More 123 Magic
More 123 Magic
The study of magic in the Greco-Roman world is a branch of the disciplines of classics, ancient history and religious studies. In the ancient post-hellenistic world of the Greeks and Romans (the Greco-Roman world), the public and private rituals associated with religion are accepted by historians and archaeologists to have been a part of everyday life. Examples of this phenomenon are found in the various state and cult Temples, Jewish Synagogues and in the early Christian cathedrals and churches. These were important hubs for the ancient peoples of the Greco-Roman world that were representative of a connection between the heavenly realms (the divine) and the earthly planes (the dwelling place of humanity). This context of magic has become an academic study especially in the last twenty years. Magic is generally seen as "any attempt to control the environment or the self by means that are either untested or untestable, such as charms or spells."
Terminology
The principal defining factor of magic in the classical world is that it was held in low esteem and condemned by the speakers and writers. According to Robert Parker, "magic differs from religion as weeds differ from flowers"; magic was often seen consisting of practices that range from silly superstition to the wicked and dangerous. However magic seems to have borrowed from religion, adopting religious ceremonies and divine names, and the two are sometimes difficult to clearly distinguish. Magic is often differentiated from religion in that it is manipulative rather than supplicatory of the deities; this is not a hard and fast rule, though, and with many ritual acts it is difficult to tell whether they are coercive or supplicatory. Also, some mainstream religious rites openly set out to constrain the gods. Other rough criteria sometimes used to distinguish magic from religion include: that it is aimed at selfish or immoral ends; and that it is conducted in secrecy, often for a paying client. Religious rites, on the other hand, are more often aimed at lofty goals such as salvation or rebirth, and are conducted in the open for the benefit of the community or a group of followers.
Alongside the more common manifestations of state religion, ancient peoples sought individual contact and assistance, along with influence, with the heavenly realms through other channels. Religious ritual had the intended purpose of giving a god their just due honor, or asking for divine intervention and favor, while magic is seen as practiced by those who seek only power, and often undertaken based on a false scientific basis. Ultimately, the practice of magic includes rites that do not play a part in worship, and are ultimately irreligious. Associations with this term tend to be an evolving process in ancient literature, but generally speaking ancient magic reflects aspects of broader religious traditions in the Mediterranean world, that is, a belief in magic reflects a belief in deities, divination, and words of power. The concept of magic however came to represent a more coherent and self-reflective tradition exemplified by magicians seeking to fuse varying non-traditional elements of Greco-Roman religious practice into something specifically called magic. This fusing of practices reached its peak in the world of the Roman Empire, in the third to fifth centuries CE. This article therefore covers the development of this tradition and an evolving definition associated with the term "magic" in the texts left to us by practitioners and authors of the ancient Greco-Roman world.
Via Latin magicis , the word "magic" derives from Greek magikos , with "magic" being the art and craft of the magos , the Greek word for followers of "Zoroaster" (i.e. either Zoroaster or Pseudo-Zoroaster). The relationship with "magic" derives from the Hellenistic identification of (Pseudo-)Zoroaster as the "inventor" of both astrology and magic. This was in turn influenced by (among other factors) the Greek penchant for seeking hidden meanings in words; the name "Zoroaster" was presumed to have something to do with the stars (- astr ), while magos was perceived to have to do with goēs , the old Greek word for "magic" (in the modern sense). However, in the main, (Pseudo-)Zoroaster seems to have been almost exclusively identified with astrology, and magic then remained the domain of other (real or putative) "magians" such as the synthetic "Ostanes".
Because magos / magikos were influenced by the association with the old Greek word for "magic", Greek magos / magikos accordingly held the same meaning that "magic" and "magician" do today. Although a few Greek writers – e.g. Herodotus, Xenophon, Plutarch – did use magos in connection with their descriptions of (Zoroastrian) religious beliefs or practices, the majority seem to have understood it in the sense of "magician". Accordingly, the more skeptical writers then also identified the "magicians" – i.e. the magians – as charlatans or frauds. In Plato's Symposium (202e), the Athenian identified them as maleficent, allowing however a measure of efficacy as a function of the god Eros. Pliny paints them in particularly bad light.
The History of Animals , a work attributed to Aristotle, seeks to establish that the planets and the fixed stars and daemons (lower order spirits) influence life on earth, and advocates a concept of sympathies and antipathies applied to the forces of the animal world, under the influence of the stars. The attribution of much of this material may be spurious, since Books 7-10 of the History , in which these ideas mostly appear, are not considered genuine by most scholars (Book 10, for instance, is missing in the oldest extant manuscript), but the material still probably reflects teachings of the Aristotelian school. It shows that "Greek science at its best was not untainted by magic", and that the Aristotelian school subscribed to astrology, a system of natural sympathies and antipathies, and in principle at least believed in the existence of daemons.
Homeric magic
In Greek literature, the earliest magical operation that supports a definition of magic as a practice aimed at trying to locate and control the secret forces (the sympathies and antipathies that make up these forces) of the world (physis) is found in Book X of The Odyssey (a text at least as old as the early 8th century BCE). Book X describes the encounter of the central hero Odysseus with the Titan Circe, "She who is sister to the wizard Aeetes, both being children of the Sun…by the same mother, Perse the daughter of the Ocean," on the island of Aeaea. In the story Circe's magic consists in the use of a wand against Odysseus and his men while Odysseus's magic consists of the use of a secret herb called moly (revealed to him by the god Hermes, "god of the golden wand") to defend himself from her attack. In the story three requisites crucial to the idiom of "magic" in later literature are found:
- The use of a mysterious tool endowed with special powers (the wand).
- The use of a rare magical herb.
- A divine figure that reveals the secret of the magical act (Hermes).
These are arguably the three most common elements that characterize magic as a system in the later Hellenistic and greco-Roman periods of history.
Another important element to defining magic is also found in the story. In the story Circe is presented as being in the form of a beautiful woman (a temptress) when Odysseus encounters her on an island. In this encounter Circe uses her wand to change Odysseus’ companions into swine. This suggests that magic is often associated with practices that go against the natural order, or against wise and good forces (Circe is called a witch by a companion of Odysseus). Circe too is representative of a power (the Titans) that had been conquered by the younger Olympian gods such as Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Furthermore she had been banished to the island of Aeaea after having murdered her husband. She is thus quite dangerous: secretive, opposed to the gods, a semi-divine power left over from the older god culture of the Titans. However the internal fact that Odysseus has first to visit her before she becomes a threat suggests that she has a relatively harmless power if one keeps to a distance, but very dangerous if one comes within reach of her magic. Magic then is a second-class power, it does not compare to the powers of tradition or of the gods. It has to work in secret to achieve its ends. Thus, although Circe changes Odysseus's companions into swine, she has no power over Odysseus himself because of his own magic, the herb, moly. Magic is defeatable by other magic. Odysseus's magic is more acceptable because a legitimate god (Hermes) confers the wisdom of its use to Odysseus.
Not even Hermes, however, can protect Odysseus from Circe's physical charms; and the hero does eventually succumb to the power of the magic user. This represents the idea that users of magic are not to be trusted because of the powers they are prepared to pursue and use, in this case the sexual powers associated with witches. This is indicated by the fact that Circe can not only transform men into beasts but is also able to predict the future. This ability is linked in with another magical motif of the Odyssey epic, the necromantic scene in Book XI. Following Circe's instructions on how to journey to the underworld, Odysseus digs a trench, pours out as an offering to the dead a drink that consists of honey, mi
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