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 PROCEEDINGS
A P Y R O L O G Y

OF THE 27TH INTERNATIONAL

CONGRESS OF PAPYROLOGY
WARSAW | 29 JULY – 3 AUGUST 2013
P

27th International Congress

of Papyrology XXVIIe Congr¯s international
U R I S T I C

Warsaw/Varsovie 2013

de papyrologie
J

EDITED BY
O F

TOMASZ DERDA
ADAM ¸AJTAR
JAKUB URBANIK
J O U R N A L

IN COOPERATION WITH
GRZEGORZ OCHAŁA
Supplement XXVIII

ANDRZEJ MIRO¡CZUK
H E

VOL. I
T

WARSAW 2016
UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW
FACULTY OF LAW AND ADMINISTRATION
CHAIR OF ROMAN AND ANTIQUE LAW

UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW
INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF PAPYROLOGY

THE RAPHAEL TAUBENSCHLAG

FOUNDATION

THE JOURNAL
OF JURISTIC
PAPYROLOGY
Supplements

SERIES EDITORS
TOMASZ DERDA
ADAM ¸AJTAR
JAKUB URBANIK

VOLUME XXVIII
 Proceedings
of the 27th International Congress of Papyrology
Warsaw, 29 July – 3 August 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume One
LITERARY PAPYRI: TEXTS AND STUDIES

OPENING LECTURE
Roger S. Bagnall, Illegitimacy in Roman and Late Antique Egypt .................. 5

SECTION ONE: POETRY

José Antonio Fernández Delgado, Contribution of the new papyri to the history
of Hesiod’s text ................................................................................................ 21
Marco Antonio Santamaría Álvarez, Theseus’ and Pirithous’ catabasis in
P. Ibscher col. I (Hes. fr. 280 Merkelbach–West = Minyas fr. 7 Bernabé) ...... 37
C. Michael Sampson, A new reconstruction of Sappho 44 (P. Oxy. X 1232 + P. Oxy.
XVII 2076) .............................................................................................. 53
Benedetto Bravo, Anacreonte, Poetae Melici Graeci 346/1, fr. 1, 1–12: Uno scherzo
sull’erõs del potere politico ......................................................................... 63
Kathleen McNamee, A new look at the Würzburg Phoenissae commentary ..... 85
Fjodor Montemurro, P. Berol. 5514 re-examined: textual and exegetical problems
in Euripides, Melanippe desmotis, fr. 495 Kannicht ..................................... 97
Krystyna Bartol, How to serve a giant fish? Pap. Duk. F 1984.7 = Adesp. Com.
1146 K.-A.: Some textual problems ........................................................... 117
Angelo Casanova, Note sul lessico della rhesis di Panfile (Men., Epitr. 801–835) ... 129
Jan Kwapisz, P. Heid. G 310a revisited: Hellenistic sotadeans, hexameters, and
more? ........................................................................................................ 145
Marco Perale, A Hellenistic astronomical poem from Oxyrhynchus .................. 155
Gabriel Nocchi Macedo, Juvenal in Antinoë. Palaeographic and contextual
observations on P. Ant. s.n. ........................................................................ 167
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION TWO: PROSE

Natascia Pellé, Frammenti delle Historiae di Tucidide su rotoli riutilizzati: uno
studio bibliologico e paleografico ............................................................... 187
Francesca De Robertis, P. Mich. inv. 918 e la tradizione della terza Filippica di
Demostene ................................................................................................ 201
Rosa Otranto, Esegesi demostenica su papiro: P. Lit. Lond. 179 [MP 3 307] ....... 223
María Paz López Martínez, Consuelo Ruiz Montero, The Parthenope’s
novel: P. Berol. 7927 + 9588 + 21179 revisited ............................................ 235
Giuseppe Ucciardello, New light on P. Strasb. Gr. 1406–1409: An early witness
of Secundus’ sentences ................................................................................ 251
Chris Rodriguez, Le cri d’une victime de la tyrannie: La théâtralisation des
débats dans les Acta Appiani ..................................................................... 279
Natalia Vega Navarrete, Acta Appiani: Gerüchte über den kaiserlichen Hof in
Alexandria ............................................................................................... 301

SECTION THREE: HERCULANEUM PAPYRI

Christian Vassallo, Towards a comprehensive edition of the evidence for pre-
socratic philosophy in the Herculaneum papyri .......................................... 315
Giuliana Leone, L’edizione di Epicuro, Sulla natura, libro II ............................ 347
Aurora Corti, P. Herc. 454: Una «scorza» di Epicuro, Sulla natura XXV (P. Herc.
1420/1056) ............................................................................................... 357
Michele Alessandrelli, Graziano Ranocchia, P. Herc. 1020 (Stoici
scriptoris anonymi opus incertum). Condizioni fisiche, aspetti bibliologici
e storia editoriale ...................................................................................... 373
Mario Capasso, Nuovi frammenti del De adulatione di Filodemo (P. Herc. 1092) ... 389
Mariacristina Fimiani, Contributo al testo del P. Herc. 1423 (Filodemo, Retorica,
libro IV) .................................................................................................. 401
Graziano Ranocchia, P. Herc. 1004 ([Filodemo], [Sulla retorica], libro incerto).
Condizioni fisiche, descrizione bibliologica e storia degli studi ..................... 413
Matilde Fiorillo, Segni di interpunzione e di correzione nel P. Herc. 1004
(Filodemo, Retorica VII) .......................................................................... 433
Giovanni Indelli, Francesca Longo Auricchio, Il P. Herc. 1471 (Filodemo,
La libertà di parola) nelle carte Vogliano .................................................. 445
Kilian Fleischer, New readings in Philodemus’ Index Academicorum: Dio of
Alexandria (P. Herc. 1021, col. XXXV, 17–19) .......................................... 459
Daniel Delattre, Joëlle Delattre-Biencourt, Annick Monet, Agathe
Antoni, La reconstruction du P. Herc. Paris. 2, Philodème, [La Calomnie]:
Quelques nouveautés textuelles .................................................................. 471
Holger Essler, Daniel Riaño Rufilanchas, ‘Aristarchus X’ and Philodemus:
Digital linguistic analysis of a Herculanean text corpus ............................. 491
 TABLE OF CONTENTS VII

Michael McOsker, Verso una nuova edizione del P. Herc. 188 (Demetrio Lacone,
Sulla poesia I). Storia del papiro ed indentificazione degli avversari ......... 503
Antonio Parisi, Osservazioni preliminari sul P. Herc. 124 ................................ 515
Gianluca Del Mastro, Il titolo del P. Herc. 1005 ............................................. 525

SECTION FOUR: CHRISTIAN LITERARY PAPYRI

Jitse H. F. Dijkstra, The A ‘ lexandrian World Chronicle’. Place in the late antique
chronicle traditions, date, and historical implications .................................. 535
Marco Stroppa, I papiri greci dell’Asceticon dell’abate Isaia .............................. 549
Alan Gampel, Céline Grassien, P. Duke Inv. 766: Le plus ancien témoin papy-
rologique d’un canon poétique liturgique ................................................... 561

