On the ninth of March 1932, a young Coptic woman living near el-Badari in Upper Egypt was stung on the chest by a scorpion. A healer named Butros Salib Girgis Bahum Biyush was called, and he copied an amulet onto a piece of paper for her, depicting an image of a huge black scorpion, surrounded by Arabic and Coptic text calling upon God to overcome the power of the scorpion sting, making reference to the Biblical promise in Psalm LXX 90 (Masoretic 91) that the Lord would tread upon scorpion and serpent and the power of the Adversary. Thanks, perhaps, to the amulet, the woman survived, and subsequently lived to…
-
- Animals in Coptic Magic, Coptic Favour Spells, Coptic Love Spells, Coptic Magic, Greek Magic, History of Magic
Animals in Coptic Magic I: The Blood of a White Dove
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…
-
Podcast #14: Looking Back at the Five Years of the Project & Presenting Papyri Copticae Magicae
In this episode, I discuss the results of the Coptic Magical Papyri project with Korshi Dosoo, the project leader. We also discuss our new book, Papyri Copticae Magicae volume 1, which is available for sale in printed and electronic format on the De Gruyter website. For more details on the book, click here. To purchase the book, click here.
-
Podcast #12: Talking Ancient Magic with David Frankfurter
In this episode, the well-known scholar of ancient Mediterranean religion David Frankfurter not only introduces the into the basic questions concerning magic in the ancient world, but also shares his memories of magic studies during their revival in the 1990’s. David Frankfurter specializes in Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, magical texts, popular religion, and Egypt in the Roman and late antique periods. Frankfurter’s particular interests revolve around theoretical issues like the place of magic in religion, the relationship of religion and violence, the nature of Christianization, and the representation of evil in culture. David Frankfurter earned his bachelor degree in Religion from Wesleyan University, master of theological studies degree from…
-
Podcast #10: Greek and Egyptian deities in Coptic magical texts with Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin
In this podcast episode, we are discussing Greek and Egyptian deities appearing in Coptic magical texts, which are predominantly Christian. How is it possible that one encounters Artemis and Jesus in the very same text (BNF Suppl. Grec. 1340)? And Isis and Horus in many others at the time when Christianity was predominant in Egypt? Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin, our guest for this podcast episode, helps us to understand how such mixing of various traditions was possible and what shape this tendency took. Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin defended a thesis on this topic, appearing later this year as part of the Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta series (Peeters). Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin has obtained a…
-
Podcast #8: Praise of the Archangel Michael – A Case Study
This episode was created to celebrate the new edition of the “Praise of the Archangel Michael” (P. Heid. Inv. Kopt. 686), produced by the Coptic Magical Project, a prayer written on a parchment codex in Coptic and dated to the 10th century CE. The text is unique, as it is one of the longest magical texts, and it provides many details on the cosmology of Egyptian Christians of that era who were using and producing the magical text. In the first part of the podcast, the text is presented and this is followed by an interview with Korshi Dosoo who clarifies various aspects of the prayer (5:02). Next, you’ll hear the…
-
Podcast #1: Coptic Magic with Jacques van der Vliet
In the first podcast episode, created by the Coptic Magical Papyri project based at the University of Würzburg, Germany, we discuss ancient magic with professor Jacques van der Vliet of the University of Leiden, an expert on Coptic manuscripts, Gnosticism and ancient magic. Who was the ancient magician? What were his magical practices? You can listen to our podcast here, or you can find it on Spotify, Stitcher and Podcast Addict. Our podcast will be coming soon on iTunes as well. A link to the podcast is also on the sidebar, on the right.
-
Coptic Curses III: “You will shatter the face of so-and-so!”
This week’s post takes a deep dive into a curse from Kyprianos, our database of Coptic magical texts, by returning to a manuscript already discussed in a previous post: P. Heidelberg inv. Kopt. 681 is a sheet of parchment, cut into a long rectangle measuring 29.5cm by 10.9cm. As introduced in the post Coptic Amulets II: Sending an angel to give grace, this sheet is a formulary – a manuscript containing one or more spell(s) with formulas to be filled in, rather than an activated text – containing the name of the person who would benefit from, or be cursed by, the spell. The flesh side of the parchment, the…
-
Coptic Curses II: Flaccid, Limp, and Lying like a Corpse
This week’s post takes another deep dive into one example of a curse from Kyprianos, our database of Coptic magical texts. Chicago, Oriental Institute Museum E13767 is a sheet of paper cut into a rectangle that measures 6cm in height by 16 in width. One horizontal crease suggests that it was folded vertically only once, while 15 vertical creases suggest it was folded multiple times, or rolled and squashed into a small package of only about 3cm in height and 1cm in width. Bought from a private collection for the Oriental Institute Museum in 1929, it is unfortunately unknown where the manuscript was found. The handwriting of this text suggests…
-
Coptic Amulets I: A Healing Amulet to Save Ahmed from Cold and Fire
This week’s post takes a deep dive into one example of a healing amulet from Kyprianos, our database of Coptic magical texts: P. Heidelberg inv. Kopt. 544b is a sheet of parchment, cut into a rough rectangle measuring 7.3cm by 6.5cm. This sheet was folded seven times horizontally and twice vertically, producing a tight package of c.1.1cm by c.2.5cm. As we will see, the text itself suggests that this package was to be worn by the client, Ahmed. The text’s 19 lines were inscribed upon the flesh side of the parchment, the inward-facing side of the skin, while the hair side, which would have faced outwards, was left blank. The…