{"id":50801,"date":"2025-01-13T14:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T13:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de\/?p=50801"},"modified":"2025-01-13T14:05:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T13:05:45","slug":"animals-in-coptic-magic-ii-archangels-mustard-and-rabbi-judah-1500-years-of-amulets-against-scorpions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de\/index.php\/2025\/01\/13\/animals-in-coptic-magic-ii-archangels-mustard-and-rabbi-judah-1500-years-of-amulets-against-scorpions\/","title":{"rendered":"Animals in Coptic Magic II: Archangels, Mustard, and Rabbi Judah – 1500 Years of Amulets against Scorpions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"
An image of an amulet against a scorpion created in 1932, after Schulz & Kolta (1998)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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 an advanced age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the editors of this text, Regine Schulz and Kamal Sabri Kolta, note, the use of amulets with drawings of scorpions on them has a very long history in Egypt. While scorpions are not a daily threat for most people in Egypt today, they are still dangerous; a study from 1994-1995 in the area around Assiut in Upper Egypt recorded 302 people visiting the hospital with scorpion stings over the course of the year, so that roughly one in a thousand people in the area were stung badly enough to visit the hospital that year, most of them (nearly 80%) children. In the past, when the population was smaller and less urbanised, scorpions would have posed an even greater threat; this is why we find ritual techniques for repelling them, or healing their stings, throughout Egyptian history. The earliest surviving examples may be found in the burial chamber of the pyramid of King Unas (reigned ca. 2345-2315 BCE). This structure contains the earliest copy of the Pyramid Texts, in which we find spoken formulae to repel snakes and scorpions (formulae 226-230). These were probably used in daily life, but repurposed in the pyramid to protect the king in the afterlife .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The examples we will be discussing today, though, are much later. From between the fifth and twelfth centuries CE survive about three dozen amulets of a distinctive type, consisting of small pieces of papyrus, parchment, or paper on which a simple image of a scorpion has been drawn, and surrounded by text which invokes superhuman powers against these creatures, or commands them to leave. We find these written in all of the major languages used in Egypt in this period \u2013 Greek, Coptic, Arabic, and Hebrew \u2013 suggesting that the use of these amulets was a practice common to Egyptians of different faiths, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and perhaps, at the earliest stage, \u2018pagans\u2019 who did not belong to any of these religions. Whether these practices can be traced back further is unclear; we have some amulets depicting scorpions from the Pharaonic Period, but we don\u2019t know whether these were also used for repelling scorpions, or for some other purpose. Some protective goddesses, like Selket, were associated with scorpions, so that these animals had other, positive, associations too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
PGM CXIII\/SM I 17 (KYP M466<\/a>), with the drawing of the scorpion from Daniel\/Maltomini Supplementum Magicum I <\/em>(1989) on the right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The earliest published amulet of this type is a damaged manuscript from the fifth century, written in Greek, held today in the library of the University of Amsterdam.  It is small \u2013 8.3 cm wide by 6.4 cm high. It has suffered damage all around the edges, but we probably have not lost much text. It begins with a sequence of voces magicae (magical words), probably calling upon various superhuman beings \u2013 the most complete one begins \u201cIraasara\u2026\u201d. These beings are then asked to \u201cdrive away\u201d (\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03b4\u03b9\u03ce\u03be\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5 apodi\u014dxate<\/em>) at least two kinds of dangerous beings; the first one is lost, but the second is scorpions (Greek \u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c1\u03c0\u03af\u03bf\u03c2 skorpios<\/em>). Directly below is a simple drawing of a scorpion which nonetheless captures its important features \u2013 eight legs, curly tail, back plates. The text is, unusually, written in red ink, perhaps to mark it as especially powerful, perhaps just the result of chemical changes in the last 1500 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>

