Superstition as fear of the gods February 7, 2009
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: agents, antiquity, charms, consultation, creations, divine, events, evil, fear, herbs, humanity, intervention, magical, minds, nature, practices, prayers, rites, roots, secrets, sorcerers, spells, Supernatural, superstition, superstitious, taboos, traditions, wisdom, witches
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In the late antiquity people were certainly extremely superstitious. I am talking not only about simple people but also about the great minds like Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Apuleius and the like, whose creations I had a chance to read in my web analytics company. These writers define superstition as fear of the gods that leads to the need to resort to magical rites and taboos, the consultation of professional sorcerers and witches, charms and spells, and unintelligible language in prayers addressed to the gods. Not just simple people, but even highly educated people of that time took for granted other magical practices, such as hurting someone by the evil eye. They also believed in daemons that serve as agents or links between gods and human beings and are responsible for many supernatural events in human life that are commonly attributed to divine intervention. Some daemons are good, some are evil, but even the good ones, in moments of anger, can do harmful acts.
It seems that great mind of that time were also convinced of the powers of certain herbs or roots as revealed to humanity by the gods. They argued that the divine powers in their concern for the welfare of humanity wish for humanity to discover the secrets of nature. For example, in their wisdom the gods sought to bring humans gradually closer to their status; which certainly many magical traditions seek.
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Apollonius of Tyana January 22, 2009
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: antiquity, bestseller, columns, combination, creation, doctrine, fake, figures, heaven, interest, magical, magician, magus, manuscript, memoirs, novel, philosopher, powers, talismans, teacher, traveling
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The third magician of interest in that period of the Roman Empire was Apollonius of Tyana. Between 217 and 238 Flavius Philostratus wrote his Life of Apollonius of Tyana. It was a lengthy novel about magical powers of Apollonius. According to Philostratus, this novel was born out of the memoirs of somebody named Damis, who was a disciple of great magic user Apollonious. He claimed that the memoirs were owned by empress Julia Domna, mother of emperor Caracalla.
In any case Philostratus creation was a literary fake. From the pages of the novel Apollonius emerges as an ascetic traveling teacher. He is usually labeled a new Pythagoras, and he does represent the same combination of philosopher and magus that Pythagoras was. According to Philostratus, Apollonius traveled far and wide, as far as India, teaching ideas reasonably consistent with traditional Pythagorean doctrine. Anyway, this manuscript became a bestseller in Roman empire of Late Antiquity. Apollonius was so popular that talismans allegedly made by Apollonius appeared in several Greek cities of the Eastern Roman Empire, as if they were sent from heaven. Some magical figures and columns dedicated to him were also erected in public places to protect the cities from plagues and evil.
Greatest magicians of all times December 23, 2008
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: antiquity, birth, citizens, clues, development, empire, features, life, magic, magician, magicians, miracle, opinion, origin, people, point, prophecies, religion, spells, story, texts
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I was researching the development of magic in the late antiquity period of Roman empire for my web analytics company. And that is when I stumpled upon a very interesting fact. You probably would be surprised to hear it, as I was. But in the first and second centuries CE, in the opinion of the Roman empire citizens, three men were considered greatest magicians of all times: Simon Magus, Apollonius of Tyana, … and Jesus Christ.
So, why Jesus? From pagan Roman point of view Jesus was a typical miracle-worker. He exorcised daemons, healed the sick, made prophecies and raised the dead. Time went by and Christianity grew. Eventually, it became seen as a threat to established traditions of ancient religion in the Greco-Roman. That is why Jesus was accused of being a magic user. And, naturally, this accusation later was switched on all early Christians as well.
Pagan people of Rome including scholars read into Christian texts too much looking for clues to prove that Jesus was a magician. As we know, Gospels told a life story full of features common to divinely touched figures. For example, Jesus’ divine origin, his miraculous birth, and his facing of a powerful daemon. The gospel of Matthew even mentions briefly that Jesus was taken to Egypt as an infant. Well, hostile forces among pagan Roman scholars used Gospel to explain Jesus’s knowledge of magic. According to one negative story, Jesus came back from Egypt tattooed with spells. It was also argued that Jesus was mad, which was often associated with people of great power.
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Magical papyri October 24, 2008
Posted by egabriel in History of Magic.Tags: antiquity, books, concepts, cults, effects, formulas, fraction, gestures, ingredients, interest, literature, magic, magical, manuscripts, mystery, papyri, poetry, points, practitioners, prose, recipes, ritual, rituals, talent, terms, texts
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It seems, that a huge interest in magic was on the rise in the Hellenistic period, especially around 3d century b.c. Piles of texts, both literary and some from actual practitioners, in Greek and in Latin came to us from this time. Truly speaking, a lot of existing magical papyri was written in the first centuries after Christ, but the manuscripts’ concepts, formulas and rituals reflect the earlier Hellenistic period. These magical papyri are no doubt only a fraction of the magical literature available in antiquity. The ascendancy of orthodox Christianity by the 5th century CE had much to do with this. This is reflected by the book of Acts where the Apostle Paul convinces many Ephesians to bring out their magical books and burn them.
The language of the magical texts reflects various levels of literary skill. Generally they are standard Greek, and may well be closer to the spoken language of the time than to poetry or artistic prose left to us in literary texts. Many terms are borrowed from the mystery cults. The texts are often written as we might write a recipe. In other words the magic requires certain ingredients. Of course it is not just as simple as knowing how to put a recipe together. Appropriate gestures, at certain points in the magical ritual, are required to accompany the ingredients, different gestures it would seem produce various effects. A magical ritual done in the right way can guarantee the revealing of dreams and of course the rather useful talent of interpreting them correctly.
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