Volume Two
SUBLITERARY PAPYRI, DOCUMENTARY PAPYRI,
SCRIBAL PRACTICES, LINGUISTIC MATTERS

SECTION FIVE:
POPULAR LITERATURE, MEDICINE, MAGIC, LETTERS
Francisca A. J. Hoogendijk, Page of an oracle book: Papyrus Kellis 96.150 ..... 595
Luigi Prada, P. Oxy. XXXI 2607 re-edited: A Greek oneirocriticon from Roman
Egypt ....................................................................................................... 623
Ann Ellis Hanson, P. Ryl. III 530 and the Latin commentaries to the Hippocratic
aphorisms ................................................................................................. 647
Isabella Bonati, Between text and context: P. Oslo II 54 reconsidered ............... 659
Antonio Ricciardetto, Inventaire et typologie des listes grecques et latines de
produits pharmaceutiques ......................................................................... 677
Korshi Dosoo, Magical discourses, ritual collections: Cultural trends and private
interests in Egyptian handbooks and archives ............................................ 699
Rachel Yuen-Collingridge, Legibility in the Greek magical papyri: The
treatment of formulae in PGM IV ........................................................... 717
Laura Willer, Die Handhabung magischer Schriftamulette im römischen Ägypten 735
Lincoln H. Blumell, A Christian amulet containing a doxology with sketches on
the back .................................................................................................... 745
Iain Gardner, The Sethian context to a Coptic handbook of ritual power
(= P. Macquarie I) .................................................................................... 755
VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS

Marie-Hélène Marganne, Du texte littéraire au document: Les connexions

entre les papyrus littéraires et documentaires grecs et latins ........................ 767
Amaia Goñi Zabalegui, On the other side of the dialogue: letters addressed to
women from Roman Egypt ....................................................................... 777
Antonia Sarri, Handshifts in letters .................................................................. 797

SECTION SIX: COLLECTIONS OF PAPYRI

María Jesús Albarrán Martínez, Archives d’Apa Sabinos dans le fonds copte
de la Sorbonne .......................................................................................... 823
Carla Balconi, Papiri della collezione dell’Università Cattolica di Milano pro-
venienti dalla Grande Oasi ....................................................................... 837
Katherine Blouin, Papyri in Paris: The Greek papyrus collection in the Biblio-
thèque nationale de France ........................................................................ 853
Franziska Naether, Demotic texts from Leipzig .............................................. 883
Déborah Vignot-Kott, D’Apollonopolis Magna à Varsovie. Regard sur les
textes démotiques d’Edfou dans les collections polonaises ............................ 895

SECTION SEVEN: GREEK AND LATIN

PAPYRI AND OSTRACA: NEW AND REVISITED TEXTS
Panagiota Sarischouli, BKT IX 158 revisited: An extract from judicial pro-
ceedings rather than a prose fragment ........................................................ 911
Hélène Cuvigny, Un type méconnu de document administratif militaire:
la demande de versement de frumentum praeteritum (O. Claud. inv. 7235
et ChLA XVIII 662) ............................................................................... 931
Eleonora Angela Conti, PSI inv. 1816. Una lettera privata in scrittura libraria.. 943
Alia Hanafi, Two unpublished documents from the Coptic Museum in Cairo .... 953
Fatma E. Hamouda, A boule-papyrus from Karanis ......................................... 961
Shareen A. Aly, Three Greek ostraca from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo ....... 967
Nadine Quenouille, The Gerontios-Archive: A sub-archive to the Abinnaeus-
Archive? ................................................................................................... 975
Anne Boud’hors, Jean Gascou, Le monastère de Dorothée dans la montagne
d’Antinoopolis .......................................................................................... 991
Seham D. A. Aish, Noha A. Salem, Ten new documents from the archive of the
elaiourgoi of Aphrodite (O. Cairo Museum S.R. 18953).............................. 1011

SECTION EIGHT: COPTIC PAPYRI AND OSTRACA

Anne Boud’hors, Apprendre à lire et à écrire: deux documents coptes revisités . 1027
Esther Garel, The ostraca of Victor the priest found in the hermitage MMA 1152 . 1041
 TABLE OF CONTENTS IX

Jennifer Cromwell, Coptic documents in two copies: A study of corrections and

amendments .............................................................................................. 1055

SECTION NINE: ARABIC PAPYRI

Ursula Bsees, Half a sale contract or an unknown type of document? Going deeper
into P. Cair. EgLib. inv. 885 verso ............................................................. 1077
Johannes Thomann, An Arabic horoscope on parchment with a square diagram
for ad 1002 (P. Vind. inv. A. Perg. 236) ..................................................... 1085

SECTION TEN: ANATOMY OF A TEXT, BIBLIOLOGICAL MATTERS

Francesca Maltomini, Use and reuse of papyrus rolls and scraps: Some bibliological
matters ..................................................................................................... 1097
Francisca Pordomingo, Scriptio plena vs. élision dans les papyrus littéraires:
Les papyrus ptolémaïques avec des textes poétiques .................................... 1113
Enrico Emanuele Prodi, Titles and markers of poem-end in the papyri of Greek
choral lyric ............................................................................................... 1137
Chiara Meccariello, Title, !ρχ$, %π'θεσι,. Notes on the heading and
arrangement of the tragic hypotheses on papyrus ........................................ 1185
Chiara Martis, Sistemi di correzione nei papiri letterari greco-egizi: Consider-
azioni preliminari .................................................................................... 1201
Thomas A. Wayment, Michael R. Trotter, P. Oxy. LXIV 4405: An early
witness to a system of textual division at Oxyrhynchus .............................. 1231
Nathan Carlig, Symboles et abréviation chrétiens dans les papyrus littéraires
grecs à contenu profane (ive–viie siècles) .................................................... 1245

SECTION ELEVEN: LANGUAGE, VOCABULARY, ONOMASTICS

Sonja Dahlgren, Egyptian transfer elements in the Greek of Narmouthis ostraka . 1257
Grzegorz Ochała, Multilingualism in Christian Nubia: A case study of the
monastery of Ghazali (Wadi Abu Dom, Sudan) ........................................ 1265
Maria Chiara Scappaticcio, Coniugare nell’una e nell’altra lingua. Sondaggi
dalle flessioni verbali greco-latine su papiro .............................................. 1285
Joanne Vera Stolk, Dative and genitive case interchange in Greek papyri ........ 1305
Elena Martín González, -ον'σκορδον (PGM IV 2209) ........................... 1325
Zsuzsanna Szántó, Les noms bibliques des Juifs dans l’Égypte hellénistique ...... 1333
X TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume Three
STUDYING PAPYRI

