{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "eye",
 "type": "motif",
 "names": {
  "name": "The eye",
  "aliases": [
   "eye motif",
   "apotropaic eye",
   "eye-against-the-eye"
  ]
 },
 "region": [
  "world",
  "ancient-egypt",
  "greece-aegean",
  "anatolia",
  "levant",
  "south-asia",
  "mesoamerica",
  "west-africa"
 ],
 "countries": [
  "EG",
  "GR",
  "TR",
  "IT",
  "IL",
  "PS",
  "SY",
  "IR",
  "IQ",
  "IN",
  "PK",
  "MX",
  "BR",
  "GB",
  "AL",
  "GE",
  "AM",
  "MA",
  "TN"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "era": "ancient",
  "family": "eye",
  "hemisphere": [
   "N",
   "S",
   "E",
   "W"
  ]
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "An eye, drawn or moulded, worn where another person will see it. It is the most widespread sign in this atlas and the only one whose logic is stated out loud by its carriers everywhere it appears: harm arrives by looking, so the answer looks back.",
  "story": "Amulets against a harmful look have been found dating to around five thousand years ago, and the belief runs through the Mediterranean, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. Jewish rabbinic literature returns to it repeatedly.\n\nThe sign takes two different bodies. In Egypt it is a drawn eye with a falcon's cheek-line, cut in faience and carnelian from the Old Kingdom onward. Around the eastern Mediterranean it becomes a bead: after glass-bead production got going in the region around 1500 BCE, blue-and-white concentric eye beads spread among Phoenicians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Ottomans, and that bead is what a shop in Istanbul or Athens sells today.\n\nWhat is striking is what stands in for the eye where the eye is not drawn. Illyrians used shapes of the phallus, the hand, the leg and animal teeth against the same harm. Romans used the fascinum, a winged phallus. Southern Italy still cuts a horn. *Inference —* the substitutions have one thing in common: each is a thing that catches a glance. The mechanism carriers describe is interception, and anything startling enough to take a look can do the job. That is why this atlas files the horn, the hand and the fist as kin of the eye rather than as unrelated signs.\n\n*Tradition holds —* the harm is usually attributed to envy, and often to admiration that has not been qualified. That is why the eye is put on children, on livestock and on new houses more than on anything else."
 },
 "dating": {
  "period": "Bronze Age to the present",
  "from_year": -2999,
  "to_year": null,
  "living": true,
  "label": "c. 3000 BCE to now",
  "method": "excavated",
  "circa": true,
  "tier": "cited",
  "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
  "note": "Dated from the statement that protective amulets against the evil eye have been found from around 5,000 years ago; the glass-bead form is dated separately to after c. 1500 BCE."
 },
 "object": {
  "form": "bead",
  "materials": [
   "glass",
   "faience",
   "carnelian",
   "terracotta",
   "silver"
  ],
  "worn": [
   "neck",
   "wrist",
   "cradle",
   "door",
   "vehicle",
   "shop"
  ],
  "source": "s:wp-evil-eye"
 },
 "against": [
  {
   "harm": "evil-eye",
   "who": "carriers across the Mediterranean, West and South Asia, Africa and Latin America",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "envy",
   "who": "the usual explanation given by carriers, recorded across the same range",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
   "tier": "cited"
  },
  {
   "harm": "child-harm",
   "who": "parents; the eye is put on infants more than on anyone else",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
   "tier": "tradition"
  }
 ],
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "wedjat-eye",
   "as": "the oldest dated amulet in this family, and the one that fixes the sign's shape for three thousand years",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "nazar",
   "as": "the sign as a glass bead, which is the form most of the world now buys it in",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "hamsa",
   "as": "the hand that usually has this eye set in its palm — two signs stacked on one object",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "horn",
   "as": "the substitute sign in southern Italy, doing the same interception with a different shape",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "fist",
   "as": "another substitute: a gesture frozen in coral or jet, aimed at the same look",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "phallic-sign",
   "as": "the Roman substitute — the fascinum caught the glance meant for the child",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "nimbu-mirchi",
   "as": "South Asia's answer to the same harm, hung in a doorway instead of worn",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "the-eye-everywhere",
   "as": "the long read that follows this sign across four continents and asks what travelled and what was invented twice",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "to": "frederick-elworthy",
   "as": "the Victorian who catalogued the sign across Europe in 1895 and is still the reason many of these objects are grouped together",
   "rel": "person"
  },
  {
   "to": "glass",
   "as": "the material that turned the sign into something a market could sell by the tray",
   "rel": "material"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Evil eye — Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-evil-eye",
  "s:wp-nazar-amulet",
  "s:wp-eye-of-horus",
  "s:wp-hamsa",
  "s:wp-amulet",
  "s:wp-apotropaic-magic"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
    "note": "the substitution argument in the third paragraph is marked as this project's inference where it appears"
   }
  }
 },
 "images": [],
 "x_commons_files": [
