ABSTRACT
The texts chosen illustrate contrasting workings of magic tales: Pliny the Younger and Lucian offer unvarnished and varnished versions of the same standard ‘haunted house’ story; Lucian treats the first known version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice tale in the same tendentious way, with the magician expending his supposedly vast powers on trivial household chores. Ghosts are shown performing murderous vengeance, or coming back from the dead, as in the bizarre case of Phlegon of Tralles’ Philinnion. Some wonder-workers seem to have out-of-body experiences, most notably Aristeas of Proconnesus, who may or may not reflect ‘shamanic’ traits, while Epimenides of Crete presents an ancient Rip van Winkle after a 57-year absence. Collectively the examples underline the attempts to control and manipulate the supernatural, with often sharp contrasts between the horrific and the pretentiously trivial.
