Magic, Greece and Rome ELIZABETH ANN POLLARD Greek and Latin Janguage possessed a wide- ranging vocabulary to articulate the practice of magic and those who performed it. Ars magica, magica disciptina, or simply magia (Latin) and mageia, goeteia (Greek) were common terms for the phenomenon, Spoken practices that fell under this rubric included spells (Latin carmina, Greek epoidai/epagoge), evil prayers (Latin nefariae preces and mala carmina), and enchantments (Latin incanta- ‘menta). Ingredients used to enact these spells might include poison (Latin venena), love potions {Latin poculum amoris and Greek philtra), as well as vatious drugs (Greek pharmaka), Words for female magic-users highlighted their wisdom (Latin sagae), age (Latin anus or aniculae), ability to see the future (Latin praestigiatrices or praecantrices), and mastery of spells (Latin carmaints sepulchralis magisirae), and drugs (Greek pharmakis and pharmakeutria’). Words for male magic-users connoted their connection with the dead (Greek goetes), divination (Greek mantis, Latin vates), a begging lifestyle (Greek agyriai), place-of-origin (Latin magi, Chaldaci), wisdom, evil-doing, work with poisons, and knowledge of astrology (Latin sagi, malefici venefici, and mathematic respectively) (Burriss 1936; Graf 1997; 20-60; Pollard 2001; 7-8). While the literature, laws, actual grimoires, and magical artifacts (curse tablets, papyri amulets, ete.) offer evidence for a distinct phenomenon that was discernible by Greeks and Romans (and by modern commentators} as magic, the use of the same practices in different contexts makes it difficult (now and {in antiquity) to demarcate a clear dividing line between magic and related categories such as religion, superstition, medicine, and science, nt and modern attempts to distinguish magic from these other categories often focus on the arguably coercive tone of magic 1 versus the supposed supplicative nature of prayers the clandestine/individualized nature of magic versus the public/corporate nature of religion; the foreign roots of magic as opposed to indigenous religion; the possible illegitimate/malevolent aims of magic versus the legitimate/benevolent aims of religion and ‘medicine; the chthonic deities invoked in magic versus the Olympian deities of religion; and the involvement of women and lower classes in magic as contrasted with elite men’s religion. ‘Yet each of these dichotomies is easily chal- lenged: for instance, by supplicative spells, @ magical inscription to protect a city or an amu- let to bring rain to nourish crops, a charm to heal a physical ailment, a spell invoking an Olympian god, or the predominant use of curse tablets by men (as much as 85 percent ‘or more of curse tablets have men as the agent/ beneficiary of the invocation). ‘The protean nature of the category was evident even in antiquity: Pliny, in his first-century ce Natural History, spent a great deal of effort sorting out the nature of magic (Plin, HIN 30.1~18), and in the mid-second century ce aPvieTus took advantage of the overlap of magic with related categories, such as philosophy and mystery religion, in his defense against charges of magic (Apol). As early as the XII Tables of Roman law (Gift century scx), there were laws against evil incan- tations (mala carmtina) and enchanting crops, out of a neighbor's field. (fruges excantare) (8.1b and 8.84). In the early fifth century act, the Tonian Greek city-state Teos prescribed death to the accused and their family as the penalty for harmful magic (pharmaka deleteria) against the slate or its citizens (SIG* 37,18.1-5=GHI 30) and in the fourth century Plato celled for harsh laws punishing those who sold spells (epoidai) and curse tablets (katadesmoi) (Leg. 933A), In 81 362, Sulla's law on murderers and poisoners designated as, a capital crime buying, possessing, making, or administering poison (venena). The legal handbook known as Opinions of Paulus, dating ‘The Bayle of Arcot Hor Pet En, Bed by Roge 8. Bagnall Ku Brodersen, Cage B, Champion, Andre Bein, and Sabine Kleber, rit pages 4222-425, ‘© 2015 blackwel Poihng J. Psblhed 2013 by Blacenel Puihing (DOL 10..002/97414430586, ved 72522 to ca, 300 ce, described a range of magical