  "File:Nazar boncugu.jpg",
  "File:Turkish evil eye beads.jpg"
 ],
 "confidence": "high",
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "An eye, drawn or moulded, worn where another person will see it.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "world",
   "name": "Everywhere",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "S",
    "E",
    "W"
   ],
   "note": "use for a sign or a practice documented on more than two continents"
  },
  {
   "key": "ancient-egypt",
   "name": "Ancient Egypt",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ],
   "note": "Nile valley and delta, Predynastic through Roman Egypt"
  },
  {
   "key": "greece-aegean",
   "name": "Greece and the Aegean",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "anatolia",
   "name": "Anatolia",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "levant",
   "name": "The Levant",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "south-asia",
   "name": "South Asia",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "E"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "mesoamerica",
   "name": "Mesoamerica",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "W"
   ]
  },
  {
   "key": "west-africa",
   "name": "West Africa",
   "hemi": [
    "N",
    "W",
    "E"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "hemispheres": [
  "E",
  "N",
  "S",
  "W"
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "wedjat-eye",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Wedjat eye",
   "as": "the oldest dated amulet in this family, and the one that fixes the sign's shape for three thousand years",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "nazar",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Nazar",
   "as": "the sign as a glass bead, which is the form most of the world now buys it in",
   "rel": "carried-by"
  },
  {
   "to": "hamsa",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Hamsa",
   "as": "the hand that usually has this eye set in its palm — two signs stacked on one object",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "to": "horn",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The horn",
   "as": "the substitute sign in southern Italy, doing the same interception with a different shape",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "fist",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The fig fist",
   "as": "another substitute: a gesture frozen in coral or jet, aimed at the same look",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "phallic-sign",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The phallus",
   "as": "the Roman substitute — the fascinum caught the glance meant for the child",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "nimbu-mirchi",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Nimbu mirchi",
   "as": "South Asia's answer to the same harm, hung in a doorway instead of worn",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "to": "the-eye-everywhere",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "The eye everywhere",
   "as": "the long read that follows this sign across four continents and asks what travelled and what was invented twice",
   "rel": "story"
  },
  {
   "to": "frederick-elworthy",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Frederick Thomas Elworthy",
   "as": "the Victorian who catalogued the sign across Europe in 1895 and is still the reason many of these objects are grouped together",
   "rel": "person"
  },
  {
   "to": "glass",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Glass",
   "as": "the material that turned the sign into something a market could sell by the tray",
   "rel": "material"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-evil-eye",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Evil eye",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-nazar-amulet",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Nazar (amulet)",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazar_(amulet)",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-eye-of-horus",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Eye of Horus",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Horus",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-hamsa",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Hamsa",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamsa",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-amulet",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Amulet",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amulet",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  },
  {
   "id": "s:wp-apotropaic-magic",
   "kind": "encyclopedia",
   "title": "Apotropaic magic",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotropaic_magic",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
   "note": "the substitution argument in the third paragraph is marked as this project's inference where it appears"
  },
  "dating": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye"
  },
  "object": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "against_facts": [
  {
   "key": "evil-eye",
   "label": "The evil eye",
   "gloss": "harm carried by a look, often an admiring one",
   "who": "carriers across the Mediterranean, West and South Asia, Africa and Latin America",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "envy",
   "label": "Envy",
   "gloss": "a neighbour's ill will, named as such",
   "who": "the usual explanation given by carriers, recorded across the same range",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
   "tier": "cited",
   "note": ""
  },
  {
   "key": "child-harm",
   "label": "Harm to a child",
   "gloss": "harm to an infant or a small child; common across the atlas, though not the largest class in it — see /story/most-of-them-are-for-children/",
