Protective Statues for Home and Workshop

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_chapter_1094
dc.contributor.author	Faraone Christopher A.
dc.title	Protective Statues for Home and Workshop. The Evidence for Cross-Cultural Contact in the Greek Magical Papyri
dc.type	Chapter
dc.language.iso	en
dc.description.abstract	The Greek magical papyri, especially the longer handbooks from Upper Egypt, reflect a good deal of cross-cultural mixture, but often this is not some form of free association, but rather a series of additions to or translations of one culture’s traditional ritual or ritual object in order to adapt or update it to new circumstances. This process is especially apparent in two recipes in the famous Paris Magical Papyrus (PGM IV) for small wax statuettes designed to protect or prosper houses or shops. In each case, the creator of the recipe begins with a well known domestic talisman drawn from a single cultural tradition – an image of the Egyptian god Pantheos or the Roman god Mercury with his money sack – and then adds divine names or details drawn from other traditions that reveal the cross-cultural currents in the late-antique environment in which he worked. These additions are, moreover, often acts of translation, for example, renaming the god depicted or giving him a new epithet.
dc.relation.ispartof	Antiquity Studies
dc.relation.ispartof	Storia ed epigrafia
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing
dc.issued	2017-07-12
dc.dateAccepted	2016-12-08
dc.dateSubmitted	2016-11-08
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/libri/978-88-7543-439-7/protective-statues-for-home-and-workshop/
dc.identifier.doi	10.14277/6969-180-5/ANT-11-6
dc.identifier.issn	2610-8828
dc.identifier.eissn	2610-9344
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-7543-439-7
dc.identifier.eisbn	978-88-6969-180-5
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
item.fulltext	with fulltext
item.grantfulltext	open
dc.peer-review	no
dc.subject	Amulets
dc.subject	Amulets
dc.subject	Cross-cultural mixture
dc.subject	Cross-cultural mixture
dc.subject	Egyptian
dc.subject	Egyptian
dc.subject	Gemstones
dc.subject	Gemstones
dc.subject	Greek magical papyri
dc.subject	Greek magical papyri
dc.subject	Prosperity
dc.subject	Prosperity
dc.subject	Protection
dc.subject	Protection
dc.subject	Statuettes
dc.subject	Statuettes

Chapter
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Protective Statues for Home and Workshop

The Evidence for Cross-Cultural Contact in the Greek Magical Papyri

Christopher A. Faraone The University of Chicago, USA

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abstract

The Greek magical papyri, especially the longer handbooks from Upper Egypt, reflect a good deal of cross-cultural mixture, but often this is not some form of free association, but rather a series of additions to or translations of one culture’s traditional ritual or ritual object in order to adapt or update it to new circumstances. This process is especially apparent in two recipes in the famous Paris Magical Papyrus (PGM IV) for small wax statuettes designed to protect or prosper houses or shops. In each case, the creator of the recipe begins with a well known domestic talisman drawn from a single cultural tradition – an image of the Egyptian god Pantheos or the Roman god Mercury with his money sack – and then adds divine names or details drawn from other traditions that reveal the cross-cultural currents in the late-antique environment in which he worked. These additions are, moreover, often acts of translation, for example, renaming the god depicted or giving him a new epithet.

Published

July 12, 2017

Accepted

Dec. 8, 2016

Submitted

Nov. 8, 2016

Language

ISBN (PRINT)

978-88-7543-439-7

ISBN (EBOOK)

978-88-6969-180-5

Keywords: Prosperity • Protection • Egyptian • Gemstones • Greek magical papyri • Cross-cultural mixture • Amulets • Statuettes

permalink: http://doi.org/10.14277/6969-180-5/ANT-11-6

Copyright: © 2017 Christopher A. Faraone. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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