Vienna, Nationalbibliothek K 7110 Pap<\/a> (KYP M251<\/a>), a Coptic scorpion amulet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our second example is in Coptic. Dating to around the tenth or eleventh century, it is currently held in the National Library in Vienna, and written on rag paper. This one is similar in size to the Greek example, 5.7 cm wide and 6.5 cm high. Once again, we find a drawing of a scorpion preceded by the names of superhuman beings, but in this case, the names are more easily recognised \u2013 those of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. The scorpion is much more detailed \u2013 its armoured back is depicted in densely cross-hatched lines, and we see the details of its serrated tail and claws, but it is also less realistic, with ten left legs and twelve right \u2013 a more subjective depiction of a scorpion as a weird creature with too many limbs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
P.Bad. V 162, an Arabic-language amulet against scorpions (image after Bilabel\/Grohmann, Griechische, koptische und arabische Texte zur Religion und religi\u00f6sen Literatur <\/em>(1934)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are six published Arabic examples from Egypt, most of them held today in the Heidelberg University Library, and probably dating to around the same time as the Coptic example \u2013 the tenth to eleventh centuries. Like the Coptic example, they are mainly written on paper, although one uses the more expensive writing support of parchment<\/a>. Most of them have the same text: \u201cSpread-out mustard seed! God is the preserver!\u201d The second part is relatively simple to understand; it calls upon God (Allah) as a protector (\u062d\u0641\u064a\u0638 \u1e25\u0101fi\u1e93), one of his 99 names. The first part is more difficult; the most recent editor of one of these texts, Lajos Berkes, notes that mustard seed has an anti-inflammatory effect, so the usefulness of mustard in treating scorpion stings might be alluded to here. Alternatively, we might think of the pungent and hence repellent qualities of mustard when burned or scattered on the ground – there are two early mediaeval Arabic works of magic, the Goal of the Sage<\/em> and On the Four Great Images<\/em> which use mustard in recipes to repel animals. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Cambridge AS 143.26, a sheet containing 20 scorpion amulets written in Hebrew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The last examples which we will look at here are written in Hebrew, and come from the Genizah of the Ben Ezra synagogue \u2013 the storeroom in which the Jewish population of Cairo disposed of documents for about a thousand years from the ninth century onwards. There are at least three manuscripts of interest to use here, all dating to around the twelfth century; two are similar to the ones we have already seen, in Greek, Coptic, and Arabic, being written on small pieces of paper, and having an image of a scorpion at the bottom. As in the other examples, the manuscripts contain a mixture of voces magicae <\/em>and commands; at the top are three words, of which the second two are recognisable as the Hebrew writings of the Greek words \u201cAphrodite\u201d (\u05d0\u05e4\u05d3\u05d9\u05e8\u05d8\u05d0) and \u201cEpicurus\u201d (\u05d0\u05e4\u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d5\u05e1) \u2013 these are good examples of the influence of older Greek texts on the magical manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah. The meaning of the third name, written \u2019BLYGM\u2019 (\u05d0\u05d1\u05dc\u05d9\u05d2\u05de\u05d0), is uncertain for now. Each word is written in a triangle pointing downwards, created by repeating the word on successive lines, but subtracting the first letter each time. As several scholars, including Christopher Faraone, have discussed, this scheme (German Schwindeschema<\/em>), in which a word slowly disappears, is commonly used in amulets to get rid of illnesses and other problems (here, a scorpion). In the same way that the word disappears, the scorpion should disappear. At the end, the text \u201cexcommunicates\u201d the scorpion in the name of Rabbi Judah son of Ezekiel, commanding that \u201cyou (scorpion) shall not be seen and we shall not be harmed in this land from this day and forever\u201d. As Gideon Bohak, the editor of this text notes, Rabbi Judah was \u201ca famous Babylonian rabbi of the third century CE who, among his many other deeds, effectively cursed those who offended him\u201d, leading to the