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…