   "who": "parents; the eye is put on infants more than on anyone else",
   "quote": "",
   "source": "s:wp-evil-eye",
   "tier": "tradition",
   "note": ""
  }
 ],
 "material_facts": [
  {
   "key": "glass",
   "label": "Glass",
   "kind": "fired"
  },
  {
   "key": "faience",
   "label": "Faience",
   "kind": "fired",
   "note": "glazed quartz paste; Egypt's amulet material at scale"
  },
  {
   "key": "carnelian",
   "label": "Carnelian",
   "kind": "stone",
   "note": "red; Egypt's colour for blood and life"
  },
  {
   "key": "terracotta",
   "label": "Fired clay",
   "kind": "fired"
  },
  {
   "key": "silver",
   "label": "Silver",
   "kind": "metal"
  }
 ],
 "worn_facts": [
  {
   "key": "neck",
   "label": "At the neck",
   "group": "body",
   "note": "the world's default position"
  },
  {
   "key": "wrist",
   "label": "On the wrist",
   "group": "body"
  },
  {
   "key": "cradle",
   "label": "On a cradle",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "door",
   "label": "At the door",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "vehicle",
   "label": "In a vehicle",
   "group": "placed"
  },
  {
   "key": "shop",
   "label": "At the till",
   "group": "placed"
  }
 ],
 "form_fact": {
  "key": "bead",
  "label": "Bead"
 },
 "holding_facts": [],
 "span": "3000 BCE to now",
 "country_names": [
  {
   "iso": "EG",
   "name": "Egypt"
  },
  {
   "iso": "GR",
   "name": "Greece"
  },
  {
   "iso": "TR",
   "name": "Turkey"
  },
  {
   "iso": "IT",
   "name": "Italy"
  },
  {
   "iso": "IL",
   "name": "Israel"
  },
  {
   "iso": "PS",
   "name": "Palestine"
  },
  {
   "iso": "SY",
   "name": "Syria"
  },
  {
   "iso": "IR",
   "name": "Iran"
  },
  {
   "iso": "IQ",
   "name": "Iraq"
  },
  {
   "iso": "IN",
   "name": "India"
  },
  {
   "iso": "PK",
   "name": "Pakistan"
  },
  {
   "iso": "MX",
   "name": "Mexico"
  },
  {
   "iso": "BR",
   "name": "Brazil"
  },
  {
   "iso": "GB",
   "name": "United Kingdom"
  },
  {
   "iso": "AL",
   "name": "Albania"
  },
  {
   "iso": "GE",
   "name": "Georgia"
  },
  {
   "iso": "AM",
   "name": "Armenia"
  },
  {
   "iso": "MA",
   "name": "Morocco"
  },
  {
   "iso": "TN",
   "name": "Tunisia"
  }
 ],
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "cimaruta",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Cimaruta",
   "as": "the harm this charm is aimed at, stated in its own language as mal'occhio",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "cornicello",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Cornicello",
   "as": "the harm it answers; southern Italy substitutes a horn where the eastern Mediterranean draws an eye",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "cowrie-strand",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Cowrie strand",
   "as": "the sign one modern ethnographic author reads in the shell's slit underside — an attribution the source makes and this atlas repeats as an attribution",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "dzi-bead",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Dzi bead",
   "as": "the sign counted on its surface — an eye here is a circle, and the number of them sets the price",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "ethiopian-magic-scroll",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Ethiopian talismanic scroll",
   "as": "the sign painted on it in geometric pairs, rimmed in red, against the harm that arrives by looking",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "evil-eye-bracelet",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Evil eye bracelet",
   "as": "the sign, and the reason a factory bead and a hand-blown one make the same claim",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "fascinum",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Fascinum",
   "as": "the thing it is aimed at, and on the Leptis Magna and Hadrian's Wall reliefs, literally",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "figa",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Figa",
   "as": "the sign this substitutes for — something startling enough to take a look",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "gorgoneion",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Gorgoneion",
   "as": "the sign underneath this one; the gorgoneion's whole force sits in the glare, and Homer describes the eyes before anything else",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "hagstone",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Hagstone",
   "as": "the family this atlas files a hole-you-look-through beside — though no source in this record says the hagstone is an eye, and this record does not say it either",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "hamsa",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Hamsa",
   "as": "the sign usually set in the palm; two charms stacked on one piece of silver",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "nazar",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Nazar",
   "as": "the sign, in the form most of the world now buys it in",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "nimbu-mirchi",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Nimbu mirchi",
   "as": "the harm it answers, though not the method — this string does not look back, it spoils the look",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "ojo-de-venado",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Ojo de venado",
   "as": "the sign this seed already is without anybody cutting it — a dark band on a pale ground, read as a pupil",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "tama-votive",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Tama",