SECTION TWELVE:
HISTORY OF PAPYROLOGY, NEW PAPYROLOGICAL TOOLS
Holger Essler, Wilckens Briefe an britische Kollegen ........................................ 1351
Alain Martin, Charles Wessely à la «Semaine Égyptologique» de Bruxelles ........ 1365
Herbert Verreth, Topography of Egypt online ................................................ 1379
Marius Gerhardt, Die Berliner Papyrusdatenbank (BerlPap) .......................... 1387
Jean-Luc Fournet, Simona Russo, La culture matérielle dans les papyrus: une
nouvelle entreprise lexicographique ........................................................... 1393
Nicola Reggiani, Data processing and state management in Late Ptolemaic
and Roman Egypt: The project ‘Synopsis’ and the archive of Menches ........ 1415

SECTION THIRTEEN: PAPYROLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Rodney Ast, Paola Davoli, Ostraka and stratigraphy at Amheida (Dakhla
Oasis, Egypt): A methodological issue ........................................................ 1447
Mario Capasso, Nuovi ritrovamenti di papiri e ostraka a Soknopaiou Nesos
(2010–2012) .............................................................................................. 1473
Alberto Nodar, Two new texts from Oxyrhynchus: Archaeology and papyrology
on the site ................................................................................................. 1483
Thomas Landvatter, Archaeological and papyrological inquiry at Karanis:
Problems and potentialities ....................................................................... 1493
Giovanna Menci, Ogetti iscritti appartenenti alla collezione dell’Istituto Papiro-
logico «G. Vitelli» ..................................................................................... 1519
Maria Mossakowska-Gaubert, La papyrologie à la rencontre de l’archéologie:
Le lexique des mobiliers d’éclairage ........................................................... 1533

SECTION FOURTEEN: JURISTIC PAPYROLOGY

Rob Kugler, Judean legal reasoning in P. Polit. Iud. 3–5: A research report ....... 1565
Joachim Hengstl, Noch einmal zum Erfahrungsprofil des Apostels Paulus aus
rechtshistorischer Sicht ............................................................................. 1579
Fara Nasti, The new complete edition of P. Haun. De legatis et fideicommissis:
Some remarks ........................................................................................... 1591

SECTION FIFTEEN: HELLENISTIC EGYPT

Lucia Criscuolo, Queens’ wealth .................................................................... 1605
 TABLE OF CONTENTS XI

Andrew Monson, Harvest taxes on cleruchic land in the third century bc ........ 1615
Hans Hauben, Boats and skippers in the service of Apollonios the dioiketes
especially in Zenon’s Alexandrian years (261–256 bc) ................................ 1633
Christelle Fischer-Bovet, Les Égyptiens dans les forces armées de terre et de
mer sous les trois premiers Lagides ............................................................. 1669
Patrick Sänger, The meaning of the word πο#$τευµα in the light of the Judaeo-
Hellenistic literature ................................................................................. 1679
Christian-Jürgen Gruber, Amtsdauer und -nachfolge von Eklogistai vom aus-
gehenden ersten Jh. v.u.Z. an in Ägypten .................................................. 1695

SECTION SIXTEEN: ROMAN EGYPT

Livia Capponi, C. Calpurnius Proculus and an example of Greek stenography
under Augustus ......................................................................................... 1709
Micaela Langellotti, Contracts and people in early Roman Tebtunis: A com-
plex affair ................................................................................................ 1725
Marie-Pierre Chaufray, Comptes du temple de Soknopaios à Dimé à l’époque
romaine .................................................................................................... 1737
Adam Łukaszewicz, Double greetings in P. Brem. 5 and some other remarks on
Hadrian’s Egypt ........................................................................................ 1751
Thomas Kruse, Zu den Kompetenzen des administrativen Hilfspersonals der
enchorischen Beamten in der römischen Kaiserzeit .................................... 1761

SECTION SEVENTEEN: LATE ANTIQUE EGYPT

Miroslava Mirković, Taxes and people: Transactions and misuses in the Late
Roman and Early Byzantine Egypt .......................................................... 1775
Usama A. Gad, Who was who in the aristocracy of Byzantine Oxyrhynchus ..... 1787
Alexandra Jesenko, Die Topoteretai im spätantiken und früharabischen Ägypten .. 1801
Karin Maurer, Sven Tost, Polizeiliche Erzwingungs- und Verwaltungsstäbe
im spätantiken Ägypten ............................................................................ 1825
Matthias Stern, Welche Gefängnisse kontrolliert der Pagarch? .......................... 1843
Isabelle Marthot, L’irrigation des terres du village d’Aphroditê à l’époque
byzantine .................................................................................................. 1871

SECTION EIGHTEEN:
LIVING IN EGYPT IN GRAECO-ROMAN TIMES
Mario C. D. Paganini, Decisional practices of private associations in Ptolemaic
and Early Roman Egypt ........................................................................... 1889
XII INDEX OFOF
TABLE THE AUTHORS
CONTENTS

Lucia Rossi, Le navire kerkouros, une galère marchande fluviomaritime? Pour

une contribution à l’étude de la mobilité commerciale sur le Nil ................. 1903
Isabella Andorlini, Import of luxury goods in the light of the papyri of the
Roman period ........................................................................................... 1927
Yousry Deyab, Laissez-passers in the light of documentary evidence from Mons
Claudianus, ad 98–117 ............................................................................. 1943
Myrto Malouta, Antinoopolis by land and river .............................................. 1961
Eman Aly Selim, Where was Psenharpsenêsis? .................................................. 1973
Claudia Tirel Cena, Who hides behind the god Djeme? .................................. 1981
Rasha Hussein el-Mofatch, Where is the party? ........................................... 1993

SECTION NINTEEN ARABIA AND BEYOND

Jaakko Frösén, From carbonized papyri to the Monastery of Saint Aaron at
Petra. The ‘last will’ of Mr. Obodianos (P. Petra Inv. 6A) .......................... 2013
Jorma Kaimio, The division of landed property in P. Petra 17 ............................ 2025
Rachel Mairs, New discoveries of documentary texts from Bactria: Political and
cultural change, administrative continuity ................................................ 2037

INDEX OF THE AUTHORS

Aish, Seham D. A. 1011 Bravo, B. 63

Albarrán Martínez, M. J. 823 Bsees, U. 1077
Alessandrelli, M. 373
Aly, Shareen A. 967 Capasso, M. 389 and 1473
Andorlini, I. 1927 Capponi, L. 1709
Antoni, A. 471 Carlig, N. 1245
Ast, R. 1447 Casanova, A. 129
Chaufray, M.-P. 1737
Bagnall, R. S. 5 Conti, E. A. 943
Balconi, C. 837 Corti, A. 357
Bartol, K. 117 Criscuolo, L. 1605
Blouin, K. 853 Cromwell, J. 1055
Blumell, L. H. 745 Cuvigny, H. 931
Bonati, I. 659
Boud’hors, A. 991 and 1027 Dahlgren, S. 1257
 Proceedings
of the 27th International Congress of Papyrology
Warsaw, 29 July – 3 August 2013
pp. 699–716

