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Isidore of Seville's Taxonomy of Magicians and Diviners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

William E. Klingshirn
William E. Klingshirn*
Affiliation:
The Catholic University of America
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Extract

In Etymologies 8.9, Isidore presents a detailed classification of the diverse group of ritual experts he calls magi. Well organized, erudite, flexible enough to include a wide range of specialists, and, as its record of influence demonstrates, enormously useful as a template for later medieval classifications, the “De Magis” offers what can rightly be called the first definitive western Christian taxonomy of unauthorized practitioners. Although Isidore relied heavily on a wide range of pagan and Christian sources for the contents of the chapter, their selection, revision, and arrangement—the elements of his taxonomy—were all his own.

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Research Article
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Traditio , Volume 58 , 2003 , pp. 59 - 90
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Copyright © 2003 by Fordham University 

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References

1 “Les sources des Étymologies sont multiples…. Elles se répartissent, sans distinction apparente, entre auteurs païens et auteurs chrétiens. Mais l'important est ici de souligner que, ni par leur conception d'ensemble, ni par la méthode d'investigation et la démarche intellectuelle, les Etymologies ne paraissent pourvoir remonter à un modèle précis: les matériaux sont tous empruntés, l'architecture est originale” (Reydellet, Marc, “Sacré et profane dans l'encyclopédisme d'Isidore de Seville,” in Le Divin: discours encyclopédiques , ed. Hüe, Denis [Caen, 1994], 313–25, at 318–19). This article is based on a paper delivered in May 2000 at the annual meeting of the North American Patristics Society in Chicago. For advice in revising it for publication, I am grateful to members of the audience, to my colleague, Professor F. A. C. Mantello, and to Professor J. N. Hillgarth and the other editors of Traditio. I should also like to thank the American Council of Learned Societies for a fellowship supporting my work on diviners in late antiquity during the 2000–2001 academic year.Google Scholar

2 Macfarlane, Katherine Nell, Isidore of Seville on the Pagan Gods (Origines VIII.11), Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 70:3 (Philadelphia, 1980).Google Scholar

3 Sophie de Clauzade's edition, French translation, and commentary on book 8, scheduled to be published by Belles Lettres in the series Auteurs latins du Moyen Âge, remains forthcoming. It will be based on Sophie de Clauzade de Mazieux, “Isidori Hispalensis Etymologiarum liber octavus de ecclesia et sectis: Edition critique et commentaire” (master's thesis, Ecole nationale des Chartes, 1977). An abstract can be found in Positions des thèses soutenues par les élèves de la promotion de 1977 pour obtenir le diplôme d'archiviste paléographe (Paris, 1977), 49–54.Google Scholar

4 Most recently by Flcint, Valerie, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Princeton, 1991), esp. 51–53.Google Scholar

5 E.g., as an illustration of “the intellectual condition of the dark ages,” by Brehaut, Ernest ( An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville [New York, 1912], 7), who translates portions of the chapter at 200–203.Google Scholar

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8 Isidor von Sevilla: Über Glauben und Aberglauben, Etymologien, VIII. Buch , trans. Linhart, Dagmar (Dettelbach, 1997), 35–42. Tantalizingly, the author comments only on chapters 1.4, 3.3, 3.7, and 4.3–39; a complete commentary is promised in a forthcoming Gesamtedition. Google Scholar

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12 Grial's notes are at PL 82:310–14, and Arévalo's at PL 82:916–17.Google Scholar

13 It is arguable that just as ancient magic is best understood as a category of “ritual,” so too is ancient divination (and, for that matter, most ancient healing practices). This is preferable to the Enlightenment taxonomy in which such practices are grouped under the major headings of “magic,” “religion,” and “science.” See Thomassen, Einar, “Is Magic a Subclass of Ritual?” in The World of Ancient Magic: Papers from the First International Samson Eitrem Seminar at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 4–8 May 1997 , ed. Jordan, David R., Montgomery, Hugo, and Thomassen, Einar (Bergen, 1999), 55–66. The work of David Frankfurter is helpful on this question. See in particular “Dynamics of Ritual Expertise in Antiquity and Beyond: Towards a New Taxonomy of ‘Magicians,’” in Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, ed. Mirecki, Paul and Meyer, Marvin (Leiden, 2002), 159–78.Google Scholar

14 “Etymologiarum codicem nimiae magnitudinis, distinctum ab eo titulis, non libris: quem quia rogatu meo fecit, quamvis inperfectum ipse reliquerit, ego in quindecim libros divisi” ( Renotatio Isidori a Braulione Caesaraugustano episcopo edita , ed. Galindo, Pascual, in Lynch, C. H. and Galindo, P., San Braulio Obispo de Zaragoza (631–651): Su vida y sus obras [Madrid, 1950], 358).Google Scholar

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16 “L. VIII, Tts. II: De magicis artibus.” See Anspach, Eduard, Taionis et Isidori nova fragmenta et opera (Madrid, 1930), 32, and Codoñer, , “Los tituli,” 30–31.Google Scholar

17 “VIII: De Ecclesia et Synagoga, de Religione et Fide, de Haeresibus, de Philosophis, Poetis, Sibyllis, Magis, Paganis ac Dis Gentium.” Google Scholar

