Also called Strix (singular), Screech-owl witches.
The tale
Romans feared the striges, bird-like creatures or witches in owl form that flew in through windows at night and preyed on sleeping infants. Ovid tells how the baby Proca, a future king of Alba, was attacked by them in his cradle. The nymph Carna came to save him: she touched the doorposts with arbutus, sprinkled the threshold with water, offered the entrails of a young pig in his place and set a branch of whitethorn at the window. The striges never returned, and the child grew up healthy.
When they are met
- 1 June, feast of Carna, who protected against them
- night
- when a baby is born
Staying on their good side
- none; tradition protects against them rather than feeding them
- a hawthorn branch at the window
- a light kept burning
Honouring them, or keeping safe
- Hang a sprig of hawthorn at a window or doorway as the old protective charm.
- Keep a gentle nightlight on for small children.
- Honour Carna, the protector of the body, with beans and bacon on 1 June, as the Romans did.
- Read the story in book six of Ovid's Fasti.
What their tales teach
- protection of babies and children
- nighttime fears
- safety of the home
- the healing power of protective plants
Symbols
- the screech owl
- the hawthorn or whitethorn branch
- a window at night
- grey feathers
From Ovid's Fasti and Petronius; the strix later gave her name to the witch, strega, in Italian.
More Roman folklore
- Genius Loci The guardian spirit of a place
- Lemures The hungry ghosts of May
- The Sibyl of Cumae The prophetess of the hundred-mouthed cave
- Fauns The goat-legged spirits of the woods
- The Versipellis The werewolf by the tombs
- Larvae Malevolent ghosts of the restless dead
- Mania Mother of the dead and nursery bogey
- Lamia (in Roman sources) Child-devouring witch of Roman tales