We’re pleased to announce that we have just updated the Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts and Objects, the first of many to come in the framework of the new Coptic Magical Formularies project. As well as the usual corrections and updates, the contents of this update include: For anyone who would like to access the raw data, remember that the Manuscripts and Texts tables may be downloaded from the Database Help page (“About the Kyprianos Database”) in the form of CSV files.
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Animals in Coptic Magic III: Animal Transformation in Christian Literature
In this post we will begin a small subseries within the larger subject of animals in Coptic magic, to look at the theme of animal transformation. In this first part we will discuss this theme in Christian narrative literature from Egypt, while the next posts will look at real magical practice – animal transformation as a metaphor in love and hate spells, and the illusionistic transformation of the practices known as “lamp experiments”. The transformation of humans or human-like beings into animals is a regular theme in literature from around the world, including in Pharaonic Egypt and Classical Greece, two of the cultures which lie behind that of Late Antique…