Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World

MAGIC AND MAGICIANS IN THE GRECOROMAN WORLD

This absorbing work assembles an extraordinary range of evidence for the existence of sorcerers and sorceresses in the ancient world, and addresses the question of their identities and social origins.

From Greece in the fifth century BC, through Rome and Italy, to the Christian Roman Empire as far as the late seventh century AD, Professor Dickie shows the development of the concept of magic and the social and legal constraints placed on those seen as magicians.

The book provides a fascinating insight into the inaccessible margins of GrecoRoman life, exploring a world of wandering holy men and women, conjurors and wonder-workers, prostitutes, procuresses, charioteers and theatrical performers.

Compelling for its clarity and detail, this study is an indispensable resource for the study of ancient magic and society.

Matthew W.Dickie teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has written on envy and the Evil Eye, on the learned magician, on ancient erotic magic, and on the interpretation of ancient magical texts.

MAGIC AND MAGICIANS IN THE GRECO-ROMAN

WORLD

Matthew W.Dickie

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First published in hardback 2001 by Routledge

First published in paperback 2003 by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and canada by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

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? 2001, 2003 Matthew W.Dickie

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now

known or hereafter invented, including photocopy and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing

from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Calaloging in Publication data

ISBN 0-203-45841-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-34000-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-31129-2 (Print Edition)

CONTENTS

Preface

v

Abbreviations

vi

Introduction

1

1 The formation and nature of the Greek concept of magic

18

2 Sorcerers in the fifth and fourth centuries BC

46

3 Sorceresses in the Athens of the fifth and fourth centuries BC

77

4 Sorcerers in the Greek world of the Hellenistic period (300?1BC)

93

5 Magic as a distinctive category in Roman thought

120

6 Constraints on magicians in the Late Roman Republic and under

137

the Empire

7 Sorcerers and sorceresses in Rome in the Middle and Late

156

Republic and under the Early Empire

8 Witches and magicians in the provinces of the Roman Empire

195

until the time of Constantine

9 Constraints on magicians under a Christian Empire

242

10 Sorcerers and sorceresses from Constantine to the end of the

263

seventh century AD

Notes

310

Bibliography

355

Index

365

PREFACE

This book had its origins in a footnote on the drunken old women mentioned by Athanasius and John Chrysostom who were summoned to houses to cure the sick by incantations and amulets. The footnote became an article on drunken old women as sorceresses in Classical and Late Antiquity. That expanded into an article on sorceresses in general. At that point I realized that sorceresses could not be treated satisfactorily on their own but needed to be looked at alongside male magic-workers. That meant a book, not an article. I hope that what began as an attempt to satisfy my own curiosity about a subject on which virtually nothing had been written will be of some use to others. Since the compass of the book is fairly wide, extending as it does from the fifth century BC to the seventh century AD, there will no doubt be references that I have missed. I thank my wife for her forbearance in putting up with a project that took rather longer to complete than had been expected and that was delayed by its author's natural indolence and the ease with which he could be distracted from his task. I should also like to record a particular debt to David Jordan, who has offered unstinting help and support in my stumbling efforts to understand ancient magic.

ABBREVIATIONS

The abbreviations for classical authors are those given in the Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition (eds) Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth, for Late Greek authors those found in A Patristic Greek Lexicon, (ed.) G.W.H. Lampe and for Late Latin authors those in A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 AD, (ed.) A. Souter. Besides these, the following abbreviations are used:

ACO CCSL CSEL DTAud

DTW? GCS KAR Lauchert

LSAM PG PGM PL PO

Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, (ed.) E.Schwartz, Berlin 1927?40 Corpus Scriptorum Series Latina, Turnholt Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna Auguste Audollent, Defixionum tabellae quotquot innotuerunt tam in graecis Orientis quam in totius Occidentis partibus praeter atticas in Corpore inscriptionum atticarum editas, Paris, 1904 IG III (3)=Appendix continens defixionum tabellas in attica regione repertas, (ed.) Richard W?nsch, Berlin, 1897 Die Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, Berlin E.Ebeling, Keilinschrifttexte aus Assur religi?sen Inhalts, Leipzig 1915, 1923 F.Lauchert Die Kanones der wichtigsten altkirchlichen Concilien nebst den apostolischen Kanones, Freiburg i. B. and Leipzig, 1896 F.Sokolowski, Lois sacr?es de l'Asie Mineure, Paris, 1955 Patrologia Graeca, (ed.) J.P.Migne, Paris, 1857?66 Papyri graecae magicae: Die griechischen Zauberpapyri, (ed.) K.Preisendanz, rev. edn by A.Henrichs I?II, Stuttgart, 1973 Patrologia Latina, (ed.) J.P.Migne, Paris, 1844?64 Patrologia Orientalis, (eds) R.Graffan, F.Nau et al., Paris, 1907

POxy RAC RE

SC SEG SIG3

SupplMag

vii

Oxyrhynchus Papyri, London, 1898? Reallexikon f?r Antike und Christentum, Stuttgart, 1941? Realencyclop?die der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, (eds) A.Pauly, G. Wissowa and W.Kroll, Stuttgart, 1893?1980 Sources chr?tiennes Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Leiden, 1923? Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum, 3rd edition, (ed.) W.Dittenberger, Leipzig, 1915?24 Supplementum Magicum I?II, (eds) Robert W.Daniel and Franco Maltomini, Abhandlungen der rheinisch-westf?lischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sonderreihe Papyrologica Cohniensia XVI, 1?2, Opladen, 1990

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