Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion

by Christopher A. Faraone (Editor), Dirk Obbink (Editor)

This collection challenges the tendency among scholars of ancient Greece to see magical and religious ritual as mutually exclusive and to ignore "magical" practices in Greek religion. The contributors survey specific bodies of archaeological, epigraphical, and papyrological evidence for magical practices in the Greek world, and, in each case, determine whether the traditional dichotomy between magic and religion helps in any way to conceptualize the objective features of the evidence examined. Contributors include Christopher A. Faraone, J.H.M. Strubbe, H.S. Versnel, Roy Kotansky, John Scarborough, Samuel Eitrem, Fritz Graf, John J. Winkler, Hans Dieter Betz, and C.R. Phillips.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Witchcraft, Religion, Occult, Mythology, Magic

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 17, 1991

Reviews

[6655321 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes a book really captures an attempt to show cross cultural perceptions of a popular social form and is really good at demythologizing magic and undoing hyper rationalist narratives of Ancient Greek culture but you just really wish that the book wouldn't slap you upside the head with its erudition so often, like yes please tell me how clever a phrase is in untranslated Latin or German! I actually understand being a book for specialists that there will be the occasional paragraph i cannot decipher because its about minute differences in Greek translation but some of this is just aggravating. On a more "what is this even about" the various researchers touch on (in interlocking essays which is a really cool feature of this volume: it has an extraordinarily tight focus) Greek Binding Tablets and the various dimensions to them (including Greek Familial Ethics, the Role of Magic vs. Religion and if it is a meaningful distinction, Greek conceptions of the Erotic, etc.) and does a really wonderful job of being a history and theory grounded exegesis on an interesting topic that isn't pandering pablum (to generally the sort of Hermetic OTO bro who wants to see himself in every historical epoch) or the hyper rationalist Greek apologist who wants to claim a sort of Greek Rationalist exceptional-ism to "magical" or "irrational" thinking while providing copious additional sources and informative glosses on historical debates. Generally speaking, when people hear Oxford Publication this is the sort of quality that *should* be associated with the publisher (i.e. this is a difficult read with a strong sense of placement in debates and while the articles are sometimes short they contain a wealth of information).

[Lesley-anne Brewster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well reasoned and well written. Personally preferred the first part of the book, concerned with more recent discovéries and/or understandings, but then I don't really care to distinguish between what's termed Magick and what's termed Religion or Science.

[Trunatrschild · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compilation of academic essays on Greek magic, highlighting everything from curse tablets to the Magical Papyri to the argument of religion as magic or magic as religion etc. I think this is a bit aged, but still a necessary read if you are interested in factual witchcraft in history.
An aside, if you are looking for a validation to a neopagan feminist revisionism idea of history, this will crush it. To give an idea, the cover picture is of a love spell. The Greek idea of a love spell was to bind totally, to cause rashes and loss of sleep and pain till the loved one came to the spell caster.
From here, if one hasn't read them before, the Greek Magical Papyri are a must to read, which you will find by reading the book, leaving at this book is only half of a decent education in the matter for the non-professional or merely curious.
Very interesting and only a little heavy, though I wish I knew Greek, it would have been more fulfilling.

[Suzanne Thackston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's another I'm just not going to sit and read from cover to cover. It's a Hellenion library book and someone has requested to borrow it, so I'm putting it down and sending it out. I wish I were intellectual enough to read a book like this for fun, but I'm not. That's not the book's fault. It's really excellent, and a terrific resource. That's exactly what I'd keep it for if I were buying it for myself- a reference resource, and perhaps occasionally one of the essays when I'm in a particularly erudite mood.
Very glad this book exists. It's packed full of excellent information and tons of footnotes.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice fun book to read.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the incite into early faiths and early forms of the faiths.

[Jilany]

to-read