organ that casts the evil influence, whence the epithet «iettatore» (from jettare, «to throw» in the Neapolitan dialect), applied to the person who casts II.
The m. may be attributed to an innocent and unfortunate deformity of the gaze or of the body, but also to the deliberate wickedness of the person who casts II. In this case the Latins called it invidia, from in-video, «I look against» (the incantation uttered against the envious person is well known; it appears on the pavement of the Taberna dei pescrivendoli at Ostia [reg. IV, island 5ª]: «envious one, I blind you!»); the Greeks called it βάσσανοι, a word of unknown etymology on which the Latin fascinum was modeled.
The m. provoked by envy could be exercised to the detriment of persons and things. As a remedy, the ancients (as in current practice) employed gold, an incorruptible metal (Pliny, Nat. hist., XXXIII, 4); branches of coral (surcùli), which, being red and pointed, pierce the evil influence and neutralize it (ibid., XXXII, 2); amber (sicinum), capable of becoming electrified through rubbing (ibid., XXXVII, 3); the fascinum and the cyprea, amulets reproducing the genitals, intended to divert malign glances and appease them with the smile provoked by the display; these amulets, enclosed in a case (bulla), were hung around children’s necks, who moreover were under the special protection of the dea Cunina (Tertullian, Ad nat., II, 11); rue (ibid., XIX, 27); smilax and other thorny plants, to pierce and retain the evil influence (Dioscorus, IV, 1, 39); ásaro (baccdr) against excessive praise, which stimulates envy (Servius, Ad Ecl., VII, 27); in order to avert the possible harm
of such praise, the Latins added an adverb: prae fascine! that is, «may it be without fascinum, may no harm come of it!».
The m. directed against things was aimed at the fields or at a neighbor’s flock and was called incantation (from cantus), because it was performed with a modulated magical formula. The law of the Twelve Tables (table VIII, 1, 8, Bruns) prohibits using this means to transfer the fruits of a neighbor’s field to one’s own; Virgil (Ecl. VIII, 99) alludes to the m. that fascinates lambs.