Night's Black Agents: Witches Wizards and the Dead in the Ancient World [Hardcover]

Daniel Ogden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2008 | ISBN-10: 1847252303 | ISBN-13: 978-1847252302

The Ghost of Sychaeus:

At length, in dead of night, the ghost appears

Of her unhappy lord: the specter stares,
And, with erected eyes, his bloody bosom bares.
The cruel altars and his fate he tells—The Aeneid

The literature of classical antiquity bristles with witches, ghosts, magic books, curses, voodoo-dolls, and other fiendish monsters. This book covers the literature of both Greek and Roman cultures over a period of more than a thousand years, through the advent of Christianity. Although classical culture was conservative, especially in regards to ghosts and witches which were strongly bound up in folklore, such tales preserve and conserve ideas about ghosts and witchcraft, and they survive to achieve this effect precisely because they are wonderfully engaging. Consequently, and also because they have directly and indirectly shaped our own culture's lore of magic and ghosts, these tales speak to us today still with a great directness and immediacy. In Night's Black Agents, Ogden uncovers the ancient foundations of the supernatural stories that have endured for generations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wide-ranging display of the scholarship proper to a professor of ancient history...a compendium of ancient spine-chillers"

Reviewed by Tom Holland in Daily Telegraph, 2008

"Ogden is an excellent storyteller ... With perfect ease he pulls off the trick of producing a book that is at once a primer for anybody who knows little or nothing about the subject, introducing famous texts and summarising their contents, and also a contribution to a learned debate." - Times Higher Education Supplement

About the Author

Daniel Ogden is Professor of Ancient History in the University of Exeter. His most recent publication is Aristomenes of Messene: Legends of Sparta's Nemesis (Classical Press of Wales 2004) and he has published widely on magic and witchcraft in the ancient world.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Hambledon Continuum (July 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847252303
• ISBN-13: 978-1847252302
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative and systematic but not very complete, December 30, 2009

By 

Christopher R. Travers "Einhverfr" (Chelan, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Night's Black Agents: Witches Wizards and the Dead in the Ancient World (Hardcover)

This book looks at the general development of occult topics in the Greek and Roman worlds. The book covers themes of necromancy, portrayals of sorceresses in Greek and Roman literature, and many more related topics.

I found the book to be informative and interesting. It is also quite accessible. Unfortunately, as an overview of the topic, it doesn't have as much detail as one would like.

All in all, this is mostly a discussion of occult topics in Greek and Roman literature. Archaeology is largely omitted, as are legal records. Hence this is something that people should read in that spirit. Among others it covers appearances of magic in Homeric poetry, The Golden Ass, and many other literary works from Greece and Rome. Interestingly I think that this field is important because there is a great deal of continuity with the later witch craze concepts which haunted Europe during the later Middle Ages.

For more in depth studies, the following books are also to be recommended:
Greek and Roman Necromancy
Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion
Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World
Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World
The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells: Texts

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating, a treasure trove of information, July 3, 2008

By 

R. Conner "interpreter" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Night's Black Agents: Witches Wizards and the Dead in the Ancient World (Hardcover)

Any reader interested in ghosts, witches, vampires, or any aspect of the supernatural in the Graeco-Roman world, will find a highly readable introduction to the subject in Night's Black Agents. Daniel Ogden, a well-known authority on magic in that era, has produced a well-paced account of things that went bump in the night. The book, a survey written for a general audience, is packed with fascinating detail and contains a thorough set of end-notes for those who want to pursue particulars in the works of the original authors. A comprehensive bibliography and index add to the value of this work.

A well-chosen set of illustrations shows how the ancients imagined the characters of their stories, inhabitants of that region of shadows where the world of the living touches the world of the dead. Not only did the protagonists of these tales consult hideous witches and raise ghosts, on occasion they engaged in sex with partners returned from beyond the veil.

The banquet and ghost story, the Roman equivalent of dinner and a movie, can now be revisited and relished. All the reader need supply is the food.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid!, May 3, 2009

By 

Jennifer Weisbrodt - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Night's Black Agents: Witches Wizards and the Dead in the Ancient World (Hardcover)

"Night's Black Agents" by Daniel Ogden is a splendid and informative read. Let me admit, I am a fan of the Occult; not so much now as I used to be. I am also big into Greek and Roman Mythology, and what I found in this book was a great surprise. I've never read anything quite like it, it's hard to find works that focus on the more 'morbid' aspects of ancient Mythology. But this book covers it all, just like the title says, "Witches, Wizards and the Dead."
I will not go into any scholarly analysis of the book because I am not qualified. But as far as I can tell, the author has done a lot of in-depth research and seems extremely qualified to write on the subject. Although this is definitely a work of Scholarly aptitude, it was something that anyone can read - and I appreciate that. What I mean is that you can tell it was written for a more general audience, rather than for his peers. Great!
I also found this to be a great companion to the Greek Magical Papyri - so if you're into that, you might want to check this book out as well. It puts a lot of the more obscure points from the Papyri into perspective, and gives you a deeper understanding of the mindset held by the people's who wrote such texts long ago.
If you're into Greek/Roman Mythology, Religious Anthropology, or just have a keen interest for the more 'macabre' and 'occult' trends of the ancient world, read this book.
Great work Mr. Ogden, I anxiously await future works!