Ancient Greek Magic

Valery P. Yailenko (Moscow, Russia; History dr., prof.)

The ancient Greek verse graffiti from Olbia Pontica and Bosporus
Summary
Olbia is unique city in all ancient Greek world: there are 31 verse graffiti on a table pottery and sherds from VI-III centuries B.C., even Athens hasn’t such quantity. 23 items pertain to the VI-V century B.C., 8 to Hellenistic time. The used poetic meters are 10 hexameters, 8 ionics, 6 paeans, 2 bacchii, 2 iambi, 1 trochee. The themes are different, there are prevail the drinking and love motifs of Anacreontic type. Content classification: citations and paraphrases of Homeric poems 5; the decent jokes, sarcasm 3; round dance, theatrical action 2; drinking verses 9; gifts 3; obscenes 3; varia 6. Unique among them is Olbian hymn of the VI century B.C. to the sacral region Hylaea and its gods, containing above 12 hexameters.
At first time, I’ve gathered all verse graffiti from Olbia and Bosporus and have revealed their verse character in article “The Greek verse graffiti from Cimmerian Bosporus, Pontic Olbia, Berezan island”. It’s published in annual “Drevnosti Bospora” (The Bosporan antiquities). Moscow, 2019, Vol. 25, p. 441-510 (in Russian). See also internet resource: @bosporankingdom Яйленко В.П. Стихотворные граффити Боспора, Ольвии, Березани.

Olbia Pontica, together with slightly remote Berezan island settlement, is an unique city in the ancient Greek world: there are nearly 33 graffiti written in verse on table pottery (mainly shards) from the 6 th -2 nd centuries BC, which is a lager quantity than Athens has. Among them 26 inscriptions pertain to the 6 th -5 th centuries, and 7 other to the Hellenistic time. The used poetic meters are: 9 hexameters, 7 ionics, 3 paeans, one by one bacchius, iambic trimeter, trochaic tetrameter, dactylic tetrameter. The Olbians have strongly loved great poet Homer and his poems, owing to it the hexameter was prevailing. The themes of the verses are different, amongst them prevailing the drinking and love motifs -12 graffiti, half of the total quantity. Among the other content types there are 3 comic verses, 2 theatre and choric actions, one by one dedicatory, sacral, obscene, gift inscriptions. The most important of all the ancient Greek written in verse graffiti is hymn of the 6 th century to the sacral Olbian zone Hylaea and its gods, which includes 12 hexameter lines.

Desde la antigua Mesopotamia hasta la época helenística y romana, desde la antigua India hasta el Mediterráneo oriental, en el tejido que configuran esas dos líneas, la una cronológica, la otra espacial, se crearon en la Antigüedad algunas de las composiciones más poéticas y de sentimiento religioso más profundo de la historia de la literatura y de la religión. En este libro se puede seguir el rastro de constantes hímnicas que desde la antigua Mesopotamia van dando expresión al canto a la divinidad, mezclándose entre sí y adaptándose a nuevos dioses hasta llegar en época helenística al Mediterráneo oriental, donde la religión y la literatura griega ofrecen una gran variedad de himnos, en verso y en prosa, cultuales, literarios, filosóficos, preservados en papiro, en piedra o en transmisión manuscrita, en los que la tradición griega, y en un caso siríaca, se tiñe con nuevas formas de expresión que reflejan también nuevas formas de concebir a la divinidad. A esta variedad hímnica en el Oriente heleno está dedicada la segunda parte del libro. A las distintas tradiciones hímnicas que se van imbricando hasta llegar al mundo grecorromano –babilonia, acadia, egipcia, india, ugarítica, hitita y luvita– está dedicada la primera parte.

*[ENG below]* El examen de los manuales de prácticas mágicas greco-egipcias que han llegado hasta nosotros muestra que, al menos en lo relativo a este tipo de magia, los recursos retóricos y rituales de estas prácticas, en realidad, no diferían en gran medida de aquellos empleados en la religión de la época, compartiendo con esta muchos de sus aspectos fundamentales: los actos constitutivos del ritual, similares requerimientos de aptitud y pureza, etc. De hecho, algunos himnos y plegarias mágicos resultan indistinguibles en forma y tono de sus equivalentes literario-religiosos, como puedan ser, por ejemplo, los himnos órficos. Este rasgo es particularmente llamativo en relación con un conjunto específico y muy bien delimitado de composiciones: los himnos mágicos de la esfera apolínea. Este estudio analiza sus características y profundiza en los mecanismos empleados para usar la expresión ritual normativa como un recurso mágico.
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[ENG] An examination of the Greco-Egyptian magical handbooks that have come down to us shows that, at least as far as Greco-Egyptian magic is concerned, the rhetorical and ritual means of these practices did not differ greatly from those employed in the contemporary religious field. Magic and religion shared many of their fundamental aspects: the constitutive acts, similar requirements of aptitude and purity, etc. Indeed, some magical hymns and prayers are indistinguishable in form and tone from their literary-religious equivalents, such as, for example, Orphic hymns. This feature is particularly striking in relation to a specific and well-defined set of compositions: the magical hymns of the Apollonian sphere. This study analyses their characteristics and delves into the mechanisms employed to use normative ritual expression as a magical resource.