Korshi Dosoo

MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS:

CULTURAL TRENDS AND PRIVATE INTERESTS
IN EGYPTIAN HANDBOOKS AND ARCHIVES

A recurring question in the study of magical texts from Roman

Egypt concerns their place in the broader history of Egyptian
magico-religious practices – whether the rituals they contain represent
new phenomena and interests peculiar to the social and religious condi-
tions of the late Roman period, or are in some sense a continuation of
older, Pharaonic practices. This discussion does not aim to provide a con-
clusive answer to this problem, but instead attempts to sketch out a
methodology by which the range of magical practices attested in Roman
Egypt can be characterised, allowing clearer comparison with earlier and
later periods, and a more precise contextualisation of individual texts and
archives within the period.
As with any aspect of ancient Mediterranean life, the magical papyri
must be understood as partial and fragmentary witnesses to the phenom-
ena they attest; not only must we take into account the vicissitudes of sur-
vival, discovery, and publication, but also the fact that written magical
texts cannot provide evidence for the unwritten traditions which cer-
tainly existed alongside them. Among the pieces of evidence suggestive of
magical practices unknown in surviving written sources are a petition
700 KORSHI DOSOO

from late second century ad Karanis, describing what David Frankfurter

colourfully describes as ‘fetus magic’,1 as well as an assemblage of painted
bones from the same village, described by Andrew Wilburn.2
Despite these caveats, it is common, and perhaps unavoidable, for
scholars to attempt to characterise periods of Egyptian history according
to the surviving evidence. Thus Jan Assmann comments that in the shift
from Pharaonic to Graeco-Roman magical practice:

We are now no longer dealing not only with preventive medicine and pro-
tection, but with all kinds of sanctification ceremonies, mantics, shaman-
istic visions and so forth.3

More specifically, Jacco Dieleman observed in a recent study that:

In the Graeco-Egyptian formularies, attention has shifted to rites to con-

jure up a deity for private oracular consultation and rites to influence
other people’s behaviour or even to harm them. Recipes for healing and
protection occur in small numbers only. The Graeco-Egyptian manuals are
thus more concerned with social and spiritual than with physical well-
being. This reflects changes in social structure and religious sensibilities in
contemporary society.4

Similar observations on the shift from a Pharaonic magical practice

focused on spells of healing and protection, to a focus on aggressive curse
and erotic spells, and private revelatory rituals in the Roman period, are
made with varying degrees of stress by Joris Borghouts,5 Geraldine
Pinch,6 and others. While characterisations of Coptic magic are less fre-
quent, due perhaps to fact that such texts have been published less sys-

1
P. Mich. VI 423–424, discussed in D. Frankfurter, ‘Fetus magic and sorcery fears in
Roman Egypt’, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 46 (2006), pp. 37–62; see also A. T.
Wilburn, Materia Magica: The Archaeology of Magic in Roman Egypt, Cyprus, and Spain, PhD
diss., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2005, pp. 88–90.
2
Wilburn, Materia Magica (cit. n. 1), pp. 101–112.
3
J. Assmann, ‘Magic and theology in Ancient Egypt’, [in:] P. Schäfer and H. G. Kip-
penberg (eds), Envisioning Magic. A Princeton Seminar and Symposium, Leiden 1997, p. 17.
4
J. Dieleman, ‘Coping with a difficult life: magic, healing, and sacred knowledge’, [in:]
C. Riggs (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Egypt, Oxford 2012, p. 342.
 MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS 701

tematically, William M. Brashear comments on the prominence in Coptic

magic of healing, exorcistic, erotic and curse practices, while noting the
paucity of mantic procedures.7
By contrast, authors such as François Lexa,8 Robert Ritner,9 and David
Frankfurter10 have emphasised continuity in practice from the Pharaonic
and into the Graeco-Roman and even Coptic periods, while writers on
more recent Egyptian magical practices – Edward Lane in the 19th cen-
tury,11 and Winifred Blackman,12 and Gérard Viaud13 in the 20th – describe
a range of practices which seem to most closely approach the Roman peri-
od in their interests and variety. Indeed, it might seem reasonable to
assume that many of the underlying determinants of magical practice
would have remained relatively constant until quite recently. In particular,
we might think here of the social pressures of urban or rural life, and the
range of medical complaints which appear to be represented more or less
consistently in all periods. Therefore if these two best documented peri-
ods – the modern and the late Roman – appear so similar, perhaps we
should be suspicious of the idea that their practices are aberrant, com-
pared to the less documented Pharaonic and Coptic periods.
To further explore this question, I have classified the contents of mag-
ical material from the Pharaonic to early Islamic periods according to the

5
J. F. Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, Leiden 1978, p. vii.
6
Geraldine Pinch, Magic in Ancient Egypt, London 1994, p. 163.
7
W. M. Brashear, ‘The Greek magical papyri: An introduction and survey. Annotated
bibliography (1928–1994)’, [in:] W. Haase (ed.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
II.18.5, Berlin 1995, pp. 3380–3684.
8
F. Lexa, La magie dans l’Égypte antique, Paris 1925, I, pp. 147, 166.
9
R. K. Ritner, ‘Egyptian magical practice under the Roman Empire: the Demotic
spells and their religious context’, [in:] W. Haase (ed.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen
Welt II.18.5, Berlin 1995, pp. 3333–3379.
10
For example in D. Frankfurter, ‘Ritual expertise in Roman Egypt and the problem
of the category “magician”’, [in:] P. Schäfer & H. G. Kippenberg (eds), Envisioning Magic.
A Princeton Seminar and Symposium, Leiden 1997, pp. 115–135.
11
E. W. Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, London 1837.
12
W. Blackman, The Fellāhīn of Upper Egypt. Their Religious, Social and Industrial Life with
Special Reference to Survivals from Ancient Times, London 1968 [1927].
13
G. Viaud, Magie et coutumes populaires chez les Coptes d’Egypte, Saint-Vincent-sur-Jabron 1978.
702 KORSHI DOSOO

purposes of the individual spells and recipes. The first corpora analysed
according to this method were the most commonly consulted modern
collections of magical texts, Borghouts’ Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts for
the Pharaonic period; for the Roman period the two editions of the Greek
Magical Papyri (PGM),14 the original editions and German translations
edited by Karl Preisendanz and Albert Heinrichs,15 and the later English
translations edited by Hans Dieter Betz, which included a broader range
of Greek, and several Demotic, texts. For the Coptic period Meyer and
Smith’s Ancient Christian Magic (ACM) was used.16

Classifications of spells were not based solely on the titles of the

spells, since semantic shifts could result in terms generally used for one
type of ritual being transferred to rituals for different purposes;17 instead

