Greek Magical Papyri
Greek Magical Papyri | |
---|---|
Created | 100s BCE to 400s CE |
Author(s) | Various |
Media type | Papyri |
Subject | Magical spells, formulae, hymns, and rituals |
The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin: Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated PGM) is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek (but also in Old Coptic, Demotic, etc.), which each contain a number of magical spells, formulae, hymns, and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 100s BCE to the 400s CE.[1] The manuscripts came to light through the antiquities trade, from the 1700s onward. One of the best known of these texts is the Mithras Liturgy.[2]
The texts were published in a series, and individual texts are referenced using the abbreviation PGM plus the volume and item number. Each volume contains a number of spells and rituals. Further discoveries of similar texts from elsewhere have been allocated PGM numbers for convenience.[1]
History
Production
The corpus of the PGM were not based on an ancient archive, but rather are a modern collection that has been added to over time. The unclear circumstances of each text's production, over a span of centuries, have therefore occasioned some debate. Hans Dieter Betz, the English translator of the PGM, claims that the texts form a fraction of the "magical books" that must have existed in antiquity, and considers them a form of "underground literature" subject to book-burnings at the time. He cites book-burning in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 19:19), Augustus' orders to burn magical books according to Suetonius (Suet. Aug. 31.1), and what he terms "numerous" early Christian book-burnings.[1]
David Frankfurter, on the other hand, considers these texts productions of "innovative members of the Egyptian priesthood during the third-/fourth-century decline of the Egyptian temple infrastructure," and lends them considerably less "underground" status than Betz.[3] Alan F. Segal goes further, using the PGM to question the dichotomy of magic and religion in scholarship on the Hellenistic world. He uses the existence of hymns in the PGM to suggest that the people who wrote them in such 'magical' texts saw no distinction between such material and the more overtly magical content in the same documents.[4] Just how "underground" the practitioners that produced these texts were therefore remains contested, though Betz points to the admonitions to secrecy about the details of certain practices in certain of the papyri.
Discovery
The first papyri in the series appeared on the art market in Egypt in the early 19th century. Another papyrus (PGM III) was acquired by the diplomat
A similar individual, known as he who appeared in Thebes, Prince Khamwas, was the fourth son of King Ramses II and high priest of Ptah in Memphis, Egypt. According to Miriam Lichtheim:[7]
Here I should like to stress that Prince Setne Khamwas, the hero of the two tales named for him, was a passionate antiquarian. The historical prince Khamwas, the fourth son of Ramses II, had been high priest of Ptah at Memphis and administrator of all the Memphite sanctuaries. In that capacity he had examined decayed tombs, restored the names of their owners, and renewed their funerary cults. Posterity had transmitted his renown, and the Demotic tales that were spun around his memory depicted him and his fictional adversary Prince Naneferkaptah as very learned scribes and magicians devoted to the study of ancient monuments and writings.
Publication
PGM XII and XIII were the first to be published, appearing in 1843 in Greek and in a Latin translation in 1885.[1][8] However, according to Betz 1992, the first scholarly publication has been credited to the British scholar Charles Wycliffe Goodwin, who published for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, one PGM V, translated into English with commentary in 1853.[9]
In the early twentieth century Karl Preisendanz collected the texts and published them in two volumes in 1928 and 1931. A projected third volume, containing new texts and indices, reached the stage of galley proofs dated "Pentecost 1941", but the type was destroyed during the bombing of
The PGM can now be searched in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae database and various concordances and dictionaries have been published.[citation needed]
Content
Betz observes, in the introduction to his translations, that while the papyri were produced in
Many of these pieces of papyrus are pages or fragmentary extracts from spell books, repositories of arcane knowledge and mystical secrets. As far as they have been reconstructed, these books appear to fall into two broad categories: some are compilations of spells and magical writings, gathered by scholarly collectors either out of academic interest or for some kind of study of magic; others may have been the working manuals of travelling magicians, containing their repertoire of spells, formulae for all occasions. Some of these spells would allow an individual to subordinate another of a higher social standing.[13] The pages contain spells, recipes, formulae, and prayers (e.g., the Prayer of Thanksgiving), interspersed with magic words (such as charaktêres or the voces magicae) and often in shorthand, with abbreviations for the more common formulae. These spells range from impressive and mystical summonings of dark gods and daemons, to folk remedies and even parlor tricks; from portentous, fatal curses, to love charms, and cures for impotence and minor medical complaints.[citation needed]
In many cases, the formulaic words and phrases are strikingly similar to those found in
Throughout the spells found in the Greek Magical Papyri, there are numerous references to figurines. They are found in various types of spells, including judicial, erotic, and curse magic. The figurines are made of various materials, which usually correspond to the type of spell. Such figurines have been found throughout the Mediterranean basin, usually in places that the ancient Greeks associated with the underworld: graves, sanctuaries, and bodies of water, all of which stress the border between life and death, which is a common theme in Greek magic. Some have been discovered in lead coffins, upon which the spell or curse has been inscribed.