In Classical Athens, representations of dangerous female figures are innumerable: warriors, filicides, husband-killers, wicked stepmothers, poisoners, seductresses, sorceresses, maidens who refuse marriage, maenads and monsters with female faces pervade theatre, historiography, orations and images. Many of these figures, whose victims are almost always men, are not attested in the sources of the archaic age, or else they appear but their wickedness worsens in the transition to the classical age:
a trajectory that is not activated for figures of dangerous men. In the same period, which corresponds to the birth and development of democracy in Athens, philosophy, medicine and biology trace the contours of ‘female nature’ and codify its inferiority and dangerousness on a scientific basis. This study, through a vast corpus of literary, iconographic and epigraphic sources, examines the physiognomy and evolution of around sixty figures of dangerous women drawn from myth, history and pseudohistory, in relation to the contemporary political and social context and the changing
forms of marriage, inheritance and dowry. In the face of the tendency in recent studies to obscure the relations of domination between social groups, emphasising the symbolic and identity aspects and culturising the causes, this study aims to focus on the material roots underlying the relations between the sexes and the ideology that sanctions their inequality. The gynophobia aroused by representations of dangerous female figures, who escape their assigned social role, is thus analysed not as an emotion
but in its function as an ideological device and naturalisation of social hierarchies in the context of the democratic polis.

In the article, we are publishing a fragment of the lower part of an Attic black-glazed kylix, dated 550–530 BCE, found during regular excavations on the territory of Olbia. On the outer side of the foot, an alphabetical set is cut: ΑΒΓΔΕϜΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠϘΡΣΤΥΧ<Φ>ΨΩϠ. On the stem, remains
of random letters ϠΕ [---]Χ /Ξ Σ ?[---] are visible. They are cut by the same hand, which means that the inscription was carved on the vessel during the period of its active use, i.e. not later than the last third of the VI century BCE. According to the set of letters, the graffiti represents the Eastern Ionian alphabet, including the “dead letters” waw, koppa and sampi. At the same time, the mu form which accurately reproduces the Phoenician prototype is fixed only in a very limited range of alphabets of the western branch (Southern Aegeid, Euboea and its western colonies); the delta and psi forms are also characteristic of the western group. The same applies to the order of the non-Phoenician letters ΧΦΨ, which is non-alphabetic from the point of view of the Ionian alphabet. On the back of the foot, another hand, of a later time, carved another graffiti: ΑΘ Μ | ET. This inscription can be understood as a mark of private ownership, but it is more likely to be of magical character.

The article published found during regular excavations on the territory of Olbia, a fragment of the lower part of an attic blackglazed  kylix, dated 550-530 BCE. On the outside of the foot, cut alphabetical set ΑΒΓΔΕϜΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠϘΡΣΤΥΧ<Φ>ΨΩͲ, on the stem remains of random letters  ͲΕ̣[---]Χ̣/Ξ̣Σ̣?[---] are visible cut with the same hand that shows that the inscription was carved on the vessel during its period of active use, i.e. not later than the last third of the VI century BCE. According to the set of letters, the graffiti represents the Eastern Ionian alphabet, including the "dead letters" waw, koppa, sampi. At the same time, the mu form, which accurately reproduces the Phoenician prototype, is fixed only in a very limited range of alphabets of the western branch (Southern Aegeid, Euboea and its western colonies); delta and psi forms are also characteristic of the western group. The same applies to the non-alphabetic order of non-Phoenician letters ΧΦΨ from the point of view of the Ionian alphabet. On the back of the foot, with the other hand and at a later time, another graffiti was carved: ΑΘΜ | ET. The inscription can be understood as a mark of private ownership, but rather it has a magical character.

The article published found during regular excavations on the territory of Olbia, a fragment of the lower part of an attic blackglazed  kylix, dated 550-530 BCE. On the outside of the foot, cut alphabetical set ΑΒΓΔΕϜΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝΞΟΠϘΡΣΤΥΧ<Φ>ΨΩͲ, on the stem remains of random letters  ͲΕ̣[---]Χ̣/Ξ̣Σ̣?[---] are visible cut with the same hand that shows that the inscription was carved on the vessel during its period of active use, i.e. not later than the last third of the VI century BCE. According to the set of letters, the graffiti represents the Eastern Ionian alphabet, including the "dead letters" waw, koppa, sampi. At the same time, the mu form, which accurately reproduces the Phoenician prototype, is fixed only in a very limited range of alphabets of the western branch (Southern Aegeid, Euboea and its western colonies); delta and psi forms are also characteristic of the western group. The same applies to the non-alphabetic order of non-Phoenician letters ΧΦΨ from the point of view of the Ionian alphabet. On the back of the foot, with the other hand and at a later time, another graffiti was carved: ΑΘΜ | ET. The inscription can be understood as a mark of private ownership, but rather it has a magical character.