14
I exclude from consideration here the principal Spanish (J. L. Calvo Martínez &
Dolores Sánchez Romero, Textos de magia en papiros griegos [Biblioteca Clásica Gredos]
Madrid 1987) and French (M. Martin, Les papyrus grecs magiques, 2002) translations, since
their content closely follows the selection of Preisendanz; the former excludes a few papyri
whose contents are unclear (for example PGM XXVa, LX), and the latter consists of selec-
tions from the longer formularies (PGM I, II, III, IV, V, VII, XII & XXXVI). An analysis
carried out at an earlier stage of this project showed that the make-up of the Spanish col-
lection was essentially identical to that of Preisendanz.
15
K. Preisendanz & A. Henrichs, Papyri Graecae Magicae. Die griechischen Zauberpapyri,
Stuttgart 1973–74 [1928–31], 2 volumes.
16
M. Meyer & R. Smith, Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power, San Fran-
cisco 1994. A fuller survey would also consider the collections produced by Angelicus
Kropp (Ausgewählte koptische Zaubertexte, Brussels 1931) and Sergio Pernigotti (Testi della
magia copta, Imola 2000).
17
Two obvious examples are τε#ετ$ and %γωγ$, which the LSJ suggests are usually
translatable as ‘initiation in the mysteries’ and ‘love-charm’. The former is used in magical
papyri to refer to rituals in general, in particular the consecration of amulets, and in P. Kell.
I 86 it seems to refer, by extension, to the amulet itself. The latter is used in PGM IV.2006
to refer to a necromantic procedure for acquiring a familiar daimon, while in PGM IV.2441
it refers to a slander spell (διαβω#$) whose uses include cursing, dream sending and dream
revelation. A lack of sensitivity to semantic shift in the technical vocabulary of ancient
Mediterranean magic can easily lead to misunderstandings, as in PGM XXXVI.102 where
the term ,µπ.ρον (‘[ritual] using fire (i.e., a burnt-offering)’) is translated as ‘fire divination’
by E. O’Neil in the Betz’s PGM edition, despite being an erotic ritual.
 MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS 703

the classifications were based on the spell’s purpose(s) as described in the

body of the text, where such descriptions were given, or inferred from the
ritual instructions where possible. Where spells were described as having
multiple uses, these were each tallied separately. Where the purpose was
not explicit, and could not be securely inferred, it was simply classified as
‘unclear.’ My classification scheme initially made use of 57 categories of
spell–types, or better, spell-purposes, which were then consolidated into
14 headings. Listed in order of prominence, they can be briefly described
as follows:
1. Healing. Consists of rituals intended to treat pre-existing medical
problems and diseases; practices intended to avert future illness are clas-
sified as ‘protection’. I include contraceptives, abortifacients, and recipes
which purport to increase sexual pleasure, stamina and potency in this
category.
2. Divination. Includes not only revelatory spells, but also sortition
oracles determined through chance, and omina – instructions for infer-
ring the answer to questions based on observations of physical phenom-
ena. In this category I also subsume other sub–categories of spell for
acquiring knowledge or increased cognitive abilities: rituals intended to
improve intelligence or memory, as well as those for gaining knowledge of
closed letters or the thoughts of others.
3. Erotic. Includes rituals intended to attract a new sexual partner, or
ensure the fidelity of an existing one. Despite its clear relationship to the
next category, the large quantity of spells of this type, as well as their dis-
tinctive features, merited its inclusion as its own category.
4. Control of others. Includes a broad range of related rituals, most
prominently those intended to restrain the anger of others, separate or
reconcile couples, or gain the favour of social superiors.
5. Amulets and protection. This category consists of practices in-
tended to avert future harm to people, their goods, animals, and physical
spaces, either through the rituals themselves, or the creation of physical
objects (amulets) to protect the individual for whom the ritual is per-
formed.
6. Curse. Practices intended to cause physical harm to others or their
possessions, up to and including death.
704 KORSHI DOSOO

7. Favour. The category of favour rituals is unusual, in that the genre

is readily recognisable, but their goals are usually poorly defined. These
practices are typically intended to grant an individual favour from both
deities and humans, as well as general good fortune – health, wealth, and
happiness.
8. Thief-catching. These practices are intended to identify, and occa-
sionally directly punish, criminals, usually specified as thieves.
9. Exorcism, purification, and counter-magic. This category covers
three related practices. Exorcism rituals free individuals from hostile spir-
its by whom they are being troubled or possessed; purification rituals
appear to be intended to purify objects in an analogous manner. ‘Counter-
magic’ describes procedures intended to remove magical effects from
people, animals, and physical objects cursed or enchanted by (presum-
ably) other practitioners.
10. Dream-sending. Dream-sending rituals are intended to cause a
vision to appear to individuals in their sleep; these differ from revelatory
dream oracles in that the summoned deity is to take a message from the
ritualist to the victim rather than reveal hidden information to the ritu-
alist. Often it is implied that the purpose of these rituals is erotic in
nature; that is, the deity who appears to the victim is to instruct them to
be favourable to the advances of the ritualist or their client.

In addition to these ten categories, four more were created to cover

non-specific practices:
11. Unclear. This category covered the large number of rituals for
which the purpose was unclear, due usually to either ambiguous content
and lack of parallels, or to damage to the papyrus.
12. Invocations. This category consisted of spoken invocations whose
purpose was not explicit – there was nothing in the title, body of the
invocation, or accompanying instructions (where such existed) which
would make it clear what purpose the ritual was intended to fulfil.18

18
While we might assume that invocations necessarily imply revelational spells where no
other purpose is specified, the evidence of Coptic texts in which invocations are followed
by lists of multiple, different rituals in which the invocations could be used implies that indi-
 MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS 705

13. Miscellaneous (magical). This category was used to contain the

remaining magical ritual purposes which were scantily attested in the sur-
viving evidence. In practice, these were the 14 categories out of the initial
57 which were least attested, and which could not obviously be grouped
into other categories. These included rituals to acquire a good singing
voice, to control ships, animals, or fire, gather plants, carry out initia-
tions, procedures for ritual ascent, to find a dwelling place, perform tricks
for parties, acquire a paredros (familiar spirit), control animals, acquire
good business, become invisible, and open doors or loose bonds.
14. Reference. This category consisted of works which served as ref-
erence guides rather than specifying ritual practices. This includes zodia-
cal calendars, as well as discussions of plant, animal, and mineral materia.

Two further categories were added to capture non–magical material

contained in papyri with otherwise magical content:
15. Miscellaneous (non-magical). Included in this heading are a range
of literary and documentary text types which occur in magical collec-
tions, but are not themselves magical, including letters, oracle questions,
horoscopes, and so on.
16. Alchemical. In the context of the manuscripts described here,
‘alchemical’ material is that which provides instructions for procedures
relating to metals, fabrics, and precious stones. Primarily these include
the production and duplication of metals and stones, as well as instruc-
tions for altering their colour, and producing dyes for cloth.

