Product Description

"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.. A comprehensive text, this volume contains a fresh translation of the Greek papyri, as well as Coptic and Demotic texts, the new translation has also been brought up to date.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #444460 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 406 pages

Customer Reviews

Amazing High Magic (not witchcraft)
This book is an amazing compendium of High Magic from between the 2nd Century BC and the 5th century AD. It may even represent the library of a single scholar/magician, (and almost certainly has nothing to do with witchcraft, slaves or the disempowered).

The spells put to shame those in later grimoires such as the Lesser and Greater Key of Solomon. This isn't dabbling with a handful of Goetic Demons, this is binding the very Gods themselves to your will!

Some of the spells are stunning in their daring (breakfast with a god, anybody?) or their wierdness (fancy your shadow as an assistant daemon?).

Others are breathtaking in the way they reflect the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Late Antique Alexandria, mixing rabbinical, Zoroastrian, Gnostic, Egyptian, Greek and nascent Christian traditions.

There's also a scattering of quirky basic curses, divinations, good-luck charms and medical material (e.g. crocodile dung as a contraceptive) to add local colour.

This is the kind of book any amateur scholar of magic should have. It's also useful for roleplayers - it's as close as you're going to get to a real Necronomicon...

An important book of ancient lore.
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 belive 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.

A Varied Collection Of Sorcery In The Ancient World.
These pieces where written when science was exactly the same as sorcery, it is a mixture of supposed 'higher' practises and also common household 'lower' cures for various health and social disorders. The text includes information that has very much been lost by 'modern magicians' like the gaining of an assistant, which is a must have to have been a sorcer and the meeting of the gods. The text also includes pieces of text that can still be found today like the sixth book of moses that fits neatly in the middle sections of the book. This collection of texts is a must have for anyone interested in ancient belief and practises as you can clearly see the panic and supersticous nature of the people who would trust there well being to symbols, talismans and the sorcerers incantations.