Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge – Band 74

Franz Steiner Verlag Auszug aus:

Ancient Magic
Then and Now

Edited by
Attilio Mastrocinque, Joseph E. Sanzo
and Marianna Scapini

Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2020

 CONTENTS

Giacomo De Angelis
Preface ....................................................................................................................... 9

Hans-Christian Günther
Foreword ................................................................................................................... 15

Marianna Scapini and Joseph E. Sanzo

Introduction............................................................................................................... 19

SECTION 1. MAGIC AS A CATEGORY:

VOICES FROM THE PAST, VOICES FROM THE PRESENT ......................... 25

Joseph E. Sanzo
Deconstructing the Deconstructionists:
A Response to Recent Criticisms of the Rubric “Ancient Magic”........................ 27

Antón Alvar Nuño, Jaime Alvar Ezquerra

“Pure Magic” and its Taxonomic Value ................................................................. 49

Orietta D. Cordovana
Pliny the Elder between Magic and Medcine ......................................................... 63

SECTION 2. INTERPRETING MAGICAL TEXTS AND OBJECTS .............. 81

Silvia Salin
Anti-Witchcraft Rituals Against Depression in
Assyro-Babylonian Therapeutic Texts.................................................................... 83

Attilio Mastrocinque
A Lamella from Vinkovci (Croatia) and the Jewish Necromancy ........................ 97

Celia Sánchez Natalías

Seth in the Fountain of Anna Perenna?
A New Interpretation of the Container.................................................................... 113

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 6 Contents

Francisco Marco Simón

Domino Neptuno corulo pare(n)tatur:
Magic and Law in the Romano-Celtic world ......................................................... 123

Francesca Diosono
Lamps as Ritual and “Magical” Objects in Archaeological Contexts .................. 139

Juan Ramón Carbó García

Magia y cultos “orientales” en la Dacia romana .................................................... 159

Véronique Dasen
Play with Fate ........................................................................................................... 173

Christopher A. Faraone
The Use of Divine Images in the Dream-Divination
Recipes of the Greek Magical Papyri...................................................................... 193

Emilio Suárez de la Torre

Women as Users of Erotic Spells:
Evidence Provided by Papyri and Defixiones ........................................................ 211

Isabel Canzobre Martínez

Remarks on the Categorisation of the Divine in the PGM .................................... 233

Miriam Blanco Cesteros

The Paradox of a “Magical Hymn”: Reviewing the Poetic
Compositions of the Greek Magical Papyri............................................................ 257

Giulia Pedrucci
On the Use of Breast Milk and Menstrual Blood in the
Greek and Roman Worlds ........................................................................................ 287

Aurelio Pérez-Jiménez
Importancia de la oposición derecha/izquierda en la magia y la astrología ......... 315

SECTION 3. THE TRANSMISSION OF ANCIENT MAGIC .......................... 333

Franco Ferrari
Filosofia e teurgia negli Oracoli Caldaici ............................................................... 335

Laura Mecella
Guerra e magia nei Cesti di Giulio Africano .......................................................... 349

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 Contents 7

Raquel Martín Hernández

The Transmission of the Sortes Homericae.
A Papyrological Approach to the Texts .................................................................. 375

Salvatore Costanza
Dottrina magica nei manuali divinatori
greci, bizantini e metabizantini ................................................................................ 387

Marina Foschi Albert

Magic Potions, Homeric Cunning and Jason’s Charm:
Magic Motifs in Gottfried von Strassburg’s Middle High German
version of the Tristan Legend .................................................................................. 405

Tiziano Dorandi
Considerazioni sull’ecdotica dei testi magici antichi alla luce
del PLeid. J 395 (PGM XIII) ................................................................................... 415

Carlo Martino Lucarini

La prima apparizione di Circe nella letteratura greca
e il fantasma dell’epos argonautico pre-odissiaco .................................................. 425

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 THE PARADOX OF A “MAGICAL HYMN”: REVIEWING THE POETIC COM-
POSITIONS OF THE GREEK MAGICAL PAPYRI1

Miriam Blanco Cesteros, University of Bologna

The belief that poetry had special properties beyond its artistic features was very deep
rooted in Ancient Greece; it was already attested in the Odyssey when the prodigious
recovery of Odysseus by an ἐπῳδή – “song, charm” (Od.19.457) – is narrated. Ac-
cording to ancient authors, Pythagoras himself used the chant of paians accompanied
by a lyre as a medical treatment.2 The special properties of poetry were explained in
the ancient world, on the one hand, by the mystic strength of the musical cadence,
and, on the other hand, by the divine power which took part in its composition; the
poet, as an inspired person, was not very different from the “enthused” diviner. Mo-
reover, the divine power that inspired the verses remained in them.3 So it is not sur-
prising that a large amount of ancient Greek ritual formulas had metrical form,4 and
Greco-Egyptian practitioners found in poetry a great way to reinforce the power of
their spells. Therefore, together with prose – and very often combined with it – the
Greco-Egyptian practitioners used poetic compositions to invoke the gods involved in
their practices; these metrical sections, usually composed in hexameters or iambic
rhythms, were called “Magical Hymns” by K. Preisendanz. He was not the first editor
in the most of the cases, but was the first in identifying systematically and editing all
the metric passages of the Greek magical papyri.5
This collection might be deemed heterogeneous insofar as it gathers together dif-
ferent corpora of papyri. Some of them are the handbooks of the ancient Greco-
Egyptian magicians – more than hundred papyri with formulas, spells and instruc-