The results of applying this analysis to the four modern collections are
shown in the lowest four bars of figure 1 on the following page. We can
see that these results broadly confirm the impressions sketched out for
the three bodies of practice: the Pharaonic spells are almost entirely con-
cerned with healing (48.7%), and the closely related practices of exorcism
(14.2%) and protection (16.2%). The Coptic material, though more

vidual formulae were seen as being suitable for multiple applications; instances of this for-
mat include P. Mich. 593 (4th–7th cent. ad), London Hay 10391 (6th–7th cent. ad), P. Mac. I
1 (7th–8th cent. ad), P. Leiden F 1964/4, 14 (10th–11th cent. ad), and Cairo 45060 (undated).
706 KORSHI DOSOO

Fig. 1. Proportions of spell types in groups of magical texts

 MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS 707

diverse, is likewise dominated by healing practices (32.2%), with curses

(14%), erotic (6.6%), protective (8.7%) and control (8.4%) spells well rep-
resented, along with a smattering of less common practices. By contrast,
the Greek and Demotic collections are even more diverse than the Cop-
tic, with an important place given to divination (16.2%).19
It should be noted, however, that we can already see that our picture
of the Roman period has been somewhat exaggerated. Divinatory (16.2%)
and erotic (13.9%) practices, though prominent, are each only slightly
more common than healing (11.4%), while curses are significantly less
common (6.2%). I would suggest that the impression of the prominence
of these and other, more aggressive spell types in the Roman period, is
exaggerated by the fact that divination, curse and erotic rituals are often
long and complex, in comparison to the numerous but far shorter healing
spells. As a result a very different impression is gained when we reduce
each ritual to a single point of data. There is no reason to think that
longer or more complex rituals were performed more often, and were
thus a more significant part of a ritualist’s repertoire, than simple ones;
indeed, the opposite is likely to be true.
At this point, it is worth noting the nature of these collections. The
PGM was intended, at its conception, to be a list of all known magical
texts in Greek; from its original edition under Preisendanz, to the later
edition under Heinrichs, and the still later translation under Betz, it has
aimed at, though never quite achieved, a complete coverage of published
materials.20 By contrast, the collections of both Borghouts and Meyer are

19
The numbers given here are for the PGM edition of Betz.
20
In his foreword in the second volume of PGM, Preisendanz (Papyri Graecae Magicae
[cit. n. 15], pp. v–vi) noted that the collection as it then stood should contain all of the
significant published pagan documents, although they had not striven for completeness
of coverage of texts on ostraca, or of the ‘Christian’ papyri. Similarly, Betz’s preface to the
second edition of his translation (H. D. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation
Including the Demotic Spells, Chicago 1992 [1986]) notes that the original edition expanded
as widely as was then possible upon the collection of Preisendanz, although by the time
of the second edition the idea of adding new texts, while considered, was rejected. The
survey I have carried out here strives to include, as far as possible, both ‘pagan’ and
‘Christian’ papyri.
708 KORSHI DOSOO

intended to be merely illustrative selections.21 Thus, we should be some-

what suspicious of the overall picture they provide, since these collec-
tions both reflect, and play a role in shaping, our common impressions of
these periods.
In order to gain an unbiased picture of the practices of any period, the
ideal solution would be to collect and classify the practices recorded in
every available artefact of ancient magic, and use this data as a basis for
comparison. This would include not only the magical papyri, but also writ-
ten material on ostraca, metal and wooden tablets, and magical gems. Even
this, however, would not be sufficient. Many lapidary texts describe mag-
ical gems whose iconography is not unambiguously ‘magical’,22 and many
Christian amulets are brief copies of Biblical texts, whose amuletic func-
tion is not necessarily transparent in any particular instance.23 Still more
problematic is the fact that relying upon this evidence would produce a
bias in favour of those rituals most likely to produce physical artefacts on
durable supports, excluding those which produced artefacts using metals
other than lead, and which might therefore have been destroyed by corro-
sion or by recasting,24 and obscuring practices, like revelatory divination,
which might produce no artefacts at all.25 For this reason I restricted the
next stage of the survey to the magical handbooks, or formularies, written
in Greek, Demotic and Coptic from 1st–6th cent. ad.26 In distinction to

21
Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts (cit. n. 5), p. vii; Meyer & Smith, Ancient
Christian Magic (cit. n. 16), pp. 6–7.
22
C. Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets: Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian, 1950, pp. 6–7.
23
I thank Magali de Haro Sanchez for making this point clear to me.
24
Bonner, Studies in Magical Amulets (cit. n. 21), p. 9.
25
The only two instances of applied artefacts of Roman-era Egyptian divination known
to me are numbers 65 and 66 in R. W. Daniel & F. Maltomini, Supplementum Magicum
[= Papyrologica Coloniensia] Opladen 1989–1991 (SM), vol. 2. The former is a terracotta bowl
sherd apparently used for vessel-divination, the latter is a lead tablet inscribed with a spell
for mediumistic divination.
26
These texts include all formularies from the PGM and Supplementum Magicum (SM) col-
lections, as well as the early papyri from Meyer/Smith (ACM) not already included in the
PGM or SM. Alongside these, the following texts were included: O. Strassburg D 1338,
P BM 10808, P. Kell. I 85 a + b, P. Berl. inv. 11734, P. Berl. inv. 21227, P. Berl. inv. 17202, P. Berl.
inv. 21149, P. Duk. inv. 729, P. Kell. I 82, P. Kell. I 88, P. Kell. Copt. 35, P. Mil. Vogl. Copt. 16,
 MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS 709

the applied artefacts – for example, binding tablets and amulets – pro-
duced in the course of rituals, formularies contain instructions for carrying
out these practices, and can be expected to reflect, to some degree, the
range of practices which interested the individual or communities which
produced them.
This survey took into account 96 formularies, broken down by lan-
guage and date as follows:

Date Number of Texts27 Language Number of Texts28

Unknown 2 Demotic 1029
1st cent. ad 2 Greek 83
1st–2nd cent. ad 1 Coptic 6
2nd cent. ad 9
2nd–3rd cent. ad 8
3rd cent. ad 26
3rd–4th cent. ad 8
4th cent. ad 19
4th–5th cent. ad 6
5th cent. ad 5
5th–6th cent. ad 6
6th cent. ad 1 Total number of formularies: 96
6th–7th cent. ad 1 Total number of magical recipes: 548

P. Oxy. LVIII 3931, P. Princ. Dem. 2, P. Rain. Cent. 39, P. Tebt. Tait 18, P. Tebt. Tait 19, P. Vindob.
D 6321. Since Coptic magical texts have not been the subject of a definitive collection
along the lines of the PGM it is likely that they are under–represented here. A checklist of
all Coptic magical texts in preparation by Kirsten Dzwiza of Heidelberg University, which
I hope will allows me to remedy this omission.
The question of precisely what constitutes a ‘magical text’ is a difficult one which I do
not take up here, in part because the assumptions to which I am responding already have
a particular type of text in mind. I think that we can understand here a textual genre to
which most of the texts of the PGM and SM belong. I have therefore included texts from
outside the collections which seem to display similar genre markers (voces magicae, magical
characters, and so on), and excluded those – such as the Sortes Astrampsychi (PGM XXVI)
– which consist entirely of material which does not seem to display these markers.
27
Magical texts are often difficult to date with precision, with editors at times disagree-
ing by a matter of centuries. Here I rely on the dates provided either by Betz, The Greek
Magical Papyri (cit. n. 19), pp. xxiii–xxviii, or their principal publications, corrected where
necessary by reference to more recent works. Nonetheless, the difficulties of dating, along
710 KORSHI DOSOO