Com’ è avvenuta la diffusione dei riti di maledizione nel mondo greco antico? Esiste qualche rapporto tra le parole – spesso criptiche e frammentarie – incise sulle tavolette di maledizione e altri testi più ampi pensati per la performance orale? Questi sono i principali quesiti affrontati nelle pagine di «Poesia degli indovini selvaggi». A partire da una revisione completa delle tavolette pre-imperiali in lingua greca, Bertani ripercorre la storia di un rito dalle prime attestazioni fino alla metà della sua parabola millenaria. Gli strumenti dell’indagine filologica, l’analisi di ritmi ed errori, il confronto con le opportune fonti rituali e autoriali metteranno in luce il valore storico-letterario delle tavolette di maledizione. Grazie a un metodo improntato all’incrocio delle testimonianze, le tavolette appariranno per la prima volta come i veri e propri sedimenti di una tradizione poetica aperta, non autoriale e in questo senso popolare. Una poesia sommersa, che risulta possibile, in una certa misura, sottrarre al naufragio.

Како и за повеќето антички народи, така и кај Старите Грци магијата претставувала нивна вродена имагинација, нешто што е јасно прикажано во изобилието од старогрчките митолошки прикази, литературата и уметноста. Овие извори даваат увид во разнообразјето на маѓепсниците, маѓесничките и магиските дејства кои ги практикувале во своите области, нивниот импакт врз старогрчките народни верувања и приемот на магијата во различните културни и временски периоди. Традицијата и рецепцијата играат значајна улога во проучувањето на магијата и видовите маѓепсници и маѓеснички во класичниот период на територијата на Стара Грција. Тие претставуваат клучни фактори во толкувањата на еволуцијата на магиските пракси и верувањата во магиските дејства низ текот на времето. Несомнено е дека магиските традиции влечат длабоки корени во културните, религиозните и социјалните контексти на општествата од кои
потекнуваат. Оттаму, целта на овој труд е да се даде увид во богатата палета на различните видови маѓепсници и маѓеснички кои делувале на територијата на Стара Грција во класичниот период, магиските пракси и традиции, нивното толкување, восприемање и препознавање на начините на кои тие еволуирале и се прилагодувале низ текот на времето. Рецепцијата на античките магиски пракси продолжува да влијае и денес, во модерното општество врз современиот окултизам, при што практичарите на магија често црпат од историските извори и ги прилагодуваат на денешните современи контексти.

This wax figurine from Egypt, now at August Kestner Museum Hannover, is dated to the 2nd cent. AD by a short inscription on the back. The same inscription as well as the colour of the mummiform figurine and two nails piercing the body reveal the magical purpose of the item: It is the depiction of a nekydaimon who is coerced to provide a beloved, yet reluctant female.

This absorbing work assembles an extraordinary range of evidence for the existence of sorcerers and sorceresses in the ancient world, and addresses the question of their identities and social origins. From Greece in the fifth century BC, through Rome and Italy, to the Christian Roman Empire as far as the late seventh century AD, Professor Dickie shows the development of the concept of magic and the social and legal constraints placed on those seen as magicians. The book provides a fascinating insight into the inaccessible margins of Greco-Roman life, exploring a world of wandering holy men and women, conjurors and wonder-workers, prostitutes, procuresses, charioteers and theatrical performers. Compelling for its clarity and detail, this study is an indispensable resource for the study of ancient magic and society. Matthew W.Dickie teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has written on envy and the Evil Eye, on the learned magician, on ancient erotic magic, and on the interpretation of ancient magical texts.

This chapter explores the relationship between Athenian curse tablets and a contemporary, private ritual practice known only from the archaeological record: pyre deposits. Here "pyre deposit" refers to a small assemblage of specific ceramic vessel types (often miniatures) and burnt material (bone, ash, charcoal) ritually buried in a shallow sub-floor pit (Rotroff 2013). In context and chronology, the earliest pyres recall early Attic curse tablets: both emerge in graves of the Kerameikos in the final decades of the 5th century BCE, and proliferate over the course of the 4th century, appearing also in non-mortuary contexts. At least seven inscribed curses emerge in connection with Attic pyre deposits, seemingly buried on the same ritual occasion; all date from the 4th century BCE, and are inscribed on both lead and ceramic media. These assemblages are catalogued and discussed below, as they raise an important question: What, if anything, was the relationship between these two ritual practices? Curse tablets and pyre deposits correspond so closely in chronology and depositional context that it is tempting to ask whether they somehow evolved in tandem, or reflect social attitudes that sought new forms of interaction with chthonic deities, the supernatural, or the dead. These questions have broader implications for ritualized cursing, and the ways in which curse practice could evolve and diversify over time in a single polis. It seems that over the course of the 4th century BCE, curse-writing rituals came to adopt some features of pyre deposits (and vice versa), and may have been performed by the same practitioners.

