The Christians in both countries branded witchcraft as Satanic and these Christian hunted for this witches so as to extinct them. This was done by preaching to them about salvation. We can not talk about witchcraft without giving reference to the relationship with Christianity. It was really difficult for the people to put in places necessary rules. This is because that with the idea of witchcraft is should know that it is so abstract and difficult to explain. Witchcraft and magic has for long been associated with under civilization.
That why the Christians referred to them as members of church of Satan. They were too associated with symbol such as pentagram or pentacle which is a five pointed star. This symbol is used to show the horrors this witchcrafts were known to bring. The witchcrafts used to possess supernatural powers to extend of able to conjure their victims, a power expected to come from Satan. The Christians on the other hand belief that witchcraft uses the powers from Satan and it is for this reason they treat witchcraft as evil.Witchcraft was used in the ancient Greek and Rome as a sign of beastly behavior.
The witchcraft has a very important role in differentiating between the good and bad people. Dealing with witchcraft ahs been a very difficult status as they occur in mysterious way. The role Christianity prompted the controversial debate about the witches who believed in righteousness of the soul and body. The witches were believed to impure in the soul and as such they needed salvation, the fear of these powers forced the Christians to fight tirelessly so as to restore the lost glory.In ancient Greek and Rome, Witches who were practically were believed to be having fleshed out personalities and important roles to play in classical literature. Their characters acted as templates. The heroic epic stories depicted witchcraft as having a very important role to play as they acted as major guides to those heroes. Good examples can be drawn from the Greek heroes such as Odysseus and Jason; the men who were required to enter the feminine womb-kind travels to various parts of the world.
Witches had pivotal roles in these stories, acting as guides for such heroes as Odysseus and Jason; men who were required to enter the feminine, womb-like space of the underworld or to travel to the ends of the Earth, as part of their courageous journeying. Later on, in Roman literature, such as in Horace’s Odes and Epodes, or Lucan’s Pharsalia, Witches degenerated into the cemetery-scouring hags familiar to popular culture, no longer sending the hero down to search the underworld, but instead, bringing the realm of the dead up to their customers by performing necromantic rites.(Salisbury, 2001) There are many witches featuring in Greco-Roman literature such Circe and Medea who were feared on how they performed their magic. Witches were always visited so as to give or perform magic to the desperate in the society who sought certain advantage.
For instance, those who wanted to ensnare a beloved; destroy an enemy; young women unable to conceive begged upon the witches to bestow their fertility.In the years 184, 180-179 BCE Roman magistrates ordered the execution of thousands of people accused of malign magic and about 5000 magic workers were killed performing magic at this were so risky for practitioners. The roman author Lucan (39-65 AD) described vividly the witch Erictho who had the enormous power like a Goddess. This type of witch was able to foretell the future; they had the power of reviving the death which has been considered controversial in the contemporary society. Arrest and persecution of Witches, even if they were healers, is common in the contemporary society. ( Blundell,1995)