1 This article has been written within the framework of the project FFI2017‒87558‒P (AEI/FEDER,
UE) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. In this paper, the corpora of magi-
cal texts has been cited in the usual way through the following abbreviations: PGM = Preisendanz
1973-1974; Suppl.Mag. = Daniel‒Maltomini 1990-1992. For the numeration of the magical hymns
(henceforth abbreviated Hymn.Mag.) used in this paper and their correspondence with the Prei-
sendanz’s catalogue, see the appendix. Ancient authors and works not included in the list of ab-
breviations of the Oxford Classical Dictionary has been quoted according to the LSJ. Finally, I
warmly thank Joseph Sanzo for his precious suggestions and careful proofreading of the text.
2 Porph. VP 25.111
3 Collins 2008, 234.
4 See Faraone 2009 and 2011.
5 The whole catalogue of “magical hymns” was to be published in the third volume of Preisendanz’s
work Papyri Graecae Magicae Die griechischen Zauberpapyri (known as PGM), but it was de-
stroyed by a bombardment of the Second World War. Saved thanks to the printing’s proofs, the ca-
talogue was finally published in the second volume of the 1973‒1974 edition of Preisendanz’s
PGM. In this second edition, E. Heitsch revised some of the hymns. He had edited some of these
compositions in Die griechischen Dichterfragmente der römischen Kaiserzeit (1963). The
Suppl.Mag. – two volumes that supplemented Preisendanz’s collection of magical papyri – con-
tains six new poetic passages not included in Preisendanz’s compilation.

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258 Miriam Blanco Cesteros

tions to carry out magical procedures; however, others are examples of so-called “ap-
plied magic,” that is, magical writings produced in the contexts of a magical ritual –
tabellae defixionum, amulets, curses in papyri, etc.6

1. OUTLINING MAGICAL HYMNS: ORIGIN, DATING AND AUTHORSHIP

To date, more than forty metrical passages have been identified (including the magi-
cal papyri edited after Preisendanz). These metrical sections were infrequently trans-
mitted in papyri as independent lógoi, that is to say, as self-standing poems without
prose interpolations.7 More frequently, however, these metrical passages present a
prose invocation or closure in order to reinforce their power.8 On the other hand,
another part of these compositions was integrated in longer prose lógoi, which could
combine more than one metrical section from different origin.9 The most usual place

6 It should be noted that I follow general scholarly convention in classifying the practices and texts
in the PGM under the rubric “magic.” Since it is beyond the scope of this paper to provide a com-
prehensive overview of scholarship on magic, I will simply mention some of the fundamental stu-
dies, which treat the major theoretical and taxonomic issues involved in this discussion: on the
lack of a clear opposition between religion and magic in Greco-Roman world, see Faraone 1991,
17–20; Fowler 1995; Otto 2013; Graf 2016 and Versnel 1991. On magic as integral part of Egypti-
an religion, see Pinch 2010. On the formal similitudes of the ritual practices transmitted in the
Greco-Egyptian magical papyri and the Greek religion, see Johnston 2000, Graf 1991, and 2005,
Zografou 2008. On how these practices were perceived by their ritual practitioners (emic point of
view), see Betz 1991 and 19922, 258, n.2; Dieleman 2005; Suárez–Blanco–Chronopoulou 2016,
207ss. On the politic and legal discourse on magic (and its use as rhetoric method of defamation),
see Bremmer 1999 and 2002, Bernabé 2006, Calvo Martinez 2007. See also the chapters by Joseph
E. Sanzo and Antón Alvar Nuño and Jaime Alvar Ezquerra in this volume.
7 E.g., Hymn.Mag. 7 and Hymn.Mag. 36 are transmitted as independent lógoi without prose additi-
ons. They were distinguished from the text that precedes and follows them by means of paragra-
phoi; in the case of Hymn.Mag. 14A and B, the hymn has been separated from the ritual indica-
tions by full stop and blank space. Hymn.Mag. 16 appears also as independent lógoi without prose
additions. The most outstanding case is the hymn titled 24Γ, which is transmitted as stand-alone
text in a papyrus without any context.
8 E.g., Hymn.Mag. 17 presents additions in prose at the beginning and the end. In Hymn.Mag. 9, the
reason for the introduction of a prose closure seems to be the lack of an appropriate request in the
hymn; in the case of Hymn.Mag. 15, the prose closure has an emphatic aim because it repeats the
invocation and the request of the hymn (see Hymn.Mag. 13 below). The closure of Hymn.Mag. 10
has rhythmic echoes as a consequence of the employment of poetic epithets.
9 E.g., PGM VI+II 1–59 (on this papyrus, see n.90 below) is a lógos formed by a conglomerate of
prose and metric passages: two hymns addressed to Daphne (Hymn.Mag. 2 and 5); three to Apollo
(Hymn.Mag. 3A and B, and Hymn.Mag. 6, a request of a hymn to Apollo); and an Homeric passa-
ge also addressed to this god (Il. I 37–41, see below n.121). Because of the nature of the entire lo-
gos – a motley amalgam of poetic and prose passages without internal coherence, but all addressed
to Apollo or linked with the Apollinean sphere) – it seems probable that the compiler was using
some kind of anthology of Apollinean oracular request. On the other hand, the “magical hymns”
themselves can be composed, sometimes, by agglutination of pre-existent metric materials, usually
revealed by the presence of inconsistences of form (e.g. different types of verses) or content (e.g.
different request). The most outstanding case is Hymn.Mag. 1, in which scholars have identified 4
materials: a one-iambic trimeter formula, probably with medical aim, addressed to Apollo

