Meyer M.W., Mirecki P.A. (eds.) Ancient Magic and Ritual Power

Boston, Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2001. — x, 486 p. — ISBN: 0-391-04152-5.This volume contains a series of provocative essays that explore expressions of magic and ritual power in the ancient world. The essays are authored by leading scholars in the fields of Egyptology, ancient Near Eastern studies, the Hebrew Bible, Judaica, classical Greek and Roman studies, early Christianity and patristics, and Coptology. Throughout the book the essays examine the terms employed in descriptions of ancient magic. From this examination comes a clarification of magic as a polemical term of exclusion but also an understanding of the classical Egyptian and early Greek conceptions of magic as a more neutral category of inclusion. This book should prove to be foundational for future scholarly studies of ancient magic and ritual power. This publication has also been published in hardback (no longer available).Selected Bibliography
Defining Magic and Ritual Power
Jonathan Z. Smith. Trading Places
Fritz Graf . Excluding the Charming: The Development of the Greek Concept of Magic
Robert K. Ritner . The Religious, Social, and Legal Parameters of Traditional Egyptian Magic
Magic and Ritual Power in the Ancient Near East
Richard H. Beal. Hittite Military Rituals
Billie Jean Collins. Ritual Meals in the Hittite Cult
J. A. Scurlock. Magical Uses of Ancient Mesopotamian Festivals of the Dead
Magic and Ritual Power in Judaism and Early Christianity
Brian B. Schmidt. The "Witch" of En-Dor, 1 Samuel 28, and Ancient Near Eastern Necromancy
Stephen D. Ricks. The Magician as Outsider in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
Jonathan Seidel. Charming Criminals: Classification of Magic in the Babylonian Talmud
Michael D. Swartz. Magical Piety in Ancient and Medieval Judaism
Rebecca Lesses. The Adjuration of the Prince of the Presence: Performative Utterance in a Jewish Ritual
Magic and Ritual Power in Greek Antiquity
William M. Brashear. New Greek Magical and Divinatory Texts in Berlin
Roy Kotansky. Greek Exorcistic Amulets
Leda Jean Ciraolo. Supernatural Assistants in the Greek Magical Papyri
Christopher A. Faraone. The Mystodokos and the Dark-Eyed Maidens: Multicultural Influences on a Late-Hellenistic Incantation
David Martinez. "May she neither eat nor drink": Love Magic and Vows of Abstinence
Sarah lies Johnston. Defining the Dreadful: Remarks on the Greek Child-Killing Demon
Magic and Ritual Power in Roman and Late Antiquity
Oliver Phillips. Singing Away Snakebite: Lucan's Magical Cures
Jacques van der Vliet. Satan's Fall in Coptic Magic
Jason David BeDuhn. Magical Bowls and Manichaeans
Todd Breyfogle. Magic, Women, and Heresy in the Late Empire: The Case of the Priscillianists
Conclusion Myth, Magic, and the Power of the Word
David Frankfurter. Narrating Power: The Theory and Practice of the Magical Historiola in Ritual SpellsPlates. New Greek Magical and Divinatory Texts in Berlin