Athens. Plato's Laws Against Magic. lost. Magic in Greek Law and Legal Imagination. The word ‘manipulative’ is important here as it refers to the element of human intervention that directs the magical act towards its objective. For two millennia, European folklore and ritual have been imbued with the belief in the supernatural, yielding a rich trove of histories and images. There seem to be some set templates for thinking about magical behaviour and practicing magic at thi… Sacred plants can also be classed as a type of amulet since they were mostly used in potions and recipes to cure ailments and prevent diseases. Berti, Irene, and Filippo Carla. Beyond Constantinople: Life In the Byzantine Empire, Was Caracalla More than a Bloodthirsty Tyrant? [1] Boschung, Dietrich and Bremmer, Jan. N. (eds) The Materiality of Magic (Morphomata 20). Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome. The Egyptians are thought to have first used such dolls, as early as 2000 B.C. Folk tales depict magic and its successful practice: it is lodged within the popular imagination in the ancient world. Magic in ancient Greece and Rome involved a number of varied practices, from the use of curse tablets to protective amulets. The reader is left to discern who or what a ‘magician’ was and the range of practices with which they could be associated. The curses were then buried, commonly in bodies of water or wells and also in graves. Some athletes also had the letters stitched into their clothing or leather sandals to improve their chances of victory. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press. 2015. Weather Magic 58 Introduction Weather Prediction and Divination Watson’s 2019 Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome is, by the author’s prefaced account, a book with a long gestation. They leaned on these texts for all sorts of different advice. Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Book for 2000 The roots of European witchcraft and magic lie in Hebrew and other ancient Near Eastern cultures and in the Celtic, Nordic, and Germanic traditions of the Continent. Apuleius the Magus. The Twelve Tables. T. 2012. Today the Italian word for make up is ‘trucco’, which means trick. Bryn Mawr PA 19010. The study of magic in the Greco-Roman world is a branch of the disciplines of classics, ancient history and religious studies. Flint suggests the Roman Catholic Church condemmed the practicioners (Sorcerers and Magicians), offered them salvation, … Media in category "Magic in ancient Rome" The following 13 files are in this category, out of 13 total. But from the examples we have today, what is clear is that it transcended boundaries of gender and social status. The gem impression in Figure 1 presents us with an image that may at first sight seem bizarre: a rooster-headed figure with snakes for legs, wearing Roman military costume. The Roman baths at Bath, where hundreds of curse tablets have been discovered, via The Roman Baths. Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome is deliberately designed as an introduction for the general reader, and it fulfills that function admirably. Supplementary appendices on whether defixiones ‘worked’ and on amulets, broadly discussing lamellae and phylacteries, are found at the end of chapters three and five respectively. Trials for Erotic Magic. Paderborn, Wilhelm Fink. We ask that comments be substantive in content and civil in tone and those that do not adhere to these guidelines will not be published. The Transformation of Greek Amulets in Roman Imperial Times. Practitioners of magic would often prescribe charms or spoken spells to be used with the amulet. There are thirteen monochrome figures punctuating all the chapters. [2] Houlbrook, Ceri. By drawing on early European witch-trials, I hope to be able to establish what cultural and social phenomena were taking place in Rome during the 1 st centuries BCE and CE that gave rise to the affiliation of women and dark magic. Magic, with its potential to control the uncontrollable, is an inherently human preoccupation, and examples of it have existed for millennia in cultures throughout the world. The Opinions of Paulus and Later Law Codes. For those aiming at a potential lover, needles were often placed at the eyes, mouth and sexual organs, not to induce harm but to encourage arousal. The two most common types of dolls are those aimed at a love interest and those aimed at a personal enemy. This anxiety was mitigated by the use of a number of divinatory practices, including consultation with seers, oracles, and other specialists in predicting the future and interpreting signs and omens. This volume presents a good overview of the place of 'magic' in the Greek and Roman worlds. Theophrastus described hundreds of plants and their supposed magical properties. The Lex Cornelia. Magia and Maleficium: Magic and Witchcraft. MAGIC: MAGIC IN GRECO-ROMAN ANTIQUITY From the beginning, magic was an essential part of Greco-Roman culture and religion. An extract from the papyri, via The University of Chicago. 