Ancient Magic and Ritual Power

✍ Scribed by Marvin W. Meyer, Paul Allan Mirecki

• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 497
• Series: Religions in the Graeco-Roman world, 129
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This volume contains a series of provocative essays that explore expressions of magic and ritual power in the ancient world. The essays are authored by leading scholars in the fields of Egyptology, ancient Near Eastern studies, the Hebrew Bible, Judaica, classical Greek and Roman studies, early Christianity and patristics, and Coptology. Throughout the book the essays examine the terms employed in descriptions of ancient magic. From this examination comes a clarification of magic as a polemical term of exclusion but also an understanding of the classical Egyptian and early Greek conceptions of magic as a more neutral category of inclusion. This book should prove to be foundational for future scholarly studies of ancient magic and ritual power. This publication has also been published in hardback (no longer available).

✦ Table of Contents

ANCIENT MAGIC AND RITUAL POWER......Page 4
Table of Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
Selected Bibliography......Page 19
Part I: DEFINING MAGIC AND RITUAL POWER......Page 22
I. Jonathan Z. Smith: Trading Places......Page 24
II. Fritz Graf: Excluding the Charming: The Development of the Greek Concept of Magic......Page 40
III. Robert K. Ritner: The Religious, Social, and Legal Parameters of Traditional Egyptian Magic......Page 54
Part II: MAGIC AND RITUAL POWER IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST......Page 72
IV. Richard H. Beal: Hittite Military Rituals......Page 74
V. Billie Jean Collins: Ritual Meals in the Hittite Cult......Page 88
VI. J.A. Scurlock: Magical Uses of Ancient Mesopotamian Festivals of the Dead......Page 104
Part III: MAGIC AND RITUAL POWER IN JUDAISM AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY......Page 120
VII. Brian B. Schmidt: The "Witch" of En-Dor, 1 Samuel 28, and Ancient Near Eastern Necromancy......Page 122
VIII. Stephen D. Ricks: The Magician as Outsider in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament......Page 142
IX. Jonathan Seidel: Charming Criminals: Classification of Magic in the Babylonian Talmud......Page 156
X. Michael D. Swartz: Magical Piety in Ancient and Medieval Judaism......Page 178
XI. Rebecca Lesses: The Adjuration of the Prince of the Presence: Performative Utterance in a Jewish Ritual......Page 196
Overview of the Adjuration of the Prince of the Presence......Page 204
Part IV: MAGIC AND RITUAL POWER IN GREEK ANTIQUITY......Page 218
1. Wartetext......Page 220
2. Apotelesmatikon......Page 222
3. Magical Formulary......Page 226
4. Christian Amulet (?)......Page 228
5. Sortes Astrampsychi......Page 232
6. Sortes Astrampsychi......Page 240
7. Horoscope......Page 242
8. Astrological Text: Zodiac?......Page 244
Notes......Page 249
ABBREVIATIONS......Page 251
XIII. Roy Kotansky: Greek Exorcistic Amulets......Page 254
XIV. Leda Jean Ciraolo: Supernatural Assistants in the Greek Magical Papyri......Page 290
XV. Christopher A. Faraone: The Mystodokos and the Dark-Eyed Maidens: Multicultural Influences on a Late-Hellenistic Incantation......Page 308
XVI. David Martinez: "May she neither eat nor drink": Love Magic and Vows of Abstinence......Page 346
XVII. Sarah Iles Johnston: Defining the Dreadful: Remarks on the Greek Child-Killing Demon......Page 372
Part V: MAGIC AND RITUAL POWER IN ROMAN AND LATE ANTIQUITY......Page 400
XVIII. Oliver Phillips: Singing Away Snakebite: Lucan's Magical Cures......Page 402
XIX. Jacques van der Vliet: Satan's Fall in Coptic Magic......Page 412
XX. Jason David BeDuhn: Magical Bowls and Manichaeans......Page 430
XXI. Todd Breyfogle: Magic, Women, and Heresy in the Late Empire: The Case of the Priscillianists......Page 446
Conclusion: MYTH, MAGIC, AND THE POWER OF THE WORD......Page 466
XXII. David Frankfurter: Narrating Power: The Theory and Practice of the Magical Historiola in Ritual Spells......Page 468
PLATES: NEW GREEK MAGICAL AND DIVINATORY TEXTS IN BERLIN......Page 488