Magical practice in the Latin West : : papers from the International Conference held at the University of Zaragoza, 30 Sept.-1 Oct. 2005 / / edited by Richard L. Gordon and Francisco Marco Simon.

• Superior document: Religions in the Graeco-Roman world, v. 168
• Author: Magical Practice in the Latin-speaking Empire (Late Republic to Late Antiquity) University of Zaragoza)
• TeilnehmendeR: Gordon, R. L.; Marco Simon, Francisco.
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Religions in the Graeco-Roman world ; v. 168.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (736 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

How different was the practice of magic in the Latin West from that of the eastern Mediterranean basin? Was it just derivative from Greek practice, or did it have its own originality? The recent discovery of important new curse-tablets in Mainz and in the Fountain of Anna Perenna at Rome has made the question newly topical. This volume contains the first commented editions in English of most of these new texts as well as major surveys of new prayers for justice. Other sections are devoted to the discourse of magic in the West, to the linguistics and aims of cursing, and to the major field of protective and eudaemonic magic up to and including the Visigothic slates and the Celtic loricae. The essays are by well-known scholars in the field as well as by established and younger Spanish scholars.

Table of Contents

Introduction / Richard Gordon and Francisco Marco Simon -- Part I. The discourse of magic -- Magus and its cognates in classical Latin / James B. Rives -- Magic in the Roman historians / Matthew W. Dickie -- Heretical texts and maleficium in the Codex Theodosianus (CTh . 16.5.34) / Maria Victoria Escribano Pano -- Part II. Revising the corpus -- The defixiones from the sanctuary of Isis and Mater Magna in Mainz / Jurgen Blansdorf -- Religion and magic at Rome : the Fountain of Anna Perenna / Marina Piranomonte -- The texts from the Fons Annae Perennae / Jurgen Blansdorf -- Cursing a thief in Iberia and Britain / Roger Tomlin -- Prayers for justice in East and West : recent finds and publications / Henk S. Versnel -- Part III. Writing defixiones : models, language, and aims -- How does magical language work? : the spells and formulae of the Latin defixionum tabellae / Amina Kropp -- Inversion, adversion and perversion as strategies in some Latin curse tablets / Christopher Faraone and Amina Kropp -- Execrating the Roman power : three defixiones from Emporiae (Ampurias) / Francisco Marco Simon -- Part IV. Protective, eudaemonic, and divinatory magic -- Nails for the dead : a polysemic account of an ancient funerary practice / Silvia Alfaye Villa -- Magic at sea : amulets for navigation / Sabino Perea Yebenes -- A prayer for blessings on three ritual objects at Chartres-Autricum (France/Eure-et-loir) / Richard Gordon, Dominique Joly, and William van Andringa -- Mithraism and magic / Jaime Alvar Ezquerrez -- A visigothic charm from Asturias and the classical tradition of Phylacteries against hail / Francisco Javier Fernandez Nieto -- Between Orthodox belief and "superstition" in Visigothic Hispania / Isabel Velazquez Soriano -- Celtic Loricae and ancient magical charms / Pierre-Yves Lambert.