"Askion Kataski!" The Ephesia Grammata
Hades 2 players will be familiar with the incantation "Askion kataski!", which Melinoë uses when casting spells at her cauldron.
Hades is relatively good about including references to obscure source material, so I figured that this was probably a real incantation. But I didn't recognize it, and I couldn't find anything on it until recently.
I've been going through The Hekataeon, which, if you don't know, is the best modern grimoire of Hekate magic. It incorporates a lot of historical material, including PGM incantations and traditional folk techniques. Guess what I found:
There it is! As soon as I found this incantation in The Hekataeon, I knew it had to be legit.
It's called the Ephesia Grammata, the Ephesian Letters. It's an example of voces magicae, nonsense or pseudo-Greek words that make up incantations in Greco-Egyptian magic. They're supposed to represent the secret tongue or names of the gods, which enable the magician to call and compel divine forces. The Wikipedia article on the Ephesia Grammata is pretty sparse, but I was able to find some more information on them in my books:
With few exceptions, "mystical" words or formulas do not appear in Greek tablets of the classical and Hellenistic periods, in contrast to the richly variegated language of tablets in the Roman period (first century CE onward). But these exceptions are interesting and important. The first involves a set of six terms, called ephesia grammata, first attested in a fragment of Anaxilas, a comic poet of the fourth century BCE: "(an unnamed person)... carries around marvelous Ephesian letters in sewn pouches. These terms (askion, kataskion, lix, tetrax, damnameneus, and aison/aisia) were believed to possess the ability to endow those who wore them (especially boxers, so it seems) with great power, both defensive and aggressive. They remained well known for centuries, appearing in several later spells and charms. The Christian writer, Clement of Alexandria (ca. 200 CE) not only lists the terms but calls them "famous among many people." More significantly, they appear in at least one lead amulet from the Hellenistic period and thus clearly establish the use of "mystical" terms (voces mysticae) long before their widespread circulation from the first century CE onward. This folded tablet from Crete, dating to the fourth century BCE, must have been carried as a protective amulet (line 20 speaks of protecting the wearer from hostile spells); it contains several of the ephesia grammata: aski and kataski (lines 9-10), lix (lines 5 and 10), forms of tetrax (lines 5, 11-12), and damnameneus (line 16). A second exception is a curious stone monument from Greece, dating to the late fifth century BCE, which Jeffery takes to be a thank offering by an unnamed person for the successful punishment of a personal enemy. She offers the following tentative reconstruction of the text: "The Ephesian vengeance was sent down (?); first Hecate injures (??) the possessions (??) of Megara in all things; then Persephone already is reporting all the (prayers?) to the gods."
— John G. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World
TL;DR, the Ephesia Grammata are one of the oldest examples of voces magicae!
Regarding what the words mean, and where they came from:
The most spectacular transformation uncovered by scholars is a set of hocus-pocus words known as the ephesia grammata, which turn out to derive from early hexametrical verses in which the god Paian (Apollo) promises protection from dangers on earth or sea or sky. "Paieon, for in every direction you send averting charms, | and you spoke these immortal verses to mortal men: | "As down the shady mountains in a dark-and-glittering land| a child leads out of Persephone's garden by necessity for milking| that four-footed holy attendant of Demeter,| a she-goat with an untiring stream of rich milk." The first few words of Paian's averting charm, "As down the shadowy mountain" (hossa kata skiarōn oreōn) become aski kataski, while the "goat" (aix) and "four-footed one" (tetrabēmona) become lix and tetrax. These meaningless words, collected together as aski, kataski, lix, tetrax, aision, and damnameneus, are known as the ephesia grammata, probably originally meaning "averting words" (taking ephesia from ephiemi, to avert), but later understood to mean "words from Ephesus." The late lexicon of Photius describes them as incomprensible charms that brought invincibility to an Ephesian wrestler, but also as warding magics (alexipharmaka).
— Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World.
AFAIK "askios" (ἄσκῐος) also means "shadowless."
The ASKION KATASKION portion only appears once in the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) a set of Greco-Egyptian magical texts. They appear in PGM LXX 4-25, "Charm of Hekate Ereschigal [sic] against fear of punishment." In this spell, they appear as "ASKEI KATASKEI." The spell instructs the magician to recite the incantation at a crossroads and then flee, "because it is at those places that she [Hekate] appears." So these words are even associated with Hekate specifically!
I didn't personally find any examples of Melinoë's "Kataskion aski!" reversal, but even that reads as authentic, since a lot of voces magicae are palindromic or other variations on a theme.
I am continually impressed by the Hades devs for incorporating stuff like this into the game. They add so much depth and realism to it! This is one of the reasons why Hades is one of my favorite pieces of mythology-related media.