18 “VIIIB: iv. De magis.” Google Scholar

19 Porzig, Walter, “Die Rezensionen der Etymologiae des Isidorus von Sevilla,” Hermes 72 (1937): 129–70, at 138–41.Google Scholar

20 Brehaut, , An Encyclopedist (n. 5 above), 200.Google Scholar

21 Reta, Oroz and Casquero, , Etimologías (n. 6 above), 1:713.Google Scholar

22 Linhart, , Über Glauben und Aberglauben (n. 8 above), 35.Google Scholar

23 Nicoli, , Cristianesimo (n. 7 above), 91.Google Scholar

24 Thorndike, Lynn, A History of Magic and Experimental Science , 8 vols. (New York, 1923), 1:628–29.Google Scholar

25 Ibid., 1:629.Google Scholar

26 “Isidore then proceeds to define various kinds of magic, such as necromancy, hydromancy, geomancy, aeromancy, and pyromancy. Under the heading of magic he also groups the practice of divination, by means of the flight of birds, the entrails of animals, and the movement of the stars” (McKenna, Stephen, Paganism and Pagan Survivals in Spain up to the Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom , The Catholic University of America Studies in Mediaeval History, n.s. 1 [Washington, D.C., 1938], 140).Google Scholar

27 “Isidore of Seville … listed geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, and pyromancy … under the heading “magic,” and then went on under the same heading to discuss divinatory observation of the flight and cries of birds, the entrails of sacrificial animals, and positions of stars and planets…. Only after cataloging these and other species of divination did he include enchantment (magical use of words), ligatures (medical use of magical objects bound to the patient), and various other phenomena in his discussion of magic” (Kieckhefer, Richard, Magic in the Middle Ages [Cambridge, 1989], 10–11).Google Scholar

28 “In his Etymologies … Isidore, bishop of Seville, dedicates a chapter (8.9) to magicians or sorcerers (De magis). After naming Zoroastrian Persia as the cradle and home-land of magic, he tells how the fallen angels brought this non-sense (vanitates) to their human brides — and how ‘for the sake of knowing the future and Hell and how to call it up,’ there developed ‘the arts of the haruspex and the augur, and what they call oracles and necromancy.’ Magic, then, is nothing more than the various methods of pagan divination” (Graf, Fritz, “Magic and Divination,” in The World of Ancient Magic [note 13 above], 283–98, at 284).Google Scholar

29 So, OED2, s.v. “magician”: “One skilled in magic or sorcery; a necromancer, wizard,” with OED2, s.v. “magic”: “The pretended art of influencing the course of events, and of producing marvellous physical phenomena….” The fact that English (and French) speakers can differentiate between magi (mages) and magicians (magiciens) is due to the creation in Middle English and Old French of a separate word, “magicien” (magiciien), derived from the Latin magicus, and to the simultaneous survival of the original term in both languages. See Hatzfeld, Adolphe and Darmesteter, Arsène, with Thomas, Antoine, Dictionnaire général de la langue française, 2 vols. (Paris, 1890–93), 2:1440, s.v. “magicien,” and 1:95, §244: “Suffixe ANUS.” See also Wagner, Robert-Léon, “Sorcier” et “Magicien”: Contribution à l'histoire du vocabulaire de la magie (Paris, 1939), 156–57, 217.Google Scholar

30 Bidez, Joseph and Cumont, Franz, Les Mages Hellénisés: Zoroastre, Ostanès et Hystaspe d'après la tradition grecque , 2 vols. (Paris 1938; repr. 1973). See also Graf, Fritz, Magic in the Ancient World , trans. Philip, Franklin (Cambridge, Mass., 1997), 20–29.Google Scholar

31 I take this term from Lloyd's, G. E. R. discussion of Aristotle's zoological taxonomy in Science, Folklore, and Ideology (Cambridge, 1983), 44–50.Google Scholar

32 “Ce mot si général avait un avantage; il ne préjugeait rien du caractère de l'homme auquel on rappliquait” (Wagner, , “Sorcier” et “Magicien,” 143).Google Scholar

33 For a survey, see the article by Hermann Dietzfelbinger in ThLL 8:149–52, s.v. “magus.” Google Scholar

34 Reta, José Oroz, “Présence de Pline dans les Etymologies de saint Isidore de Séville,” in Pline l'ancien: témoin de son temps , ed. Pigeaud, Jackie and Reta, José Oroz (Salamanca, 1987), 611–22.Google Scholar

35 “Inter incantatorem et magum, aruspicem et maleficum. Incantatores sunt qui rem verbis peragunt; magi qui de sideribus philosophantur; malefici qui sanguine utuntur et victimis et saepe contingunt corpora mortuorum; aruspices qui exta pecudum inspiciunt et ex eis futura praedicunt” (De differentiis 1.84, ed. Codoñer, Carmen, Isidoro de Sevilla: Diferencias [Paris, 1992], 124 [= De diff. 1.29 (PL 83:40)]).Google Scholar

36 Codoñer, , Isidoro de Sevilla: Diferencias , 332.Google Scholar

37 Thorndike, Against, History of Magic (n. 24 above), 1:629, I understand malefici rather than magi to be the antecedent of hi in the two passages where it occurs. In Hi et elementa (§9) hi is more likely to refer to malefici, because illi would be needed to refer to magi. In Hi etiam sanguine (§10), Isidore is paraphrasing a passage from the De differentiis verborum (n. 35 above), and replaces malefici with hi and qui with etiam. Google Scholar

