For decades, Christopher Faraone has been a leading scholar in ancient Mediterranean magic studies, with close and original readings of magical texts, important editions of primary sources, and major new theses. But this new work stands as a model for magic studies in general by negotiating a wide variety of interdisciplinary sources without sacrificing depth of analysis. F. brings together materials from art history, archaeology, papyrology, epigraphy, and literature. Among literary sources, F. examines magical, medical, religious, philosophical, and poetic texts across various cultural and linguistic contexts. Within one page, for instance, F. masterfully weaves together a coherent context from the Odyssey to Hippocratic texts, Pindar, Plato, Julius Africanus, Plutarch, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Augustine (5–7). His use of copious sources reveals the complexity of social contexts, while his fluid writing style maintains a consistent and engaging argumentative thread.
F. begins by pointing out that many more healing and protective images and texts have been identified as dating from the Roman imperial period than from earlier periods. These images and texts, he explains, appear largely in the eastern Mediterranean and on metal, papyri, mosaics, and gemstones. Despite this apparent explosion of imperial Roman archaeological findings, F. shows how they represent a much older practice of Greek amulet usage, which has hitherto been less visible to modern scholars. He argues that the increase in the number of powerful images and texts in Roman imperial times does not indicate an increase in amulet usage itself, but rather that it indicates new epigraphic and iconographic developments within pre-existing amuletic practices, dating back centuries to Periclean Athens.
Studies in Greek history, especially the history of magic, typically explain the etymologies of technical terms by means of direct translations. F.'s explanations go above and beyond simple translation, as he unravels etymologies into fascinating discussions of grammar with variations and counter-examples. With a thorough understanding of the nuances of the Greek language, F. reveals the cultural subtexts within our primary sources. Through his exceptional knowledge of Greek literature, F. situates the style of magical recipes within their larger contexts (comparing, for example, those which mention divinities from different cultures with third-century C.E. prose hymns, 13). F. regularly argues against himself in order to illustrate the complexity of his subject matter. And with a deep appreciation of poetic structure, he models aesthetic enjoyment for readers.
F. divides his study into three main sections. In the first section, entitled ‘Archaeology’, he surveys examples of amulets dating from the late archaic period onward, and from the entire Greek-speaking world, including votives from Cyprus and other objects from beyond Athens. In this section, he explores eclectic examples of amulet shapes, such as the Gorgon's head and phallus. He also contextualizes the various materials of existing objects including gold and hematite, as well as perishable ones like plants and animal parts that are mentioned in literary sources. In the second section, ‘Images’, F. explains the gods and heroes of the Hellenistic period, the so-called action figures triumphing over evil opponents (such as an equestrian hero stabbing a female demon), and the domestic guardians of pre-Roman protective statuettes. He ends this section with a discussion of the chronology of pre-Hellenistic pharaonic gods and Ptolemaic gods of the Roman period. In his third section, ‘Texts’, F. examines prayers, including the use of divine names, and goes on to explore incantations of famous singers like David, Orpheus, and Empedocles. F.'s argument culminates with a chapter on speech acts in exorcisms and historiolae of miracles and cures. Though the chapter is already replete with examples and contexts, it would be exciting to see further development of theoretical models for understanding speech acts.
Acknowledging the collaborative aspect of all complex scholarship, F. presents his arguments as the beginning or continuation of on-going scholarly questions. He indicates the limits of his own and others’ arguments, and consistently suggests to the readers further questions and contexts for study, concluding the book with a chapter on future trajectories.
F. wields a wide range of primary sources, from the purely textual through to thousands of uninscribed amulets. He mines recipes for protective or healing amulets from papyrus handbooks, ostraca and copper plates, and from the extensive Greek Testament of Solomon. He brings together magic recipes in Hellenistic lapidaries such as Sotacus, medical treatises, and encyclopedias such as Pliny, along with third-party ancient citations of lost and usually pseudepigraphic ‘learned magicians’. As further sources of information, F. draws on descriptions of amulets by philosophers, comic poets and satirists, medical and pharmaceutical writers (such as Soranus of Ephesus, Galen, Theophrastus, and Alexander of Tralles), and public officials (including Roman jurists, Talmudic rabbis, and Christian bishops). Aware of the fact that each source comes with its own set of distortions and limitations, F. reconciles these by providing in-depth social, ideological, geographic, and economic contexts for them. He is humane in his respect toward the users of amulets by meeting historical practices and documents on their own terms and seeking contexts in which they make sense.
The arguments are accompanied throughout by high resolution black and white photographs, ten colour plates, and highly legible drawings. The back matter will facilitate further studies, with its nine appendices that summarize protective and curative recipes, extensive bibliography, handy glossaries of authors, texts, and terms, and indices of ancient words and citations of ancient texts.