evocation of his curse in many later Jewish amulets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third Hebrew example, also published by Bohak, is perhaps the most interesting, and consists of a large sheet of paper onto which at least 25 scorpion amulets, more or less the same as the one we have just discussed, were copied<\/a>. The bottom right part of the manuscript has been neatly cut away, suggesting that about six amulets were cut off the sheet to be given to clients; the remaining 20 were never used. As Bohak discusses, this seems to be evidence for the \u2018mass production\u2019 of such scorpion amulets \u2013 practitioners could prepare large numbers of them at once, and then sell or give them away as needed. The person to be protected would then wear them on a necklace or armlet, or carry them in a pocket, perhaps folded or rolled, although their small size means that this would often be unnecessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is rare for magical texts to be preserved in more than one copy, so that the eleven or so surviving manuscripts containing scorpion amulets are striking evidence for their popularity, something which can be explained both by the danger posed by scorpions, and the \u2018mass production\u2019 of amulets to protect against them that we see, at least in Hebrew. These texts show us that this amulet type survived for at least seven hundred years, and we see later versions of a similar practice in the amulet from the 1930s used to heal the woman stung by a scorpion. They also show us that these practices were not restricted to one religious community \u2013 the Greek and Coptic examples were probably produced and used by Christians, the Arabic examples by Muslims, and the Hebrew ones by Jews, yet they all made use of the same basic idea of like repelling like: the depiction of a scorpion is intended to keep real ones away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Berkes, Lajos. \u201cAn Arabic Scorpion-Amulet on Paper from the 10th-11th c. and its Coptic and Hebrew Parallels<\/a>\u201d, Chronique d\u2019\u00c9gypte<\/em> 94, 2019, p. 213-215.
Most recent publication of one of the Arabic-language scorpion amulets, with a synthetic discussion of other examples.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bohak, Gideon. 1999. \u201cGreek, Coptic, and Jewish Magic in the Cairo Genizah<\/a>\u201d, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists<\/em> 36.1\/4, 27-44.
A discussion of some magical texts from the Cairo Genizah, focusing on the relationship between Jewish, Coptic, and Greek magic.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bohak, Gideon. \u201cSome \u201cMass Produced\u201d Scorpion-Amulets from the Cairo Genizah<\/a>“, in Hindy Najman (ed.), A Wandering Galilean: Essays in Honour of Se\u00e1n Freyne<\/em>, 2009, p. 35-49.
Publication of three Hebrew scorpion amulets.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collier, Mark, \u201cThe Sting of the Scorpion\u201d, in Campbell Price, Roger Forshaw, Andrew Chamberlain and Paul T. Nicholson, Mummies, Magic and Medicine in Ancient Egypt. Multidisciplinary Essays for Rosalie David<\/em>, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2016, p. 102-114.
A discussion of older Egyptian protective rituals against scorpions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dosoo, Korshi. \u201cHealing Traditions in Coptic Magical Texts<\/a>\u201d, Trends in Classics <\/em>13.1 (2021), 44\u201394.
A discussion of healing in Coptic magic; the first paragraph of this blog post is taken from p. 78.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dosoo, Korshi. 2022e. \u201cSuffering Doe and Sleeping Serpent: Animals in Christian Magical Texts from Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt<\/a>\u201d, in Korshi Dosoo and Jean-Charles Coulon (eds.), Magikon Z\u014don: Animal et magie dans l\u2019Antiquit\u00e9 et au Moyen \u00c2ge | Animal and Magic from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Paris-Orl\u00e9ans: Institut de recherche et d\u2019histoire des textes, 2022, 495-544.
General discussion of animals in Coptic magic, with a brief look at scorpion amulets on pp. 505-508.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farghly WM, Ali FA. \u201cA clinical and neurophysiological study of scorpion envenomation in Assiut, Upper Egypt\u201d, Acta Paediatr. 1999 (March), 88.3, 290-294.
The study of scorpion stings in the area around Assiut.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faraone, Christopher A. 2012. Vanishing Acts on Ancient Greek Amulets: From Oral Performance to Visual Design.<\/em> London: Institute of Classical Studies.