38 The forms are magi (§§9, 25), magorum (§§1, 4), maga (§5), magicae artes (§2), magicarum artium (§3), magicis artibus (§6), and murmure magico (§8).Google Scholar

39 Anspach, , Taionis et Isidori (n. 16 above), 32.Google Scholar

40 E.g., at the beginning of a chapter: Etym. 17.1.1: “Rerum rusticarum scribendi sollertiam apud Graecos primus Hesiodus Boeotius humanis studiis contulit”; 17.3.1: “Prima Ceres coepit uti frugibus in Graecia”; 17.5.1: “Vitis plantationem primus Noe instituit rudi adhuc saeculo.” Google Scholar

41 Fontaine, Jacques, “Le ‘sacré’ antique vu par un homme du VIIe siècle: le livre VIII des Étymologies d'Isidore de Séville,” Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Bude (1989): 394–405, at 396 n. 7. One argument in favor of this reading is that it acknowledges Isidore's adaptation of the phrase et infernorum euocationes from Pliny's et inferum evocatione; another is that it recognizes from Lactantius that a new thought begins at eorum inuenta. Lindsay's text reads et vocationes instead of euocationes and punctuates differently: “Per quandam scientiam futurorum et infernorum et vocationes eorum….” This produces a very different sense, as Grafs translation indicates: “for the sake of knowing the future and Hell and how to call it up” (Graf, “Magic and Divination” [n. 28 above], 284).Google Scholar

42 The construction ex traditione + gen. (a Grecism: ἐϰ παραδόσεως + gen.) is a favorite of Rufinus. It is found in his translation of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History 2.9.2 and 5.18.14 (ed. Schwartz, Eduard, Mommsen, Theodor, and Winkelmann, Friedhelm, Eusebius Werke , vol. 2, Die Kirchengeschichte, 2d ed., pt. 1, GCS [Berlin, 1999], 125 and 479), and in his translation of the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitiones 1.50.3, 3.30.1, and 9.20.1 (ed. Rehm, Bernhard and Strecker, Georg, Die Pseudoklementinen, vol. 2, Rekognitionen in Rufins Übersetzung, 2d ed., GCS [Berlin, 1994], 37, 118, 272).Google Scholar

43 Lactantius, , Div. inst. 2.14.10 (CSEL 19.1:164): “magorum quoque ars omnis ac potentia horum adspirationibus constat, a quibus invocati visus hominum praestigiis obcaecantibus fallunt, ut non videant ea quae sunt et videre se putent illa quae non sunt.” Google Scholar

44 Fontaine, , “Le ‘sacré’ antique,” 396 n. 7, citing S. de Clauzade.Google Scholar

45 Satanae fallada (§7); Demonibus addtis (§10), daemones (§11), umbras daemonum (§12), daemonum responsa (§16).Google Scholar

46 Fontaine sees the same three categories, though he characterizes them somewhat differently; see “Le ‘sacré’ antique,” 396.Google Scholar

47 Fontaine points out that all three examples share the notion of (sacrilegiously) overturning the natural order, which also connects them with the Massylian priestess who introduces the next category: “série verbale verteiltes (magiciens de Pharaon), mutavit (Circé), convertabantur (Arcadiens), vertere retro (la magicienne évoquée dans l'Énéide, 4, 487)” (ibid., 396 with n. 8).Google Scholar

48 Tertullian, , Apol. 22.1–23.1 is the locus classicus in Latin. Further references in ThLL 10.2, fasc. 6 (1991), cols. 936–38, s.v. “praest(r)igiae.” Google Scholar

49 Bouché-Leclercq, Auguste, Histoire de la divination dans l'Antiquité , 4 vols. (Paris, 1879–82), 1:333.Google Scholar

50 Etym. 12.4.12. Isidore takes the story from Augustine, , Enarrationes in Psalmos 57.7 (CCL 39:714–15).Google Scholar

51 “Quos nos ‘hariolos’ ceteri ἐπαοιδούς interpretati sunt, id est ‘incantatores’” ( Commentarii in Danielem 1.2.2 [CCL 75A:784]).Google Scholar

52 Montero, Santiago, “Mántica inspirada y demonología: los Harioli,” L'Antiquité classique 62 (1993): 115–29, at 124–27.Google Scholar

53 Ibid., 121–23.Google Scholar

54 On this other definition, see Fontaine, Jacques, “Isidore de Séville et l'astrologie,” Revue des études latines 31 (1953): 271–300, at 281, who is followed by Flint, , Rise of Magic (n. 4 above), 95. On horary astrology (determining the advisability of a particular enterprise based on the stars' positions at the time of inquiry), see Barton, Tamsyn, Ancient Astrology (London, 1994), 29, 49, 57, 60.Google Scholar

