résumé anglais

This paper is a part of a chapter of the MA dissertation I presented in July 1995 on the subject of "The practices of magic : an alternate response to the Athenian crisis of the Vth IVth centuries B.C. I avail myself ot this occasion to thank CAPES, which gave me a scholarship enabling me to complete my research work, and my advistor, Dr. Neyde Theml of UFRJ-LHIA. The person in antiguity who had suffered an injustice and had gone to the authorities in vain, had in fact only one authority at this disposal : the "defixiones", more commonly known as curse tablets. They are inscreved pieces of lead, usually in the form of small, thin sheets, intended to influence, by supernatural means, the actions or the welfare of persons