Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds PDF Author: Daniel Ogden
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195151237
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now strange to us, magic was of great importance both in the literary mythic tradition and in ritual practice. In this book, Daniel Ogden presents 300 texts in new translations, along with brief but explicit commentaries. Authors include the well known (Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny) and the less familiar, and extend across the whole of Graeco-Roman antiquity.

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds

Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds PDF Author: Daniel Ogden
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195151237
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now strange to us, magic was of great importance both in the literary mythic tradition and in ritual practice. In this book, Daniel Ogden presents 300 texts in new translations, along with brief but explicit commentaries. Authors include the well known (Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny) and the less familiar, and extend across the whole of Graeco-Roman antiquity.

Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World

Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World PDF Author: Matthew W Dickie
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134533365
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
This study is the first to assemble the evidence for the existence of sorcerors in the ancient world; it also addresses the question of their identity and social origins. The resulting investigation takes us to the underside of Greek and Roman society, into a world of wandering holy men and women, conjurors and wonder-workers, and into the lives of prostitutes, procuresses, charioteers and theatrical performers. This fascinating reconstruction of the careers of witches and sorcerors allows us to see into previously inaccessible areas of Greco-Roman life. Compelling for both its detail and clarity, and with an extraordinarily revealing breadth of evidence employed, it will be an essential resource for anyone studying ancient magic.

Magic in the Ancient World

Magic in the Ancient World PDF Author: Fritz Graf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Ancient Greeks and Romans often turned to magic to achieve personal goals. Magical rites were seen as a route for direct access to the gods, for material gains as well as spiritual satisfaction. In this survey of magical beliefs and practices from the sixth century B.C.E. through late antiquity, Fritz Graf sheds new light on ancient religion. Graf explores the important types of magic in Greco-Roman antiquity, describing rites and explaining the theory behind them. And he characterizes the ancient magician: his training and initiation, social status, and presumed connections with the divine world. With trenchant analysis of underlying conceptions and vivid account of illustrative cases, Graf gives a full picture of the practice of magic and its implications. He concludes with an evaluation of the relation of magic to religion.

Ancient Greek Love Magic

Ancient Greek Love Magic PDF Author: Christopher A. FARAONE
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674036700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
The ancient Greeks commonly resorted to magic spells to attract and keep lovers. Surveying and analyzing various texts and artifacts, the author reveals that gender is the crucial factor in understanding love spells.

A Companion to Greek Religion

A Companion to Greek Religion PDF Author: Daniel Ogden
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444334174
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
This major addition to Blackwell’s Companions to the Ancient World series covers all aspects of religion in the ancient Greek world from the archaic, through the classical and into the Hellenistic period. Written by a panel of international experts Focuses on religious life as it was experienced by Greek men and women at different times and in different places Features major sections on local religious systems, sacred spaces and ritual, and the divine

Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome

Magic in Ancient Greece and Rome PDF Author: Lindsay C. Watson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350108952
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
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 malignant kind. In seven chapters, each addressed to an important arm of Greco-Roman magic, the volume discusses the history of the rediscovery and publication of the so-called Greek Magical Papyri, a key source for our understanding of ancient magic; the startling violence of ancient erotic spells and the use of these by women as well as men; the alteration in the landscape of defixio (curse tablet) studies by major new finds and the confirmation these provide that the frequently lethal intent of such tablets must not be downplayed; the use of herbs in magic, considered from numerous perspectives but with an especial focus on the bizarre-seeming rituals and protocols attendant upon their collection; the employment of animals in magic, the factors determining the choice of animal, the uses to which they were put, and the procuring and storage of animal parts, conceivably in a sorcerer's workshop; the witch as a literary construct, the clear homologies between the magical procedures of fictional witches and those documented for real spells, the gendering of the witch-figure and the reductive presentation of sorceresses as old, risible and ineffectual; the issue of whether ancient magicians practised human sacrifice and the illuminating parallels between such accusations and late 20th century accounts of child-murder in the context of perverted Satanic rituals. By challenging a number of orthodoxies and opening up some underexamined aspects of the subject, this wide-ranging study stakes out important new territory in the field of magical studies.

Magika Hiera

Magika Hiera PDF Author: Christopher A. Faraone
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195111400
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Annotation 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 formagical 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.

Ancient Christian Magic

Ancient Christian Magic PDF Author: Marvin W. Meyer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691004587
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
This thought-provoking collection of magical texts from ancient Egypt shows the exotic rituals, esoteric healing practices, and incantatory and supernatural dimensions that flowered in early Christianity. These remarkable Christian magical texts include curses, spells of protection from "headless powers" and evil spirits, spells invoking thunderous powers, descriptions of fire baptism, and even recipes from a magical "cookbook." Virtually all the texts are by Coptic Christians, and they date from about the 1st-12th centuries of the common era, with the majority from late antiquity. By placing these rarely seen texts in historical context and discussing their significance, the authors explore the place of healing, prayer, miracles, and magic in the early Christian experience, and expand our understanding of Christianity and Gnosticism as a vital folk religion.

Drawing Down the Moon

Drawing Down the Moon PDF Author: Radcliffe G. Edmonds, III
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069115693X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
One of the foremost experts on magic, religion, and the occult in the ancient world provides an unparalleled exploration of magic in the Greco-Roman world, giving insight into the shifting ideas of religion and the divine in the ancient past and in the later Western tradition.

Sources for the Study of Greek Religion

Sources for the Study of Greek Religion PDF Author: David G. Rice
Publisher: Society of Biblical Lit
ISBN: 0891303472
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Since its initial publication in 1979, Sources for the Study of Greek Religion has become an essential classroom resource in the field of classical studies. The Society of Biblical Literature is pleased to present a corrected edition—in a new, attractive, and electronic-friendly format—with hopes that it will inspire a new generation of classicists and religious historians.