55 For a text used by sortilegi that is exactly contemporaneous with Isidore, see Dold, Alban, Die Orakelsprüche im St. Galler Palimpsestcodex 908 (die sogenannten “Sortes Sangallenses”), Sb. Akad. Vienna, 225.4 (1948), with the Erläuterungen by Meister, Richard, Die Orakelsprüche im St. Galler Palimpsestcodex 908 (die sogenannten “Sortes Sangallenses”), Sb. Akad. Vienna, 225.5 (1951). For a text used by salisatores, see Diels, Hermann, “Beiträge zur Zuckungsliteratur des Okzidents und Orients, I: Die griechischen Zuckungsbücher (Melampus Περί παλμῶν),” Abh. Akad. Berlin (1907), Abh. 4, 3–42, and “II: Weitere griechische und außergriechische Literatur und Volksüberlieferung,” Abh. Akad. Berlin (1908), Abh. 4, 3–16.Google Scholar

56 Betz, Hans Dieter, “Secrecy in the Greek Magical Papyri,” in Secrecy and Concealment: Studies in the History of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Religions , ed. Kippenberg, Hans G. and Stroumsa, Guy G., Studies in the History of Religions, 65 (Leiden, 1995), 152–75.Google Scholar

57 “Dabis sane responsa publice et hoc interrogaturis ante praedicito, omnia quidem illis, de quibus interrogant, clara sis voce dicturus, ne quid a te tale forte quaeratur, quod non liceat nec interrogare nec dicere” ( Mathesis 2.30.3).Google Scholar

58 McKenna, , Paganism and Pagan Survivals (n. 26 above), 140.Google Scholar

59 Flint, , Rise of Magic (n. 4 above), 51 Google Scholar

60 Fontaine, , “Isidore de Séville et l'astrologie,” 300 n. 1.Google Scholar

61 Flint, , Rise of Magic , 52.Google Scholar

62 “Si episcopus quis aut presbyter sive diaconus vel quilibet ex ordine clericorum magos, aut aruspices aut ariolos aut certe augures vel sortilegos vel eos, qui profitentur artem aliquam, aut aliquos eorum similia exercentes, consulere fuerit deprehensus ab honore dignitatis suae depositus monasterii curam excipiat ibique perpetuae poenitentiae deditus scelus admissum sacrilegii luat” ( Concilios Visigóticos e Hispano-Romanos , ed. Vives, José et al. [Barcelona, 1963], 203).Google Scholar

63 Fontaine, , “Le ‘sacré’ antique” (n. 41 above), 398.Google Scholar

64 “Si quis magus vel magicis contaminibus adsuetus, qui maleficus vulgi consuetudine nuncupatur, aut haruspex aut hariolus aut certe augur vel etiam mathematicus aut narrandis somniis occultans artem aliquam divinandi aut certe aliquid horum simile exercens in comitatu meo vel Caesaris fuerit deprehensus, praesidio dignitatis cruciatus et tormenta non fugiat” ( Cod. Theod. 9.16.6).Google Scholar

65 Fontaine, , “Isidore de Seville et l'astrologie” (n. 54 above), 280–81.Google Scholar

66 Montero, Santiago, Política y adivinación en el Bajo Imperio Romano: emperadores y harúspices (193 D.C.–408 D.C.) , Collection Latomus, 211 (Brussels, 1991), esp. chap. 4.Google Scholar

67 “Homicidae, malefici, fures, criminosi, sive venefici, et qui raptum fecerint vel falsum testimonium dixerint, seu qui ad sortilegos divinosque concurrerint, nullatenus erunt ad testimonium admittendi” ( Leges Visigothorum 2.4.1, ed. Zeumer, Karl, MGH Leges 1.1 [1892], 95).Google Scholar

68 “Si quis paganorum consuetudinem sequens divinos et sortilegos in domo sua introduxerit, quasi ut malum foras mittant aut maleficia inveniant vel lustrationes paganorum faciant, quinque annis poenitentiam agant” ( Canones ex orientalium patrum synodis 71, ed. Barlow, Claude W., Martini Episcopi Bracarensis Opera Omnia [New Haven, 1950], 140).Google Scholar

69 Dold, , Die Orakelsprüche (n. 55 above), 7–8.Google Scholar

70 “Remediis tibi tuendum est, si vis non fugari de domo” (ibid., 67).Google Scholar

71 “Succurre tibi quia medicamentatus es” (ibid.).Google Scholar

72 “Succurre tibi, quia a muliere medicamentatus es” (ibid.).Google Scholar

73 “Sucurre tibi, quia obligata est domus tua” (ibid., 66).Google Scholar

74 “Obligatus non es” (ibid., 67).Google Scholar

75 “Non es maleficatus, sed magis es subiectus” (ibid.). For this interpretation, see Meister, , Erläuterungen (n. 55 above), 34.Google Scholar

76 Hist. 5.14; 7.44, ed. Krusch, Bruno and Levison, Wilhelm, MGH Scriptores rerum merovingicarum 1.1 (1937–51), 210, 364–65.Google Scholar

77 Although vaticinatores (those who issued vaticinici, the utterances of vates) were not mentioned by Isidore in the “De Magis,” he had referred in Etym. 8.7.3 to divini who went by the name vates. Google Scholar

78 Leges Visigothorum 6.2.1, ed. Zeumer, , 257.Google Scholar

79 Ibid., 6.2.2, ed. Zeumer, , 257–59.Google Scholar

80 De correctione rusticorum 16, ed. Barlow, , Martini Episcopi Bracarensis Opera Omnia (n. 68 above), 198–99.Google Scholar

