TALISMAN, magic figures engraved as a function of certain superstitious observations on the characters and configurations of heaven or heavenly bodies, to which astrologers, hermetic philosophers, and other charlatans attribute wondrous effects, and especially the power to attract celestial influences. See Theraphim.

The word talisman is purely Arabic; Ménage, however, after Saumaise, [1] believes it can come from the Greek τέλεσμα , operation or consecration . Borel says it is Persian, and literally means an engraving of stars ; [2] others derive it from talamascis litteris , which are mysterious characters or unknown ciphers that are used by sorcerers, because, they add, talamasca means phantom or illusion . M. Pluche says that in the Orient they called these figures tselamim , images; and indeed, as he remarks, “when at the beginning, the cult of celestial signs and planets was once introduced, the figures were multiplied to assist the devotion of peoples and to profit from it. They made figures in molds and in relief, fairly often as a sort of money, or as portable plaques that were pierced for suspension from a ring around the necks of children, the sick, and the dead. Collections of antiquities are full of these plaques or amulets, which bear the imprint of the sun or its symbols, or of the moon, or of other planets, or of different signs of the zodiac.” Histoire du ciel [History of heaven], vol. I, p. 480. [3]

The author of a book entitled Talismans justified claims that a talisman is the seal, the figure, the character, or the image of a celestial sign, a constellation, or a planet engraved on a sympathetic stone or on a metal corresponding to the star or heavenly body to receive its influences.  [4]

The author of the history of heaven will now explain to us what this sympathy and correspondence were based on, and consequently how vain the power attributed to talismans was.

“In the making of talismans ,” he says, “the slightest conformity with the star or god in whom they had confidence, a small additional precaution, a slight, more perceptible resemblance, caused one image or material to be preferred to another; thus the images of the sun, to imitate its brightness and color, had to be of gold. They did not doubt that gold was even produced by the sun: this conformity of color, brilliance, and merit was proof. The sun therefore had to favor a metal which it had indubitably produced, and could not fail to focus its influences on a gold plaque where it saw its image imprinted, and which had been religiously consecrated to it at the time of its rising. Through a similar reasoning, the moon produced silver, and with the full extent of its power favored the silver images to which it was tied by the bonds of color, production, and consecration. Mars, to be sure, was pleased to see his images when they were of iron, which was doubtless the favorite metal of the god of combats. Venus had copper, because there was an abundance of it on the island of Cyprus where she was at home. Languorous Saturn was in charge of lead mines. They did not deliberate long over the lot of Mercury: a certain relationship with agility made quicksilver his portion. But by virtue of what will Jupiter be limited to the supervision of tin? It was uncivil to present this commission to a god like him: it was to diminish him; but tin was all that was left, and he had to accept it. These are certainly powerful motives for assigning to these gods the superintendence of such and such a metal, and a singular affection for the figures that are made from them. Such are the reasons for these supposed distributions; such too are the effects to be expected of them.” Histoire du ciel, vol. I, pp. 482–483 .

It was as easy to make these reasonings a thousand years ago as today; but custom, prejudice, the example of some false sages who, by persuasion or imposture, accredited talismans , had induced every mind into these superstitions. They attributed all the wonders performed by Apollonius of Tyana to the virtue and influences of talismans , and some writers have even suggested that that magician was the inventor of talismans ; but their origin goes back much farther into antiquity, not to mention the absurd opinion of some rabbis who maintain that the bronze serpent that Moses had raised up in the desert for the destruction of the serpents that were tormenting and killing the Israelites was nothing other than a talisman . Some attributed their origin to a Jacchis, who was the inventor of the prophylactics which the Greeks called περιαπτα , hidden remedies against pain, secrets against the heat of the sun and the influences of the heat wave. This Jacchis lived, according to Suidas, under Sennyés, king of Egypt. Others attribute this origin to Necepsos, king of Egypt, who came later than Jacchis, and yet lived more than 200 years before Solomon. Ausonius, in a letter to Saint Paulinus, said:

The trade in these talismans was very common at the time of Antiphanes, and subsequently in the time of Aristophanes: these two writers mention a certain Phertamus and a Eudamus, makers of prophylactics of this sort. We see in Galian and in Marcellus Empiricus what confidence everyone had in their power. Pliny says that they engraved figures of eagles and scarabs on emeralds, and Mercellus Empiricus attributes many powers to these scarabs for certain illnesses, and in particular for sore eyes. Stones engraved or starred were so many talismans where the observations of astrology were a factor. Pliny, speaking of greenish jasper, says that all the peoples of the Orient wore it as a talisman . The common opinion was, he says elsewhere, that Milo of Croton owed his victories only to these sorts of stones, which he wore in combat, and from his example his athletes took pains to obtain them. The same writer adds that they used hematite against the barbarians’ ambushes, and that it produced salutary effects in combats. The warriors in Egypt as well, to credit the report of Aelianus, wore figures of scarabs to bolster their courage, and the great faith they had came from peoples’ belief that the scarab, consecrated to the sun, was the animated figure of that star which they regarded as the most powerful of the gods, according to Porphyry. Tebellius Pollion relates that the Macrians revered Alexander the Great in such a particular manner that the men of that family wore the prince’s figure engraved in silver on their rings, and the women wore it in their head ornaments, bracelets, rings, and other pieces of their accoutrements, to the point where in his time, he adds, most of the women’s clothing in that family was still decorated with it, because they said that those who thus wore the head of Alexander in gold or silver received help from him in their every act: quia dicuntur juvari in omni actu suo qui Alexandrum expressum, vel auro gestitant vel argento .

This custom was not new among the Romans, since the golden bulla which generals of consuls wore about the neck in the triumphal ceremony contained talismans . Bulla , says Macrobius, gestamen erat triumphantium, quam in triumpho præ se gerebant, inclusis intra eam remediis, quæ crederent adversus invidiam valentissima. They hung similar bullae on children’s necks to protect them from evil genies or other perils, ne quid obsit , says Varro; and Asconius Pedianus, on a place in Cicero’s first brief where these bullae are mentioned, says that they were on the children’s stomachs as a rampart that defended them, sinus communiens pectusque puerile , because they put talismans in them. Warriors also wore shields bearing stars. See Baldrics and Starry.

The most accredited talismans were those of the Samothracians, or those which were made following the rules practiced in the mysteries of Samothrace. They were pieces of metal on which were engraved certain figures of stars, and which were commonly set into rings. Still, many are found whose form and size make plain that they were worn in another manner. Petronius relates that one of the rings of Trimalcion was of gold and overlaid with iron stars, totum auteum, sed plane serreis veluti stellis ferruminatum , and M. Pithou agrees that it was a ring or talisman made according to the mysteries of the island of Samothrace. Trallian, two centuries later, describes similar ones, which he presents as natural and physical remedies ( φυσικὰ ), following Galen, he says, who recommended similar ones. It is in book IX of his treatises on medicine, at the end of chapter iv , where he says that they engraved on Cypriot bronze, a lion, a moon, and a star, and that he saw nothing more effective for certain illnesses. The same Trallian cites another phylactery against colic; these words were engraved on a ring of iron with eight angles: φε γε, φε γε, ἰο, χολὴ, ὁ κορυδαλός σε ζητε , which is to say, flee, flee, unhappy bile, the lark is seeking thee . And what proves that these sorts of prophylactics were made in sight of certain stars is that this physician adds at the end of the article: this ring had to be worked on from the 17 ^th to the 21 ^st day of the moon.

The madness for talismans spread among the Christian sects, as we see in Tertullian, who reproaches the Marcionites for making a profession, he says, of living off the creator’s stars:

nec hoc erubescentes de stellis creatoris vivere . Perhaps that should be understood of judicial astrology in general. It is much more certain that the Valentinians made great use of it, as their abracadabra proves,  [5] prescribed by the physician Serenus Sammonicus , who was of their sect, and by their abrasax , [6] of which the heresiarch Basilides himself was the inventor. See Abracadabra and Abrasax.

