The Greek Phrase – I Throw a Black Stone Behind Me – Never Going Back

 

 

We’ve all had that feeling of ‘I never want to go back there ’ or ‘I never want to see that accursed place again’; a Greek’s response to this, may be to utter the words: ‘πεταω μια μαυρη πετρα πισω μου’ (petao mia mavri petra piso mou) –

‘I throw a black stone behind me’.

This means, I leave for good, I’m never coming back and I am done with it, I separate myself from this, it is someone who leaves somewhere, someone or something, never to return.

There’s a story behind everything and especially more so, when it comes to all things Greek!

Here’s the story behind the throwing of black stones.

 

Anathema

 

 

The practice of throwing a black stone behind you, originates with the practice of anathema, originally meaning something dedicated to evil, (from ἀνατίθημι – anatithēmi, to offer as a gift), or a sacrifice offered up to something evil, later, the word anathema, grew to mean set apart, banished, and denounced.

 Later still, anathema came to mean a curse, banished, exiled and excommunicated.

In ancient Greece, criminals and evildoers were exiled from the Greek city-state, and passersby would throw stones onto the site where a wrongdoing had been committed.

From this came the phrases ‘he threw a stone behind him’ and ‘he threw a black stone’.

 

The excommunication of Eleftherios Venizelos

 

 

The most notorious ‘anathema’ of modern day Greece, is the excommunication of Eleftherios Venizelos (1864 1936), Greek Prime Minister in 1916, who formed a separate government, against the then King of Greece, Constantine, after his pro-Allied foreign policy brought them into direct conflict causing the National Schism.

 

 

On 7 December 1916, Venizelos’ government declared war on the Central Powers, resulting in him being ‘anathematized’ by the Archbishop of Athens.

 

 

 The custom of death by stoning

 

Once upon a time, in ancient Greece, long before Homer, author of the epic poems, the Iliad and The Odyssey and Herodotus, father of history, were even a twinkle in their father’s eye, there existed an unwritten law, death by stoning for murderers and also for the unlucky harbingers of bad news, was accepted.

The offender was stoned to death at the place where the crime had occurred; however, as people became more lenient, instead of stoning the murderer, or bringer of bad news, citizens threw stones at the location, usually black in colour.

This was called; ‘throwing a curse’, these piles of stones declared that the spot was evil or cursed and was best to be avoided.

 

 

Crossroads: A location ‘between the worlds’

 

Another practice was to take slayers of any of their family members, to a hilltop, high ground, or a three – way crossroads, where, before being thrown over the city walls, they would be pelted with stones by the state authorities.

These locations were chosen, as they were thought to be possessed by evil demons, which would be rendered powerless by the stonings.

 

 

In Greek mythology, crossroads represented a location ‘between the worlds’, where spirits can be contacted and paranormal events take place, as protection, stone statues, thought to ward off harm or evil, were often placed there.

From ancient times Greek gods were worshipped in the form of a heap or column of stones which were left at road sides, especially at crossings and the boundaries of land, where passers – by would show their respect by throwing a stone on to the heap.

 

 

Crossroads were associated with Hermes, in ancient Greece, a phallic god of boundaries and crossroads (whose name derives from Greek ἕρμα –  herma , a heap of stones) and was considered a ‘soul guide’, who guided souls in the afterlife

The usual statues to be seen at crossroads and boundaries, were a Herm pillar, representing Hermes and statues of Hecate the goddess of crossroads and boundaries, depicted with three heads, each facing one of three adjoining roads.

 

 

In the UK there was a tradition of burying criminals and suicides (suicide was considered a crime), at crossroads, which usually marked the boundaries of settlements, so undesirables were buried outside of the settlement, also it was thought that the many roads would confuse the dead.

This again, ties in with the practice of anathema, to be cursed, banished, exiled and excommunicated.

This ritual of crossroads burial dates back to Anglo-Saxon times and was abolished in 1823.

 

Elections in ancient Greece

 

Another use for black stones in Ancient Greece was ‘black balling’, during elections, pebbles were thrown into an urn, white for, black against.

 

 

Another occasion, I suppose you could say, for using the phrase; ‘throw a black stone’.

 

 

In literature: Eleni by Nicholas Gage

 

Nicholas Gage, Greek author of the book, ‘Eleni’, describing his mother’s experience during the Greek Civil War 1946 – 1949, states:

‘I was born in Lia, a mountain village near the Albanian border, in 1939 and nine years later was sent away with three of my sisters in an escape planned by our mother, Eleni. She acted to save us from being abducted with other village children by the Communist guerrillas who had occupied the village during the Greek civil war.

 

 

At the last moment, my mother was prevented from going with us. As she embraced us in farewell, she warned us to throw a black stone behind us when we left, a charm to insure that we would never return to a place that had been plagued by famine, war and hardship for a decade. We did as she said, but the vow not to return was one I couldn’t keep’.

 

 

What happened when Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only survivors of a catastrophic flood, threw two single stones behind them.

 

As I was writing this post, I remembered the story of why Greece is called Hellas and who the Hellenes are.

 I thought you may be interested to know, that Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only survivors of a catastrophic flood, by throwing two single stones behind them, created  the whole of the Greek civilization!

According to Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”, after the “Deucalion Deluge”, a terrible flood in Greek mythology, (of which there are three; the Ogyges deluge, the Deucalion deluge and the Dardanus deluge), similar to the story of Noah and his Ark, or The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Greek civilization was wiped out, leaving only two survivors.

 

 

The two who made it through the “Deucalion Deluge” were Deucalion, son of the Titan, Prometheus, creator of mankind (Greek mythology), who later gave them fire, and Pyrrha, daughter of why Greece is called Hellas and who the Hellenes are.

 

 

So relieved to be back on terra firma, Deucalion and Pyrrha would agree to anything asked of them and so complied when ordered by Zeus (King of the Greek gods) to throw stones over their shoulders, which instantly became people.

The stones thrown by Deucalion became men and the ones thrown by Pyrrha, women, who went on to repopulate Greece.

 

 

 From this story comes the Greek word for people; λαός (laós) m (plural λαοί), which derives from the word “laas”, meaning a stone.

 

Related links:

Interesting ‘untranslatable’ Greek words