A study of the use of declining triangles in magic.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frembgen, J. W. \u201cThe Scorpion in Muslim Folklore\u201d, Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 63, n\u00b0 1 (2004), p. 95-123.
A discussion of the role of the scorpion in Muslim folklore, including amulets against them from modern Egypt.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page, Sophie. 2013. Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe. <\/em>University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contains a brief discussion of the use of mustard in repelling pests in the \u201cOn the Four Great Images\u201d (De quattuor imaginibus magnis) on p. 88-89.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schulz, Regine, and Kamal Sabri Kolta. 1998. \u201cSchlangen, Skorpione und feindliche M\u00e4chte\u201d, Biblische Notizen. Beitr\u00e4ge zur exegetischen Diskussion<\/em> 93, 89-104.
Publication of the scorpion amulet from the 1930s.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 an advanced age. As the editors of this text, Regine Schulz and Kamal Sabri Kolta, note, the use of amulets with drawings of scorpions on them has a very long history in Egypt. While scorpions are not a daily threat for most people in Egypt today, they are still dangerous; a study from 1994-1995 in the area around Assiut in Upper Egypt recorded 302 people visiting the hospital with scorpion stings over the course of the year, so that roughly one in a thousand people in the area were stung badly enough to visit the hospital that year, most of them (nearly 80%) children. In the past, when the population was smaller and less urbanised, scorpions would have posed an even greater threat; this is why we find ritual techniques for repelling them, or healing their stings, throughout Egyptian history. The earliest surviving examples may be found in the burial chamber of the pyramid of King Unas (reigned ca. 2345-2315 BCE). This structure contains the earliest copy of the Pyramid Texts, in which we find spoken formulae to repel snakes and scorpions (formulae 226-230). These were probably used in daily life, but repurposed in the pyramid to protect the king in the afterlife . The examples we will be discussing today, though, are much later. From between the fifth and twelfth centuries CE survive about three dozen amulets of a distinctive type, consisting of small pieces of papyrus, parchment, or paper on which a simple image of a scorpion has been drawn, and surrounded by text which invokes superhuman powers against these creatures, or commands them to leave. We find these written in all of the major languages used in Egypt in this period \u2013 Greek, Coptic, Arabic, and Hebrew \u2013 suggesting that the use of these amulets was a practice common to Egyptians of different faiths, Christians, Jews, Muslims, and perhaps, at the earliest stage, \u2018pagans\u2019 who did not belong to any of these religions. Whether these practices can be traced back further is unclear; we have some amulets depicting scorpions from the Pharaonic Period, but we don\u2019t know whether these were also used for repelling scorpions, or for some other purpose. Some protective goddesses, like Selket, were associated with scorpions, so that these animals had other, positive, associations too.  The earliest published amulet of this type is a damaged manuscript from the fifth century, written in Greek, held today in the library of the University of Amsterdam.  It is small \u2013 8.3 cm wide by 6.4 cm high. It has suffered damage all around the edges, but we probably have not lost much text. It begins with a sequence of voces magicae (magical words), probably calling upon various superhuman beings \u2013 the most complete one begins \u201cIraasara\u2026\u201d. These beings are then asked to \u201cdrive away\u201d (\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03b4\u03b9\u03ce\u03be\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5 apodi\u014dxate) at least two kinds of dangerous beings; the first one is lost, but the second is scorpions (Greek \u03c3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c1\u03c0\u03af\u03bf\u03c2 skorpios). Directly below is a simple drawing of a scorpion which nonetheless captures its important features \u2013 eight legs, curly tail, back plates. The text is, unusually, written in red ink, perhaps to mark it as especially powerful, perhaps just the result of chemical changes in the last 1500 years. Our second example is in Coptic. Dating to around the tenth or eleventh century, it is currently held in the National Library in Vienna, and written on rag paper. This one is similar in size to the Greek example, 5.7 cm wide and 6.5 cm high. Once again, we find a drawing of a scorpion preceded by the names of superhuman beings, but in this case, the names are more easily recognised \u2013 those of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. The scorpion is much more detailed \u2013 its armoured back is depicted in densely cross-hatched lines, and we see the details of its serrated tail and claws, but it is also less realistic, with ten left legs and twelve right \u2013 a more subjective depiction of a scorpion as a weird creature with too many limbs. There are six published Arabic examples from Egypt, most of them held today in the Heidelberg University Library, and probably dating to around the same time as the Coptic example \u2013 the tenth to eleventh centuries. Like the Coptic example, they are mainly written on paper, although one uses the more expensive writing support of parchment. Most of them have the same text: \u201cSpread-out mustard seed! God is the preserver!\u201d The second part is relatively simple to understand; it calls upon God (Allah) as a protector (\u062d\u0641\u064a\u0638 \u1e25\u0101fi\u1e93), one of his 99 names. The first part is more difficult; the most recent editor of one of these texts, Lajos Berkes, notes that mustard seed has an anti-inflammatory effect, so the usefulness of mustard in treating scorpion stings might be alluded to here. Alternatively, we might think of the pungent and hence repellent qualities of mustard when burned or scattered on the ground – there are two early mediaeval Arabic works of magic, the Goal of the Sage and On the Four Great Images which use mustard in recipes to repel animals. The last examples which we will look at here are written in Hebrew, and come from the Genizah of the Ben Ezra synagogue \u2013 the storeroom in which the Jewish population of Cairo disposed of documents for about a thousand years from the ninth century onwards. There are at least three manuscripts of interest to use here, all dating to around the twelfth century; two are similar to the ones we have already seen, in Greek, Coptic, and Arabic, being written on small pieces of paper, and having an image of a scorpion at the bottom. As in the other examples, the manuscripts contain a mixture of voces magicae and commands; at the top are three words, of which the second two are recognisable as the Hebrew writings of the Greek words \u201cAphrodite\u201d (\u05d0\u05e4\u05d3\u05d9\u05e8\u05d8\u05d0) and \u201cEpicurus\u201d (\u05d0\u05e4\u05d9\u05e7\u05e8\u05d5\u05e1) \u2013 these are good examples of the influence of older Greek texts on the magical manuscripts of the Cairo Genizah. The meaning of the third name, written \u2019BLYGM\u2019 (\u05d0\u05d1\u05dc\u05d9\u05d2\u05de\u05d0), is uncertain for now. Each word is written in a triangle pointing downwards, created by repeating the word on successive lines, but subtracting the first letter each time. As several scholars, including Christopher Faraone, have discussed, this scheme (German Schwindeschema), in which a word slowly disappears, is commonly used in amulets to get rid of illnesses and other problems (here, a scorpion). In the same way that the word disappears, the scorpion should disappear. At the end, the text \u201cexcommunicates\u201d the scorpion in the name of Rabbi Judah son of Ezekiel, commanding that \u201cyou (scorpion) shall not be seen and we shall not be harmed in this land from this day and forever\u201d. As Gideon Bohak, the editor of this text notes, Rabbi Judah was \u201ca famous Babylonian rabbi of the third century CE who, among his many other deeds, effectively cursed those who offended him\u201d, leading to the evocation of his curse in many later Jewish amulets. The third Hebrew example, also published by Bohak, is perhaps the most interesting, and consists of a large sheet of paper onto which at least 25 scorpion amulets, more or less the same as the one we have just discussed, were