The Greek Magical Papyri
Overview
This note was generated from the Greek studies corpus.
Key Passages
Passage 1
olars to a body of papyri from Grcco-Roman Egypt containing a variety of magical spells and formulae, hymns and rituals. The extant texts are mainly from the second century R.C. to the fifth cenrury A.D. TO be sure, this body of material represents only a small numbcr of all the magical spells that once existed.’ Beyond these papyri we possess many other kinds of material: artifacts, symbols and inscriptions on gemstones, on ostraka and clay bowls, and on tablets of gold, silver, lead, tin and so forth.” I The history of the discovery of the Greek magical papyri is a fascinating subject.” We know from literary sources that a large number ofmagical books in which spells were collected existed in antiquity. Most of them, however, have disappeared as the result of systematic suppression and destruction. The episode about the burning of the magical books in Ephesus in the Acts of…
Passage 2
sed by the fact that this material from Greco- Roman Egypt contains many sections that are Greck in origin and nature.” How did this older Greek religious literature find its way into Egypt? Wc do not, and probably never shall, know. In this older material, the Greek gods arc alive and well. But Zeus, Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, and others arc portrayed not as Hellenic and aristocratic, as in literamre, but as capricious, demonic, and even dan- gcrous, as in Grcek The gods and their activities resemble those in the popular myths and local cults, as rcported by mythographcrs or by Pausanias. Therefore, strange as it may sound, if we wish to study Greek folk religion, the magical papyri found in Egypt are to be regarded as one of the primary sourccs.~ Questions similar to those appropriate to the study of Greek religion must be raised in view of the…
Passage 3
ormation, the Egyp- tian religion of the prc-Hellenistic era appears to have been reduced and simplified, no doubt to facilitate its assimilatio~i into Hellenistic rcligion as the predominant cultural reference. It is quite clear that thc magicians who wrote and uscd the Greek papyri were Hellenistic in outlook. Hellenization, however, also includes the egyptianizing of Grcck rcligious tradi- tions. The Greek magical papyri contain many instances of such egyptianizing transformations, which take very different forms in different texts or layers of tradi- tion. Again, working out thc morc exact nature of this religious and cultural intcr- action remains the task of future research. The papyri also provide many insights into the phenomenon of the magician as a religious functionary, in both the Egyptian and the Hellenistic setting. One must be cautious, however, in making generalizing statement. in regard to thc figure of the magician in thc Greek magical papyri.” Some…
Connections
Sources
- The_Greek_Magical_Papyri_in_Translation.pdf
- Greek_and_Roman_Necromancy_Daniel_Ogden_.pdf
- John_Opsopaus_-_The_Oracles_of_Apollo__Practical_A