1. BINDING-SPELLS : CURSES

2. Aims in PGM AIM NUMBER/PERCENT Healing 109/21% Knowledge 102/20% Love
98/19%
Injury
61/12%
Miscellaneous
44/8.5%
Success
42/8.2%
Safety
22/4.3%
Invocation
Service
7/1.4%
Horoscopes and General Astrology
6/1.2%

3. Binding-Spell
katadesmos (< kata “down” + deisthai “to bind”)

4. Rufa Publica: her hands, her teeth, her eyes, her arms, her belly, her tits, her chest, her bones, her marrow, her belly, her legs, her mouth, her feet, her forehead, her nails, her fingers, her belly, her navel, her cunt, her womb, her groin: I curse Rufa Publica on these tablets. (ILS 8751)

5. plant, herb drug, potion medicine pharmakon poison magic charm scapegoat

6. pharmakon (scapegoat)
THARGELIA 6 Thargelion (April/May)
Pharmakos ritual
Two ugliest men whipped then stoned to death; bodies burnt, ashes thrown either into sea or scattered over land.
Pharmakoi cast into sea then rescued, or cast out of community.

7. lamella

8. •preparation / consecration of lamella • invocation (agents / messengers) * chthonic deity (Hades, Persephone, Hekate, Hermes) * kakodaimon (evil daimon) * nekydaimon (death diamon) * aôros (untimely dead) • designation of victim *identification of name and family *enumeration of parts • list of desired results • promise / threat • self-identification as god or daimon • deposition of lamella • graveyard; grave of recently deceased child • underground watercourse

9. Magic as Contractual
• legal template • identification of parties • comprehensive enumeration of parts • complete list of desired results • analogical terms (just as…so too) • quid pro quo

10. ANCIENT SCIENCE
ANCIENT MAGIC
theory over application
practice over theory
observable events explained in terms of non-observables (kryptomena)
effects produced by manipulating kryptomena
deterministic causal network
impersonal idiom (dynameis)
mixed idiom: personal (daimonia) and impersonal (dynameis)
language neutral, descriptive
language active, efficacious, creative
use of analogy to illustrate
use of analogy to effect change
techniques performed by neutral agent
techniques performed by involved agent
public knowledge, openness to criticism
private (often “banned”) knowledge
failure results from (1) faulty theory, (2) flawed implementation or experimentation
failure results from (1) flawed implementation, (2) counter-magic, (3) character of agent, (4) chance
acknowledged (if poorly understood) by society at large

11. Descriptives vs. Performatives
(1) I smile. (2) I curse. (3) I conjure. (4) I promise. (5) I sing. (6) I confess. (6) I solemnly swear. (7) I pledge allegiance. (8) I do thee wed. (9) I snore. (10) I deny.

12. voces magicae

13. Ephesian Characters