Invidia

In Latin, invidia is the sense of envy, a "looking upon" associated with the evil eye, from invidere, "to look against, to look in a hostile manner."Invidia ("Envy") is one of the Seven Deadly Sins in Christian belief.

Invidia is also the Roman name for the ancient Greek goddess, Nemesis.

The material culture and literature of ancient Rome offer numerous examples of rituals and magic spells intended to avert invidia and the evil eye. When a Roman general celebrated a triumph, the Vestal Virgins suspended a fascinus, or phallic effigy, under the chariot to ward off invidia.

Envy is the vice most associated with witches and magic. The witch's protruding tongue alludes to Ovid's Invidia who has a poisoned tongue. The witch and Invidia share a significant feature—the Evil Eye. The term invidia stems from the Latin invidere, "to look too closely". One type of the aggressive gaze is the "biting eye", often associated with envy, and reflects the ancient belief that envy originates from the eyes. Ovid feared that a witch who possessed eyes with double pupils would cast a burning fascination over his love affair.

Fascinare means to . Catullus in one of his love poems jokes nervously about ill wishers who might count the kisses he gives to his beloved and thus be able to "fascinate" the lovers with an evil, envious spell. A shepherd in one of Vergil's poems looks at his lambs, all skin and bones, and concludes, "some eye or other is bewitching them []"—to which the commentator Servius adds "[the shepherd] obliquely indicates that he has a handsome flock, since it was worth afflicting with the evil eye []". Any unusual felicity or success was felt to be subject to the unspecific but powerful force of envy []. That is why everyone from soldiers to infants to triumphing generals needed a fascinum, a remedy against the evil eye, an antidote, something that would make the evil wisher look away.

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