81 Pease, Arthur Stanley, M. Tulli Ciceronis De Divinatione (Darmstadt, 1963), 487.Google Scholar

82 “Non liceat Christianis tenere traditiones gentilium et observare vel colere dementa aut lunae aut stellarum cursum aut inanem signorum fallaciam pro domo facienda vel ad segetes vel arbores plantandas vel coniugia socianda” ( Canones ex orientalium patrum synodis 72, ed. Barlow, , 141).Google Scholar

83 Leges Visigothorum 6.2.3, ed. Zeumer, , 259.Google Scholar

84 Ibid., 6.2.4, ed. Zeumer, , 259.Google Scholar

85 Ibid., 6.2.5, ed. Zeumer, , 260.Google Scholar

86 Ibid., 9.2.2, ed. Zeumer, , 403.Google Scholar

87 McKenna, , Paganism and Pagan Survivals (n. 26 above), 125; Flint, , Rise of Magic (n. 4 above), 216.Google Scholar

88 “Non liceat clericis incantatores esse et ligaturas facere, quod est colligatio animarum. Si quis haec facit, de ecclesia proiciatur” ( Canones ex orientalium patrum synodis 59, ed. Barlow, , 138).Google Scholar

89 Council of Laodicea, can. 36, ed. Joannou, Périclès-Pierre, Discipline générale antique , vol. 1.2, Les canons des Synodes Particuliers (IVe–IXe s.) , Pontificia Commissione per la redazione del codice di diritto canonico orientale, Fonti, fasc. 9 (Rome, 1962), 145.Google Scholar

90 “Quoniam non oportet ministros altaris aut clericos magos aut incantatores esse, aut facere quae dicuntur phylacteria, quae sunt magna obligamenta animarum: hos autem, qui talibus utuntur, proici ab ecclesia iussimus” ( Sententiae quae in veteribus exemplaribus conciliorum non habentur, sed a quibusdam in ipsis insertae sunt , ed. Munier, C., CCL 148:228).Google Scholar

91 “Non liceat in collectiones herbarum, quae medicinales sunt, aliquas observationes aut incantationes adtendere, nisi tantum cum symbolo divino aut oratione dominica, ut tantum Deus creator omnium et dominus honoretur” ( Canones ex orientalium patrum synodis 74, ed. Barlow, , 141).Google Scholar

92 De correctione rusticorum 16, ed. Barlow, (n. 80 above), 199.Google Scholar

93 Soriano, Isabel Velázquez, Las Pizarras visigodas: Edición critica y estudio , Antigüedad y cristianismo, 6 (Murcia, 1989), no. 104, pp. 312–14, 614–17.Google Scholar

94 De virtutibus sancti Martini 1.26; 4.36, ed. Krusch, Bruno, MGH Scriptores rerum merovingicarum 1.2 (1885), 151, 208–9.Google Scholar

95 “Ille … accessit ad aegrotum et artem suam exercere conatur. Incantationes inmurmurat, sortes iactat, ligaturas collo suspendit” ( De virtutibus s. Iuliani 46a, ed. Krusch, B., MGH Scriptores rerum merovingicarum 1.2 [1885], 132).Google Scholar

96 On “the drive for taxonomic clarity,” see Segal, Alan F., “Hellenistic Magic: Some Questions of Definition,” in Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions Presented to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday , ed. Van Den Broek, R. and Vermaseren, M. J. (Leiden, 1981), 349–75, at 375.Google Scholar

97 Eusebius, , Chron. , ed. Helm, Rudolf and Treu, Ursula, Eusebius Werke, vol. 7, Die Chronik des Hieronymus, 3d ed., GCS (Berlin, 1984), 20a: “Zoroastres magus rex Bactrianorum.” For Zoroaster's position as the first magus, see Pliny, , Hist. Nat. 30.2.3. On these legends about Zoroaster, see Bidez, and Cumont, , Les Mages Hellénisés (n. 30 above).Google Scholar

98 For his defeat in battle, see Augustine, , De civ. Dei 21.14.Google Scholar

99 Pliny (Hist. Nat. 30.2.4) attributes this information to Hermippus (of Smyrna) rather than to Aristotle: “Hermippus qui de tota ea arte diligentissime scripsit et viciens centum milia versuum a Zoroastre condita indicibus quoque voluminum eius positis explanavit.” Hermippus's catalogue of Zoroaster's works may have come from a Περί Μάγων written about 200 b.c. (Müller, Karl, Fragmenta historicorum graecorum , vol. 3 [Paris, 1883], 53–54). Bidez, and Cumont, (Les Mages Hellénisés, 1:86–87) point out that, at 2500 lines per scroll, the number of volumes Hermippus attributed to Zoroaster would have amounted to about 800, not by any means an impossible pseudepigraphic corpus.Google Scholar

100 I.e., by increasing the number of available texts. Isidore alludes to Pliny's statement that Democritus based his own writings (haec opera eius) on the teachings of Apollobex of Coptos and Dardanus the Phoenician (Hist. Nat. 30.2.9).Google Scholar

