Magic in the Ancient Greek World

by Derek Collins

Original and comprehensive, Magic in the Ancient Greek World takes the reader inside both the social imagination and the ritual reality that made magic possible in ancient Greece.

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

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up as a possible text for a course I’m teaching on ancient magic next quarter. I don’t have a lot of background in the subject and I really appreciated all that I learned from it, but in the end I don’t think I’ll assign it for my class. The book falls into a common trap by failing to decide whether it wants to engage specialists or a more general audience. There are times when the book gives good basic introductions, but at other times it digs deep into tough scholarly questions and the reading becomes dense, allusive and really challenging for someone without more background. Like I said, I don’t know much about ancient magic, but I do still have a PhD in Classics. I could follow Collins as he bounces through topics and periods to connect disparate materials in search of answers about ancient magic. I’m not sure that my students would. In truth, my complaint is really that this book should be twice as long and include much fuller background for pretty much every topic discussed. At times, a topic has already been discussed at length before the background finally arrives, e.g. the book refers to theurgy (“divine work”) several times in the first 100 pages, and on page 127 the term is finally defined. My undergrads are going to be checked out and playing with their phones by then... Another gripe, there is a great discussion of magical papyri and magical figurines, but these discussions would be greatly improved by the inclusion of some pictures. (This may be a choice of the press, so we can’t necessarily blame Collins for this.) At times, he exhaustively describes the magical kharakteres and figurines that he is discussing, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Honestly, I hope this book sells well enough to get him permission for an expanded second edition. There is so much of value in here. There’s a concise review of anthropological theories of magic (chapter 1), a general overview of Greek magic and its practitioners (chapter 2), a survey of binding magic and magic talismans (chapter 3), a discussion of the use of Homeric scripture in magic incantations (chapter 4), and a review of the ancient laws on magic and their reception by later Christian authors (chapter 5). Along the way, Collins touches on many important sources of informations about ancient magic including a wide range of texts and artefacts. While our modern inclination is to see magic as a thing apart, Collins consistently proves how magic is woven into the general texture of ancient life, whether in terms of religion, medicine, agriculture, literary criticism, or love. I learned a lot from this book and will surely consult it as I prepare to teach on this topic, but I don’t think I’ll ask my students to read it.

[Giuseppe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lettura utile, e soprattutto aggiornata, su tematiche legate alla magia greca e romana.
Collins affronta una serie di molteplici aspetti - epigrafici, letterari, sociali ecc. - nell'analizzare il fenomeno, a partire dalle prime attestazioni letterarie (sia positive sia negative, come nel caso di Platone o del trattato "Sul disturbo sacro" della scuola ippocratica) fino ai suoi sviluppi più tardi, anche cristiani e medievali.
Rispetto ad altri libri - come quelli di Faraone, Dirk Obbink o Graf - quello di Collins si distingue per tematiche a più ampio respiro (affrontando per esempio usi di versi omerici in campo magico e altro ancora), ma, a mio parere, è meno "appassionante" di altre letture sull'argomento.
In questo giudizio, però, bisogna considerare che: a) Collins si sta rivolgendo a un pubblico pressoché privo di conoscenze nel campo della magia antica; b) personalmente, ero alla ricerca di informazioni legate all'impiego della magia specificatamente erotica per i miei studi, dunque molte sezioni sono risultate "pesanti" per questo motivo.

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not what I expected, and not at all in a bad way. Collins does an excellent job breaking down not only the primary types of magic in the classical world but also explaining why and how people of those eras believed in the efficacy of magic at all. While I admit I wish there were more explanations on the full variety of magic they produces/attempted, I otherwise found this an incredible insightful and engaging piece of historic analysis.

[pj · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for Greek and Roman Magic

while Collins’ writing is dense, especially the introduction, he gives a number of really valuable translations of curse tablets and testimonials of the effects of curse tablets

wouldn’t read for fun, but read for class so i mean

[Alicja Haraszczuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it - involving, spoiled with details and author’s own opinion. Could be a challenge for a person without classical background, but a pleasurable one

[Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly short read but dense. For a classics student - wouldn't recommend for light reading.

[yana · Rating 3 out of 5]

you can't tell me that hundreds of roman women once allegedly plotted to poison their husbands en masse and they all committed suicide together by the same poison when accused and not expand on that

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. Explores the operative, here's-what's-happening-as-perceived-by-ancient-Greeks/Romans side of magical practices, so those looking for a descriptive overview of antique abracadabra, beware.

Collins is a decent, if unspectacular, writer with a peculiar fondness for the words "effete" and "salient." He could do worse, I suppose.

[Pandaduh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was interesting but ended on a weird note of contacting ancestors which I didn't feel was as important in the book as the author made it seem? The line between medicine and magic was blended for me further after reading this.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Collins kind of went from Frazer and Tylor straight to Stanley Tambiah, didn't even mention Mauss wjhich i thought was unfortunate but the book really made me happy.