Product Description

This study is the first to assemble the evidence for the existence of sorcerors and sorceresses in the ancient world. Compelling and revealing in the breadth of evidence employed this will be an essential resource.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2518123 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 392 pages

Review
'Magic and Magicians in the Greco-Roman World is the fruit of prodigious reading and profound scholarship, yet never bogs down to its own accumulation of facts.' - Los Angeles Times

'An outstanding book that combines impressive scholarship with clarity and accessibility, and belongs at once in the collection of specialists and on undergraduate reading lists, perhaps even as a prescribed textbook.' - Classical Review

From the Back Cover
This study is the first to assemble the evidence for the existence of sorcerers and sorceresses in the ancient world; it also addresses the question of their identity and social origins. The resulting investigation takes us to the underside of Greek and Roman society, into a world of wandering holy men and women, conjurors and wonder-workers, and into the lives of prostitutes, procuresses, charioteers and theatrical performers.
Matthew Dickie pursues the elusive figure of the magic-worker throughout ancient Greece and the cities of coastal Asia Minor, and on into the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. He traces the development of the concept of magic in Greece in the fifth century BC, and how these ideas were transferred to Rome and Italy, along with the whole paraphernalia of Hellenistic magical practices and practitioners. There is also discussion of the constraints - both legal and socio-cultural - on the actions of magicians in Athens, Rome and her provinces, and the Christian Roman Empire.
This fascinating reconstruction of the careers of witches and sorcerers allows us to see into previously inaccessible areas of Greco-Roman life. Compelling for both its detail and clarity, and with an extraordinarily revealing breadth of evidence employed, it will be an essential resource for anyone studying ancient magic.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic
Very well written and extremely well researched, this is the must have book for all interested in this subject. One cannot fault the scholarship and the usual pitfalls when approaching this subject have been neatly sidestepped to deliver a serious and fascinating book on a subject not much covered in academia.

Invaluable for post-graduate research.