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A Magical Amulet for Curing Fever

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A Magical Amulet for Curing Fever CHAPTER TEN A MAGICAL AMULET FOR CURING FEVER Among the Greek papyri in the Princeton University Collections is a magical talisman designed to rid the wearer of fever. 1 This charm, which is written on a cheap grade of coarse papyrus2 by an unlettered hand, measures about zi inches wide and about s¼ long (see Plate I B). When discovered it was still folded in a narrow compass, presumably to be placed in a small container and worn on the body of the patient.3 From the style of the handwriting the amulet can be dated in the third or fourth Christian century. The first third of the papyrus contains a meaningless string of mysterious-sounding syllables, arranged in seven lines, the first of which reads ~ixyoup1jmxyoup1j. In each of the following six lines the formula is written in such a way that the first letter and the last letter of the preceding line are dropped, thus forming a triangular pattern. The ancients attached a good deal of significance to the shape of this pattern (which was known as ~oTpuoe:La~c; "shaped like a bunch of grapes"), the theory being that the shortening of the incantation in successive lines would be effective in lessening the malady.4 The barbaric sound of the formula, composed of syllables 1 It is no. 159 in the Princeton University Collections, and was first edited by the present writer in Papyri in the Princeton University Collections, vol. III, ed. by Allen Chester Johnson and Sidney Pullman Goodrich (Princeton, 1942), 78-79. Princeton University Press, the holder of the original copyright, has granted permission to incorporate this material, in greatly expanded form, in the present study. 2 The papyrus is palimpsest, and illegible traces of the earlier writing remain in the upper left-hand and right-hand margins. 3 On fever amulets see Ulrich Wilcken, A rchiv fur Papyrusforschung, I (Leipzig, 1901), 420-27; Preisendanz's collection of magical Greek papyri (cf. p. 105, note 2 below); and, for a Gnostic fever amulet (dating from the fourth or fifth century) published since Preisendanz, Edmund H. Kase, Jr., Papyri in the Princeton University Collections, n (Princeton, 1936). no. 107. ' Another common pattern, formed by dropping a letter in successive lines from either the right-hand or the left-hand margin, thus producing the shape of a triangle, was called 1t-re:puyoe:L3~c:; ("shaped like a wing"). For examples found in papyri, see Gerhard Kropatscheck, De amuletorum apud antiquos usu, Diss. (Greifswald, 1907), p. 29; Franz Domseiff, Das Alphabet in Mystik und M agie, 2te Aufl. ( = :ETOIXEIA, Studien zur Geschichte des antiken Weltbildes und des griechischen Wissenschaft, vn; Leipzig, 1925), pp. 55-67; and P. Michaelidae 27 (ed. D. S. Crawford; London, 1955). AMULET FOR CURING FEVER 105 that convey no meaning, no doubt produced a desirable psycho­ logical effect upon the patient.1 The first part of the Princeton charm, ~cxyoup'YJ, was evidently regarded as highly efficacious, for nearly a dozen other incantations have been found which make use of it, either alone or in combination with other magical expres­ sions.2 The superstitious use of amulets and charms, so prevalent in the ancient world,3 was the object of more than one "scientific" exami­ nation. For example, Pliny the Elder discussed the question whether words and formulated incantations (verba et incantamenta carminum) possess any efficacy,4 and Lucian, in his typically mocking manner, 1 Iamblichus (De Mysteriis, vii, 5; ed. Thomas Taylor, 2nd ed. [London, 1845), pp. 294:ff.) answers Porphyry's question why charms and incantations are couched in barbaric and outlandish words, replying that they lose their potency if they are translated. 2 For ~ayoup7J see Karl Wessely, Ephesia Grammata (Vienna, 1886), nos. 36, 206, 207, 209, 335, and Karl Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae, n (Leipzig and Berlin, 1931 ), no. xxxvi, lines 10, 64, 309, 350. On the other hand 1tayo1>p1J is less common; for examples (with ~ayo1>p1J) see Preisendanz, op. cit., no. xxxvi, lines 309 and 350. 3 From a vast literature on the subject, and in addition to the several titles which are mentioned in other footnotes of the present study, the following surveys and monographs may be mentioned: Campbell Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian (Ann Arbor, 1950); E. A. Wallis Budge, Amulets and Superstitions (London, 1930); Ernst von Dob­ schiitz, "Charms and Amulets (Christian)," Hastings' Encyclopcedia of Re­ ligion and Ethics, III (1911), 413-430; F. Eckstein and J. H. Waszink, "Amulett," Reallexikon fur Antike und Christentum, 1 (1950), cols. 397-411; S. Eitrem and A. Fridrichsen, Ein christliches Amulett auf Papyrus ( = Vi­ denskapsselskapets Forhandlinger for I92I, No. 1; Kristiania, 1921); Sam Eitrem, "Aus 'Papyrologie und Religionsgeschichte': Die magischen Papyri," Papyri und Altertumswissenschaft, ed. Walter Otto and Leopold Wenger ( = Munchener Beitrage zur Papyrusforschung und antiken Rechtsgeschichte, xix; Munich, 1934), pp. 243-263; Johannes Ficker, "Amulett," Herzog­ Hauck, Realencyclopadie fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 3te Aufl., I (1896), 467-476 (with a full list of extant early Christian objects); Theodor Hopfner, Griechisch-agyptischer Offenbarungszauber ( = Studien zur Palaeo­ graphie und Papyruskunde, ed. C. Wessely, xx1; Leipzig, 1921); M. P. Nilsson, Die Religion in den griechischen Zauberpapyri (Lund, 1948); A. D. Nock, "Greek Magical Papyri," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, xv (1929) 219-235; Ernst Reiss, "Religious Gleanings from the Magical Papyri," Classical Weekly, xxvm (1934-35), 105-111; B. R. Rees, "Popular Religion in Graeco­ Roman Egypt," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, xxxv1 (1950), 86-100; and T. Schrire, Hebrew Amulets, Their Decipherment and Interpretation (London, 1966). Likewise reference may be made to two bibliographies of Greek and Roman folklore and magic, compiled by Eugene S. McCartney and Richard H. Crum in Classical Weekly, XL (1946-47), 99-101, and ib., XLII (1948-49), 234-236. ' Pliny, Natural History, xxviii, 3. .
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