2. Who did it? The dolls are mostly made of mud, wax or lead and many of the figures have their arms bound behind their backs, presumably to emphasize the binding process referred to in many curse tablets. The Greeks, the Egyptians, the Mesopotamians, and everyone else in the ancient world used some form of magic, like spells, charms, and amulets. Some amulets were inscribed with prayers or incantations and this can provide us with a context for the object and what it might have been used for. These tablets were normally thin pieces of lead, inscribed with a curse against an enemy, which could then be folded and often sealed and pierced with a nail. Watson’s work is clearly born from great experience and expertise with Classical literature, and its central theme that ancient magic was a “profoundly pragmatic business with concrete, clearly delineated aims” (p.3) remains both noble and welcome; it is a concept that has further room for growth. A focus on fictional witches in ancient literature is far less relevant for investigating magic ‘on the ground’ than archaeological evidence would be. A gemstone ring engraved with magic symbols, via Christie’s. A voodoo doll with bound arms and needles, via Wikimedia. In ancient “binding magic,” it was all about the spells. Examples of such amulets include plants, flowers, animal teeth, thin slivers of animal bone or precious metals (known as lamellae) and decorative jewelry, made from engraved tablets or semi-precious stones. (eds). Both the Greeks and Romans had laws restricting magical practices but, privately, magic appears to have had a powerful allure and was highly valued at all levels of society. Interestingly, and for better or worse, Watson actively distances the intrinsically thematic-led approach of this volume from the necessity to engage in semantic and theoretical debates (pp.1-3). She holds a B.A. [6] Frere, Sheppard S. and Tomlin, Roger. The Greek world is clearly overrepresented in the general studies of ancient magic (Bremmer 2015, 8), and so there is clearly academic space for synthetic publications on the developments of Greek, Hellenistic, and Roman magical practices;[4] this was the intention of the recent volume on amulets by Faraone for example. Just as today, the future was a source of concern in antiquity. Paderborn, Wilhelm Fink. [6] Nor do pendants depicting the dextrarum iunctio or couples kissing made from Whitby jet; a material which takes a static charge and was ritually rubbed by its users to experience a thrilling sensation. Eight of these are helpful additions, but the five examples of supporting imagery from early-modern artists (Figs. Magic in Roman Law and Legal History. In Greece, examples have been discovered which date from the fourth century B.C. The name of the intended target was often engraved on the figurine. All levels of society are involved; one Greek tablet even includes a reference to the famous orator Demosthenes. While this chapter’s question-led discussion of the ousia (substances) derived from animals and utilised in myriad ways is very good, the change in tone and writing style is jarring. ‘Magic’, for Watson, is focussed on the practices, rituals, formulae, and so on named within the Papyri Graecae Magicae or discussed by ancient authors. Squill was used for getting rid of a plague or disease, Marsh Mallow was used on fractures and the Early Purple Orchid was used as an aphrodisiac. In both appendices there is scope for incorporating fuller discussion, but particularly with the curse tablets on the social significance and psychological effects of cursing or being cursed. It seems that Roman toilets were a terrifying and deadly place; people even used magic to get out of them alive. Watson’s 2019 Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome is, by the author’s prefaced account, a book with a long gestation. This name, which references an ancient Roman social practice, has caused considerable speculation in modern literature. See no. ‘Circe offering the cup to Odysseus’ by John William Waterhouse, 1891, via Wikipedia. These texts helped the Romans decide what to do in time of uncertainty in the empire. The contrast is so great that these chapters read as if they are from entirely different books. Her particular areas of interest are Latin language and literature as well as Roman art and epigraphy. 15 Of The Strangest Customs From Ancient Rome. ‘Staring at Death: The Jet Gorgoneia of Roman Britain’, in Hoss, Stefanie and Whitmore, Alissa. Over the course of history, however, it changed in appearance, scope, and importance from being an element of simple rituals to becoming highly complex systems claiming the status of science and philosophy. Having a different author for only one chapter is a little baffling. [7] Equally, the discussion of the gendered construction of the witch in ancient literature doesn’t help us to identify the contemporary implications of taking  a pragmatic approach to ancient magic, but it instead reveals more about modern reactions to ancient narrative tropes. The language used in these tablets includes many examples of people asking the gods to ‘bind’ their intended target. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. Laura Hayward is a contributing writer and researcher from London, UK. Binding seems to be an attempt to restrict or bring harm to the target while not quite wishing to destroy or kill them. Irene Berti and Filippo Carla, 1–18. Understanding that the reductive male portrayals of supernatural women are just that – reductive – is important, but the chapter is unable fully to correct this revisionist view without the use of archaeological evidence of actual ritual practices to show whether they might have been undertaken by men, or women, or were egalitarian in their outlook. It is organised into seven distinct chapters: Introduction; The Violence of Amatory Magic; Defixiones: A Recent History; Magic and Herbs; Animals in Magic; Fictional Witches; Human sacrifice in Ancient Magic? I would like to criticise the liberal use of the term ‘magician’, which is used throughout to describe those who were using magic, but because it is used so frequently here, its semantic baggage is (deliberately?) ‘Preface: The Materiality of Magic’, in Boschung, Dietrich and Bremmer, Jan. N. (eds) The Materiality of Magic (Morphomata 20). For the purposes of this article, we are going to consider examples of magic used in the Classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Make up is magic, in a way! S. O. Public toilets in Ancient Rome were the exact opposite of their public baths. 2422.12. This approach contrasts with the firecracker content of Chapter 2, which concentrates on promoting the palpably visceral nature of love magic – again, as derived from textual sources — but at the same time lays down a challenge to other contemporary scholarly positions throughout. Ancient Greeks and Romans often turned to magic to achieve personal goals. Modern-day scholars are undecided as to how secret or public these texts were, but references to priests in some of the later papyri perhaps suggests that magic was beginning to occupy a similar status to more formal religious practices in the latter centuries of the Roman Empire. By our standards, living in antiquity was full of hardships regardless of where you look. This article provides a conclusive etymology for how a magic … Their power, derived from knowledge of the future, rendered th… We will probably never know the real position held by magic in the ancient world. 12 Egyptian Hieroglyphs of People and Their Body Parts, A statue of Artemis of Ephesus, via Warwick University. The book begins by examining the meaning of the term 'magic', especially as related to the term 'religion'. These portraits served as means of communication for the members of the monarchy.... Expressionist art is a term retrospectively used by art historians to describe a set of specific movements in the early twentieth century. For those aimed at personal enemies, the figurines were often placed within miniature coffins, perhaps to formalize their journey to the Underworld. This focus is surprising when the recent ‘material turn’ in ancient magical studies has helped to develop a deeper understanding of the nature and scale of such practices. It was the gods and goddesses of the Underworld, such as Hades, Hecate and Hermes, who were believed to be able to assist in the fulfillment of the curses. The Sibylline texts were very important to the aristocracy of Rome. Amulets were widely used across the Classical world. Ancient magic seems to have been a particularly personal practice and, as a result, it gives us a fascinating insight into the everyday fears, loves and hopes of the people of ancient Greece and Rome. Needles were then placed at strategic points on the body. Expressions of thanks or praise should be sent directly to the reviewer, using the email address in the review. Share Share Tweet Email Comment. The people who read the texts were initiated and lived in the temple of Jupiter during their tenure, which is for life. The underpinning was based on a 2006 research grant from the University of Sydney to study the role of animals in Greek and Roman magic. Perhaps this was true for some, but other non-linguistic material evidence beyond the PGM might point to a more benign, or even romantic, form of love magic – the gold openwork ring inscribed in Greek as the ‘Love Charm of Polemius’, for example, has no such violent connotations associated with it. The final two chapters, on witches and human sacrifice, move beyond the broad theme of an individualistic, creative approach to magic and stray into highlighting specific sensational aspects of ancient ritual; while there is no inherent problem in doing this, as interest often focusses on these issues, it is worth noting that the approach differs slightly from the preceding content. A range of topics is covered in curse tablets, including unrequited love, high-profile law-suits, and rivalry among tradesmen. Sick or injured people would often pray to Asclepius, the Greek god who was believed to understand the secrets of plant-based medicine. Magic In Ancient Greece and Rome What is ‘magic’ exactly or, more specifically, what is magic in an ancient context? About Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome Parting company with the trend in recent scholarship to treat the subject in abstract, highly theoretical terms, Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome proposes that the magic-working of antiquity was in reality a highly pragmatic business, with very clearly formulated aims - often of an exceedingly maligant kind. ‘Souls on the Banks of the Acheron’, by Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl, 1898, via Art History Project. Oxford, Oxbow. Around 300 B.C., Theophrastus of Eresus (c. 370–288 B.C) wrote the seminal work Inquiry into Plants, which was used by doctors and magical practitioners throughout the following centuries. [5] Watson takes an essentialist approach to ancient Greece and Rome. It is this non-textual, archaeological/material evidence that may, at least in part, undermine or subvert Watson’s text-informed argument. 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