The Nature and Development of Greek Magical Texts without Christian Elements from Late Antique Egypt: Tracing Continuity and Change

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the nature and evolution of Greek magical texts devoid of Christian elements from Late Antique Egypt, spanning the fourth to seventh centuries. As this type of analysis has not yet been conducted, our research takes as its point of departure a first checklist bringing together all the material. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the debate on magic, clarifies the criteria used for our checklist to classify a text as magical, and recommends the concept of 'appropriation' for the study of these texts. Building upon this, our second chapter focuses on establishing the criteria for our checklist. It defines the types of texts considered to be amulets and formularies and clarifies what we regard as Christian elements, ensuring that such texts are excluded from our study.

Finally, our third chapter utilises the earlier checklist by De Bruyn and Dijkstra, which collects all magical texts with Christian elements from Late Antique Egypt, allowing us to compare their findings with ours. This comparison allows us to better trace the developments of magical texts without Christian elements and observe whether the increasing establishment of Christianity in Late Antique Egypt led to notable changes in their usage patterns. On the basis of the data collected, our study demonstrates that similar to Egypt's religious transformation as a whole, the usage of magical texts without Christian elements during this period is characterized by both change and continuity.