101 Pliny notes this conjunction at Hist. Nat. 30.2.10.Google Scholar

102 Lucan's text has fata. Isidore's direct quotations of classical authors often deviate slightly from the texts printed in modern editions of their works, whether because he was relying on his memory, quoting at second hand, or using an inferior manuscript. The problem has been much discussed. See on book 8, Canale, Valastro, Herejías (n. 9 above) and, in general, Nicolò Messina, “Le citazioni classiche nelle Etymologiae di Isidoro di Siviglia,” Archivos leoneses 34 (1980): 205–65.Google Scholar

103 Pliny, , Hist. Nat. 30.1.1: “in toto terrarum orbe plurimisque saeculis valuit.” Google Scholar

104 Cicero, , Div. 1.1.1: “scientiam rerum futurarum.” Sophie de Clauzade's text is preferable here. See above, pp. 67–68.Google Scholar

105 A close paraphrase of Pliny, , Hist. Nat. 30.2.6: “et inferum evocatione.” Google Scholar

106 Lactantius, , Div. inst. 2.16.1 (CSEL 19.1:167): “Eorum inventa sunt astrologia et haruspicina et auguratio et ipsa quae dicuntur oracula et necromantia.” Google Scholar

107 Exod. 7:11–12 (Vulg.): “proieceruntque singuli virgas suas quae versae sunt in dracones.” Google Scholar

108 Exod. 7:20 (Vulg.): “percussit aquam fluminis coram Pharao et servis eius quae versa est in sanguinem.” Google Scholar

109 Augustine, , De civ. Dei 18.17: “de illa maga famosissima Circe, quae socios quoque Ulixis mutavit in bestias.” Google Scholar

110 Ibid.: “cum gustasset de sacrificio, quod Arcades immolato puero deo suo Lycaeo facere solerent.” The Lycaean god was Pan or Zeus. On these transformations, see further Isidore, , Etym. 11.4.1.Google Scholar

111 Augustine, , De civ. Dei 21.6.2: “ut congruere hominum sensibus sibi nobilis poeta videretur, de quadam femina, quae tali arte polleret.” Google Scholar

112 Virgil's text has fluviis. Google Scholar

113 Isidore takes her title from Augustine's discussion of the witch of Endor in his Quaestiones vii ad Simplicianum 2.3.1 (CCL 44:81). The Vulgate has mulierem habentem pythonem at 1 Sam. 28:7 and pythonissam at 1 Par. (Chron.) 10:13.Google Scholar

114 Augustine, , Quaestiones vii ad Simplicianum 2.3.1 (CCL 44:82): “de abditis mortuorum receptaculis evocare.” Google Scholar

115 Ibid., 2.3.3 (CCL 44:86): “magicis carminibus evocatam vivorum apparere conspectibus.” Google Scholar

116 Ibid., 2.3.2 (CCL 44:83): “ut non vere spiritum Samuelis excitaturn a requie sua credamus, sed aliquod phantasma, et imaginariam illusionem diaboli machinationibus factam.” Google Scholar

117 Cod. Theod. 9.16.4: “Chaldaei ac magi et ceteri, quos maleficos ob facinorum magnitudinem vulgus appellat.” On quotations from the Theodosian Code in the chapter, see further Levy, Harry L., “Isidore, Etymologiae VIII, 9, 9,” Speculum 22 (1947): 81–82.Google Scholar

118 Cod. Theod. 9.16.5: “Multi magicis artibus ausi elementa turbare.” Google Scholar

119 Ibid., 9.16.3, interpr.: “Malefici vel incantatores vel inmissores tempestatum vel hi, qui per invocationem daemonum mentes hominum turbant.” Google Scholar

120 Ibid., 9.16.5: “et manibus accitis audent ventilare, ut quisque suos conficiat malis artibus inimicos.” Google Scholar

121 Jerome, , Commentarii in Danielem 1.2.2 (CCL 75A:784): “malefici qui sanguine utuntur et victimis et saepe contingunt corpora mortuorum.” Google Scholar

122 Augustine, , De civ. Dei 7.35: “ubi videntur mortui divinare.” Google Scholar

123 I read suscitandos (Arévalo) for sciscitandos (Grial, Lindsay). Arévalo's note (PL 82:916C) justifies the reading.Google Scholar

124 The locus classicus is Odysseus's consultation of Tiresias in the underworld in Od. 11, but Grial also adduces Servius, ad Aen. 6.149, ed. Thilo, Georg, Servii grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii , vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1883), 32: “sed secundum Lucanum in necromantia ad levandum cadaver sanguis est necessarius.” The reference is to Lucan, Phars. 6.667: “Pectora tunc primum ferventi sanguine supplet.” Google Scholar

125 Augustine, , De civ. Dei 7.35: “ut in aqua videret imagines deorum vel potius ludificationes daemonum, a quibus audiret, quid in sacris constituere atque observare deberet.” Google Scholar

126 Ibid.: “ubi adhibito sanguine etiam inferos perhibet sciscitari.” Google Scholar

127 Ibid.: “Quod genus divinationis idem Varro a Persis dicit allatum.” Google Scholar

128 Serv. Dan. ad Aen. 3.359, ed. Stocker, Arthur Frederick et al., Servianorum in Vergilii carmina commentariorum editionis Harvardianae volumen , vol. 3 (Oxford, 1965), 141: “Varro autem quattuor genera divinationum dicit, terram, aerem, aquam, ignem — geomantis, aeromantis, hydromantis, pyromantis.” Google Scholar