Religion in Greco-Roman Egypt
The religion of the Papyri Graecae Magicae is an elaborate syncretism of Greek, Egyptian, Christian, Jewish (see Jewish magical papyri), and even Babylonian religious influences engendered by the unique milieu of Greco-Roman Egypt. This syncretism is evident in the Papyri in a variety of ways. Often the Olympians are given attributes of their Egyptian counterparts; alternatively this could be seen as Egyptian deities being referred to by Greek names.[citation needed] For example, Aphrodite (who was associated with the Egyptian Hathor) is given the epithet Neferihri, from Egyptian Nfr-iry.t 'nice eyes' (PGM IV. 1266).
Within this profusion of cultural influences can still be seen classical Greek material, and perhaps even aspects of a more accessible "folk-religion" than those preserved in the mainstream literary texts.[dubious ] Sometimes the Greek gods depart from their traditional Olympian natures familiar to classicists, and seem far more chthonic, demonic, and bestial. This is partly the influence of Egyptian religion, in which beast cult and the terror of the divine were familiar elements; equally the context of magical texts makes such sinister deities appropriate.[14]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Hans Dieter Betz (ed), The Greek Magical Papyri in translation, University of Chicago Press, 1985, p.xli.
- ^ Ronald Hutton, Witches, Druids and King Arthur, 2006, p.116: "The most famous of these texts is the so-called Mithras liturgy...".
- ^ Frankfurter, David. 1997. Ritual Expertise in Roman Egypt and the Problem of the Category ‘Magician’. In Envisioning Magic: A Princeton Seminar and Symposium, edited by Peter Schäfer and Hans G. Kippenberg, 115–135. Leiden: Brill.
- ^ Segal, Alan F. 1981. Hellenistic Magic: Some Questions of Definition. In Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions Presented to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, edited by M. J. Vermaseren and Roel B. Broek, 349–375. Leiden: Brill.
- ISBN 0-521-32583-8.
- ISBN 0-8018-6606-5
- ^ Miriam Lichtheim. "Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol III".
- ^ C. Leemans, Papyri graeci musei antiquarii publici Lugduni-Batavi, 2 vols. Brill: 1843, 1885.
- ^ a b c d Hans Dieter Betz (1992). The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, Including the Demotic Spells, Volume 1. University of Chicago Press.
- ^ a b c Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. (1985). The Greek Magical Papyri in translation. University of Chicago Press. pp. xlv.
- ^ Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. (1985). The Greek Magical Papyri in translation. University of Chicago Press. pp. xliv.
- ISBN 978-1-4443-3838-6, retrieved 2020-11-16
- ISBN 9780195342710.
- ^ "The Esoteric Codex: Ancient Egyptian Texts I" by Christopher Welde, (LULU Press) 2015 p92
Bibliography
- Preisendanz, K. et al. (1928-1931 first ed.) Papyri Graecae Magicae. Die Griechischen Zauberpapyri. (2 vols; vol. 1 available on the Internet Archive)
- Preisendanz, K., Albert Henrichs (1974-1974 second ed.) Papyri Graecae Magicae. Die Griechischen Zauberpapyri. (2 vols) Stuttgart: Teubner.
- Betz, H. D. et al. (1986) The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. Including the Demotic Texts. University of Chicago Press.
- Muñoz Delgado, L. (2001) Léxico de magia y religión en los papiros mágicos griegos. Diccionario Griego-Español. Anejo V. Madrid: CSIC.
- Skinner, S (2014) Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic. Golden Hoard, Singapore
- Flowers, S (1995) "Hermetic Magic" Weiser
- Hanesworth, P. (2012). Magical papyri, Greek. In The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (eds R.S. Bagnall, K. Brodersen, C.B. Champion, A. Erskine and S.R. Huebner).
Further reading
- William M. Brashear, “The Greek Magical Papyri,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II, 18.5 (1995), pp. 3380–3730, limited preview online.
- Magic papyri: Bohak, Gideon (1996). "Traditions of Magic in Late Antiquity: Recipe-Books". Library, University of Michigan. Ann Arbor, Mich. : [University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative]. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
- Barrett, Caitlín E. "Plaster Perspectives on "Magical Gems": Rethinking the Meaning of "Magic"". Cornell Collection of Antiquities. Cornell University Library. Archived from the original on 2015-05-26.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) by Internet Archive on 26 May 2015. - Betz, Hans Dieter, ed. (1992). The Greek magical papyri in translation including the Demotic spells (2nd ed.). Chicago [u.a.]: Univ. of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226044477.
- Philipp, [von] Hanna (1972). Terrakotten aus Ägypten. Berlin: Gebr. Mann. ISBN 3786160694.
- Smith, M. (1979). "Relations between Magical Papyri and Magical Gems". In Bingen G. & Nachtergael J. (ed.). Actes du XVe Congrès International de Papyrologie. Brussels. pp. 129–136.
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