|
Product Description
An unparalleled exploration of magic in the Greco-Roman world
What did magic mean to the people of ancient Greece and Rome? How did Greeks and Romans not only imagine what magic could do, but also use it to try to influence the world around them? In Drawing Down the Moon, Radcliffe Edmonds, one of the foremost experts on magic, religion, and the occult in the ancient world, provides the most comprehensive account of the varieties of phenomena labeled as magic in classical antiquity. Exploring why certain practices, images, and ideas were labeled as “magic” and set apart from “normal” kinds of practices, Edmonds gives insight into the shifting ideas of religion and the divine in the ancient past and in the later Western tradition.
Using fresh approaches to the history of religions and the social contexts in which magic was exercised, Edmonds delves into the archaeological record and classical literary traditions to examine images of witches, ghosts, and demons as well as the fantastic powers of metamorphosis, erotic attraction, and reversals of nature, such as the famous trick of drawing down the moon. From prayer and divination to astrology and alchemy, Edmonds journeys through all manner of ancient magical rituals and paraphernalia―ancient tablets, spell books, bindings and curses, love charms and healing potions, and amulets and talismans. He considers the ways in which the Greco-Roman discourse of magic was formed amid the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, including Egypt and the Near East.
An investigation of the mystical and marvelous, Drawing Down the Moon offers an unparalleled record of the origins, nature, and functions of ancient magic.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
- Ancient Magic: A Practitioner's Guide to the Supernatural in Greece and Rome
- The Golden Ass: Or, A Book of Changes (Hackett Classics)
- Svartkonstböcker: A Compendium of the Swedish Black Art Book Tradition (Folk Necromancy in Transmission)
- Weeping for Dido: The Classics in the Medieval Classroom (E. H. Gombrich Lecture Series)
- The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells: Texts
- Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook
- Ars Notoria: The Grimoire of Rapid Learning by Magic, with the Golden Flowers of Apollonius of Tyana
- Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World
- The Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Occult Practitioner
- Golden Dawn Magic: A Complete Guide to the High Magical Arts
*If this is not the "Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World" product you were looking for, you can check the other results by clicking this link. Details were last updated on Nov 21, 2024 04:01 +08.