Evil Eye: Its Story Throughout History

The most common amulet in the form that is used today in Greece and in the countries where it has been spread, is what we call evil eye. This can be depicted as a circle divided into three colors, with its outer circular side being coloured cobalt blue, its intermediate concentric part white, while its center consists of a small black circle representing the pupil of the eye.

But what does this eye protect us from? The interpretation given to this question is that it provides us with protection by repelling the malicious negative energy emitted by another person. This malicious energy derives from hatred or simply from envy and it has the potential to cause us great or small suffering, or in other words, put us under the evil eye spell, the term used for this belief.

A person can emit negative energy, without  itself acknowledging this quality in himself, or herself, by simply having a negative feeling towards another person. Admiration may also have the same result, since this is also capable  of causing such a negative energy. After all, how many times have we not caught ourselves realizing that our admiration for someone, subconsciously contains some, even infinitesimal, nuggets of jealousy?

Speleological excavations in the Iberian Peninsula have revealed engraved representations, about 10,000 years old, designed by our Paleolithic ancestors, which indicate their belief in the powers of what we describe today as the evil eye. Archaeological excavations have also revealed that similar beliefs have existed as far back as 5,000 years ago, in the Sumerian civilization, which flourished in the valley of the Euphrates River. In Syria also, amulets against this spell have been excavated, dating back more than 3,000 years.

The ancient Greeks, however, were the ones who reconstructed the whole theorem of breaking the evil eye spell, by inventing the antidotes for this.

Let’s move now to modern Greece. Let us assume that a mother hears someone saying to her “oh how beautiful your baby is !!”. It is expected that she will immediately react to these words of admiration which may cause her child to fall under an evil eye spell. She will do so by spitting in her armpit while exclaiming “spit spit spit  break the evil eye spell !!!”.  In ancient Athens a mother facing the same situation would proceed by spitting in the same way and by exclaiming the same phrase as her modern Greek counterpart does.

So we can see that the evil eye spell belief (or vaskania which is the actual Greek term for this), remains intact from antiquity until today. Actually the noun vaskania derives etymologically from the ancient Greek verb vaskaino, translated simply to “I speak”.  Many prominent figures of Greek antiquity have been deeply involved in the phenomenon of vaskania. Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, Hesiod, Heliodorus, Apollonides, Callimachus, Theocritus, Philaarch, and Plutarch are just a few of the personalities that have dealt with vaskania.

According to the vaskania reasoning, if someone mentions something which concerns another person, it is possible that what has been said, may indicate hatred, envy or, even admiration. As a consequence of any of the above, vaskania may be inflicted upon this person.                                                   

Vaskania may also occur without a word being said, just only by simply glancing at someone, since the malicious energy of a gaze can be emitted to another person, especially if the person that is looking at you, happens to be blue-eyed ( all this is based on the initial belief about blue eyes).

There are various vaskania treatment practices. The most common is to always have on you an evil-eye amulet. You may also have larger eyes-amulets at your home or place of work. At the same time, the triple spitting at your armpit, or, the exclamation “spit spit spit break the evil eye spell !!!” is the emergency treatment of a vaskania that may result either from words of admiration from another person or even, as many do believe, simply from your spontaneous self-admiration, or Narcissism (how beautiful am I !!!, how smart am I !!! , how beautiful my hair is !!!).

The sign expressed by opening your hand palm towards the direction of the face of another person is what we call in Greek  moutza or faskeloma (faskelono is the evolution in modern Greek of the ancient Greek verb fasko or, faskeno or, vaskeno all of which mean I speak). This sign was used in antiquity as a means of repelling an unexpected vilification that could result in an evil eye spell, or vaskania. So the open palm facing the person by which he was vilified had the following meaning: “I repel the vaskania you are imposing on me, and I am returning it to your face, along with all the evils that it may cause”.

Presently of course, after two and a half thousand years, the moutza or faskeloma  eventually ended up only as a symbol of a derogatory gesture, something like a semantic insult, towards the person faced by the open palm, usually after an unexpected extraordinary confrontation with it.  

