Carl Burgers
OXFORD READINGS IN GREEK RELIGION
Chapter 14:
Greek Magic, Greek Religion
by Robert L. Fowler
I. Words
defixio
kourotrophos
goes
II. “The definition of magic is notoriously
difficult” (pg. 318)
* Magic was normal and ubiquitous in everyday life
* “Magic” and “religion”
* “Magic” traditionally seen as separate from “religion”
* The difference is not in substance as much as social context
and attitude. “One is approved of, the other almost always not.”
(pg. 331)
* “Society” is a value pushed in the explanation of
religion, but the individual is very important to Greek religion
and is absolutely central to Greek magic
I. Individual Magic
A. defixio – binding spell
1. caster seeks to “bind” or incapacitate his enemy
2. normally written on pieces of metal and buried in a secret place
3. language indistinguishable from pious prayer
i. Chryses in Iliad book 1 so there
4. e.g.: bankrupt a business rival, blight a neighbor’s crops, cripple
and athlete, silence an orator (very popular)
II. non-defixio binding spells
1. not always in secret: sometimes on tombstones, set up in sq uares,
enshrined in the law
2. appealing to justice
III. The Orphic Tablets
1. tablets inscribed with magic formulae
2. ensured favorable reception into the next world
IV. Magic in Medicine
1. combination of medicine and incantations
i. Sons of Autolykos in Odyssey 19
ii. Sokrates in Plato’s Charmides
iii. amulets and charms universally used
* “Religious Magic”
* “scholars have denigrated magical activities as the domain of
the superstitious not worth the attention of students of religion.”
(pg. 321)
* “public ritual and private magic, though not identical, often
overlapped” (pg. 322)
* Charlatans were scorned
1. thought of as a refutation of magic
2. yet magic was still encouraged from the correct “channels”
i. rain-magic in Greece
ii. rain-magic at the Eleusinian Mysteries
* The integral role of magic in many areas has been overlooked
1. The Pythia of Delphi
2. The Eleusinian Mysteries
3. The Thesmophoria
4. Scapegoat rituals
5. Sacred marriages
6. animal destruction
* What scholars have deemed “initiation rites”
1. The Panathenaia
2. The Arrhephoria
3. Arkteia for Artemis at Brauron
* Conclusions
* Religion is more than purely sociological
1. People will not pursue a belief simply for social reasons
2. If religion is then also personal then the examples of personal rites
are both magic and religious
* “magic does not differ in essence from religion; it differs only
in the degree of social approval it enjoys, or does not enjoy.” (pg.
341)
Return to Main Page: CLST 4003H. Honors Colloquium
on Greek Religion
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