copied. The bottom right part of the manuscript has been neatly cut away, suggesting that about six amulets were cut off the sheet to be given to clients; the remaining 20 were never used. As Bohak discusses, this seems to be evidence for the \u2018mass production\u2019 of such scorpion amulets \u2013 practitioners could prepare large numbers of them at once, and then sell or give them away as needed. The person to be protected would then wear them on a necklace or armlet, or carry them in a pocket, perhaps folded or rolled, although their small size means that this would often be unnecessary. It is rare for magical texts to be preserved in more than one copy, so that the eleven or so surviving manuscripts containing scorpion amulets are striking evidence for their popularity, something which can be explained both by the danger posed by scorpions, and the \u2018mass production\u2019 of amulets to protect against them that we see, at least in Hebrew. These texts show us that this amulet type survived for at least seven hundred years, and we see later versions of a similar practice in the amulet from the 1930s used to heal the woman stung by a scorpion. They also show us that these practices were not restricted to one religious community \u2013 the Greek and Coptic examples were probably produced and used by Christians, the Arabic examples by Muslims, and the Hebrew ones by Jews, yet they all made use of the same basic idea of like repelling like: the depiction of a scorpion is intended to keep real ones away.  Bibliography Berkes, Lajos. \u201cAn Arabic Scorpion-Amulet on Paper from the 10th-11th c. and its Coptic and Hebrew Parallels\u201d, Chronique d\u2019\u00c9gypte 94, 2019, p. 213-215.Most recent publication of one of the Arabic-language scorpion amulets, with a synthetic discussion of other examples. Bohak, Gideon. 1999. \u201cGreek, Coptic, and Jewish Magic in the Cairo Genizah\u201d, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 36.1\/4, 27-44.A discussion of some magical texts from the Cairo Genizah, focusing on the relationship between Jewish, Coptic, and Greek magic. Bohak, Gideon. \u201cSome \u201cMass Produced\u201d Scorpion-Amulets from the Cairo Genizah“, in Hindy Najman (ed.), A Wandering Galilean: Essays in Honour of Se\u00e1n Freyne, 2009, p. 35-49.Publication of three Hebrew scorpion amulets. Collier, Mark, \u201cThe Sting of the Scorpion\u201d, in Campbell Price, Roger Forshaw, Andrew Chamberlain and Paul T. Nicholson, Mummies, Magic and Medicine in Ancient Egypt. Multidisciplinary Essays for Rosalie David, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2016, p. 102-114.A discussion of older Egyptian protective rituals against scorpions. Dosoo, Korshi. \u201cHealing Traditions in Coptic Magical Texts\u201d, Trends in Classics 13.1 (2021), 44\u201394.A discussion of healing in Coptic magic; the first paragraph of this blog post is taken from p. 78. Dosoo, Korshi. 2022e. \u201cSuffering Doe and Sleeping Serpent: Animals in Christian Magical Texts from Late Roman and Early Islamic Egypt\u201d, in Korshi Dosoo and Jean-Charles Coulon (eds.), Magikon Z\u014don: Animal et magie dans l\u2019Antiquit\u00e9 et au Moyen \u00c2ge | Animal and Magic from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Paris-Orl\u00e9ans: Institut de recherche et d\u2019histoire des textes, 2022, 495-544.General discussion of animals in Coptic magic, with a brief look at scorpion amulets on pp. 505-508. Farghly WM, Ali FA. \u201cA clinical and neurophysiological study of scorpion envenomation in Assiut, Upper Egypt\u201d, Acta Paediatr. 1999 (March), 88.3, 290-294.The study of scorpion stings in the area around Assiut. Faraone, Christopher A. 2012. Vanishing Acts on Ancient Greek Amulets: From Oral Performance to Visual Design. London: Institute of Classical Studies.A study of the use of declining triangles in magic. Frembgen, J. W. \u201cThe Scorpion in Muslim Folklore\u201d, Asian Folklore Studies, vol. 63, n\u00b0 1 (2004), p. 95-123.A discussion of the role of the scorpion in Muslim folklore, including amulets against them from modern Egypt. Page, Sophie. 2013. Magic in the Cloister: Pious Motives, Illicit Interests, and Occult Approaches to the Medieval Universe. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 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