Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic

Abstract

In his introduction, Frankfurter states the ambitious goal of redirecting modern studies of magic from the etic (where what constitutes magic is determined by the modern author) to the emic (where it is the ancient cultures being studied that decide what rituals are unsanctioned or illegitimate). His constituent ancient world is centered mainly on Mediterranean countries and includes Greek, Roman, Jewish, Mesopotamian, Persian, and Egyptian cultures, ranging in time from c. 2000 BCE to the Byzantine Christian period. Topics taken up include how these ancient cultures themselves describe such practices, if they do so at all; the ritual materials (spells, amulets, drugs, magic bowls, images, and manuals); and the social contexts in which such rituals occur. While all of these ancient societies engaged in practices to control human events—to foresee or alter the future, to ward off harm, to compel certain behaviors in others, or to reanimate the dead—they differ in how such practices were viewed. In Egypt, for example, heka (often translated as “magic”) is the binding force of the universe, which might be used for good or ill but which required a corps of skilled practitioners to access it. Under Roman rule, such practitioners were condemned. In Mesopotamia, diagnosis of disease might belong to the technical skill of divination, while Greeks set it off as medicine. Similarly, pharmacology might fall into the class of medicine when prescribed by a doctor, but as “magic” when prescribed by a local healer (who more often than not was a woman). What emerges is that ancient “magic” was protean, labile, and culturally contingent, but “magic” rituals display remarkable sameness, whether as the result of simple human nature or of intercultural exchange.