Translation of ‘Recuerda’

In the Greek Magical Papyri of Late Antiquity, Hercate is described as having three heads

THE MAGIC OF ANTIQUITY:

Holly Gordon Clark

An exploration of the allure of ancient Greek magic

“Magic” in modern parlance is a peculiar term. A certain unfamiliarity surrounds it and this, in some respect, mirrors ancient Greece; magic (mageia) did not constitute a coherent, clear system. Despite this, it was held to be a normal and ubiquitous practice. Whether it was curing physical ailments, improving sexual life, exorcism, eliminating vermin from the home, initiation ceremonies, or making amulets: magic touched all stages of human life. However, in a time when religion was the universal connection with the divine, we should question why magic was preferable to many. practitioners and philosophers, notably Plato. They confronted how magic manipulated the gods and therefore, they had moral critiques. The Presocratic view that divinity and nature were inseparable that equated divinity with nature emphasised this critique. If nature is divine, then manipulating nature’s properties in magic implies a mastery of the divine. A mastery of the divine was seen as a threat to authority. There were some attempts to employ legislature, most explicitly evidenced in The Dirae Teiorum (“The Curses of the Teian State”) but its undeniable popularity remained.

Magic twisted the barriers between divine and mortal. This observance is understood through criticisms of magic. The most significant critics are 5th and 4th century BCE Hippocratic Sweeping across the regions of Sicily, Attica and the shores of the Black Sea are curse tablets that uncover the obscure connection between humans and chthonic (underworld) deities. Curse spells upon the tablets often summoned gods from the Underworld to bring anguish upon enemies. Manipulation of the gods was found in “binding magic” in which spells were used to “bind” gods to certain outcomes. Derek Collins remarks that as deities are immortal, ‘binding is the next best measure to control their will or restrict their movements.’ According to Philostratus, a Greek sophist, some magicians believed that they could control the gods by torturing their statues. Because the statues were representations of the deities, they would allegedly feel the pain inflicted on their effigies and therefore submit to the mortal’s will. The mutilation of religious statues marks the literal infringement of divine boundaries. The invasive nature of magic was appealing, a rebellion from the reverent and supplicatory elements of religion. Magic was a source of multiculturalism due to its intermingling of cultural influences. The Greek magical papyri (a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt) convey this amalgamation. Albrecht Dieterich noted that the papyri’s ‘syncretism is more than a mixture of diverse elements from Egyptian, Greek, Babylonian, and Jewish religion, with a few sprinkles of Christianity’ that interacted in Alexandria. Other sources of magic used a collection of cultural influences too. Protective amulets often contained a mixture of various formulas from Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek elements that were worn to ensure universal protection. This profusion of cultural influences is also present in curse invocations, as a mixture of gods confirmed that one’s spell was heard. The gods were given multifaceted identities and Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, is named ‘a paradigm of the religious syncretism of late Hellenism’ (Martínez) due to her literal three-faced identity and multicultural layers. Magic was constantly being developed into a multidimensional and undefinable form, exemplified literally in the voces magicae (an indecipherable language found on ancient curse tablets). Through the inclusion of different cultures, magic allowed the divine to be blended together. Erotic magic of antiquity was often secretive and puzzling. A popular love potion was made from a lizard’s phallus, or its tail, used in amulets to promote sexual vitality. Christopher Faraone writes that the Greeks viewed the experience of erotic longing as commensurate with the torment of pathological disease. He argues this due to the violent nature of love incantations,

almost indistinguishable from hostile curses: “Lay Allous low with fever, unceasing sickness, incomprehensible sickness.” There is a perversity in the curser, mixing sickness with desire. Nonetheless, magic reveals the deeper layers of human emotion A Greek inscribed lead curse tablet, circa 5th century and is, unsurprisingly, captured in the romanticism of poetry. Theocritus, a Greek poet, mirrors this feverish passion in his Idyll 2: ‘As this puppet melts for me before Hecate, so melt with love, e’en so speedily, Delphis of Myndus.’ This incantation is spoken by ‘Simaetha’, a girl wishing a fire-spell upon her neglectful lover, ‘Delphis’. She fashions a symbol of him in wax and melts it in fire, hoping that he will literally feel the heat of passion. Theocritus references a common practice here; the moulding of ‘Erotic Figurines’ out of clay or wax, which would have needles stuck into its eyes, mouth, and breast – as a means to attract, not, as may be inferred, to permanently harm, a beloved. Magic exposed the pleasure as well as the agony in love, a puzzling but familiar mix. A bitter lover in Greek mythology is ‘Magic exposed Medea: a vengeful sorceress determined to hurt her unfaithful husband. According the pleasure to Pliny, her magic controlled the sun, moon, and stars. Thus, her power as well as the was almost unlimited but so was her homeland Colchis: ‘Kolchian Aia lies at agony in love, the furthest limits of sea and earth’. She was therefore, through her witchcraft and a puzzling but faraway home, perceived as foreign and threatening. The play and the character familiar mix.’ reflect the prejudices of Athenian society which began to reject mixobarbaroi- descendants of mixed blood. But it also reveals the way magic and especially female practitioners were stigmatised. Mageia vowed to give people control over the uncontrollable. The divine world is mutilated, intermingled, and manipulated. This provoked an incredible allure that was not just prevalent in the realm of private individuals, but there seemed to be occurrences of public magic such as in fertility rites (the Sacred Marriage), purifications of a community, and formal curses of a foreign nation. Its universality was proven by the attempts A curse doll with bound arms to incriminate it and yet the and needles prevailing evidence of its undeniable popularity. Magic was pervasive due to its potential to not only experience but to master the divine. In the words of the anthropologist, Max Weber: “[Magic] promised to give humans control over a natural world governed by spirits.”