presents book-length studies in the fields of Greek archaeology, art, language, and history. Founded in 1937, the series was originally designed to accommodate extended essays too long for inclusion in Hesperia. Since that date the Supplements have established a strong identity of their own, featuring single-author monographs, excavation reports, and edited collections on topics of interest to researchers in classics, archaeology, art history, and Hellenic studies. Back issues of Hesperia and Hesperia Supplements are electronically archived in JSTOR (www.jstor.org), where all but the most recent titles may be found. For order information and a complete list of titles, see the ASCSA website (www.ascsa.edu.gr). The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, established in 1881, is a research and teaching institution dedicated to the advanced study of the archaeology, art, history, philosophy, language, and literature of Greece and the Greek world.

This article presents a remarkable cache of five Attic curse tablets, four of which are published here for the first time. Excavated in situ in a pyre-grave outside the Athenian Long Walls, the texts employ very similar versions of a single binding curse. After situating the cache in its archaeological context, all texts are edited with a full epigraphic commentary. A discussion then follows, in which the most striking features of the texts are highlighted: in addition to the peculiar "first four-year period" (πρώτη πενθετηρίς) that the curses were meant to outlast, and the unparalleled term κυνωτόν, these texts are unusual in that they preserve over a full line of dactylic hexameter. The metrical formulae, combined with the presence of deictic language, may suggest that parts of the archetype curse underpinning these texts once circulated orally, in performative ritual contexts. The cache affords a singular glimpse into the process of cursecreation around 400 BCE, especially the ways in which a curse-writer could customize a fixed template spell to suit a client's needs and circumstances. These tablets illuminate the shadowy process behind the creation of Athenian curse tablets, and the growing traffic in "magic" by the end of the fifth century BCE.

A íynx é um objeto circular, representado na pintura de vasos, conhecido como uma roda mágica destinada ao feitiço de amor. Para compreendermos o sentido de sua frequente representação na pintura dos vasos áticos, analisamos vários aspectos, a saber: como sua relação com o pássaro, ninfa e encantamento que levavam o mesmo nome; o vocábulo e seu campo de significação; as evidências arqueológicas e iconográficas da roda mágica yínx; as técnicas de uso e manuseio para acionar o objeto;  as divindades relacionadas (Afrodite e Eros); os contextos associados, seus usos ritualísticos; e por fim as dimensões sonoras e musicais da íynx.

I.-STUDIA N. ARSENTIEVA, "La magia en La Celestina de Fernando de Rojas a la luz de sus críticas literarias" S. COSTANZA, "Sacrificio cruento e divinazione in Psellos, Περὶ ὀργῆς: paralleli negli usi dei druidi ed in una tabula ps.-pitagorica" Z. CSORBA & M. VESZPRÉMY, "The Dating of Albumasar in Sadan" S. HEILEN & H. ZÄH, "Who Edited and Who Translated the Anonymous Commentary to Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos and (Ps.-)Porphyry's Isagoge (Basel 1559)?" A. PÉREZ-JIMÉNEZ, "Los dioses desarmados. Implicaciones astrales en algunas fórmulas mágicas" II.-DOCUMENTA ET NOTABILIA F. HERRERO VALDÉS, "Las prácticas del PGM II: Himnos a Dafne, Apolo y Helios-Apolo ¿Una tradición oracular apolínea (Parte I)?" III.-RECENSIONES

 e author analyzes from the linguistic and pragmatic point of view a curious Greek curse tablet of uncertain provenance, perhaps Boeotian, directed against a cithara-player woman from Eretria, Zois, and she compares it with other Greek curses in order to clarify its provenance and date.

"Come to me, O beloved mistress, three-faced Moon, and with goodwill heed my sacred songs. O glory of the night, shining upon mortals, youthful child of morning, you who sit upon fierce bulls, O queen, you who ride in a chariot on a course equal to the Sun, you who dance in the three forms of the three Graces, reveling with the stars, O Justice and the threads of the Fates, Klōthō and Lakhesis and Atropos you are..."

Paper short abstract:
This presentation will explore the materiality of the threshold system in the ancient Mediterranean, focusing in particular on the case of the door as a material agent in Greek culture, to highlight its relations with the complex scope of magic and its mythical and technological representations.
Paper long abstract:
The door constitutes an anthropological space of clash between different conflicting agencies: on the one hand, the defensive need to 'close' in order to keep the internal social space intact from any hostile entities; on the other, the need to admit and welcome otherness in a socially controlled form, defusing its possible harmful influences. The technological (and also magical) enhancement of the entrance system thus reflects the religious and cultural instances inherent in this ambiguous artifact. The door is an attractive device whose function is to 'stop' the stranger and which must produce a strong emotional impact on those who approach it. After the comparative study by Arnold van Gennep and the in-depth analysis by Otto Weinreich, the historical-religious reflection on the ancient threshold still sees its rightful place in the debate between religion, magic and technology as unresolved.