129 Pauli Sententiae 5.21.1, ed. Riccobono, S. et al., Fontes Iuris Romani Antejustiniani (Florence, 1940), 2:406: “Vaticinatores, qui se deo plenos adsimulant.” For Augustine's use of this etymology, see Serm. 243.6.5 (PL 38:1146): “Divine videbunt, quando Deo pieni erunt.” See further, Milani, Celestina, “Note sul lessico della divinazione nel mondo classico,” in La profezia nel mondo antico , ed. Sordi, Marta (Milan, 1993), 31–49, at 31–32.Google Scholar

130 Cicero, , Div. 1.6.11: “Duo sunt enim divinandi genera, quorum alterum artis est, alterum naturae.” Google Scholar

131 Isidore has substituted the narrower and less benign term furor for Cicero's natura, perhaps on the basis of Servius, ad Aen. 3.359 (ed. Stocker, , 140): “nam, ut ait Cicero, omnis divinandi peritia in duas partes dividitur: nam aut furor est … aut ars.” On furor, see Cicero, , Div. 1.31.56.Google Scholar

132 Jerome, , Comm. in Dan. 1.2.2 (CCL 75A:784): “Ergo videntur mihi ‘incantatores’ esse qui verbis rem peragunt.” Google Scholar

133 Cod. Theod. 9.16.7: “Ne quis deinceps nocturnis temporibus aut nefarias preces aut magicos apparatus aut sacrificia funesta celebrare conetur.” Similar language can be found in the mid-sixth century Commentarii super Cantica ecclesiastica by Verecundus, bishop of Iunca (Tunisia): “Arioli dicuntur qui sacrificiis et precibus quibusdam impiis et suasionibus funestorum verborum ad fantasias daemones conpellunt” (CCL 93:96).Google Scholar

134 This common etymology connects arioli with altars (arae). It is found in a number of glossaries and commentaries, none of which is obviously Isidore's source. For references, see Montero, , “Mántica inspirada y demonología” (n. 52 above), 124–25.Google Scholar

135 Canale, Valastro, Herejías (n. 9 above), 171–72, traces the phrase “daemonum responsa percipiunt” to a commentary on 1 Kings long attributed to Gregory the Great: In librum primum regum 6.33 (CCL 144:569). But if Adalbert de Vogüé is correct (SC 449:20–23) that the commentary was in fact written by Peter II (Divinacello), monk of Cava and abbot of Venosa (d. 1156), then the whole passage, including its etymology of ara, may be based instead on Isidore.Google Scholar

136 This may be Isidore's own etymology. As Fontaine notes (“Isidore de Séville et l'astrologie” [n. 54 above], 281 n. 2), it is not found in other authors. Other popular etymologies defined haruspices (aruspices) as “inspectors of an altar” ( Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum , ed. Goetz, G., vol. 4 [Leipzig, 1889], 21, line 25: “Aruspex are inspector”) or of the sacrificial victims variously known as harigae, harugae, ariugae, or arvigae (ThLL 2.728–29, s.v. “arviga”). For modern theories, see Milani, , “Note,” 47–48.Google Scholar

137 A definition of horary astrology, in which the positions of the stars were consulted for advice about particular actions. See n. 54 above.Google Scholar

138 Jerome, , Comm. in Dan. 1.2.27b (CCL 75A:790): “qui exta inspiciant et ex his futura praedicant.” Google Scholar

139 What augurs did is best explained by Linderski, Jerzy, “The Augural Law,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 2.16.3 (1986), 2146–312. Isidore correctly states that the observation of birds constituted only one aspect of their divination.Google Scholar

140 Festus, , Gloss Lat. 93 explains the etymology: “Auspicium: from the observing of a bird; for aspicio, which we say with a preposition, the ancients used to say without a preposition: spicio.” [Auspicium: ab ave spicienda; nam quod nos cum praepositione dicimus aspicio apud veteres sine praepositione spicio dicebatur.] Serv. Dan. ad Aen. 3.374 (ed. Stocker, , 147), gives a slightly different version: “dictum ab ave inspiciendo, quasi avispicium.” A shorter version can be found in Keil, , Gramm. Lat. 5:455, line 10: “ab aspicio auspex.” Google Scholar

141 Festus, , Gloss. Lat. 93: “from the chattering of birds” (ab avium garritu).Google Scholar

142 Servius ad Aen. 5.523 (ed. Stocker, , 550): “‘augurium’ dictum quasi ‘avigerium’, id est quod aves gerunt.” Google Scholar

143 On the division of bird-auspices into those based on flight and those based on sound, see Cicero, , Div. 1.42.94. The distinction was based on the two types of birds consulted for auspices: alites were birds whose flight was interpreted, and oscines were birds whose sound was interpreted. See Isid., Etym. 12.7.75–78, and Bouché-Leclercq, , Histoire de la divination (n. 49 above), 4:200.Google Scholar

144 This obvious (and correct) etymology may be Isidore's own. For his speculation on the epithet “Pythius” for Apollo, see Etym. 8.11.54–55, with Macfarlane, , Isidore of Seville on the Pagan Gods (n. 2 above), 23.Google Scholar

