S4·E5 Witches

Known varyingly as a sorceress, an enchantress, and a devil's consort, the witch has haunted the human consciousness and captured the imagination for thousands of years.

While a general fear of witches seems to be woven deep within the human psyche, witchcraft and magic have been interpreted in different ways by different cultures throughout the ages. Some cultures and religions have deemed the practitioners of witchcraft to be evil, while others harness a more positive perspective on the power of the witch. What exactly are these controversial and mysterious powers? Why were witches hunted down so mercilessly during the European witch trials of the Middle Ages? And what were the actual motivations behind the famous seventeenth-century witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts?

Join Ancient Mysteries® on a quest to find answers to these and many other questions that lay buried deep within the ancient past.