Witchcraft and Magic in Europe, Vol. 2: Ancient Greece and Rome

Witchcraft and Magic in Europe #2

by Bengt Ankarloo (Editor), Stuart Clark (Editor)

Each volume of this ambitious six-volume series contains the work of distinguished scholars chosen for their expertise in a particular era or region. Volume one explores witchcraft and magic from the heroic age of Homer's Greek East to the time of the rise of Christianity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Esoterica, Witches, Witchcraft, Folklore

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, in that it contains a lot of primary sources and some genuinely thoughtful analysis. This is par for the course, since the contributing authors come from an age in which people actually KNEW their Classical literature and in which scholars saw their work as more than simply revising history to fit whatever political or social fads happened to be en vogue at the time.

But Bad, in that it contains a lot of wild conjectures, bizarre theories, and outdated "facts". This is to be expected, since the contributing authors come from an age in which people were more open to...speculative...scholarship.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covering a large range of practice and theory -- and time.


The first section deals with practice: the surviving lead curse tablets. Apparently lead was also used to write letters, which may have been the start. But having started with the practice of engraving names, wrapping it up, perhaps nailing it, and then depositing it in a well or some cthyonic sanctuary such as Demeter's or Persphone's, it got more elaborate. With ligitiation, with compeitition, even with amatory curses -- the first amatory ones were to separate couples, only then did they lead to ones that united. Also the increasing elaboration of formulas calling for gods and demons and angels to act, and using increasing magical words for it. (Some of the nonsense words were apparently transformed into demonic names.)

Got admire the one where a woman calls down a curse on another woman for slanderously accusing her of using magic potions on her husband.

It was a counter-cultural practice, and could be prosecuted as impiety. They knew it. One formulary instructed the user to steal a cold water pipe from the water system. Not because lead was hard to get, it was cheap, but apparently because vandalism made it more magical. This may also explain why they identified people by matronymics, because patronymics were culturally normal. Then again, they might have just wanted to be more sure of correctly identifying the right person; one tablet uses the formula "whom (name) claims as his daughter", and that one's probably just to make sure. Or it could have just reflect Egyptian and Babylonian practice; we know they used matronymics in it.

Well, not entirely counter-cultural. There were "prayers for justice" where the person called down divine vengeance on a thief, usually. Those could be abject prayers, but they could also contain such things as donating the stolen goods to the god -- the thief had thereby commited sacrilege with all its penalties -- and then threatening the god with humiliation if he did not retrieve his stolen goods, for not being able to.

The next section moved into theory by moving to literary sources. Everything from the precise terminology about things magical, and what their connotations were -- through the use of philtre to bind men and women to love, or to impotence (adulteress were often described as making their lover impotent if they went to marry) -- to the figures of magic. At one end you had those like Circe and Medea, divinely descended and powerful; at the other extreme you had historical figures like Apulieus being accused of magic, and legends accretated about them. Jesus had only a few traits in common with the stereotypical magos of the era, but a few centuries later, people were claiming he was taught magic in Egypt and stole the names of angels of might from Egyptian temples. Simon Magus, in later, legendary texts was much more typical. And then there were the complete fictious witches.

The final section deals with the demonization of magic. Literally. Christians attributed all of it to demonic beings, though it was not an even process. Even the pagan Romans, whose laws at first required actual harm, took a harsher view of magic as it went on.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much written on this period of time and spiritual practice. I found the binding and curse tablets, spells and dolls the most interesting. I have a trip planned to the Oxford University museum at some point to check out the curse scrolls from Bath from Minerva's shrine. Valerie Flint's writing on the demonisation of magic in late antiquity and the introduction of angels as "good" demons emerging is fascinating. Good primary sources for pagan studies.

[Raymonds009 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was exhaustive. I was not expecting a textbook but that was what it was. This is for the truly committed scholar. Rewarding