![]() With the Protestant Reformation, some religious leaders established bans on drinking and dancing, brothels were closed and marriage was more strictly codified and controlled. "It's bound up with an anxiety about women and what place they have in society at a time when Europe was undergoing fundamental changes and transformations in society," Zika said. (Image credit: Public domain)īut racy images of witches fit in with a culture in which there was much speculation about female sexuality, Zika said. Between her legs, she holds a distaff, or stick used for spinning wool. German artist Albrecht Dürer created this engraving around the year 1500, showing a witch riding a goat. The witch in one engraving by the Italian artist Parmigianino is not riding a broom, but rather a gigantic, anatomically graphic phallus. Artists like Albrecht Dürer and Hans Baldung depicted them naked. The explicit implications of staff riding, and the sexual nature of witches in images throughout the Renaissance, are difficult to ignore. "A lot of it we can't trust as descriptions of social reality at all," Zika told LiveScience. ![]() Modern knowledge of witches often comes from manuals written by inquisitors, ecclesiastical judges and testimony by accused witches - much of it produced under duress or torture, Zika explained. Sources from the era when fears about witchcraft peaked are unreliable and biased, noted Charles Zika, a professor at the University of Melbourne, who has written about the imagery of witchcraft. It's hard to know whether or not witches actually did the deeds they were rumored to have done (like mounting hallucinogen-laced wooden staffs in their covens). In his "Quaestio de Strigis" of 1470, Bergamo writes of witches who on "certain days or nights they anoint a staff and ride on it to the appointed place or anoint themselves under the arms and in other hairy places." The English historian Raphael Holinshed later recounted the case and described some of the supposedly damning evidence authorities found against Kyteler: "In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of ointment wherewith she greased her staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin."Īnother oft-cited account comes a from 15th-century manuscript by theologian Jordanes de Bergamo. (Kyteler escaped, and her maid was burned at the stake in her stead.) If you choose to go as a witch this Halloween, you'll also want to come up with clever Halloween Instagram captions like witch quotes to accompany your costume such as, "Not every witch lives in Salem.Lady Alice Kyteler, Ireland's earliest known accused witch, was condemned to death for using sorcery to kill her husband in 1324. And then of course there are names that just feel witchy like Lydia, Sage, and Raven. You'll also see names inspired by witches from TV shows, books, and popular Halloween movies. There are no bad decisions, *witch* ever you choose! Ahead, you'll find famous witch names that you're familiar with already, like Elphaba, Maleficent, or Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft. Others are funky, beautiful, or historical and perfect for naming a baby girl, cat, or dog. Some of these names can help you choose what type of witch you want to dress up as for your witch Halloween costumes. So, to honor these witchy ladies, we gathered the best witch names into one ultimate list. These figures are emblems of female independence, practitioners of early science, and misunderstood eccentrics. But beyond playing dress-up on Halloween, witches throughout history have been downright cool. You can dress up as a beloved character from pop culture Witch movies and shows-like Hermione, Sabrina, or Glinda-or use a pointed hat and cauldron for an instantly recognizable look. Of all the last-minute Halloween costumes you can throw together, going as a witch is hands-down the easiest.
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