The Greek Orthodox Church, which acknowledges vaskania i.e evil eye spell, considers that this is caused by the Devil, and has therefore a special prayer for the cleansing of its curse. The evil eye is also included in the Hebrew Tanak, most commonly known to Christians as the Bible, or led the Old Testament. Read, Proverbs 2  “Do not eat the bread of one who has a greedy eye, nor desire his delicacies.” 

Muslims also use blue eye beads to ask Allah to protect them from the evil eye.

The reason that the eye-talisman (for protection against the evil eye) was originally blue-blue, is due to the fact that in the areas of the Greek peninsula, the Aegean islands, and Ionia (the coastal area of Western Asia Minor), people with blue eyes were relatively few. Malicious energy-vaskania or blue eye spell would as a consequence be attributed only to a minority of people, and these were the persons that had blue eyes, who were relatively few in these areas.

Eventually,  the crystallized  theorem of blue eye spell resulting from the malicious energy of a gaze, spread to the rest of the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean, the wider Middle East, and North Africa.

But let us go back to the Ancient Greeks. Plato argued that man has a flame inside him, which is emitted outward through his eyes. In modern terminology we would describe the same phenomenon as the emission of electromagnetic waves that are activated by the internal force within ourselves, and that we use our eyes as a means for this outflow of energy.

Plato in his work “Phaedo” presents Socrates telling Kevis “refrain from big talk, otherwise you might bring vaskania (i.e blue eye spell) to them” 

Plutarch, Pythagoras and Zeno had a similar view of vaskania which they attributed to the negative power emitted by the human eye.

Modern scientific researchers also justify human belief in the eye properties (identified with Plato’s theory), attributing it to the power activated by the emission of electromagnetic energy from the gaze of one person to another. The fact that energy is emitted through the eyes is also proven by the fact that most people have the ability to perceive the intense stares of others directed at them. In fact, it has been observed and studied that the most common reaction of someone who, while having his back turned to someone that “nails” him with his persistent gaze, is that, suddenly and completely unconsciously, the target of this gaze turns his head back, aiming in turn visually to the direction from which the persistent gaze is coming.

The same researchers conclude that it is possible to influence, positively or negatively, through the gaze of one person to another. 

The amulet, called the eye, is the countermeasure of the gaze and it is widely believed that it repels vaskania – evil eye spell. Currently the eye can be made in a variety of colors, in addition to the cobalt blue one (because of the recession of the belief that only blue-eyed people are the ones that can cause vaskania). Another peculiarity of its current development is that the eye is represented on a multitude of useful or decorative objects that we have at home or in the office.

We return to the scientific researchers who study the electromagnetic force of one’s gaze and its influence on another. They conclude that among all people, there are some who are  “good recipients” or otherwise favourable to the bad influence of another person. At the same time there are “bad receivers”, i.e those over which this influence can not be exercised

The “good receiver” who uses an amulet eye as a countermeasure to vaskania, believing to be protected by it, eventually achieves protection, not only according to his own imagination, but actually in reality. The reason for this, according to the same researchers, is that when we deeply believe that we have secured our protection by using the amulet eye, we ourselves become in this way a “bad recipient” of any malicious influence. In the same way, that is, by attaching an eye on a person close to us, such as our child or our spouse, we can repel the vaskania from them. Our belief that this person is protected by this amulet, has a refractive effect, ourselves  being the medium of that, turning it also to a “bad receiver” of any bad influence (vaskania).

The eye is now in vogue all over the world. Famous haute couture designers include on their catwalks designs that feature the eye. Hollywood stars such as Jennifer Aniston, Rita Wilson and social media influencer Kim Kardashian are photographed with bracelets and other jewelry dominated by eyes, while the famous Bloomingdales department store in New York has a large collection of jewelry with evil eye motifs.

Studying the trends, both domestic and international, the artistic team of Fenalie, has designed a very large collection of eyes, handmade wooden hand-painted in designs and colors that are highly recognized, not only in Greece but also internationally.

Fenalie has been designing wooden handmade and hand painted evil eyes since 2009. You can see all our evil eyes collection here