The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells: Texts (Volume 1) [Paperback]

Hans Dieter Betz (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0226044475 | ISBN-13: 978-0226044477 | Edition: 1

"The Greek magical papyri" is a collection of magical spells and formulas, hymns, and rituals from Greco-Roman Egypt, dating from the second century B.C. to the fifth century A.D. Containing a fresh translation of the Greek papyri, as well as Coptic and Demotic texts, this new translation has been brought up to date and is now the most comprehensive collection of this literature, and the first ever in English.

The Greek Magical Papyri in Transition is an invaluable resource for scholars in a wide variety of fields, from the history of religions to the classical languages and literatures, and it will fascinate those with a general interest in the occult and the history of magic.

"One of the major achievements of classical and related scholarship over the last decade."—Ioan P. Culianu, Journal for the Study of Judaism

"The enormous value of this new volume lies in the fact that these texts will now be available to a much wider audience of readers, including historians or religion, anthropologists, and psychologists."—John G. Gager, Journal of Religion

"[This book] shows care, skill and zest. . . . Any worker in the field will welcome this sterling performance."—Peter Parsons, Times Literary Supplement

Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226044475
• ISBN-13: 978-0226044477
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.9 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 406 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226044475
• ISBN-13: 978-0226044477
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.9 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 69 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ian Myles Slater on: Magic and Syncretic Religion January 19, 2005

By Ian M. Slater TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

According to the introduction to this volume, among other competent sources, one of the more interesting shocks to the delicate sensibilities of nineteenth-century classical scholars was delivered by papyri from Greco-Roman Egypt. The serene and rational "classical" Greeks of their (mainly German) imaginations turned out to be human beings with messy fears, desires, hatreds, and jealousies, and a willingness to turn to magic (ugh!) to obtain their ends. There they were, in Greek, actual "magical papyri" -- spell books, that is, not so much documents purporting to be potent agents in themselves, in the old Egyptian manner of ritually empowered images and paintings.

A common reaction: Let's keep it a secret!

It didn't work. A younger generation of scholars (also mainly, but not entirely, German) began mining the texts for information on daily life (astrological papyri proved more helpful) and religion (more successfully) in late antiquity. Texts scattered in museums and published, if at all, in a variety of journals, had to be assembled and properly edited. Some early efforts were exemplary, some problematic (and some both). It sometimes seemed as if a curse had been laid on the enterprise. Early deaths, the First World War, and economic chaos delayed the publication of a carefully edited volume of collected papyri (Greek passages only). The second volume survived World War II only in proof copies. Meanwhile, more papyri turned up, and the project had to be re-done.

One of the more fortunate results of this delay is the present volume, a careful translation of the Greek papyri containing magic spells, along with the Demotic (late Egyptian in a native "shorthand") and Coptic (late Egyptian in a mostly Greek-derived script) passages in the same manuscripts.... A team of scholars worked on the translations, which come with concise introductions and notes. It is based on the arrangement in the earlier text editions (although, frustratingly, it does not come with page-references to the first edition, used in over half a century of scholarly literature).

A second volume, including fuller references, and, above all, indexes, was announced, but so far does not seem to have appeared. This is frustrating, given the number of topics, names, and materials mentioned in just the larger manuscript collections.

As for the work at hand, it is fascinating, if inherently frustrating. We have parts of a library of someone who may have been a working magician, with the habits of a scholar, and actual charms and amulets for a less discriminating clientele. There are instructions on how to pull off party tricks, win (or torment) a lover, or influence important people, as well as protect yourself from the spells of others.

Greek gods mingle with Egyptian deities older than the Pyramids, and Mesopotamian (even Sumerian) Powers make brief appearances. Garbled bits of Jewish and Christian lore are sprinkled throughout. The extent to which any of this represents a real synthesis of religious beliefs (syncretism), or is an unthinking compilation of whatever might give access to power, is a question long debated. I suspect that every instance needs a separate answer, and in most cases we will never have one.

At least four fairly large groups of readers should find the book invaluable.

Those interested in Egypt will welcome a mass of post-Pharaonic material, a lot of it with good parallels from earlier centuries. This has a large and growing bibliography. With some reservations, I would suggest Bob Brier's "Ancient Egyptian Magic" as a place to start, with the bibliography in Betz for additional titles.

For the really serious, David Frankfurter's "Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance" (1998) will be rewarding, but not as a start. It is available in paperback from Princeton University Press in the MYTHOS series, as is a revised version of Garth Fowden's "The Egyptian Hermes: An Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind" (1993; originally 1986), another valuable work intended for relatively advanced students.

Those interested in the gods of Greece will find here much evidence of how they were viewed in popular (rather than elite) culture, and what happened to them when carried abroad by their worshippers. As supplements on these areas, I suggest two far-ranging surveys, Fritz Graf's "Magic in the Ancient World" and Matthew W. Dickie's "Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World." I have some methodological concerns with both, and with what I regard as some serious errors by Dickie (particularly regarding Mesopotamian and Jewish topics), but both display immense learning and intelligence. Graf is easier, and also has some excellent discussions of the Egyptian material to add to Brier, with more bibliography. With a narrower range, but extremely important, is Christopher A. Faraone's "Ancient Greek Love Magic," which deals directly with a whole class of texts translated in Betz et al., and places them in a long cultural context.