Catholics themselves believed these superstitions. Marcellus, a man of quality and a Christian, in the times of Theodosius, in a collection of remedies he addresses to his children, describes this talisman : a serpent, he says, with seven stripes, engraved on jasper set in gold, is good for stomach pains, and he calls this phylactery a physical remedy: ad stomachi dolorem remedium physicum sit, in lapide laspide exsculpe draconem radiatum, ut habeat septem radios, et claude auro, et utere in collo . This term physical gives one to understand that astrology entered into the composition of the work. Mémoires de l’académie. des Inscriptions , vol. XI, p. 355 ff .  [7]

They still believed in them under the reign of our first dynasty, for on the subject of the great Paris fire of 585, Gregory of Tours reports a rather singular event which he seems to believe, and which had to do with a superstitious tradition of the Parisians, which was that this city had been built under a constellation that protected it from catching fire, from serpents, and from mice; but that shortly before this fire, during a search of an arch of a bridge, a serpent and a mouse of bronze were found, which were the two talismans protecting the city. Thus it was not only the preservation of the health of individuals, but also of entire cities and perhaps empires, that was attributed to the virtue of talismans ; and indeed the palladium  [8]of the Trojans and the sacred shields of Numa were sorts of talismans .

The Arabs, much obsessed with judicial astrology, spread talismans in Europe after the Moorish invasion of Spain, and it has not yet been two centuries since France was infatuated with them, and even still today: presented under the fine name of starred figures, says M. Pluche, they delude people who think themselves of a much higher order than commoners. But confidence in them continues in the Orient.

In general, three kinds of talisman are distinguished, to wit: astronomical: these are recognized by celestial signs or constellations engraved on them, which are also accompanied by unintelligible characters.

Magical: these bear extraordinary figures, superstitious words, and names of unknown angels.

Finally, mixed: on these are engraved celestial signs and strange words, but ones which contain nothing superstitious nor any angel names.

Some writers have taken for talismans several runic medals or at least those having inscriptions in runic or gothic characters, for everyone knows that northern nations, when they professed paganism, made much of talismans . But M. Keder has shown that medals marked with these characters are anything but talismans .  [9]

Nor must one confuse with shekels or genuinely antique Hebraic medals certain talismans and certain squares composed of all numerical Hebraic letters, called sigilla planetarum , which are used for drawing horoscopes and by soothsayers to valorize their mysteries; nor with other magical figures whose models are found in Agrippa, and which bear Hebraic names and characters. Science des médailles [ Knowledge of Medals ] , vol. I. p. 308 . [10]

1. Claude Saumaise (1588–1653), De hellenistica commentarius (Leiden, 1643); Gilles Ménage (1613–1692), Les Origines de la langue françoise (Paris, 1650).

2. Pierre Borel (c. 1620–1671) had written a Dictionnaire des termes du vieux françois (1655), and also a Discours nouveau prouvant la pluralité des mondes (1657). This item is borrowed from the Dictionnaire de Trévoux (1752 supplement), article “Constellé.”

3. Noël Antoine Pluche (1688–1761), Histoire du ciel considéré selon les idées des poètes, des philosophes et de Moïse (Paris, 1739).

4. Jean-Albert Belin (1610?-1677), bishop of Bellay, Traité des talismans ou figures astrales (Paris, 1658).

5. Abracadabra “was an inscription that served as a character for healing several illnesses and expelling demons” ( Dictionnaire de Trévoux ).

6. “Precious stones on which were engraved hieroglyphic characters, and were worn like amulets and charms” ( ibid .).

7. Mémoires de l’Académie royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres .

8. A statue of Pallas Athena.

9. Swedish numismatist Nils Keder (1659-1735), was the author of several relevant works in Latin.

10. Louis Jobert (1637–1719), La science des médailles (Paris, 1692).