Handbooks and anthologies: The collection of Greek and Egyptian incantations in Late Hellenistic Egypt

Archiv fur Religionsgeschichte

Volumn 2, Issue , 2000, Pages 195-214

  Faraone, Christopher A ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 79953604869     PISSN: 14363038     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.1515/9783110234183.195     Document Type: Article

References (47)

1. W. H. Brashear, "The Greek Magical Papyri: An Introduction and Survey, with Annotated Bibliography (1928-1994)." ANRWW 18.5 (1995) 3402-5.
2. I use the following abbreviations throughout: GMPT = H. D. Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago 1986).
3. PGM = K. Preisendanz [and A. Henrichs], Papyri Graecae Magicae: Die Griechischen Zauberpapyri- (Stuttgart 1973-1974). Suppl. Mag.
4. R. Daniel and F. Maltomini, Supplemenium Magicum, 2 vols., Papyrologica Colo- niensia 16.1 and 2 (Opladen 1990 and 1991). Unless otherwise indicated, die number that follows these abbreviations refers to a text in the collection. not to a page. This paper was first presented at a symposium entitled "Priests, Magicians and Incantations in Hellenistic Egypt" sponsored by the Chicago-Stanford Seminar of Hellenistie Egypt, University of Chicago, November 1997.I am graleful for the helpful comments of the audience. 1 would also like to thank R. Kotansky and D. Martinez for their advice on subsequent written versions.
5. C. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Oxford 1986) 168-74
6. R. Ritner, "Egyptian Magical Practice under the Roman Empire: The Demotic Spells and their Religious Context? ANRW II 18.5 (1995) 3333-79;
7. Brashear (n. 1) and D. Frankfurter. Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton 1998) 198-237. Sec, also, Frankfurter's essay in this volume.
8. Acts of the Apostles 19:19 and Suetonius Augustus 31.1. See Betz GMPT p. xli for general discussion and F. Graf "How to Cope with a Difficult Life: A View of Ancient Magic" in Schäfer and Kippenberg (eds.) Envisioning Magic: A Princeton Seminar and Symposium (Leiden 1997) 95, for a scandal involving magic handbooks in 5th century CE Beirut.
9. Ritner (n. 2) 3361-63, for example, moves swiftly from a well argued conclusion (that an Egyptian temple scriptorium was the source of the Anastasi handbooks) to the hardly credible speculation that "it is higldy possible that few of the preserved Greek magical papyri were ever intended for a Greek ethnic audience." Ritner's work is often energized by his commendable desire to correct the misguided "pan-Greek attitude" (p. 3360) of classicists, who ignored the Demotic spells and the obviously Egyptian character of many of the PGM spells and assumed that the papyri were "inherently Greek cultural material, marred by intrusive 'barbarisms' typical of a syncretistic age" (Ritner ibid 3360). Unfortunately he frequently errs (as we see in the quote above) in the opposite direction in pushing an equally implausible "pan-Egyptian" origin for all of the Greek magical papyri. For a corrective, see F. Graf, Magic in the Ancient World (Harvard 1997) 5
10. and C. A. Faraone, "The Ethnic Origins of a Roman-Era Philtrokatadesmos (PGM IX 296-434)" in P. Mirecki and M. Meyer eds. Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World (Leiden 2000) forthcoming.
11. PGMXX (which 1 shall refer to as the "Philinna Papyrus") and CXXII (which 1 shall refer to as the "Berlin Papyrus"). The former is a "fragment of a roll" (see P. Maas, "The Philinna Papyrus," JHS 62 [1942] 34), while the latter seems to be from a much smaller collection copied onto a single sheet of papyrus (see Suppl. Mag 72 ad loa).
12. Maas (IL 6) 33-38: PGM XX, and H. Lloyd-Jones and P. Parsons, Supptenumtum Hellenisticum (Berlin 1983) no. 900. I give Henrich's revised text from PGM, which is also followed for the most part by Lloyd-Jones and Parsons.
13. M. Smith, "The Eighth Book of Moses and How it Grew (P. Leid. J 395)" Atti del XVIII congresso intemazionale di papirologia (Naples 1984) 683-693.
14. For a full discussion, see C. A. Faraone, "Aristophanes Amphiaraus Frag. 29 (Kassel-Austin): Oracular Response or Erotic Incantation?" CQ 42 (1992) 320-27.
15. See M. Guarducci, Inscriptiones Crelicae II (Rome 1939) 223-25 no. 7
16. D. R. Jordan "The Inscribed Lead Tablet form Phalasania" ZPE 94 (1992) 191-94
17. and W. D. Furlfey, "Besprechimg und Behandlung: Zur Form und Funktion von EΠΩIΔAI in der Griechischen Zauber-Medizin" in G. Most. H. Petersmann and A. M. Ritter eds. Philanthropia kai Eusebeia: Festschrift für A brecht Dihle (Göttingen 1993) 96-97, for text, brief commentary and earlier bibliography. 1 give Jordan's text, lines F-H.
18. C. A. Faraone, Talismans and Trojan Horses: Guardian Statues in Ancient Creek Myth and Ritual (Oxford 1992) 44-48.
19. Pliny HN 27.75.100; for the best text and discussion, see J. M. Edmonds, Lyra Graeca 3 (Cambridge, Mass. 1959) 542-44 no. 38a:.
20. See e.g. the seventh century BCE North Semitic incantations inscribed on die plaques from Arslan Tash in J. C. L. Gibson, Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions (Oxford 1982) no. 23, lines 21-22 ("From the dark chamber pass⋯ from the house gegone outside") and 24 line 8 ("Flee, caster of the evil-eye").
21. I give the text as it appears on p. 265 of the second volume of PGM. The restorations and additions are the combined work of Maas, Preisendanz, and Koenen. In die final hexameter, Maas (n. 6) replaces with from the late antique version of the spell (Suppl. Mag. 88, quoted below) because it is more poetic and produces a nice alliteration of kappa in the final line. Koenen, "Der brennende Horosknabe. Zu einem Zauberspruch des Philinna-Papyrus," Chr. d'E. 37 (1962) 167-74, using parallels from Egyptian myth (discussed below), supplied the additions at the beginning of line 1 and the end of line 2 to fill out the hexameters.
22. Koenen (n. 18) and C. A. Faraone, "The Myslodokos and the Dark-Eyed Maidens: Multicultural Influences on a Late Hellenistic Charm" in M. Meyer and P. Mireeki (edd.) Ritual Power in the Ancient World (Leiden 1995) 297-333.
23. Most recently R. Ritner, "The Wives of Horus and the Philinna Papyrus (PGM XX)" in W. Clarysse et al. tads. Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand ïears, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 85 (Leuven 1998) vol.2, 1027-41, has argued that the spell is purely Egyptian, a persistent theme in his work on the PGM:, see note 5 supra. But he ignores manv Greek and Semitic features.
24. The word means either "a song sung over or to (i.e. a sick person or a damaged limb)" or "a song sung against (i.e. an enemy or a demon)" and it is usually translated (like the similarly formed Latin incantamentum) as Miami. spell. Its earliest use seems to he limited to healing (e.g. Odyssey 19.458 and Pindar Pythian 3.51), hut by the classical period it is used of curses and love magic as well. See R. Kotansky "Incantations and Prayers for Salvation on Inscribed Creek Amulets" in C. A. Faraone and D. Ohbink, Magika Hieru: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion (Oxford 1991) 107-137.
