The Sorcerer's Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter (41 page)

The basic notion of invisible fashion accessories can be traced back to Greek mythology. Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, owned a miraculous “cap of darkness,” which made anyone who donned it invisible. (Not coincidentally,
Hades
means “the unseen one” in ancient Greek.) This cap was very handy for outmaneuvering enemies, and it was frequently borrowed by other mythological figures. The young prince Perseus wore it when he went to slay the snake-haired monster Medusa, and the god Hermes used it in battle against the
giant
Hippolytus.

Other Greek legends speak of rings, arrows, and even clouds of mist that bestow the enviable ability to wander about unseen. An actual
cloak
of invisibility was unknown until the Middle Ages, when one appeared in the famous Austrian poem “The Song of the Nibelung.” In this twelfth-century epic, loosely based on several tales from Norse mythology, a powerful
dwarf
magician named Alberich possesses a secret cloak (or
tarnkappe)
that can render its wearer invisible. An unusually potent garment, it also gives its owner the strength of twelve men. Alberich uses the
tarnkappe
to protect the underground treasure of the
Nibelung
(a mighty race of European kings) until he is defeated, and his cloak taken, by the great German folk hero, Siegfried. The story of Alberich and Siegfried is also told in the celebrated nineteenth-century German opera
Der Ring des Nibelungen
, by Richard Wagner.

Before Harry Potter, the most famous owner of an invisibility cloak was Jack the Giant Killer, who uses his magic garment here to sneak past two griffins
. (
photo credit 44.1
)

By the eighteenth century, cloaks, coats, and mantles of invisibility had become standard garb in European folklore. The popular English hero Jack the Giant Killer is said to have worn a “coat of darkness” that allowed him to sneak up on his enemies without warning. (Never one to dress down, Jack also sported a cap of knowledge and shoes of swiftness in many of his adventures.) Invisibility cloaks also figure prominently in several of Grimm’s fairy tales, such as the popular fable, “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces.” In this lighthearted tale, a penniless soldier wins fame, fortune, and a royal bride by using his cloak to outwit twelve spoiled princesses. Despite his magical trappings, the soldier only narrowly avoids detection. He has trouble keeping his hands and feet to himself, and at one point his unseen presence in a rowboat even prompts the question: “I wonder why the boat is so much heavier tonight?”

Of course, not all invisibility cloaks are created equal. Like any article of clothing, they come in various sizes, fabrics, and colors. Jack the Giant Killer’s invisible garment is routinely described as a humble “old coat,” while the cloak Harry inherits from his father is made of a supple, silver fabric that flows and shimmers like water. Some invisibility cloaks also confer additional powers on the wearer. A flying cloak of invisibility that appears in a sequel to
The Wizard of Oz
can whisk its owner wherever he wishes. Harry’s cloak can conceal and protect more than one person, and its wearers can never be revealed by an enemy’s
spell, curse
, or
charm
.

There is, however, one quality that all invisibility cloaks share in common; they allow their wearers to do exactly what they want, without fear of judgment or reprisal. As Harry discovers when he uses his cloak to sneak out of Hogwarts after hours, the power of invisibility allows you to make your own rules and to go wherever you please. The idea of such boundless freedom once prompted the ancient Greek philosopher Plato to ask his students how they would behave if they were suddenly rendered invisible. What would
you
do?

o one likes to be on the receiving end of a jinx. Whether it makes your face break out in horrible acne (Hermione’s jinx for those who spill secrets), your eyebrows grow past your nose (a Slytherin jinx aimed at a Gryffindor Quidditch player), or the toilet spew
upward
when you flush (one wizard’s idea of a practical joke), a jinx is always bad news.

In the muggle world a jinx rarely causes such instantaneous or dramatic results; rather, a jinx is something believed to cause bad luck, and “to jinx someone” is to cause their misfortune. Although the exact origin of our modern word is in dispute, a version of the word has been connected with magical mischief at least since the ancient Greeks. In Greek mythology,
I
ynx was the name of a nymph (or nature spirit) who specialized in concocting love potions. One of her potions caused Zeus to fall in love with a beauty named Io. Not surprisingly, this angered Zeus’ wife, Hera, and she took her revenge by turning Iynx into a woodpecker. This particular type of woodpecker—known in English as the jynx or wryneck—was to be associated with magic and witchcraft for centuries to come.

Aphrodite spinning an iynx wheel to cast a spell
. (
photo credit 45.1
)

The jynx is a brownish-gray bird with a long tongue and a tendency to hiss when frightened. It gained its other name, wryneck, from its ability to twist its neck 180 degrees, enabling it to see in every direction. Myth tells that the goddess Aphrodite was the first to use the jynx for
magic
. She fastened the poor bird to a wheel, which she set spinning and gave to the hero Jason to use as a love
charm
to woo his future wife, Medea. This device, known as an iynx wheel, was also used by real Greeks who hoped to achieve similar results. In sixteenth-century England, the bird’s association with ancient magic, combined with its ability to see in all directions, made it seem eerie, or even supernatural. The jynx became associated with
divination
, and
witches
were said to use the bird’s feathers to cast evil
spells
. By the seventeenth century, the word “jynx” had come to mean a spell or charm designed to cause harm or bad luck.

One of today’s most infamous jinxes is the
“Sports Illustrated
cover jinx.” No sooner does an athlete appear on the cover of the magazine, it seems, than he or she suffers an injury, enters a slump, or suffers some kind of personal misfortune.

The first victim was baseball slugger Eddie Matthews, who appeared on the debut issue of
Sports Illustrated
on August 16, 1954. A week after the magazine hit the stands, Matthews injured his hand and was out of commission for the next seven games. This is admittedly mild when compared to the fate of race car driver Pat O’Connor, who, four days after his cover appearance, was killed in a fifteen-car crash during the first lap of the famed Indianapolis 500. In 1993, baseball great Barry Bonds was enjoying a fabulous hitting streak that came to a screeching halt following his cover appearance (his average plummeted 40 points in two weeks). And only a day after tennis star Anna Kournikova graced the cover, she was knocked out of the French Open in the second round—her earliest exit in three years. Other athletes—and there have been plenty—have suffered broken bones and torn ligaments; they have lost games they should have won, dropped balls they should have caught, fumbled on the goal line, scored for the wrong team, been sued for divorce, suffered paralysis, and died—all within days of their cover appearance.