145 See also Isidore's distinction between astronomy and astrology at Etym. 3.27.2, echoed at §§22 and 23.Google Scholar

146 Augustine, , De doctr. christ. 2.21.32 (CSEL 80:56): “qui genethliaci propter natalium dierum considerationes.” Gr. genethlios means “pertaining to one's birthday.” Google Scholar

147 Ibid., 2.22.33 (CSEL 80:57): “velie nascentium mores actus eventa praedicere magnus error et magna dementia est.” “Native” is the astrological technical term for the subject of a nativity.Google Scholar

148 Ibid., 2.21.32 (CSEL 80:56): “nunc autem vulgo mathematici vocantur.” Google Scholar

149 Ibid., 2.22.33 (CSEL 80:58): “Constellationes enim quas vocant notatio est siderum, quomodo se habebant cum ille nasceretur de quo isti miseri a miserioribus consuluntur.” Google Scholar

150 Tertullian, , De idolatria 9.3 (CCL 2.2:1108): “Sed magi ab oriente venerunt…. Primi igitur stellarum interpretes natum Christum annuntiaverunt.” Google Scholar

151 Ibid., 9.4 (CCL 2.2:1108): “At enim scientia ista usque ad evangelium fuit concessa, ut Christo edito nemo exinde nativitatem alicuius de caelo interpretetur.” Google Scholar

152 Evidently a gloss on Persius 6.18 (geminos, horoscope, varo / producis genio), probably taken from the so-called Commentum Cornuti: “HOROSCOPUS autem est, qui horas nativitatis hominum speculatur. VARO GENIO, id est dissimili et diverso fato” (ed. Jahn, Otto, Auli Persii Flacci Satirarum Liber [Leipzig, 1843; repr. Hildesheim, 1967], 343). On a fourth- or fifth-century date for this commentary, see Clausen, W. V., ed., A. Persi Flacci et D. Iuni Iuvenalis Saturae (Oxford, 1959), viii, citing Hermann, Karl Friedrich, Lectiones Persianae (Marburg, 1842) and idem, Analecta de aetate et usu scholiorum Persianorum (Göttingen, 1846).Google Scholar

153 Council of Agde, 506, can. 42 (CCL 148:210–11): “sub nomine fictae religionis, quas sanctorum sortes uocant, diuinationis scientiam profitentur, aut quarumcumque scripturarum inspectione futura promittunt.” Google Scholar

154 Augustine, , De doctr. christ. 2.20.31 (CSEL 80:56): “si membrum aliquod salierit.” On this mode of divination, see in general, Bouché-Leclercq, , Histoire de la divination (n. 49 above), 1:160–65.Google Scholar

155 Augustine, , De doctr. christ. 2.20.30 (CSEL 80:55): “Ad hoc genus pertinent omnes etiam ligaturae atque remedia quae medicorum quoque disciplina condemnat, sive in praecantationibus sive in quibusdam notis quos caracteres vocant, sive in quibusque rebus suspendendis atque illigandis….” Canale, Valastro, Herejías (n. 9 above), 32, identifies Eugippius's Excerpta ex operibus S. Augustini 259 (CSEL 9:832) as Isidore's source for this passage and the next.Google Scholar

156 Augustine, , De doctr. christ. 2.23.36 (CSEL 80:59): “ex quadam pestifera societate hominum et daemonum quasi pacta infidelis et dolosae amicitiae constituta, penitus sunt repudianda et fugienda Christiano” (= Eugippius, , Excerpta ex operibus S. Augustini 259 [CSEL 9:834]).Google Scholar

157 For this belief, widely held by Christians, see Pease, , M. Tulli Ciceronis De Divinatione (n. 81 above), 260.Google Scholar

158 Literally “blunts the sharpness of sight.” Probably taken from the commentary of Ps.-Acro (early fifth century) on Horace, , Carm. 1.10.8 (ed. Keller, Otto, Scholia in Horatium Vetustiora, vol. 1 [Leipzig, 1902], 52): “[Mercurius] praestigiator dicitur ab eo quod praestringat aciem oculorum.” Google Scholar

159 Cicero, , Div. 2.23.50: “Tages quidam dicitur in agro Tarquiniensi … extitisse repente et eum adfatus esse qui arabat.” Google Scholar

160 The passage is corrupt. Lindsay has †ex oris†. Pease (following Grial) suggests ex arvis ‘from the fields’ (presumably based on Ovid., Met. 15.554). Arévalo conjectures exoriens “arising.” Another possibility is exaratus “dug out,” used to describe Tages by Cicero (Div. 2.38.80: “Etrusci tamen habent exaratum puerum auctorem disciplinae suae”) and Censorinus (DN 4.13: “puer dicitur divinus exaratus”).Google Scholar

161 For various versions of the story, see Pease, , M. Tulli Ciceronis De Divinatione (n. 81 above), 435–37, and for an attempt to harmonize these, see Wood, J. R., “The Myth of Tages,” Latomus 39 (1980): 325–44.Google Scholar

162 On the various titles of these books, see Bouché-Leclercq, , Histoire de la divination , 4:7–14.Google Scholar