The data for these formularies was not treated in the same way as that
for the collections, where each spell was given equal weight. Rather, each
manuscript – sheet, roll, codex, ostracon or tablet – was treated as a single
data point, with the make-up of spell types it contained expressed as frac-
tions; these were then summed and converted into percentages of the
total to find the overall mixture of spell purposes. This meant that the
longest texts, containing over a hundred spells, were given equal weight-
ing with the shortest texts, containing only one or two spells, so that the
larger manuscripts would not dominate the evidence; each text is equally
an attestation of the practices of the individual(s) who produced it. This
process can be summarised as follows:

representation of spell type x in each text = total instances of spell type x in text
÷ total instances of all spell types in text

representation of spell type x in overall period (unweighted) = sum of representa-

tion of spell type x in each text for all texts ÷ total number of texts

The resulting data is shown in figure 1 as ‘Formularies 1st–6th cent. ad

(unweighted)’. We can note that this selection is broadly similar to the
composition of Betz. At this point, however, we should recall that among
the texts gathered here are several magical libraries or archives. The most
famous of these is the Theban Magical Library,30 consisting of ten manu-
scripts dating to 3rd–4th cent. ad, constituting nearly 60% of Betz’s edi-

with the uneven temporal distribution of papyri, has led me to avoid investigating more
fine–grain temporal or diachronic trends.
28
Texts containing multiple languages are counted once in each row.
29
P BM 10808, a text written in both Demotic and Traditional Egyptian transliterated
into Greek (supplemented by Demotic characters), is included in both the Demotic and
Coptic categories.
30
Consisting of PGM I, II, IV, V, P. Holm. + PGM Va, PDM/PDM XII, PGM XIII,
PDM/PDM XIV, PDM Suppl., & P. Leid. I 397. I include here only those which are known
to have derived from the collection of Jean d’Anastasy, and were assigned a Theban prove-
nance in his catalogues. I hope to publish a full discussion of the contents of this archive
at a later date; in the meantime the most useful discussions are those in K. Preisendanz,
Papyrusfunde und Papyrusforschung, Leipzig 1933 pp. 91–95, and Brashear, ‘The Greek mag-
ical papyri’ (cit. n. 7), pp. 3402–3404.
 MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS 711

tion of the PGM,31 and 41% of the recipes in this survey.32 But we can also
identify with some degree of certainty a further four archives from the
period under consideration: the Fayum Magical Archive (4th cent. ad),33
the Hermonthis Magical Archive (3rd–5th cent. ad),34 the Kellis Magical
Archive (4th cent. ad),35 and the Multilingual Magical Workshop (5th–6th
cent. ad).36 These texts, among them the largest formularies known from

31
The 1996 edition of Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri (cit. n. 19) consists of 327 pages of
translation, of which 193, by my count, are devoted to texts from the Theban Magical
Library, giving a rough total of 59.02%.
32
I count 223 recipes in the Theban Library (excluding the alchemical codices), out of
548 in the formularies examined for this paper, giving a total of 40.69%.
33
Consisting of PGM XXXVI & XXXVIII, acquired for the University of Oslo by Sam-
son Eitrem in 1920; both have been dated to the 4th cent. ad and probably originate from
Theadelphia in the Fayum. Gee (J. Gee, ‘Abracadabra, Isaac and Jacob’, Review of Books on
the Book of Mormon 7 (1995), p. 37, n. 76) suggests that PGM XXXVII & XXXIX may also
belong, but the former is quite distinct palaeographically, and the latter was acquired sep-
arately by H. I. Bell in 1923. I am very grateful to Federico Aurora for information on
the acquisition history of these papyri.
34
Consisting of PGM VII, VIII & XIa. All of these papyri were acquired by the British
Library from a native Egyptian in 1888, along with three older manuscripts. PGM VII is
often assumed to be part of the Theban Magical Library due to its similarity in content
and length, but there is no clear connection between this text and the more secure The-
ban Library texts, which all derive from the collection of Jean d’Anastasy. See the discus-
sion in M. Zago, Tebe magica e alchemica: L’idea di biblioteca nell’Egitto romano: la Collezione
Anastasi, Padova 2010, pp. 57–58, 69–70), who suggests, mistakenly in my view, that they
all belong to the Theban Library. PGM XIa is written on the back of an account concern-
ing a large estate centred on Hermonthis, from which I take as the name of this archive.
Another document relating to this same estate (P. Lips. inv. 39 + P. Bonn inv. 147) contains
a text of the Psalms on the verso, and may therefore belong to the same archive.
35
I take this archive to consist of P. Kell. I 82, 83, 84. 85a+b, 86, 87, 88; P. Kell. Copt. 35. All
of these texts date to the 4th cent. ad , and were found in House 3 of Area A in Kellis. For
a discussion of the Greek texts see Magali de Haro Sanchez, ‘Les Papyrus iatromagiques
grecs de Kellis’, Lucida Intervalla 37 (2008), pp. 79–98. P. Kell. I 88 was originally treated as
an amulet, but has been reinterpreted as a handbook of liturgical prayers, and is treated
here as a formulary; see K. A. Worp, R. W. Daniel, & Cornelia E. Römer, ‘Das Gebet
zur Handauflegung bei Kranken in P. Barc. 155,9 – 156,5 und P. Kellis I 88.’, Zeitschrift für
Papyrologie und Epigraphik 119 (1997), pp. 128–131.
36
This consists of PGM CXXIII & CXXIV, P. Mil. Vogl. Copt. 16, as well as numerous
fragments in Greek and Aramaic. For discussions and publications of these texts see Edda
Bresciani, S. Pernigotti, F. Maltomini and P. Marrassini, ‘Nuovi papiri magici in
712 KORSHI DOSOO

the period, dominate modern collections, and thus modern conceptions of

Roman–era magical practice. Yet, while each of these archives gives us a
great deal of information about the practices of the group that produced
it, they cannot necessarily be considered representative of the period as a
whole. Each collection of recipes – whether that collection has been gath-
ered in a single manuscript, or is spread across several papyri from a single
archive – is equally an attestation of a single practitioner, or group of prac-
titioners, and can tell us directly only about the practice of the individual
or group who owned it at the time of deposition.37 Thus, in the same way
that we need to equally weight the individual manuscripts to prevent
longer formularies from dominating the evidence, we must give each
archive only as much weight as the documents which do not belong to
archives. Each of these non–archived manuscripts is equally the represen-
tative of the practitioner(s) which produced it, yet without this adjust-
ment the evidence they give us is overshadowed by the larger archives with
their multiple papyri. This process of weighting is then as follows:

representation of spell type x in archive = total instances of spell type x in

archive ÷ total instances of all spell types in archive

representation of spell type x in overall period (weighted) = (sum of representation

of spell type x in each text for all texts not part of an archive + sum of repre-
sentation of spell type x in archive for all archives) ÷ (total number of texts not
in archives + total number of archives)