Drawing on various contributions by Alfred Gell on the relationship between technology and magic (in particular the notion of 'technology of enchantment'), I will first provide a theoretical framework for exploring some of the most important ancient testimonies. This will also be made possible by a critical resumption of Bruno Latour's reflections on the door as a crucible for different and distributed agencies.

In this way, I will be able to deconstruct the mythical and ideal models of the gate, starting with the 'automatic' gates of Olympus, whose hinges 'moo' spontaneously when the gods want to cross them, and then focusing on the marvelous thresholds of the palace of Alcinous, which 'enchant' Odysseus when he tries to cross them incognito, shrouded in an impenetrable mist. Finally, I will discuss the further agency of the threshold in the PGM collection, where it becomes the fulcrum of magical attention of various practitioners, and where all its technical elements contribute to specific magical purposes.

Este libro presenta las nuevas perspectivas planteadas en el trascurso de los Colloquia Attica I, II y III, que tuvieron lugar en los años 2012, 2013 y 2014 en la Universidad de Hamburgo, respectivamente. Los objetivos de la serie, en la que se enmarca este volumen, aluden a la importancia de la investigación de las sociedades premodernas, haciendo especial hincapié en aquellos elementos simbólicos que sirvan para generar identidad en las culturas estudiadas (p. 6). La obra, además de contar con una introducción y un capítulo conclusivo, se articula en dos grandes secciones: La primera, "Neuere Forschungen zur Archaik, zum athenischen Recht und zur Magie", consta de nueve capítulos que tratan cuestiones relacionadas con el arcaísmo, el derecho ateniense y la magia, ordenados de manera cronológica. En la segunda, "Projekte und erste Ergebnisse", encontramos cinco capítulos que cubren diversos proyectos y sus primeros resultados, relacionados igualmente con la temática del libro. Los objetivos del volumen son desarrollados en la primera parte de la introducción, a cargo de Werner Riess. La finalidad de los Colloquia era reunir expertos internacionales en distintos ámbitos, en el marco de investigación de la zona del Ática, para así generar un intercambio de ideas que permitiese establecer estas jornadas como referencia en los estudios clásicos. Esto se traduce en la obra en la diversidad de enfoques y planteamientos metodológicos de los diferentes capítulos, lo que permite un acercamiento holístico a los temas abordados. Los capítulos que componen el libro versan sobre las temáticas de los Colloquia I, II y III que se enfocaban, respectivamente, en las tablillas de maldición, las nuevas investigaciones sobre el derecho ateniense y Atenas en la época arcaica. Dada la disparidad y amplitud de los ámbitos que recoge la obra, Riess justifica en la introducción su inclusión en un único volumen, interrelacionando estas categorías entre sí y señalando en líneas generales el tratamiento que se hace de cada una (pp. 12-15). Así pues, el período arcaico fue una época de cambios en la que se acudió, para resolver conflictos, a la creación de leyes. Igualmente, se recurrió a prácticas mágicas, como solución individual y de apoyo en el transcurso de los procesos jurídicos. Después, pasa a realizar una síntesis de cada capítulo, destacando las novedades y aportaciones que plantea a la investigación sobre cada tema en cuestión y la manera en que algunas investigaciones complementan otras, pudiendo, de esta manera, relacionar las diversas contribuciones entre sí. Dentro de la primera sección, los dos primeros capítulos tratan cuestiones relacionadas con la legislación de Dracón. La contribución de Gerhard Thür ("New

This paper proposes a new interpretation of a sentence shared by a 4 th century BCE lead phylakterion from Phalasarna (SEG XLII 818) and by one of the thirteen 2 nd -1 st century BCE lead curse tablets from Demeter’s sanctuary in Knidos (Iknidos, nr. 154). According to the new interpretation, both epigraphs express their authors’ awareness about the possibility of being targeted by a curse ritual. The article also suggests that the phraseology of two further curse tablets from Knidos (IKnidos, nrr. 147, 150) conceal a web of hitherto partially overlooked references to the curse rituals’ dimension.

A rare aquamarine hexagonal prism, of unknown provenance, preserves on its six faces portions of apparent magical words and names, ending with a legible prayer in Greek, "Holy Power, help me!" A closer examination of the formulas shows that the pristine, engraved letters preserve fragments of a bilingual (or trilingual) lexicon, giving translations (hermêneiai) of Greek terms in Hebrew (and Aramaic), copied in Greek. Marginal glosses have also been inadvertently copied back into the text. The transcription was formerly duplicated from a papyrus manual without understanding the textual content of the original model, taking the words as unintellible magical names. Although the bead itself came from India, the gem was probably engraved in Alexandria.

