Witches work with occult or supernatural energies. In legend, witches are malevolent in nature. They can access realms of the Undead and communicate with restless spirits. Witches have existed for thousands of years, first appearing in ancient Mesopotamia.
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In Mesopotamia witches have different names among the countless languages of the fertile crescent. In Akkadian, the eventual language of commerce and trade, the witch is kaššāpu (m) or kaššaptu (f).
Witches originate in ancient Sumer (c. 3500 BCE). From the early days to the 20th century witches and witchcraft are considered evil. Witchcraft in ancient Mesopotamia refers to malevolent magic, with witch being the worker of such magic.
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In the ancient world, magic is part of life. Dream interpretation, chants, hymns, rituals, divination, divine visions and spells of protection are practiced, often by priests, priestesses or doctors working out of temples. Some magic can be done by a householder.
Protective magic includes spells, amulets, herbs, figurines and even demonic intervention, as in childbirth. Baby-eating demon Lamashtu can be repulsed by Pazuzu, king of the wind demons. Pazuzu acts not to protect the people, but because Lamashtu is his sworn enemy.
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The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi (1754 BCE) states:
"If a man has put a spell upon another man and it is not justified, he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the holy river; into the holy river shall he plunge. If the holy river overcome him and he is drowned, the man who put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house.
If the holy river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the spell shall be put to death. He that plunged into the river shall take possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him."
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In most beliefs the practice of magic in itself is normal. Magic includes exorcism and the work of the exorcist or āšipūtu. Sacred or ritual magic is performed primarily in temples. Workers of magic include people such as priests, priestesses and doctors.
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Most of these luminaries can also read and write. When Hammurabi puts the stele containing his famous code in the town square for all to read, only 10% of people actually can.
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In Hebrew writings the Witch of Endor (c. 1020 BCE) has magic of prophecy, divination and contact with the realm of the Dead. She's associated with evil/chaos by default, as King Saul asks her to summon the spirit of Samuel when Yahweh (good/order) won't reply to him.
In ancient Greece and Rome (c. 8th century BCE - 5th century CE), goêtes (sorcerers) and magoi (mages), practice magic such as divination, spell casting, and invoking supernatural beings.
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The goêtes and magoi are not held in high regard due to the number of frauds. Greek sorcerers include a group of men inspired by Pythagoras, now called the Greek shamans, active in the archaic period.
The men apparently have miraculous qualities, including the ability to detach their souls from bodies during life. Pythagorus is leader of the Brotherhood of Pythagoreans, a secret society which studied mathematics. Their motto was "All is number."
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The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin: Papyri Graecae Magicae) is a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek. They contain magic spells, formulae, hymns and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 100s BCE to the 400s CE.
Records refer to her as pharmakis (potion specialist), mantis (diviner), and hiereia (priestess). The death sentence brought against Theoris and her family is for asebeia (impiety).
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In the ancient Greco-Roman world, accounts of people prosecuted and punished for witchcraft exist before Christianity. In ancient Greece, Theoris, a woman of Lemnos, was prosecuted for witchcraft and executed along with her family.
Rome's first emperor, Augustus, forbids diviners (manteis) to give divinations to individuals or to divine on the subject of death. Tiberius forbids consultation of soothsayers (haruspices) in secret. He tries to dismantle the oracles, but the people rise up and he backs down.
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In the first century CE, Roman Emperor Nero punishes any attempt at divination for the date of his death. He makes astrology illegal and banishes astrologers from Italy.
Politician Publius Anteius is accused of funding a banished astrologer and requesting his own horoscope and that of Nero. For this crime, Nero forces Anteius to commit suicide. Under Nero's rule, practice of astrology is "magic and treason".
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Witch figures, or women who work powerful malevolent magic, first appear in ancient Roman literature in the first century BCE.
Portrayed as distinctly evil, they include hags who:
chant harmful incantations
make poisonous potions from herbs and the body parts of animals and humans
sacrifice children
raise the dead
can control the natural world
shapeshift themselves and others to animals
invoke underworld deities & spirits
Another description of a malevolent witch in Rome is "a highly sexed woman in her prime, fond of young men and inclined to destroy those who reject her." Unique to Rome as a description of witches, the concept relates to stories of demons from other cultures.
In ancient Egypt, the god Heka is the deification of magic and medicine. Heka is also the Egyptian word for magic. According to the Egyptian Coffin Texts, Heka exists "before duality had yet come into being." The term ḥk3 refers to the practice of magical rituals.
According to Egyptologist Ogden Goelet, magic in the Book of the Dead is difficult as the text uses various words corresponding to 'magic'. In ancient Egypt magic is as fundamental as breathing.
Goelet explains:
Heka magic is many things, but, above all, it has a close association with speech and the power of the word. In the realm of Egyptian magic, actions did not necessarily speak louder than words – they were often one and the same thing. Thought, deed, image, and power are theoretically united in the concept of Heka.
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The first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, introduces new laws against magic in the early 4th century AD. Private divination, and working magic to harm others or to induce lust, are to be harshly punished. Protective magic is allowed.
In Europe from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, cunning folk, also known as folk healers or wise folk, practice folk medicine, helpful folk magic and divination. Their work is called the cunning craft, and their services include repelling witchcraft.
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Some cunning folk are denounced as witches; however the people differentiate between the concepts. The name 'cunning folk' originally refers to folk-healers and magic-workers in Britain. Today the term is used throughout Europe.
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