βασκανία, the casting of the “evil eye,” may be countered by certain rites, as described in “magical” texts. But the word can also be used to mean no more than malign jealousy or malice, as in this intriguing little piece, an extract from what seems to be a treatise on the Platonic dialogue that came to light some forty years ago:
οὐ γὰρ πειστέον Ἀριστοτέλει ὑπὸ τῆς πρὸς Πλάτωνα βασκανίας εἰπόντι ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ περὶ ποιητικῆς καὶ πρὸ Πλάτωνος γεγράφθαι δραματικοὺς διαλόγους ὑπ’ Ἀλεξαμενοῦ Τηνίου. (Missing bits restored.)
(“For Aristotle is not be be believed when in his baskania against Plato he says in bk.1 of the Poetics that dramatic dialogues had been written even before Plato by Alexamenos of Tenos.”)
