The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation : Including the Demotic Spells : Texts

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Summary: Ian Myles Slater on Magic and Syncretic Religion
Review: According to the introduction to this volume, among other competent sources, one of the more interesting shocks to the delicate sensibilities of nineteenth-century classical scholars was delivered by papyri from Greco-Roman Egypt. The serene and rational "classical" Greeks of their (mainly German) imaginations turned out to be human beings with messy fears, desires, hatreds, and jealousies, and a willingness to turn to magic (ugh!) to obtain their ends.

A common reaction: Let's keep it a secret!

It didn't work. A younger generation of scholars (also mainly, but not entirely, German) began mining the texts for information on daily life (astrological papyri proved more helpful) and religion (more successfully) in late antiquity. Texts scattered in museums and published, if at all, in a variety of journals, had to be assembled and properly edited. Some early efforts were exemplary, some problematic (and some both). It sometimes seemed as if a curse had been laid on the enterprise. Early deaths, the First World War, and economic chaos delayed the publication of a carefully edited volume of collected papyri (Greek passages only). The second volume survived World War II only in proof copies. Meanwhile, more papyri turned up, and the project had to be re-done.

One of the more fortunate results of this delay is the present volume, a careful translation of the Greek papyri containing magic spells, along with the Demotic (late Egyptian in a native "shorthand") and Coptic (late Egyptian in a mostly Greek-derived script) passages in the same manuscripts. A team of scholars worked on the translations, which come with concise introductions and notes. It is based on the arrangement in the earlier text editions (although, frustratingly, it does not come with page-references to the first edition, used in over half a century of scholarly literature).

A second volume, including fuller references, and, above all, indexes, was announced, but so far does not seem to have appeared. This is frustrating, given the number of topics, names, and materials mentioned in just the larger manuscript collections.

As for the work at hand, it is fascinating, if inherently frustrating. We have parts of a library of someone who may have been a working magician, with the habits of a scholar, and actual charms and amulets for a less discriminating clientele. There are instructions on how to pull off party tricks, win (or torment) a lover, or influence important people, as well as protect yourself from the spells of others.

Greek gods mingle with Egyptian deities older than the Pyramids, and Mesopotamian (even Sumerian) Powers make brief appearances. Garbled bits of Jewish and Christian lore are sprinkled throughout. The extent to which any of this represents a real synthesis of religious beliefs (syncretism), or is an unthinking compilation of whatever might give access to power, is a question long debated. I suspect that every instance needs a separate answer, and in most cases we will never have one.

At least three fairly large groups of readers should find the book invaluable. Those interested in Egypt will welcome a mass of post-Pharaonic material, a lot of it with good parallels from earlier centuries. Those interested in the gods of Greece will find here much evidence of how they were viewed in popular (rather than elite) culture, and what happened to them when carried abroad by their worshippers. Finally, students of early Jewish mysticism will finally get ready access to texts, which have been used to date "Merkabah" and "Hekhalot" texts (concerning heavenly ascents and visions of the Divine Throne) which survive only in medieval manuscripts.

In addition, the late pagan spells fade off into the Coptic literature of early Christian Egypt, although "Christian Magic" has received separate treatments, and is only incidentally represented in this collection.

As for practicing magicians -- everyone should know that you can't just use someone else's book of spells, you need authorization and personal instruction!

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Summary: Magic as it was (and is)...
Review: Of all of the works on Magic in the ancient and modern worlds I have read, this volume ranks among the highest. Readers who are interested in or who practice magic in any way, shape, or form should find this a refreshing break from so-called "New age" and "Neo-pagan" romanticisms. A fantastic sourcebook for the scholar and the practioner (espescially in a market dominated by Celtic and Middle Ages influences), this work presents scores of translated texts with minimal (yet precise) commentary and a fine glossary of the more obscure terms. This book represents a rare glimpse into the magical lives of real people in the Ancient world- which in the end , reveals how distorted, predjudiced and misinformed much of the present day attitudes regarding the subject of Magic and belief systems in the Ancient World can be.

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Summary: Refreshing and exact
Review: This book lets the reader decide not only what type of spell to do, but gives many different ways of doing each spell. The one thing I didn't like was that there were no substitues or other names for the more unusal ingredients for the spell. But this book will be one of my most valued texts to study through out the years.

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Summary: Fascinating magical texts
Review: This collection of magical procedures from Graeco-Roman Egypt is powerful and fascinating. This is serious magic, and potentially dangerous; caution is advised to those who would work many of these operations.
Shortly after my wife acquired the magical papyri, I studied the spells and formulae for a research project I was involved in. Strange things began to happen. A wine bottle containing sacred water to be used in an upcoming ceremony suddenly and spontaneously shattered. Now, my theory was that the setting sun had been shining on the enclosed bottle and caused it to explode, but I still felt an occult force at work, and immediately a name jumped into my mind: Typhon/Set. Then I noticed an invocation adressed to Set as the Typhonic being who "shatters all things", to be recited at sunrise and sunset. I found a hymn to Selene - beautiful, evocative, terrifying - that expressed perfectly the essence of the Gorgon which, that very night, was guarding my doorway under the majestic and severe light of the full moon. Magical symbols began appearing to my mind's eye, and I drew one to show my wife, who was reading the papyri at the time; when I gave her drawing, she showed me the page she was reading, and there was the very same symbol.
Once again, a very powerful book, an excellent source for those researching the pagan occult arts, and not to be approached by the frivolous.

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Summary: An important book of ancient lore.
Review: What most people know of ancient Greece is the classics. But behind them, there were the everyday people, the women and the slaves, who had no means of improving their lives. No means but witchcraft. This is a collection of the spells and incantations they used. If you believe in "harm none", you will find this book disturbing. This book reflects the dreams, fears and hopes of desperate people who would try anything, including the use of human corpses of animal sacrifice to get what they needed. But this book also includes some very beautiful hymns and invocation, especially the one addressed to Selene/Artemis. An important book of ancient lore.