En el ámbito de la filosofía neoplatónica de Proclo el Diádoco, representante destacado de la escuela de Atenas, la figura de la diosa Hécate es de una importancia fundamental, ya que se configura como elemento central de la tríada noérica que separa el Intelecto paterno del demiúrgico, del que manan la Virtud y el orden material de las cosas. Este planteamiento bebe directamente de los oráculos caldeos, un compendio fragmentario de respuestas divinas recopilado en época de Marco Aurelio (segunda mitad del siglo II), en el que Hécate aparece como diosa profética y de sumo poder. Para llegar a comprender cómo una entidad que nunca formó parte del panteón olímpico más extendido en época clásica o helenística llegó a ser uno de los seres más poderosos en la Antigüedad tardía, hace falta estudiar el complejo y rico proceso de asimilación y convergencia que experimentó con otras divinidades, gracias, sobre todo, a los cultos orientales y mistéricos y a la expansión del helenismo por el t...

The international project Multima. Languages, Objects, and the Transmission of Rituals. An interdisciplinary analysis of some unresearched ritual practices in the Greco-Egyptian papyri (PGM) aims at exploring contacts between cultures, languages and rituals in Antiquity, starting from a composite material whose heterogeneity is analysed as a basic element and a bearer of meaning. The study of manuals of ritual practices, summae and encyclopaedias ante litteram of knowledge and skills allows to develop new and interdisciplinary suggestions for the history of ideas and the beginnings of scientific thought.

: In the paper on material of the works by the Latin authors who lived in the Vandal Africa at the turn of the 6-th century (Florentinus, Dracontius) the question is examined: how – and for what purpose – could an image of Carthage, the capital of the Vandal kingdom, be constructed in the local literature. The main conclusion is that its representation in these sources, undoubtedly politically motivated, could be an instrument not only of proVandal propaganda (Carthage – ‘Homeland of Asdingui’), as the most researchers studying this question believe, but also of anti-Vandal one (‘Phoenix Risen’)

Τα χειροποίητα ειδώλια αρχαϊκών χρόνων από την Ακρόπολη και από το Ιερό της Νύμφης, αποτελούν τμήμα της εξέλιξης την κοροπλαστικής τέχνης ήδη από τα ύστερα χρόνια της εποχής του Χαλκού. Τα χειροποίητα ειδώλια προήλθαν από ανασκαφές του 19ου και 20ου αι. σε διάφορες θέσεις στον Ιερό Βράχο της Ακροπόλεως των Αθηνών και το Ιερό της Νύμφης στη νότια κλιτύ της Ακροπόλεως και αποτελούν τυπικούς εκπροσώπους της αρχαϊκής χειροποίητης κοροπλαστικής τέχνης της Αττικής. Ιερά των γυναικείων κατ’ αποκλειστικότητα θεοτήτων (Αθηνάς, Αρτέμιδος, Δήμητρας και Κόρης, Αφροδίτης, Νύμφης, Νυμφών, Σεμνών, Ερινυών) στην ευρύτερη περιοχή των αρχαϊκών Αθηνών, όπως και αττικά ιερά γυναικείων θεοτήτων, έδωσαν πλούσια δείγματα αυτής της τέχνης: η Ακρόπολη και οι κλιτύες της, η αρχαία Αγορά, ο Κεραμεικός, η Ελευσίνα, ο Πειραιάς, το Φάληρο, ο Αναγυρούς, η Βραυρώνα, το Σούνιο, η Αίγινα και πολλές άλλες αρχαϊκές θέσεις των οποίων το υλικό παραμένει εν μέρει αδημοσίευτο.
Οι τόποι εύρεσης τους, αποθέτες, δίπλα ή μέσα στους χώρους των ιερών, αποδεικνύουν την αναθηματική χρήση τους. Το πλήθος, η αυστηρή- στην πλειονότητα τους- ομοιομορφία των μορφολογικών χαρακτηριστικών, καθώς και η πρόχειρη ποιότητα εργασίας, δηλώνουν την ταυτότητα του αναθήματος και του αναθέτη. Πρόκειται για αναθήματα ευρείας κοροπλαστικής παραγωγής που απευθύνονται στα ευρύτερα κοινωνικά στρώματα της εποχής, χωρίς να μπορούμε να διακρίνουμε εάν το ανάθημα απεικονίζει τον αναθέτη ή τη θεότητα, ούτε εάν η ανάθεση συσχετιζόταν με το φύλο του αναθέτη.
Το είδος αυτό της χειροποίητης κοροπλαστικής παραγωγής έχει καταρχήν μεγάλη γεωγραφική έκταση καλύπτοντας τον Ελλαδικό χώρο, αλλά και μεγάλη χρονική διάρκεια, εφόσον εκτείνεται από τα τέλη του 7ου έως τον πρώιμο 5ο αι. π.Χ., αποδεικνύοντας έτσι και τους αργούς εξελικτικούς ρυθμούς που ακολούθησε.