Thirdly, students of early Jewish mysticism will at last get ready access to texts which have been used to date "Merkabah" and "Hekhalot" texts (concerning heavenly ascents and visions of the Divine Throne), which survive only in medieval manuscripts. There is a remarkable overlap of "secret names" of God and angels, and some shared ideas of the cosmos, and how to obtain visionary knowledge. The bibliography for this is large, and I have yet to find a good introductory volume; for now, see my review of Rebecca Macy Lesses's "Ritual Practices to Gain Power: Angels, Incantations, and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism.""

Finally, the late pagan spells fade off into the Coptic literature of early Christian Egypt, although "Christian Magic" usually has received separate treatments, and is only incidentally represented in this collection. A good place to start (and containing some minor overlaps) is "Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power" (1994), translations with commentary, edited by Marvin W. Meyer and Richard Smith. The supposed limits of official Christianity, superficially Christianized paganism, fringe Christianity, and Gnosticism, are crossed and recrossed in the texts presented. This too is available, slightly revised, in the Princeton MYTHOS series of trade paperbacks (1999).

As for practicing magicians -- everyone should know that you can't just use someone else's book of spells, you need authorization and personal instruction! And a copy made personally from a manuscript....

(Reposted from my "anonymous" review, originally posted September 9, 2003 ) Read more ›

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Magic as it was (and is)... June 29, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Of all of the works on Magic in the ancient and modern worlds I have read, this volume ranks among the highest. Readers who are interested in or who practice magic in any way, shape, or form should find this a refreshing break from so-called "New age" and "Neo-pagan" romanticisms. A fantastic sourcebook for the scholar and the practioner (espescially in a market dominated by Celtic and Middle Ages influences), this work presents scores of translated texts with minimal (yet precise) commentary and a fine glossary of the more obscure terms. This book represents a rare glimpse into the magical lives of real people in the Ancient world- which in the end , reveals how distorted, predjudiced and misinformed much of the present day attitudes regarding the subject of Magic and belief systems in the Ancient World can be.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Important for the Arts of Evocation February 24, 2008

By Brother MOLOCH 969

Format:Paperback

Much has already been said about this phenomenal collection of texts and I would be redundant to merely repeat much of what I find intriguing. However with that said, I have been delving into this phenomenal text since a fellow Evocational Magics practitioner turned me onto it. There's quite a bit of useful information for those who are practitioners of the arts of Summoning Spirits via Evocation.

If you desire to use this collection of texts in this manner, then you will need to make a thorough study of the various texts in this collection. There are specific passages that work very well as incantations for summoning the 72 Spirits listed in the Goetia, the first book of the Lemegeton. Further the rite of the Headless One is included in this text without modification and that too is an excellent addition to the arsenal of the working karcist.

Overall you will find a lot of useful lore and knowledge in this manual. Get it. Study it. Put it into use.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, but... March 20, 2012

By Katharina

Format:Paperback

While it no doubt took a lot of effort to create this book, some criticism is on order.

Simple mistakes are made; for example, Sekhmet is confused with Bastet ("Cat godess, godess of war").
The demotic phonetic transliteration is simply awful.
Often the greek alphabet is used to phonetically write egyptian or demotic words, but the lack of vowels is disregarded or willfully substituted.
Words are joined at will, creating constructions such as "NEPHRO-BANPRE" - which the translator is then unable to interpret correctly.

It's a good starting point, very informative and it's fun to translate those symbols and words the actual translators either couldn't or wouldn't offer an interpretation of, but it's by no means comprehensive.

18 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book of ancient lore. January 10, 2001

By Christine

Format:Paperback

What most people know of ancient Greece is the classics. But behind them, there were the everyday people, the women and the slaves, who had no means of improving their lives. No means but witchcraft. This is a collection of the spells and incantations they used. If you believe in "harm none", you will find this book disturbing. This book reflects the dreams, fears and hopes of desperate people who would try anything, including the use of human corpses of animal sacrifice to get what they needed. But this book also includes some very beautiful hymns and invocation, especially the one addressed to Selene/Artemis. An important book of ancient lore.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Magic is Real !! November 5, 2012

By King David

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a Black Man. I can read pretty well. However the magic words threw me for a loop. I recited them as best as I could. The magic of the spells I selected came in my sleep, clear as day. I got one better for you! I am so good, that all I have to do is selected a spell situation in the index, without reciting a word, and it works!! I am, and have always been a good person. The magic I summon will destroy all my enemies, because they will destroy them selves. As they so, so they will reap. I picked a second spell in the index and the following happened. I was taken to one of the 2012 Mayan Pyramids in a vision, fought with 13 flying green flying serpents in a caged pyramid encloser, it was supposed to be to the death, me or them! I managed to corner them one by one. As I placed them on the top of a large mantle on top of the caged structure, They asked me not to hurt them. They were trembling like frighten children. I rubbed each one and let them go. The Dome cage opened I was taken in a clestial vehicle and brougt back to my home a placed in my bed. My third eye has opened. The pineal gland has activated.