ABSTRACT
Much has been written on the techniques of magic-working in antiquity. Great advances have been made in the understanding of the way in which spells written on lead, papyrus or a sherd of pottery were composed, what kinds of formulae were employed in them, what symbols were inscribed on magical amulets and what manner of devices were worn to ward off evil forces. The belief systems that informed the practices of the more sophisticated and educated sorcerers of the ancient world have been studied, in particular their debt to Platonism and its strange offspring, Neopythagoreanism and Gnosticism. But little attention has been paid to the men and women who were believed by their contemporaries to be expert in magic or who themselves professed expertise. 1 There has been no study of who it was to whom men and women went for help, if they wanted to put a spell on someone, to have a spell taken off, to nullify the effects of an ominous dream or to have a child cured of some inexplicable illness by incantations and amulets. Nor has there been any comprehensive treatment of the educated men who in their fascination with magic made collections of magical lore or who engaged in magical rituals either to effect a union with the divine or with the more mundane goal of altering the course of nature. Nor yet again has the magic-working of the holy men who wandered from community to community been investigated.
