MAGIC AND RITUAL IN THE ANCIENT WORLD RELIGIONS IN THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD EDITORS R. VAN DEN BROEK H. J.W. DRIJVERS H.S. VERSNEL VOLUME 141 MAGIC AND RITUAL IN THE ANCIENT WORLD EDITED BY PAUL MIRECKI AND MARVIN MEYER BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON • KÖLN 2002 This series Religions in the Graeco-Roman World presents a forum for studies in the social and cultural function of religions in the Greek and the Roman world, dealing with pagan religions both in their own right and in their interaction with and influence on Christianity and Judaism during a lengthy period of fundamental change. Special attention will be given to the religious history of regions and cities which illustrate the practical workings of these processes. Enquiries regarding the submission of works for publication in the series may be directed to Professor H.J.W. Drijvers, Faculty of Letters, University of Groningen, 9712 EK Groningen, The Netherlands. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Die Deutsche Bibliothek – CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Magic and ritual in the ancient world / ed. by Paul Mirecki and Marvin Meyer. – Leiden ; Boston ; Köln : Brill, 2001 (Religions in the Graeco-Roman world ; Vol. 141) ISBN 90–04–10406–2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Cataloging-in Publication Data is also available ISSN 0927-7633 ISBN 90 04 11676 1 © Copyright 2002 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS P M and M M Introduction .............................................................................. : W B† and Roy Kotansky A New Magical Formulary ...................................................... 3 D J Two Papyri with Formulae for Divination.............................. 25 R K An Early Christian Gold Lamella for Headache ...................... 37 P M A Seventh-Century Coptic Limestone in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Bodl. copt. inscr. 426) ................................ 47 : J Z. S Great Scott! Thought and Action One More Time ............... 73 F G Theories of Magic in Antiquity ............................................... 92 H. S. V The Poetics of the Magical Charm: An Essay on the Power of Words ................................................................................... 105 D F Dynamics of Ritual Expertise in Antiquity and Beyond: Towards a New Taxonomy of “Magicians” ........................... 159 C. A. H Fiat Magia................................................................................. 179 : R H. B Dividing a God ......................................................................... 197 JA S Translating Transfers in Ancient Mesopotamia ...................... 209 B J C Necromancy, Fertility and the Dark Earth: The Use of Ritual Pits in Hittite Cult ......................................................... 224 B B. S Canaanite Magic vs. Israelite Religion: Deuteronomy 18 and the Taxonomy of Taboo .................................................. 243 : S. D B Secrecy and Magic, Publicity and Torah: Unpacking a Talmudic Tale .......................................................................... 263 J R. D Shamanic Initiatory Death and Resurrection in the Hekhalot Literature .................................................................................. 283 Michael D. Swartz Sacrificial Themes in Jewish Magic ......................................... 303 : C A. F The Ethnic Origins of a Roman-Era Philtrokatadesmos (PGM IV 296-434) .................................................................... 319 S I J Sacrifice in the Greek Magical Papyri..................................... 344 L R. LD Beans, Fleawort, and the Blood of a Hamadryas Baboon: Recipe Ingredients in Greco-Roman Magical Materials ........ 359 O P The Witches’ Thessaly ............................................................. 378 P T. S Speech Acts and the Stakes of Hellenism in Late Antiquity .. 386 : M M The Prayer of Mary Who Dissolves Chains in Coptic Magic and Religion ............................................................................. 407 A T The Magician and the Heretic: The Case of Simon Magus.. 416 N B. H Ancient Execration Magic in Coptic and Islamic Egypt ........ 427 Index of Primary Sources ............................................................. 447 In memory of William M. Brashear 1946 – 2000 INTRODUCTION P M and M M If the title of the present volume, Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, is reminiscent of an earlier volume in the Brill series Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, it should come as no surprise. In August 1992 Paul Mirecki and Marvin Meyer invited a series of colleagues from a variety of disciplines to an international conference, held at the Uni- versity of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, on “Magic in the Ancient World.” The scholars in attendance all addressed the phenomena of ancient magic and ritual power from the perspectives of their own disciplines, but they did so with a particular concern for the general issues of definition and taxonomy. From that conference there emerged a volume, edited by Meyer and Mirecki and published in 1995 by Brill, entitled Ancient Magic and Ritual Power. As noted in the introduction to the volume, “An understanding of ‘magic’ as ‘ritual power’ … permeates many of the essays in this volume” (4). The present volume comes from a similar scholarly conference. In August 1998 Meyer and Mirecki assembled the magoi once again— many of them the usual suspects—at a second international confer- ence, held at Chapman University in Orange, California, and the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity of Claremont Graduate Uni- versity in Claremont, California, on “Magic in the Ancient World.” (This conference was made possible through the generous support of the Griset Lectureship Fund and the Wang-Fradkin Professorship of Chapman University and the Coptic Magical Texts Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity.) As at the Kansas conference, Jonathan Z. Smith delivered a plenary lecture, and the scholars at the California conference similarly employed the methods and perspec- tives of their disciplines to discuss ancient magic and ritual power. And as at the Kansas conference, the volume emerging from the conference, Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, seeks to contribute to the continuing discussion of magic and ritual power in the ancient Near East, Judaism, Greco-Roman antiquity, and early Christianity, with an additional contribution on the world of Coptic and Islamic Egypt. The strength of the present volume, we suggest, lies in the breadth of scholarship represented. While, as in the previous volume, issues of description and classification are everywhere apparent or assumed in these essays (and especially in Part 2), and the understanding of magic as ritual power runs as a scholarly thread through the book, the essays themselves are remarkably wide-ranging in their approaches and con- cerns. Taken together, the essays thus provide an excellent glimpse of the status quaestionis of the study of magic and ritual power in Mediter- ranean and Near Eastern antiquity and late antiquity. * * * The essays in this volume are organized into six sections: 1) “New Texts of Magic and Ritual Power,” 2) “Definitions and Theory,” 3) “The Ancient Near East,” 4) “Judaism,” 5) “Greek and Roman An- tiquity,” and 6) “Early Christianity and Islam.” Part 1 presents four essays in which new magical texts and new interpretations are made available. In an essay entitled “A New Magical Formulary,” William Brashear and Roy Kotansky present the editio princeps of P. Berol. 17202. This fourth-century papyrus sheet from a magical handbook preserves six recipes in Greek: a Christian liturgical exorcism with historiolae focusing on Jesus’ miracles, a pagan invocation to silence opponents, a hymnic invocation, an adjuration with ritual procedures, a spell to achieve an erection, and a sacred stele termed the “second.” In “Two Papyri with Formulae for Divina- tion,” David Jordan improves upon two previously published papyri with formulae for divination (PGM XXIVa and LXXVII). The first involves a ritual with 29 palm leaves, each with the name of a god written upon it, and the other involves instructions for receiving an oracle through an invocation. In “An Early Christian Gold Lamella for Headache,” Roy Kotansky presents the editio princeps of a Greek text from a private collection in London. This second-century lamella may derive from a Hellenistic Jewish milieu that appropriated Jesus’ name for its magical purposes, or from an early type of Jewish-Chris- tianity. The text apparently dates from a time when magical texts had not yet been “commercialized” to the extent that can be observed when later formulaic language replaced the more independent style of amulet composition. In “A Seventh-Century Coptic Limestone in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Bodl. Coptic inscr. 426),” Paul Mirecki presents the editio princeps of a series of short texts written on a large Coptic limestone.