HOW TO GET RID OF A GHOST?

CLASSICAL INFLUENCES IN WESTERN

EXORCISM THROUGH LITERARY EXAMPLES

ALEJANDRA GUZMÁN ALMAGRO

The Greek word “Exorcism” is the common designation for the concrete
action of expulsion of demons that was legitimated during the first century
AD by the Semitic and neo-testamentary narratives and spread by the
Christian tradition which followed.1 King Salomon received exorcistic
skills from God (τὰ νοσήματα καὶ τρόπους ἐξορκώσεων, literally “the
knowledge and the abilities to exorcise”), and after him these abilities
would be frequently attributed to saints and holy men. Before the first
century, it seems that the word exorkízo (ἐξορκίζω) was used only in its
literary form “to make an oath”, as it appears in Herodotus or Polybius, in
both cases in non-supernatural contexts. Magical papyri and tabellae
defixionum from the first century onwards use the terminology ἐξορκίζω
and orkízo (ὁρκίζω) meaning to swear an oath or to call up spirits.
The Latin language reflects the legitimacy of exorcism as a Jewish and
Christian practice and the translation exorcismus comes into view from the
third century onwards. While the Roman theologian Tertullian gives the
common definition of exorcismus, that is: fugare daemones, the legislator
Ulpian states that exorcists who cast out demons cannot be considered as
physicians, assuming the practice as typically Christian.2

1 Κlaus Thraede (1969) establishes the “genealogy” of exorcism, having its origin
in Babylon and Egypt and being expanded through the Hellenistic world. (Kahl
1994, 58–9 and 234) states parallel origins and later confluence in pagan and
Christian narratives. For the rhetoric and display of exorcism see Bonner 1943, 41;
Bremmer 2002.
2 Tertullianus 1966, 11; Ulpianus 1748: 8. book, 3: “si incantavit, si imprecatus est,

si ut vulgari verbo impostorum utar, exorcizavit” (“if he uses charms and spells, if
he, in the common word for these impostors, exorcises”). The word adiurator in
post-classic Latin seems to be a translation of the Greek, always in a Christian
context.