The study of magical texts of the Classical, Greco-Roman and Late Antique World has experienced a remarkable impulse since the last decades of the twentieth century until today. The so-called "material turn" in philological studies has promoted an evergrowing interest in the study of the materiality and other non-textual components of ancient documents, which has favored interdisciplinary studies aimed at a holistic approach to ancient texts. From this perspective, the articles collected in this volume offer a series of in-depth case studies of images and other paratextual elements of magical artifacts. Comparative studies, statitical analyses, image-text interconnections, and other analytical possibilities are applied to achive a greater understanding of the magical objects in queestion, as well as of the belief system in which they were produced. The book illustrates the importance of iconographic analysis as a fundamental part of understanding Antiquity, its ritual texts, and its magical objects.

The attempt to cure illnesses by having recourse to music 1 is one of the most interesting phenomena of ancient Greek culture, but also one of the most controversial, because of the complex relations between religion, magic, medicine and music constituting its background 2. The Greeks derived music therapy-which in the most ancient form takes on the characteristics of the 'sung spell' (ἐπῳδή)-from the Near East 3 , where the use of sung charms for healing was very widespread 4 and magic healers were at 1 I just briefly mention here the interest aroused by music therapy also nowadays, when it is used mainly in neurological and psychiatric diseases both together with drugs, and also alone-especially for rehabilitation after the recovery from a disease. Chronically ill people usually benefit from musical experiences and from the relationship established with their music-therapists, so that both their health conditions and the quality of life are in many cases improved. Among the very many essays on music therapy nowadays, see for a gen

When does a prayer turn into a curse? What is the difference between pious worship and manipulative coercion? Who ultimately draws the boundaries between magic and religion? When we consider the various connotations of magic in the context of Greco-Roman culture before the Common Era, we are faced with a twofold conundrum. The concept of magic is constructed, on the one hand, from the often-biased depictions of what the ancient authors judged to be magic and, on the other hand, from the varied approaches that modern scholars have used to study Greco-Roman magic. Yet, even though we have ample evidence on ancient practices that were widely considered to be magic, these practitioners seldom left any commentaries on their work. In this chapter, I will outline the development of magic as a concept within both the Greco-Roman literature and the scholarship discussing ancient magic. I do not aim to describe any actual magical practices; instead, I will concentrate on the discourse on magicancient and modern. 1 First, I will briefly survey how the ancient concept of magic has been reconstructed in modern scholarship, and how it may have affected our understanding of the phenomenon. Second, I will consider various elements that Greco-Roman literati employed in crafting their definitions of magic. Any endeavor to describe, analyze, or understand the ancient concept of magic requires a working definition of what exactly is considered to be magic. As such, magic is a notoriously elusive concept which is often talked about, but which seldom has clear definitions or unambiguous content that all parties would agree on. Some regard magic as a substantial phenomenon that has certain modi operandi, actual operational powerswhether they work for good or for badand tangible effects, while others use magic as a discursive concept that classifies and labels various practices. Therefore, it is important to clarify whose ideas of magic are being considered: are they those of ancient practitioners of 'magic,' for instance, people employing potions and spells for their own use or professionals offering their services for a fee, or those of educated literati, who often employed the term magic in a deprecatory sense? Or, are they perhaps those of modern scholars attempting to define magic from the perspective of their own cultural background? Furthermore, one needs to keep in mind that these ancient and modern contexts for definitions vary in different places and different times. Therefore, before surveying Greek and Roman views on magic, we need to consider how the etic perspective on ancient magic, that is, our modern concepts of magic which are projected on the 1 See Gordon and Simón 2010, 5. 2 ancient sources, have developed and shaped our understanding of Greco-Roman magic in recent decades. Since ancient testimonia show that magic involved evocation, utilization, and even manipulation of superhuman 2 powers, a logical starting point for many scholarly constructions of magic has been its relationship to and distinction from religion. Perhaps the most influential scholars in this respect have been the two pioneers of anthropology, Sir Edward Burnett Tylor and Sir James George Frazer. They were both advocates of the nineteenth century ideas of cultural evolution, which led them to assign the practice of magic to less developed stages of societies. Tylor considered that all societies passed from savagery to barbarism and finally to a civilized state: and, in his view, magic belonged to the less educated and more primitive levels of development. 3 Yet, evolution is not linear, and just as civilized societies can lapse back into more primitive forms of spiritualism, they have also preserved survivals of past ways through "stupidity and unpractical conservatism and dogged superstition." 4 On the other hand, Tylor noted that all communities tend to associate magic with other groups that they consider more savage than themselves, 5 which foreshadows the contemporary view on magic as an othering device. Tylor mainly viewed magic as a psychological tool that provided its practitioners with authority and prestige; when magic seemingly works, it is by pure chance or because of natural causes, while the magicians are skilled in finding excuses for their failures. Yet, Tylor does not label those practicing magic as impostors, since they rely on complex pseudo-scientific explanatory systems that are transmitted among fellow professionals. 6 The opposing lines that Tylor draws between magic, religion (or "animism" as he calls it), and science are even more clearly presented in the evolutionary scheme of his follower, Sir James George Frazer. For Frazer, magic represents the lowest stage of cultural development, which will be replaced by religion and which will, in turn, give way to science. He believed this progress to be universal, so that the intellectually more primitive stage of magic use has preceded the development of religion in different cultures, even though they can still coexist. 7 In his magnum opus, The Golden Bough, Frazer delineates the crucial differences between magic, religion, and science. While magic and science share the idea of a predictable world where the succession from one thing to a certain effect is fixed, magic essentially misperceives the laws that govern this succession. Thus, magic is fundamentally fallacious. On the other hand, magic and religion share the belief in superhuman force that either 2 To use the term "supernatural" would violate ancient understanding of natural world.