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 The Paradox of a “Magical Hymn” 259

for them in these cases is the beginning-introductive function – or the end – as closure
– of a prose prayer.10 Some of those, inserted in scriptio continua in the lógoi without
divisions or lectional signs between the verses, were transmitted as prose, with the
resulting loss of their poetic dimension and the consequent damage of the metric
structure.11 Laying aside the question of the hymnic nature of some prose lógoi of
PGM12 or the “hymnic” status of the whole combination of prose and verse passages
– a problem brilliantly addressed by I. Petrovic – 13 the clear metrical nature of these
passages makes them stand out in their context of transmission.
Establishing the origin or the authorship of these compositions is a thorny issue.
Greek magical papyri, usually dated by palaeography, come from to a wide time in-
terval from the 1st century BCE to the 5th century CE, although the majority of them
are dated between the 2nd and 4th century CE. Magical hymns are present already in
one of the most ancient magical recipe books preserved, PGM XX (also known as
Philina’s Papyrus; 1st century BC),14 which contains three medical incantations writ-
ten in hexameters.15 Christopher Faraone, who has studied in depth this little frag-
ment of a iatromagical anthology,16 has found in the two charms better preserved very
clear signs of traditional Greek content that link these epaoidai with traditional Greek
magical incantations in verse.17 On the other hand, however, the second spell can be
linked with the spells preserved in a papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus two centu-
ries later (4th century CE).18 The same occurs regarding the magical petition formula
τέλει τελέαν ἐπαοιδήν. It is already attested in Aristophanes,19 but also in several
spells and magical hymns, such as the Hymn.Mag. 36 (Suppl.Mag. 72, col.i, l.14;

(Hymn.Mag. 1a); a hexametrical fragment, probably pertaining to the invocation of a longer magi-
cal hymn (Hymn.Mag. 1b); a solar hymn composed over an angelic invocation with parallels in
Hymn.Mag. 9 (Hymn.Mag. 1c); and a version of Hymn.Mag. 14 (Hymn.Mag. 14Δ) with a request
that a priori differs from that of Hymn.Mag. 1c. On this composition, see Bortolani 2016, 59–96
and Calvo 2005.
10 E.g. Hymn.Mag. 8 is inserted as an opening at the beginning of a long prose lógoi. The same
occurs in Suppl.Mag. 42, a long katadesmós that contain the same metrical passage at the begin-
ning and at the end (Hymn.Mag. 32). Suppl.Mag. 49 contains two metrical passages at the end
combined with prose requests (Hymn.Mag. 34 and 35).
11 E.g. Hymn.Mag. 27 (see below) and 11.
12 On this topic see, e.g., Calvo 2002.
13 Petrovic 2015.
14 On this papyrus, see Maas 1942, Daniel 1988, Dickie 1994, Faraone 1995.
15 The first one is partially preserved and, consequently, it is not possible to know its exact purpose;
at the very least, however, we can say that it was medical. Regarding the remaining two: the first is
introduced as “the charm of [lost name] a Syrian woman from Gadara against the inflammation”
and the second as “the incantation of Philinna the Thessalian for headache.” See bibliography in
the previous note.
16 According to Faraone (1995, 210), a comparison with the way in which the compiler entitled each
spell and the way in which the anthologists distinguished poems in Greek epigrammatic antholo-
gies suggests that this artefact is probably a fragment of a much larger collection.
17 The same applies to the use of the iambic trimeter in magic, which, as Faraone has demonstrated,
stands behind the oral origin of some magical formulae written in late-antiquity amulets (Faraone
2009).
18 Suppl.Mag. 88
19 Ar. Amphiaraus fr.29 (Kassel–Austin); cf. Ael. NA 12.9. On this fragment, see Faraone 1992.

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