Magic In The Ancient Greek World

Original and comprehensive, Magic in the Ancient Greek World takes the reader inside both the social imagination and the ritual reality that made magic possible in ancient Greece.

• Explores the widespread use of spells, drugs, curse tablets, and figurines, and the practitioners of magic in the ancient world
  
• Uncovers how magic worked. Was it down to mere superstition? Did the subject need to believe in order for it to have an effect?
  
• Focuses on detailed case studies of individual types of magic
  
• Examines the central role of magic in Greek life

Derek Collins is an Associate Professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively on Greek poetry and its performance, including Master of the Game: Competition and Performance in Greek Poetry (2005). Collins has also published on Greek divination and magic, including articles on bird divination, the criminalization of magic in Athens, and the intellectual background to classical Greek magic.

Acknowledgments.

Abbreviations.

Introduction.

Part I: Magic: What Is It and How Does It Work?.

Frazer and Tylor.

Malinowski.

Magic as Communication.

Lévy-Bruhl.

Evans-Pritchard.

Sympathetic Magic.

Magic and the Extended Person.

Magic and Analogy.

Beyond Frazer.

Tambiah and Persuasive Magic.

Conclusion.

Part II: A Framework for Greek Magic.

Magic and the Gods.

Divinity and Nature.

The Hippocratics: Magic, Divination, and Epilepsy.

Plato and Greek Psychology.

Magic and Causality.

Greek Magicians.

Magoi.

Gorgias, mageia and goēteia.

Other Magical Terms.

Conclusion.

Part III: Binding Magic and Erotic Figurines.

Binding the Gods.

Divine Agents.

‘Characters’.

Body Parts and Health.

Erotic Magic.

Figurines.

Erōtes.

Part IV: Homeric Incantations.

Pythagoras and Empedocles.

The Mechanics of Homeric Incantations.

Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Verse Combinations and the Power of Metaphor.

Intoxication, Choking, and Gout.

Incantations and Divination.

Neoplatonic Theurgy and Homer.

Conclusion.

Part V: Magic in Greek and Roman Law.

Magic in Greek Law and Legal Imagination.

Trials for Erotic Magic.

Theoris, the Lemnian Witch.

Plato’s Laws Against Magic.

Magic in Roman Law and Legal History.

The Twelve Tables.

The Lex Cornelia.

Magia and Maleficium: Magic and Witchcraft.

Apuleius the Magus.

The Opinions of Paulus and Later Law Codes.

Interpretationes Christianae.

The Medieval Inheritance.

Conclusion.

Bibliography.

Index