25. PGM CXXII = Suppl Mag. 72. The editio princeps is: W. H. Brashear "Ein Berliner Zauberpapyrus" ZPE 33: 261-78.
26. H. D. Betz, "The Formation of Authoritative Tradition in the Greek Magical Papyri" in B. F. Meyers and E. P. Sanders eds., Self Definition in the Greco-Roman World, Jewish and Christian Scif-Definition 3 (Philadelphia 1982) 161-70, esp. 165.
27. C. A. Faraone, "Aphrodites' KESTOS and Apples for Atalanta: Aphrodisiacs in Early Greek Myth and Ritual," Phoenix 44 (1990) 230-38.
28. C. A. Faraone "The 'Performative Future' in Three Hellenistic Incantations and Theocritus' Second Idyll" CP 90:1-15
29. and "Taking the Nestor's Cup Inscription Seriously: Conditional Curses and Erotic Magic in the Earliest Greek Hexameters" CA 15 (1996) 77-112.
30. C. A. Faraone, Ancient Greek Love Magic (Harvard 1999) 69-77.
31. The translations and text numbers are from J. F. Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts (Leiden 1978).
32. F. Gordon. "The Keftiu Spell" JFA 17 (1931) 27-30
33. and H. Goedicke, "The Canaanitc 111-ness" SAK 11 (1984) 101-103.
34. The same Egyptian papyrus also preserves a number of short Northwest Semitic spells: see R. C. Steiner, "Northwest Semitic Incantations in an Egyptian Medical Papyrus of the Fourteenth Century BCE" JNES 51 (1992) 191-99.
35. Cf. the three spells in PCM V (one of the Anastasi handbooks) that begin at lines 20, 304 and 370. The layout of this handbook can be best appreciated in the edition of F. G. Kenyon, Creek Papyri in the British Museum (London 1893) 64-81.
36. J. Winkler. the Contraints of Eros in Faraone and Obbink (n. 21) 239 n. 55. See Faraone (n. 32) 136-37. for a summary of the growing scholarly consensus that Sappho's Hymn itself refleets the tradition of Greek love-spells.
37. D. Martinez.. "May she neither eat nor drink⋯: Love Magic and Vows of Abstinence" in Meyer and Mireeki (n. 19) 335-360 and Faraone (n. 32) 53-55.
38. Borghouts (n. 33) no. 1: "When he stands, you shall not allow him to stand; when he sits, you shall not allow him to sit; when he sleeps, you shall not allow him to sleep, but let him seek after me⋯ until he comes to me." See P. Smither, "A Rameside Love Charm" JEA 27 (1941) 173-74
39. and R. Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice, SAOC 54 (Chicago 1993) 178.
40. R. Pfeiffer, History' of Classical Scholarship (Oxford 1968) 87-151.
41. J. Barns. "A New Gnomologium with Some Remarks on Gnomic: Anthologies," CQ 44 (1950) 126-37 and ibid. n.s. 1 (1951) 1-19. The following two paragraphs are deeply (indebted to N. Krevans" unpublislied essay Hellenistic Books and the Mark of the Fragment." 1 am very grateful to Prof. Krevans for sending me the manuscript.
42. A. S. E. Cow, The Greek Anthology: Sources and Ascriptions London 1958) 15-19
43. A. Cameron. The Greek Anthology from Meleager to Planudes (Oxford 1993) 6-12: Krevans (n. 52).
44. M. Dickie, "The Identity of Philinnia in the Philinna Papyrus" ZPE 100 (1994) 119-22. We modems continue to use such designations to help distinguish famous authors who have very common names, e.g. Philo of Alexandria or Apollonius of Rhodes.
45. Faraone, "A Collection of Curses against Kilns (Homeric Epigram 13.7-23)" in A. Y. Collins and M. M. Mitchell (eds.) Festschrift for Hans Dieter Betz on his Seventieth Birthday (Chicago, forthcoming 2000).
46. Faraone "Nestor's Cup Inscription" (n. 31) 182-83.
47. D. Frankfurter. "The Magic of Writing and the Writing of Magic: the Power of the Word in Egyptian and Greek Traditions," Helios 21 (1994) 189-221.