   "as": "one of the shapes stamped on them, here meaning an eye that hurts rather than an eye that looks",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "wedjat-eye",
   "type": "amulet",
   "name": "Wedjat eye",
   "as": "the sign this amulet carries, and the oldest dated member of the family that runs from here to a glass bead in Istanbul",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "greco-roman-apotropaic",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Greek and Roman protective magic",
   "as": "the sign the whole practice is organised around, whether it is drawn or substituted for",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "coin-square",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The square hole",
   "as": "the square hole is called an eye in Chinese, which is a pun and not this atlas's eye family",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "crescent",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The crescent",
   "as": "the harm Roman amulets were worn against, this one included",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "fist",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The fig fist",
   "as": "the harm all of this is aimed at — the fist is one of the shapes that takes the look",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "hand",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The hand",
   "as": "the sign usually set in this one's palm; two answers to the same harm stacked on one object",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "horn",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The horn",
   "as": "the harm it is aimed at, and the sign it stands in for in southern Italy",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "mirror-sign",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The mirror",
   "as": "the other sign whose stated mechanism is sending a look back where it came from",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "open-palm",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The open palm",
   "as": "the sign set in this palm more often than any other",
   "rel": "kin"
  },
  {
   "from": "phallic-sign",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The phallus",
   "as": "the harm it is aimed at, and in Roman art the thing it is drawn attacking",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "scarab-sign",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The beetle",
   "as": "the other sign Egypt made by the thousand; the eye went over the incision, the beetle at the heart",
   "rel": "contrast"
  },
  {
   "from": "serpent",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The serpent",
   "as": "the other sign that is both the harm and the answer to it",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "tooth-and-claw",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The tooth and the claw",
   "as": "Illyrians used animal teeth against the same harm the eye is aimed at, in the same substitution set",
   "rel": "parallel"
  },
  {
   "from": "glass",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Glass",
   "as": "the sign glass carries better than any other material, because a dot of colour set in a dot of colour is what glass does easily",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "seed",
   "type": "material",
   "name": "Seed and nut",
   "as": "the sign in the name: rudra-aksha, the eye of Rudra, and in Mexico the eye of a deer",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "grand-bazaar",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "The Grand Bazaar",
   "as": "the sign under the glass — the same interception the Nile cut in faience, four thousand years later",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "mercado-de-sonora",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Mercado de Sonora",
   "as": "the harm the seed answers, named in Spanish as mal de ojo and stocked here by the tray",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "monastiraki",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Monastiraki",
   "as": "the sign itself, in a city whose writers were describing the harmful look 2,400 years ago",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "alan-dundes",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Alan Dundes",
   "as": "the sign his 1992 casebook assembled the arguments about, from a dozen scholars at once",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "frederick-elworthy",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Frederick Thomas Elworthy",
   "as": "the sign he catalogued across Europe in 1895, and the reason many of these objects are grouped together at all",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "siegfried-seligmann",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Siegfried Seligmann",
   "as": "the sign his two 1910 volumes chased through every language he could read",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "nazar-word",
   "type": "term",
   "name": "nazar",
   "as": "the sign the word is about, and the one thing every language in its range agrees on",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "the-drawn-signs",
   "type": "art",
   "name": "The drawn signs",
   "as": "the first glyph in the set, and the one the whole drawing style was settled on",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "most-of-them-are-for-children",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "Most of them are for children",
   "as": "the sign behind most of this class — harm arrives by an admiring look, and the admired thing is usually somebody's child",
   "rel": "motif"
  },
  {
   "from": "the-eye-everywhere",
   "type": "story",
   "name": "The eye everywhere",
   "as": "the sign this read follows, and the record that holds its physical forms",
   "rel": "motif"
  }
 ]
}