magic witchcraft and ghosts in greek and roman worlds a sourcebook

[...]... miracle-mongering When a cargo ship was coming to harbor at Metapontum and those at hand were praying that it should come in safely on account of its freight, Pythagoras, who was standing by, said “Then you will see a dead body sailing the boat!” And again in Caulonia, as Aristotle says tells many stories about Pythagoras He tells that Pythagoras killed a snake of deadly bite in. .. Includes a substantial, up-to-date, guide to further reading 3 4 MAGIC, WITCHCRAFT, AND GHOSTS IN THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLDS In the last decade there has been an explosion in interest in ancient magic and the related field of ghosts among scholars of classical antiquity This has generated new insights into these inherently fascinating subjects and, beyond this, into the broader social history of the ancient... story one hears in these two cities, but I know for sure what happened to the Metapontines in Italy two hundred and forty years after Aristeas’s second disappearance, as I discovered by making calculations in Proconessus and Metapontum The Metapontines tell that Aristeas made an actual appearance in their country and bade them establish an altar for Apollo and to erect by its side a statue bearing the... sacrifices [thusiais] and incantations [epôidais], to cure with pleasures and festivals any wrong done by the man himself or his ancestors, and that they will harm an enemy, a just man or an unjust man alike, for a small fee, if a man wishes it, since they persuade the gods, as they say, to serve them, by certain charms [epagôgais] and bindings [katadesmois] And they bring in [epagontai] the poets as... and mysteries, and that, spending time in Samothrace, they amazed the inhabitants of the island to an extraordinary degree with these This was the time at which Orpheus too, who had an outstanding ability in poetry and song, became their pupil, and became the first to make initiation rites and mysteries known to the Greeks CHAPTER 2: GREEK SORCERERS Anyway, tradition tells that the Idaean Dactyls in. .. also Aeschines 3.137) 17 18 MAGIC, WITCHCRAFT, AND GHOSTS IN THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLDS 13 Hippocrates attacks the mages’ cure for epilepsy v–iv B.C Hippocrates On the Sacred Disease 1.10–46 Greek 10 I think that the first people to have projected this disease [epilepsy] as “sacred” were men like those who are now mages [magoi] and purifiers [kathartai] and beggar-priests [agurtai] and vagrant-charlatans... pre-Christian and especially archaic and classical Greek evidence to the full, without neglecting the later period • Presents this material in a fashion that is readily accessible to undergraduates and interested amateurs (whether approaching the material from an interest in ancient social history or from a more general one in the so-called occult) • Allows the material, so far as possible, to “speak for... recurs) • Incantation • Charlatanry • Drawing down the moon and astronomical control • Venality • Amorality • Purification • Healing magic • Defense against the magic of others This series of terms is comparable to that constructed by Plato (see 14–16 with commentaries), and seems to expand the associations already apparent in the Heraclitus fragment (10) To the casual observer, the author may not have seemed... collapse, although the Derveni commentary (18) suggests that Orphic initiates at any rate may have perceived a kinship with mages for themselves The attributes of Plato’s amalgam may be summarized: • They are sorcerers (goêteia and manganeia) • They are beggar-priests (agurtai) • They are initiates into mysteries • They offer initiation into mysteries • Charms (epagôgai) • Purifications of individuals and. .. elements; association with the cult of Hyperborean Apollo; dismissal of pollution and pestilence For another possible archaic shaman see 140; for later Greek “shamans” see 57–64 9 10 MAGIC, WITCHCRAFT, AND GHOSTS IN THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLDS 1 Pythagoras finds wisdom in the underworld And Hermippus has something else to say about Pythagoras For he relates that when he was in iii B.C (Hermippus); Italy he made . of ghosts for magical purposes was for necromancy, a 6MAGIC, WITCHCRAFT, AND GHOSTS IN THE GREEK AND ROMAN WORLDS term I use here in its original sense to mean “divination from the dead,” and this. Roman Worlds DANIEL OGDEN ; ; ; Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds A SOURCEBOOK 1 2002 3 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam. class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Source Book DANIEL OGDEN OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman