In this new series of blog posts, we will be looking at the place of animals in Coptic magic, beginning with an introduction to the different roles that they play, and ending with a discussion of one strange substance. This series summarises and updates an article written by Korshi Dosoo, Suffering Doe and Sleeping Serpent: Animals in Christian Magical Texts from Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt, which is available to read online in open access. It is well known that ancient Egyptians often represented their gods in animal, or part-animal forms, reflecting the idea that the animal form, like the human form, was potentially divine. This idea continues in…