Este artigo apresenta as práticas atestadas nos Papiros Mágicos Greco-Egípcios (PGM) à luz do contexto local de reordenação político-administrativa do Egito Romano e dos processos mais abrangentes de interações culturais no leste mediterrânico que o antecederam. Objetivamos discutir a progressiva formatação compósita dessa tradição a partir de sua lógica própria de constituição e desempenho.

Editio princeps of bronze leaf-shaped amuletic pendant with a suspension loop (BNF Schlumberger.190) featuring inscriptions in Greek and Samaritan Hebrew, iconographical elements (the 'Holy Rider' motif; a lion trampling on a snake) and charaktêres.

In this book, Roger D. Woodard argues that when the Greeks fi rst began to use the alphabet, they viewed themselves as participants in a performance phenomenon conceptually modeled on the performances of the oral poets. Since a time older than Greek antiquity, the oral poets of Indo-European tradition had been called "weavers of words"-their extemporaneous performance of poetry was "word weaving. " With the arrival of the new technology of the alphabet and the onset of Greek literacy, the very act of producing written symbols was interpreted as a comparable performance activity, albeit one in which almost everyone could participate, not only the select few. It was this new conceptualization of and participation in performance activity by the masses that eventually, or perhaps quickly, resulted in the demise of oral composition in performance in Greece. In conjunction with this investigation, Woodard analyzes a set of copper plaques inscribed with repeated alphabetic series and a line of what he interprets to be text, which attests to this archaic Greek conceptualization of the performance of symbol craft ing.

Nei testi defissori, oltre a colpire il defisso fisicamente, per es. attraverso l"esecrazione delle parti anatomiche (testa, cuore, mani, mente, ecc.), si maledicono anche tutte quelle attività, capacità e abilità che fanno della vittima un essere umano (parlare, pensare, amare, ecc.), spesso anche in rapporto con lo scopo stesso della maledizione.
Tra le attività legate alla vita si annovera naturalmente anche quella di potersi nutrire, la mancanza della quale finisce con l"assimilare l"esecrato ai morti. In questo tipo di formulario, quindi, il cibo viene maledetto proprio perché essenziale per la vita: il defigens cerca il controllo sul defisso attraverso l"esecrazione di ciò che ne fa un essere vivo e, in quanto tale, possessore di una volontà
propria.

La dea Hecate rappresenta una delle figure che vengono generalmente associate al ritorno degli spiriti dei morti 1. Solitamente viene considerata una delle potenze infernali, legata quindi al mondo ctonio, e per questo motivo è una divinità particolarmente cara alla sfera della magia e dell'occulto. Spesso i maghi le rivolgono preghiere e invocazioni nella speranza che la dea possa intervenire in loro aiuto.

Il linguaggio, in quanto forma peculiare dell'espressione umana, è sicuramente un elemento centrale in qualsiasi tradizione religiosa e, per questo motivo, può essere esaminato da diverse prospettive. Ricordiamo ad esempio nell'episodio del libro VI della Pharsalia di Lucano come le maghe tessale e la potente Erictho conoscano i più svariati carmina e si dilettino con formule magiche e incantesimi per portare a termine i loro riti scellerati. Nella concezione del mondo antico, infatti, la voce non costituisce solamente un suono, in quanto essa possiede una grande forza: la parola produce potenza, non solo evocatrice, ma attiva, che può determinare fatti e eventi. Le parole hanno, quindi, oltre al loro significato reale anche un significato simbolico più ampio e questo significato alle volte ci sfugge per la mancanza di documentazione, oppure per il carattere segreto delle espressioni in questione. Dalla testimonianza di Plinio il Vecchio (NH 28.12) risulta che nella tradizione antica precationes e cantica magica erano strettamente connessi: le preghiere erano animate da una forza magica e quindi si mescolavano elementi religiosi e folklorici. In riferimento ai riti orali possiamo dire che le nozioni di preghiera e di incantesimo sono confluite nella parola carmen 1 , per via di questa interscambiabilità tra riti religiosi e riti che potremmo definire magici. Infatti al termine carmen vengono attribuiti indifferentemente i valori di formula magica, incantesimo, preghiera e iscrizione sepolcrale. Naturalmente come atto magico può essere bonum o malum a seconda degli effetti che produce. Conosciamo una legge delle Dodici Tavole rivolta contro quella che oggi chiameremmo "magia nera" 2. Seneca (Nat. Quaest. IV 7.2) ce ne riporta un passo: