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Magical Amulets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Campbell Bonner
Campbell Bonner
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

Most of the objects to be discussed in this paper belong to the class known as “Gnostic” amulets. That term has been so widely accepted that there is something to be said for retaining it; for even those who recognize its inaccuracy find it a convenient designation for things that cannot easily be brought under any other descriptive name.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 1946 , pp. 25 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1946

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References

1 Ar. Nub. 749.

2 Caes. Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici (ed. Theiner, 1864), 2, 188 f.(A. C. 120, 12–17); Macarius, Joannes, Abraxas seu Apistopistus (1657), 9–11Google Scholar; Bellermann, J. J., Versuch über die Gemmen der Alten mit dem Abraxas-Bilde (1817), 7–10Google Scholar; King, C. W., The Gnostics and their Remains2 (1887), 245Google Scholar.

3 A. Harnack, Gesch. der altchristlichen Litteratur, I, 161.

4 A number of such bags were sent to the Museum of the University of Michigan, because of their interest from an anthropological point of view, along with the objects that the University expedition was allowed to retain from its excavation at Karanis. A close parallel in ancient times is to be found in Jul. Africanus VII, 17 (p. 39 Vieillefond); the dried head of a bat sewn up in a leather bag makes the wearer wakeful as long as he has it on.

5 Codrington, R. H.. The Melanesians, Oxford, 1891Google Scholar.

6 See the article “Mana” in Hastings, Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, VIII, 375–380, for a good discussion of both the local application of the term and its use in scientific terminology.

7 Galactite, Orph. Lith. 201 ff.; amethyst, Plin. N. H. 37, 124.

8 Odyss. 10, 203 ff., 19, 457.

9 F. V. Fritzsche, de Socrate veterum comoedorum (Quaestiones Aristophaneae, 216).

10 Cf. Mouterde, , “Le Glaive de Dardanus” (Mélanges de l'Univ. Saint-Joseph, XV, 3 [1930]), 74 f.Google Scholar, who publishes a specimen of the common Chnoumis gems with the inscription στομαχου. See De Ridder, Coll. De Clercq, VII (Pierres gravées, 3456; also a chrysoprase in the British Museum (56062), an “Abrasax” stone with an inscr. σϕεων, probably to be read ὄϕεων.

11 See McCown, C. C. in TAPA LIV (1923), 128–140Google Scholar; he edits the Cretan tablet (132–133) and refers to previous publications of it. See also a stone (N5) in the Southesk Collection, which bears on its margin an imperfect version of the formula.

12 E. Le Blant, 750 Inscriptions de pierres gravées (Mém. Acad. Inscr. XXXVI), p. 12.

13 Apud Plut. Pericl. 38. 2.

14 Cf. Bevan, E., Holy Images (London, 1940), 177Google Scholar: If in the past the question of images in religion has excited such passion, for and against, that is certainly because they were not thought of as simply a means to bring home to the mind of the worshipper an unseen person, but because the other view of them, as means to act upon the unseen person, or as themselves charged with a quasi-personal supernatural power, was always there in the background.

H. C. Youtie, who read this paper in manuscript, remarks: “The nobler attitude towards religious symbols is illustrated in Apuleius, Apol. 55–56; the vulgar view is exemplified by the ring made of iron nails drawn from crosses (a charm against demons) and by the speaking Apollo carved on a ring-stone (Lucian, Philops. 17 and 38).”

15 Le Blant, op. cit., 19–46.

16 R. Wünsch, “Deisidaimoniaka,” ARW XII, 19.

17 Plin, N. H., 33. 41.

18 Budge, E. A. W., Amulets and Superstitions (Oxford and London, 1930), 133–150Google Scholar; Flinders Petrie, Amulets, 24, Pl. 6–11.

19 Pieper, M. “Die Siegelung in den griech. Papyri Aegyptens” (Aegyptus, XIV, 1934, 245–252Google Scholar).

20 M. Pieper, Die Abraxasgemmen (Mitteilungen des deutschen Instituts für ägypt. Altertumskunde in Kairo V (1934), 141 (Berlin 9792), and Pl. 22, b.

21 Budge, Amulets and Superstitions, 138.

22 Budge, op. cit. 165–171.

23 H. Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, 175, 200–203.

24 Pliny (N. H. 37. 118) says of the jaspers, totus vero oriens pro amvleto gestare eas traditur. But he seems not to know of the yellow kind, and it is not certain that we know what he means by iaspis. Dioscurides (de mat. medica 5. 142) also does not mention red jasper, but says that all kinds are used as amulets, and particularly that when attached to the thigh, they were believed to shorten the pains of childbirth.

25 PGM IV, 256–260. In Studies in Honor of E. K. Rand, 246, D. M. Robinson gives a useful bibliography of gold and silver lamellae in connection with his publication of a silver tablet which was rolled up in a bronze tube.

26 In ISJ σκυτίς is translated “leather amulet”; but it is doubtful whether amulets were made of leather, and “amulet-bag” or “amulet-case” would be more accurate. In popular speech the container might be carelessly used for the contained. Cf. Jul. Afric. 7. 17, p. 39 (ed. Vieillefond).

27 Some specimens of this form were published by Schlumberger, , Rev. des Études Grecques V (1892), 80–84Google Scholar; also by Perdrizet in the same review, XVI, 49. A Hebrew amulet from Palestine is of similar form, but the material is silver; cf. Budge, Amulets and Superstitions, p. 237.

28 Rectangular stone amulets with a projection at the top (for hanging) were also made in Babylonia in the time of Esarhaddon (ca. 680 B.C.); see Budge, Amulets and Superstitions, 92–98, with Plates 12–13.

29 B. M. 56277, 56001, 56024.

30 To the examples cited and figured by Cook, Zeus II, 512 f., add the remarkable celt in the Royal Ontario Museum at Toronto (published by Iliffe, J. H., AJA XXXV, 304–309Google Scholar); also B. M. +2402, which is still, I think, unpublished. It is labelled “Prehistoric stone celt used in later Greek times as an amulet; an invocation to Bacchus is carved on the base.” I examined it in 1937, but found the inscription unintelligible. The invocation to Bacchus consists of the word BAKXE alone; the remainder makes no sense.

31 Budge, Amulets and Superstitions, Preface, xxiii.

32 Hier. Epist. 75. 3. 1 (CSEL LV).

33 J. Chiflet, tab. 16, 67 (following J. Macarii Abraxas seu Apistopistus), Antuerpiae 1657; B. M. 56054.

34 J. H. Middleton, The Lewis Collection of Gems and Rings, p. 80 (Class B, 20).

35 There are many examples in P. London 121 (PGM VII) as at 196, 392, 399, 589, etc.

36 See Wünsch, R., Antikes Zaubergerät aus Pergamon (Jahrb. deutsch. arch. Inst., Ergänzungsheft VI), 1905Google Scholar.

37 Mély-Ruelle, Les Lapidaires de l'antiquité, II (Les lapidaires grecs), p. 175.

38 Mély-Ruelle, op. cit., p. 162, 13, p. 168, 12.

39 PGM IV, 2145–2241; V, 213–300.

40 PGM IV, 1830.

41 Hock, G., Griechische Weihegebräuche (1905), 49–52Google Scholar; see also Bevan, E., Holy Images (1940), 31–35Google Scholar.

42 Hock, op. cit., 65–70; Th. Hopfner, Griechisch-ägyptischer Offenbarungszauber, I, § 808–812.

43 Hock, op. cit. 83.

44 Hopfner, op. cit., I, § 808 ad fin. (p. 217); Nock, , JEA XI (1925), 155Google Scholar. Moret's work was published in Annales du Musée Guimet, Bibliothèque des Études, XIV (1902) 79–102Google Scholar; note esp. 93–94.

45 Hastings, Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, III, 431a.

46 See Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I, 430 (Hathor); plate opposite 456 (Child Horus); II, 130 and plate opposite (Osiris); 210 (Child Horus); 286 (Bes); Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pl. cxxii, i (Merut); Perdrizet, Les terres cuites … de la collection Fouquet, pl. III, XV; Breccia, Terrecotte figurate del Museo di Alessandria, nos. 11, 152, 157.

47 Mouterde, Le glaive de Dardanos (Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph, XV) 53–64.

48 Petrie, Amulets, no. 135 aa; p. 30 f., Pl. 22 and 49.

49 A. Delatte, in Musée Beige, XVIII, 75–88.

50 The stones are as follows: British Museum 56502; Cabinet des Médailles (Chabouillet 2171); Boston Museum of Fine Arts 01.7556; a stone in the collection of the late E. T. Newell; and one in the possession of President A. G. Ruthven, of the University of Michigan.

51 See n. 47 above.