Noting that Greeks are an ethnic group indigenous to Greece and the Levant, artefacts can be found from this region. Ancient authors frequently mention the ὀφθαλμὸς βάσκανος (evil eye). Classical authors attempted both to describe and to explain the function of the evil eye. Plutarch in his work entitle Symposium has a separate chapter describing such beliefs. In his scientific explanation stated that the eyes were the chief, if not sole, source of the deadly rays that were supposed to spring up like poisoned darts from the inner recesses of a person possessing the evil eye. Plutarch treated the phenomenon of the evil eye as something seemingly inexplicable that is a source of wonder and cause of incredulity. Pliny the Elder described the ability of certain African enchanters to have the "power of fascination with the eyes and can even kill those on whom they fix their gaze".The idea of the evil eye appears in the poetry of Virgil in a conversation between the shepherds Menalcas and Damoetas. In the passage, Menalcas is lamenting the poor health of his stock: "What eye is it that has fascinated my tender lambs?". Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that the evil eye could affect both humans and animals, for example cattles. Protection from the eye
The belief in the evil eye during antiquity varied across different regions and periods. The evil eye was not feared with equal intensity in every corner of the Roman Empire.
Disks or balls, consisting of concentric blue and white circles (usually, from inside to outside, dark blue, light blue, white, and dark blue) representing an evil eye are common apotropaic talismans in West Asia and the Balkans, found on the prows of  boats and elsewhere; in some forms of the folklore, the staring eyes are supposed to bend the malicious gaze back to the sorcerer. Known as nazar (Turkish: nazar boncuğu or nazarlık), this talisman is most frequently seen in Turkey, found in or on houses and vehicles or worn as beads. The word hamsa, also spelled khamsa and hamesh, means "five" referring to the fingers of the hand. In Jewish culture, the hamsa is called the Hand of Miriam; in the Levantine Christian culture is called the Hand of Mary, in some Muslim and Balkan cultures, the Hand of Fatima. Though condemned as superstition by doctrinaire Muslims, it is almost exclusively among the Near East and Mediterranean that the belief in envious looks containing destructive power or the talismanic power of a nazar to defend against them. To adherents of other faiths in the region, the nazar is an attractive decoration. A variety of motifs to ward off the evil eye are commonly woven into tribal kilim rugs. Such motifs include a cross (Turkish: Haç) to divide the evil eye into four, a hook (Turkish: Çengel) to destroy the evil eye, or a human eye (Turkish: Göz) to avert the evil gaze.