Magic as Pollution: Fictional Blasphemies and Ritual Realities in the Roman Period (1st cen. BCE–4th cen. CE)

Kyle Fraser

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Chapter 1 Magic as Pollution

Fictional Blasphemies and Ritual Realities in the Roman Period (1st cen. BCE–4th cen. CE)

In: Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination

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Kyle Fraser

Kyle Fraser
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 21–42

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004466005_003

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The author explores the complex relationship between fictional representations of magic in the late Roman world and the rituals preserved in the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri (pgm). He traces the emergence of an elite Roman anti-magical discourse, which stigmatizes magic as a form of cultural ‘pollution’, threatening the values of the Roman order. This discourse is typically framed in terms of transgressive rituals, like necromancy and human sacrifice, and the purported use of defiling substances (excremental and cadaverous materials). The author argues that such fictional blasphemies are ideologically motivated and have no substantive basis in the actual practices of magic, as codified in the handbooks of Greco-Egyptian magicians. While these magicians do at times employ polluting materials in rituals of malign magic and necromancy, these practices are exceptional. Moreover, the subversive and polluting associations of such practices are disarmed by their incorporation in a wider initiatory framework, which stresses the purity of the priestly magician and his alignment with the gods.

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Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination

Series: Aries Book Series, Volume: 30

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004466005

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 13 Sep 2021

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Chapter 1 Magic as Pollution

Fictional Blasphemies and Ritual Realities in the Roman Period (1st cen. BCE–4th cen. CE)

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Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination

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