ABSTRACT
From time to time, such texts have been the object of study by philologists, but chie y by folklorists and ethnologists. We are still far from having a full overview of these texts and a systematic classi cation into chronological periods, and we are unable to determine their precise origins. It is nevertheless clear, even from a cursory reading, that during the Hellenistic period and the subsequent Roman domination in the East the beliefs and superstitions of many Mediterranean peoples came to the fore. Later too, in the Christian era, pagan material survives intensely and continuously, despite attempts to adapt to and harmonize with the new religion by reference to saints and other sacred names, though this did not mean that such texts were acceptable to the Church. As Spyros Trojanos discusses in Chapter 9 of this volume, several Church canons strictly condemn their use by lay persons and clergy alike. Human curiosity, however, and innate superstition proved to be stronger than prohibitions and hence numerous texts strayed from the canons of both the o cial prayerbook and classical medical writings. e con ation of phrases, words and names originating from di erent cultures and their mainly oral di usion at once raise a philological problem. us in many cases their identi cation is impossible, as is their reduction to a crystallized form. ese are uid and complementary texts, poorly composed and unintelligible, both to those who memorized them and to those who copied them. is was surely due to their
apocryphal nature, which did not in any case appear strange, but on the contrary was in tune with the whole atmosphere in which they were used, like something paradoxical and beyond common logic, since this was exactly what those who resorted to their use needed.