activity ~ including love potions (amatorium poculum), impious{noctumal rites (sacra impia nocturnave), human sacrifice or blood ‘omens, possession of magic books (libri artis magicae), and knowledge (scientia) of magic — and a variety of punishments for each, includ- ing work in the mines crucifixion, being thrown to the beasts, and even burning alive (Paul. Sent, 5.23; Rives 2003: 329-34). The Theodosiar: Code (9.16) grouped together a number of primarily fourth-century ce laws about the activities of magicians end astrologers, {de maleficiis et mathematicis) and demon- strates the legal efforts to sort out what counted as magicand what did not, For instance, one lav, dating to ca. 320 ce, distinguishes between rem- dies for human bodies and those which harm or tam “viriuous minds to lust” (CT 9.16.3). Noctumal wicked prayers, magical preparations, and funereal sacrifices are outlawed (CT'9.16.7, 364 ce). Magi, of any rank, even in the imperial retinue, are liable to torture and capital punish- ment (CT 9.16.6, 358 ce), How often was magic actually prosecuted? In the late fourth century ace, a Greek woman named Theoris was apparently put to death as a pharmakis for her distribution of drugs (pharmaka) and incantations (epoidai) (Det. Against Aristogeiton 25.79-80). Pliny reports on the early second century ace case of aC. Purius Gresimus, who was summoned by the curule aedile to answer charges of enchanting away the crops of his neighbors (Plin, HN 1841-3; Graf 1997: 62-5), The most famous accusation of magic-use in the Roman period, that against Apuleius of Madauros in the mid-second century ce, ‘was supported by four related charges (Apal. 27); that Apuleius had sought out certain types of fish (for ichthyomancy); that he had bewitched a long-widowed woman to marry him by means of love spells; that he worshipped a mysterious object; and that a boy fell down in his presence (presumably possessed by Apuleius), Witch-hunts, or at least sustained legal prosecutions for accused magic-use, occurred in the first century ce, especially under Tiberius and Nero (Tac. Ann. 2.53-3.28, 4.52-9, 12.64-9, and 16.1-35), and in the fourth century (Amm. Marc, 19.12, 28.1.1-45, 29.1.1-3.5) Tales of magic proliferated in the Greek and Roman literary imagination. Greek myth pro- duced such characters as siexate (Hes, Theog. 411-52), Medea (Bur, Med. and Ap. Rhod. Argor.), and Circe (Hom, Od. 10.135-374), Female magic-users continued to populate the literature: the Greek Simaetha and her love spell to gain back Delphis (Theoc. Id. 2); Canidia and Erictho, the tervifying old hags of Latin poetry whose sepulchral wanderings range from the comical to the horrific (Hor. Sat. 1.8, Bpod. 5; Luc, 6, 413-587); the drunken bawd-witches of Ovid, Tibullus, and Propertius; and the truly powerful super-witch Meroe from Apuleius’ novel, who could trans- form men into animals, seal wombs shut, lock ‘townspeople in their homes, and move a house from one town to another (Met. 15-19). Famed male magicians included Simon Magus (a foil for Simon Peter in apostolic tradition, in Psendo-Clement Recognitions 2.5 and 7-15; Acts 8:9-24), Apollonius of Tyana from the first century ce (praised in Philostratus’ biography), and Alexander of Abonouteichos from the second century ce (presented in Lucian’s biography as a charlatan), While the preponderance of magic-users/experts in the literature are women, the material evidence suggests a contradictory picture of actual -magic-use: the vast majority of spels inscribed on tablets and papyri have men as their agents, and most formulae in the magical recipe- Dooks are gender-constructed for men to use them (ic, they presume a male user). Evidence for the actual use of magic in Greece and Rome comes in the form of curse tablets (Greek katadesmoi, Latin defixiones! devotiones), amulets or charms inscribed on papyri, metal tablets, or gemstones, and the spell-books and formularies (or grimoires) of the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri. Curse tab- lets, dating from as early as the late sixthcentury sce through to the end of antiquity, sought to resolve agonistic situations including athletic competition, legal disputes, business interactions, and