Hymns in the Papyrigraecaemagicae

chapter 12 Hymns in the Papyri Graecae Magicae

I. Petrovic

Papyri Graecae Magicae (pgm) is a name scholars have given to some hundred papyri from Greco-Roman Egypt containing a motley crew of texts related to magic rituals, such as detailed instructions for performance of rituals, spells, and formulae. Some papyri contain whole collections of recipes made by ancient magicians; others provide individual spells and remedies. With one strik- ing exception,1 they range from the second century bc to the fifth century ad. Most are from the third and fourth century ad. They come from a time when syncretism of various Mediterranean magical traditions, which had started in the first century bc, was already fully established. pgm reflect a broad religious and cultural pluralism.2 As a corpus, pgm represent a mixture of several reli- gions, or, rather, one syncretistic religion that came into being as a product of the mixture of Greek, Babylonian, Egyptian, Jewish, Christian and other religious concepts and influences. As in other rituals in the ancient world, sacrifice3 and prayer4 play an important role in the magical rituals too.5 Interspersed with instructions for the performing of sacrifices, the creation of sacred space, procurement of ritual equip- ment and protective charms, obtaining of ritual purity, invocation of divine beings, and prayers, we find some thirty invocations of gods in metre. These texts have been singled out as hymns by the editors of the first collections of papyri.6 The hymns address various divinities: All gods, Apollo-Helios, Typhon,

1 pgm 40, the so called “Curse of Artemisia” is from the late fourth century bc. See on this text Brashear 1995: 3414. 2 On syncretism of various magical practices as reflected in pgm see Brashear 1995: 3414–3416. 3 On sacrifice in pgm, see Johnston 2002 and now Petrovic 2012 with bibliography. 4 Still fundamental on prayer in pgm is Graf 1991. 5 I cannot provide a discussion of the relationship between magic and religion here; suffice it to note that recent scholarship does not adhere to the view that there should be a strict delineation between the two. See on this Fowler 2000 with bibliography. I agree with his view that “magic does not differ in essence from religion; it differs only in the degree of social approval it enjoys, or does not enjoy” 341. Collins 2008: 1–26 provides an accessible overview of various theoretical approaches to the study of magic. 6 These are also published separately in the second volume of pgm: 237–266. All translations are by Betz 1992 (with slight modifications). I will refer to the hymns according to the numbers provided in this edition.

Apollo, Hermes, Daphne, Hekate-Selene-Artemis,7 Persephone, Aphrodite, the Christian god Iao and the angels, even the winds, and personified Anger (Thy- mos). Featured prominently are also the underworld deities, the demons and spirits of the dead. Notable guest appearances are made by Egyptian deities, such as Isis and Osiris. Even though pgm on the whole reflect a syncretistic religion, they also contain many sections that are genuinely Greek in origin and character. These passages are so numerous that pgm are also utilized as an important source for the study of Greek popular belief. The hymns also belong to the passages that are mostly Greek in nature. Martin Nilsson remarked that “in the entire corpus of pgm, the hymns are the most Greek parts. My impression is that there must have been an ancient Greek tradition of magical texts, based on genuinely Greek gods. Basic elements of these old, genuinely Greek texts have been taken over and incorporated in the Egyptian texts.”8 Metrical invocations of the gods in pgm really do bear a close resemblance to Greek hymns. Most are composed in hexameters (22 out of 30). There are several in iambic trimeter,9 most notably the longest composition in the col- lection, nr. 17, which addresses Hekate-Selene-Artemis in 103 verses, but most other hymns vary between 15–50 verses. However, as opposed to other Greek hymns, these texts were probably performed only once by a person who pur- chased the spell; their only audience was the deity invoked, and they were composed to accompany private, sometimes even illicit rituals. The perform- ers could not remind the deities invoked of their past worship-history, because the magic rituals were unique and performed in situations of crisis and specific personal need, and the deities addressed did not feature prominently in the performer’s everyday life. The prophetic Apollo-Helios or Artemis-Selene- Hekate are invoked only in extraordinary situations, and those who summoned them had no experience in performing the magical rituals and had to purchase the spell from an expert. Those Greek hymns that feature narration prominently usually tell a story about the god’s first arrival, or about the establishment of an important cult place, as is the case with the Homeric Hymns, or about the specific link of the deity to a particular place, as is the case with choral hymns. The hymns which were composed for performance by a single person usually resort to depicting the personal worship-history between the performer and the deity. Conversely,

7 These goddesses often feature as a triad in the pgm. On Hekate-Selene-Artemis in Greek magic, see Petrovic 2007: 4–10. 8 Nilsson 1967: 132 (my translation of the German original). 9 Hymns 6, 8, 17, 19 and 25.