The results of this final adjustment are represented in figure 1 as ‘For-

mularies 1st–6th cent. ad (weighted)’. This somewhat abstract construction
can be understood as approximating the attention paid to various practices
by literate magical practitioners of the period: were we to possess every
text produced in this period, or an ideal ‘average’ text we should expect the
range of practices to approximate those given in this weighted average.

copto, greco e aramaico’, Studi classici e orientali 29 (1973), pp. 16–130; Daniel and Malto-
mini, Supplementum Magicum (cit. n. 24), vol. II, pp. 231–268.
37
Compare the comments of Lynn Lidonnici, ‘Compositional patterns in PGM IV
(= P. Bibl. Nat. Suppl. gr. no. 574)’, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 40 (2003),
pp. 143–144, 145–146.
 MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS 713

The picture that emerges of the practices of the period reverses the
commonplace descriptions summarised at the beginning of this discus-
sion. While the practices present are more diverse than in the selective
pictures we have examined of the Pharaonic and Coptic periods, healing
emerges as the most common single concern (24.3%), almost as prevalent
as in the Coptic collection of Meyer and Smith (32.2%). Next in frequen-
cy are divination (13.9%) and erotic spells (9.9%). Control of others and
amuletic/protection rituals are both represented in about 5% of spells,
while curses, far from being the most common type, represent only 4.4%
of material. There are some caveats to include here: the category of spells
of unclear purpose constitutes 21.3% of material, while invocations – for-
mulae for spells whose purpose is not stated – constitute a further 4.2%,
but there is no obvious reason to think that these would change the dis-
tribution dramatically.
If this picture does meaningfully describe Roman-era Egyptian magic,
it is worth asking why most authors have understood it so differently. I
would argue that there are two main reasons – first, the presence of large
modern collections, which bring together material for easy reference but
tend to blur the divisions between manuscripts, and allow the longer
spells, those concerned with divination and curses, to dominate the
pages. The second reason is the existence of several large texts – specifi-
cally those of the Theban and Hermonthite archives – whose interests
run counter to the general trend of the period.
The make-up of each of these archives is shown at the top of figure 1;
since some of these archives contain non-magical material – a copy of the
Psalms in the case of the Hermonthis Archive, and considerable alchem-
ical material in the case of the Theban Library – a second version of each,
containing only magical content is included above. It is immediately strik-
ing that each of these archives is quite different, not only from one other,
but from the average picture of the Roman period, and I would argue that
these tendencies reflect the particular interests of the individuals which
produced them.38 In the case of the Theban Library, we can in fact see

38
Although there is not sufficient space to demonstrate the point here, these same ten-
dencies are generally present in each of the texts within each of the archives.
714 KORSHI DOSOO

Fig. 2. Deviations of magical archives from the average of the 1st–6th cent. ad

that, by the time of its 4th cent. ad deposition, its predominant text–type
was not magical, but alchemical (45.9%).
Figure 2 is intended to demonstrate the particular characteristics of
each archive more clearly, by showing the deviations of each in percent-
age points from the ideal ‘average text’ of the Roman period.39 The The-

39
A graph providing the divergence from the average expressed as percentages might be
considered more appropriate here, using the formula % representation in archive x ÷ % rep-
resentation in weighted average. In practice this procedure exaggerates the importance of
 MAGICAL DISCOURSES, RITUAL COLLECTIONS 715

ban Library and the Hermonthis Archive show similar tendencies – a pro-
nounced interest in divinatory spells, and to a lesser extent in erotic and
curse practices, and a correspondingly lower interest in healing.40 The
Fayum Archive shows a similarly low attestation of healing practices, but
a very pronounced interest in erotic magic, while the Kellis Archive
focuses on healing, to the almost complete exclusion of other practices.
The Multilingual Workshop’s interests are less easily characterised, given
the high proportion of invocations and spells whose purposes are unclear;
nonetheless, it contains a higher proportion of healing rituals than any of
the other archives, with the exception of the Kellis material.
The magic of Roman period Egypt certainly displays important differ-
ences from older Pharaonic practice, not only in its predominant lan-
guage – Greek rather than Egyptian – but also in the range of practices
we find, and the deities invoked. As we have seen, it has also been char-
acterised as quite different in the types of spells which predominate –
aggressive curse and erotic spells, and revelational divination – and this is
often linked to important social shifts associated with the Roman period.
While this picture is broadly true for the corpora which the modern
study of ancient magic has generated, a more thorough analysis of
Roman-era texts suggests quite a different picture. By counting individual
spells – giving the usually shorter healing spells the same consideration as
the generally longer curses and divinatory spells – we find that it is in fact
healing which predominates, while curses are rather marginal. By reduc-
ing the influence of individual archives, which reflect the interests of
their particular collectors, the predominance of healing rituals becomes
even more pronounced. This preliminary analysis has therefore suggested
that, as in earlier and later periods,41 it is these healing practices which

the less common practices. The method of subtraction used here makes the divergences
more easily visible in a graph format without affecting their direction.
40
This is particularly interesting in light of the fact that the group I refer to here as the
Hermonthis Archive is dominated by PGM VII, a text which many have suggested may
belong to the Theban Library. Its acquisition history does not provide any clear evidence
for a connection, however; see n. 30.
41
Similar analyses of the Pharaonic and early Islamic periods would provide valuable
comparative data, although each of these would pose its own challenges: in the Pharaonic
 716 KORSHI DOSOO

dominated the magical landscape of Roman Egypt. Particular manu-

scripts or archives might exhibit a greater proportion of particular prac-
tices, presumably reflecting the areas of special expertise or interest of
the individual or communities which produced them. The fact that schol-
arly characterisations of the period are often at odds with this picture
seems to be an artefact of the way in which magical texts are encountered
– in modern, often selective collections, whose pages are dominated by
long, and often uncharacteristic, texts from a few archives.

Korshi Dosoo
Labex RESMED
Postdoctoral Researcher
Paris
France
e-mail: korshi.dosoo@paris-sorbonne.fr

period the shortcomings of the category ‘magic’ seem to me more apparent, with the line
between ‘magical’, ‘medical’, and ‘ritual’ texts difficult to draw. On the other hand, a full
survey of the early Islamic period should include not only Coptic, but also Arabic and
Hebrew material. In all of these cases we lack an aspirationally comprehensive body of
texts, analogous to the PGM, to serve as the basis of such an analysis.

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