sexual/marital relationships in a way satisfying to the agent who commis sioned the spell (Gager 1992). Amulets gener ally sought protection against threats to health and various forms of magical attack. ‘The grimoires of the Greek magical papyri (eg the extended ritual handbooks such as PGM4,7, 12, and 36, all dating to the third or fourth centuries c#) collected directions for rituals as quotidian as ridding one’s house of bugs or scorpions, as pragmatic a5 erotic spells or health remedies, or as lofty as rituals for mystical revelations and magical initiation. While certain types of magic were clearly native to the Greek and Roman worlds ~ the witches of Greek epic and tragedy, Circe and Medea, and the XII ‘Tables of Roman law attest to early indigenous thinking on magic external influences also contributed to. the development of Greek and Roman magic. Apuleius noted the Persian influence on Roman ideas about magic, arguing that magus was just the Persian word for priest (Apol. 25-6); but Persian magi were known in the Mediterrancan much earlier, as valuable members of Xerxes’ invasion force in the early fifth century sce (Hat. 7.1134, 191). The Egyptian influence on magic is evident not only in the prevalence of Egyptian gods, such as sis, Osiris, Anubis, Horus, Thoth, and Seth, that populate the corpus of the Greek magical papyti, but also in the overlap of the category of magus/priest in Egypt (Frankfurter 1997). Spices obtained through long-distance trade with India, such as storax, malabathron, costos, frankincense, myrth, Indian nard, and casia, flavor the rituals of the magical papyri (eg. the fourth-century PGM 13.17-20) and British and Celtic local deities appear in what are otherwise traditionally Roman curse tablets (e.g., Sulis on the theft-tablets from Bath; Nodens in Gloucestershire (DT 106); and the Celtic god Moltinus invoked on 3 ca, 100 x curse tablet from Austria (Gager 1992: no, 101)). Jewish infiuences appear in the form of archangels and names for God (Adonai, Bloaios, Tao, Sabaoth), patriarchs such as Moses, Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac, and in phrasings (e.g, “conjure you by the one who in the beginning made the heaven and the earth and all that is therein, Hollelujah! Ament” (PGM 7.270-1)). Similarly, Christian infu- ences include invocation of the trinity, Jesus, and Mary, as well as passages from Christian scripture (Meyer and Smith 1994). sez atso; Amulets, Greece and Rome; Apollonius of Tyana; Chaldaeans, astrologers; Charms, spells, Greece and Rome; Curses, Greece and Rome; Magi, Persians Magic, Jewish; Magic, Pharaonic Egypt; Magical papyri, Greek; Theurgy; Witch, REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS ‘Ankarloo, B. and Clark, S., eds. (1999) Witchoraft ‘and magic in Europe: Ancient Greece and Rome. Philadelphia Beta, H. D,, ed, (1986) The Greek magical papyri in translation. Chicago. Burriss,F. , (1936) "The terminology of witcheraft” Classical Philology 31.2: 137-45, Collins, D. (2008) Magic in the Ancient Greek word, Malden, MA Dickie, M. W. (2001) Magic and magicins in the Greco-Roman world, London. Faraone, C. A. and Obbink, D, es. (1991) Magika “iera: Ancient Greek magi ad religion, New York, Prankfurter, D. (1997) “Ritual expertise in Roman gypt and the problem of the category “magician?” In P. Scher and H. G. Kippenberg, cal., Envisioning Magic 115-35, Leiden Gager J. (1992) Curse sublets and binding spells {rom the ancient world, New York. (1997) Magic inthe ancient world ambridge, MA. Kippenberg, H. G. (1997) "Magic in civil discourse: wy rituals could be illegal” In P,Schifer and #. G. Kippenberg, eds, Frvisioning magic: 137-63, Leiden.4 Meyer, M. W. and Smith, R. (1994) Ancient Christian magie: Coptic texts of ritual power. Princeton, Ogden, D. (2002) Magic, witchoraf, and ghosts in ‘the Greek and Roman Worlds, New York. Pollard, E. A. (2001) Magic accusations against ‘women in the Greco-Roman World fromthe fist through the fife centuries ce. PHD diss. University of Pennsylvania, Preisendane, K. etal, eds. (1928-1931 [1973-74]) Papyri Gracene Magicae. Stuttgart. Rives, J.B, (2003) “Magic in Roman law: the reconstruction of a crime.” Classical Antiquity 22.2: 313-39,