The Role of the Sickle in Folklore
Like the scythe or the witch’s hat, there are some elements of folklore and the paranormal that seem to pop up all over the place. They stand on their own, are full of meaning, and can draw any eye. But there is one item in folklore that often goes overlooked: the sickle.
While the Grim Reaper you know and love carries a scythe today, the god of Death in the world of the Greeks carried a Sickle. In particular, Cronus carried an adamantine sickle, that was forged by his powerful mother. It was well known that this sickle possessed the power to not only cut through flesh and blood but also cut through time and destroy entire bloodlines.
Let's back up a little bit and quickly rehash what a sickle is (and why it is a little weird that a god of death would carry one). Similar to scythes, sickles are primarily an agricultural tool. They were single-handed tools with a curved blade largely used in the process of harvesting, with the secondary use of clearing up land. Unlike scythes, the handle is much shorter.
But that still doesn’t explain why the god of death would have a sickle. Perhaps as a symbol of reaping souls or justice or bloodlines and a reminder that Cronus could cut much deeper than a sword or simple blade.
Moving elsewhere in the world, the sickle was popular in folk magic. It is believed that the sickle is a continuous reminder of death and removal, as its main purpose is to reap. However, its hook-like shape could also be likened to the crescent moon, a powerful symbol for folk magic. In slavic witchcraft, the sickle is used for the ritual of circle-plowing, which helps brings safety and scare away disease. In an act of apotropaic magic (one of my favorite forms) milk was poured over a sickle to help protect against witchcraft and remove hexes, specifically hexes cast on a cow.
Another strange thing is that sickles were often found in graves. Some burials even use the sickle gruesomely, placing it around the neck of the deceased. Why? Were people afraid of something? Arming themselves in death? Or something else? Researchers believe that there are typically 4 reasons someone would be buried with a sickle
1) Because the individual was a farmer, and the sickle is proof or a symbol of that
2) It could be used as a symbol of wealth and higher status (as sickles reaped)
3) It was used as a weapon and symbolic of the individual’s role as warrior
4) As a magical item that protected the dead and living.
Now #4 I have a little bit of a bone to pick with. Why? Well if you’re using a sickle to keep the dead, well, dead…shouldn’t you not include something that could be used as a weapon if it were to wake up? Just my 2 cents.
This tool was used for farming and since the neolithic age clearly played a huge part in people’s lives so perhaps it is no surprise that it played a part in our world’s myth, magic, and, of course, our treatment of death.
The blog image is a picture of a sickle from flickr user Enricco Sana. It is Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
Thank you to Kat for this blogstonishing topic suggestion!