Magic in the Greco-Roman world
[1] Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos, "Magian" or "magician", was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge.
"[4] While Herodotus, Xenophon, and Plutarch used magos in connection with their descriptions of Zoroastrian religious beliefs or practices, the majority seem to have understood it in the sense of "magician".
[11]: 3–4 Other rough criteria sometimes used to distinguish magic from religion include: aimed at selfish or immoral ends; and conducted in secrecy, often for a paying client.
[citation needed] Religious rites, on the other hand, are more often aimed at lofty goals such as salvation or rebirth, and are conducted in the open for the benefit of the community or a group of followers.
[11]: 3 Religious ritual had the intended purpose of giving a god their just due honor, or asking for divine intervention and favor, while magic is seen as practiced by those who seek only power, and often undertaken based on a false scientific basis.
[15] Book X describes the encounter of the central hero Odysseus with Circe, "She who is sister to the wizard Aeetes, both being children of the Sun...by the same mother, Perse the daughter of the Ocean,"[15]: X:13 on the island of Aeaea.
This may suggest that magic was associated (in this time) with practices that went against the natural order, or against wise and good forces (Circe is called a witch by a companion of Odysseus).
[15]: X:43 In this mode it is worth noting that Circe is representative of a power (the Titans) that had been conquered by the younger Olympian gods such as Zeus, Poseidon and Hades.
[25] Some of the magical acts attributed to him include: Empedocles (c. 490 – c. 430 BCE) too has ascribed to him marvelous powers associated with later magicians: that is, he is able to heal the sick, rejuvenate the old, influence the weather and summon the dead.
[33] The term defixio is derived from the Latin verb defigere, which means literally "to pin down", but which was also associated with the idea of delivering someone to the powers of the underworld.
Thus amulets were actually often a mixture of various formulas from Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greek elements that were probably worn by those of most affiliations so as to protect against other forms of magic.
A magician's kit, probably dating from the third century, was discovered in the remains of the ancient city of Pergamon in Anatolia and gives direct evidence of this.
[11] What emerges then, from this evidence, is the conclusion that a type of permanence and universality of magic had developed in the Greco-Roman world by the Hellenistic period if not earlier.
However, the level of credence or efficacy given to magical practices in the early Greek and Roman worlds by comparison to the late Hellenistic period is not well known.
Theurgy in some contexts appears simply to glorify the kind of magic that is being practiced – usually a respectable priest-like figure is associated with the ritual.
There are several notable historical personages of the 1st century CE who have many of the literary characteristics earlier associated with the Greek "divine men" (Orpheus, Pythagoras and Empedocles).
[citation needed] As Christianity grew and became seen as a threat to established traditions of religion in the Greco-Roman world (particularly to the Roman Empire with its policy of emperor worship) Jesus (and by inference his followers) were accused of being magic users.
Morton Smith, in his book, Jesus the Magician, points out that the Gospels speak of the "descent of the spirit", the pagans of "possession by a daemon".
In other words, for Simon, the power of this new movement is a kind of magic that can be purchased – perhaps a common practice for magicians in parts of the Greco-Roman world.
According to Philostratus Apollonius traveled far and wide, as far as India, teaching ideas reasonably consistent with traditional Pythagorean doctrine; but in fact, it is most likely that he never left the Greek East of the Roman Empire.
[53]: 19–84 In Late Antiquity talismans allegedly made by Apollonius appeared in several Greek cities of the Eastern Roman Empire, as if they were sent from heaven.
[11]: 57 The Wisdom of Solomon, a book considered apocryphal by many contemporary Jews and Christians (probably composed in the first century BCE) claims that God... gave me true knowledge of things, as they are: an understanding of the structure of the world and the way in which elements work, the beginning and the end of eras and what lies in-between... the cycles of the years and the constellations... the thoughts of men... the power of spirits... the virtue of roots...
The Jewish historian Josephus for example, writes that: "God gave him [Solomon] knowledge of the art that is used against daemons, in order to heal and benefit men".
This rather extensive work deals with an amazing variety of issues: cosmology, geography, anthropology, zoology, botany, pharmacology, mineralogy, metallurgy and many others.
[26]: XXV:59, XXIX:20, XXVII:75 Pliny expresses an interesting concept when he states that those sorcerers who had written down their spells and recipes despised and hated humanity (for spreading their lies perhaps?).
[59] Pliny defines the Magi at times as sorcerers, but also seems to acknowledge that they are priests of a foreign religion, along the lines of the druids of the Celts in Britain and Gaul.
A later Platonist, Apuleius (born c. 125),[62] gives us a substantial amount of information on contemporary beliefs in magic, though perhaps through no initial choice of his own.
[62]: Introduction Perhaps in a turn of irony or even a tacit admission of guilt, Apuleius, in his Metamorphoses (or The Golden Ass), which perhaps has autobiographical elements, allows the hero, Lucius, to dabble in magic as a young man, get into trouble, be rescued by the goddess Isis, and then finds true knowledge and happiness in her mysteries.
This art is probably best described, as being the manipulation of physical objects and cosmic forces, through the recitation of formulas and incantations by a specialist (that is a magus) on behalf of him/herself or a client to bring about control over or action in the divine realms.
Because this was something done in secret or with foreign methods these texts represent an art that was generally looked upon as illegitimate by official or mainstream magical cults in societies.
