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Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.07.50
Aurelio Prez Jimnez, Gonzalo Cruz Andreotti, Seres Intermedios.
ngeles, Demonios y Genios en el Mundo Mediterrneo. Mediterranea, 7.
Madrid-Mlaga: Ediciones Clsicas & Charta Antiqua, 2000. Pp. 232.
ISBN 84-7882-457-X.
Aurelio Prez Jimnez, Gonzalo Cruz Andreotti, Damon Predros: Magos
y prcticas mgicas en el Mundo Mediterrneo. Mediterranea, 9. Madrid-
Mlaga: Ediciones Clsicas & Charta Antiqua, 2002. Pp. 294. ISBN 84-
7882-494-4.
J. L. Calvo Martinez, A. Prez Jimnez, MHNH. Revista Internacional de
Investigacin sobre Magia y Astrologa Antiguas. 1 (2001). Mlaga:
Charta Antiqua, 2001. Pp. 350. ISBN ISSN 1578-4517.
J. L. Calvo Martinez, A. Prez Jimnez, MHNH. Revista Internacional de
Investigacin sobre Magia y Astrologa Antiguas. 2 (2002). Mlaga:
Charta Antiqua, 2002. Pp. 337. ISBN ISSN 1578-4517.
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Reviewed by Edmund P. Cueva, Xavier University (cueva@xu.edu)
Word count: 4596 words
Seres Intermedios
Seres Intermedios is a collection of eight essays presented at the conference "XI Curso-Seminario
de Otoo de Estudios sobre el Mediterrneo Antiguo" held at the University of Mlaga in
September 14-16, 1998. The aim of the collection is to examine the functions that the ancient
Mediterranean peoples gave to beings that had intermediate or intervening roles between humans
and superhuman entities. The approaches range from the anthropological to hispanist, from
Graeco-Roman to Byzantine and Islamic. Quite a bit of material is covered in these essays. My
approach for all four books is to touch briefly on the contributions and to point out any major themes
that may emerge.
The first essay, "Seres Intermedios: Decadencia y Retroceso en la Modernidad," by J. A. Gonzlez
Alcantud, examines how Christian martyrs became saints and thus had intermediating functions
before God on behalf of humans. The saints also gave flesh to the struggle against temptation and
above all helped humans by granting a "logical solution to the fissure between the miseries of daily
reality and eschatological beliefs" (12). In addition, saints had to be interpreted as existing
somewhere between the monotheistic belief inherited from Judaism and Graeco-Roman
anthropocentrism; this interpretation opens the door to the secularization of the world and a faith that
has to be "approached through reason" (16).
Mercedes Lpez Salv ("Demonios y Espritus en las Religiones Primitivas del Prximo Oriente")
follows with an intriguing analysis of intermediary beings in Sumer and Babylon. It is in the Near
East, she writes, that the "poetical imagination of man unites with the religious imagination" in order
to create a world of beings who "assist and protect and at the same time help give an explanation
for the causes of evil in the world or of those forces that the human mind cannot understand" (23). It
should be noted that these beings not only help but also plague humans, all of whom are situated in
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a tripartite universe: humans on earth, superior and divine beings in the heavens, and creatures that
terrify humans below. The author argues that it was necessary to believe in the intermediary beings
in order to elevate oneself from the terrestrial to the heavenly or to account for the terrors that stem
from the infernal world. Listed among intermediary beings are the sebittu, iminbi, kalaurru,
kurgaruu, apkallu, and milla gallu.
E. Surez de la Torre's "La Nocion de Daimon en la Literatura de la Grecia Arcaica y Clsica"
writes that can be interpreted as: 1) an unnamed deity that intervenes directly in human
affairs and can be equated with the theoi, 2) something similar at times to destiny or fortune, 3)
something that need not be identified with Olympic deities, but can have negative and frightening
associations, 4) the soul of a hero or of someone who has died, or 5) the "soul" as understood in
philosophical terms. The author explores the texts of Homer, Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Alcman,
Pindar, Bacchylides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Empedocles,
Iamblichus, and Plato, among others.
In "Seres Intermedios en la Tradicin Platnica Tarda", John Dillon continues with this theme when
he begins his essay with the passage from Plato's Symposium 203a1-2, which states that "God
does not deal directly with man" because there is a series of intermediary beings called daimones,
who can be "good or bad" (117). Dillon explores the contributions of Xenocrates, Plutarch, Philo of
Alexandria, Apuleius, and Calicidius to the development in the explication and expansion on the
concept of the demonic in Platonism.
In "Seres Intermedios y Religiosidad Popular en el Mundo Romano," Clelia Martnez Maza reviews
the function of the intermediary beings in "popular and private" spheres, in particular, the domestic
roles in which these beings were worshipped. The penates and their relationship to the nourishment
of the family and the lares and their involvement in the delineation of property ownership form the
bulk of the essay. The manes, lemures, and larvae are seen as "divine groups that act collectively
and possess a field of action that is closer to that of the human individual than that of the gods"
(143). These supernatural entities survived the rise of Christianity in better shape than the gods of
the pantheon.
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The essay by Frederick E. Brenk, "El Exorcismo en Filipos en Hechos 16.11-40: Posesin Divina
o Inspiracin Diablica," tackles the proper interpretation of in the biblical passage -- more
accurately , which Brenk translates as "prophetic spirit." This can, of
course, be divine inspiration, the Holy Spirit, or an evil spirit (a reading not found in Pauline
literature). Exorcism, Brenk intriguingly notes, was a common Jewish practice that posed no
problems in being incorporated into the Christian world. Christians, however, did perceive the
worship of Apollo and the consultation of his oracles as demonically inspired.
In "El Diablo en Bizancio: Metodologa, Orientaciones y Resultados de su Estudio," Antonio Bravo
Garca uses sociological and psychological methodologies to consider the question of the demonic
in Byzantine times as found in hagiographic literature. The models he employs are "demonic"
(malignant beings perpetrating evil acts), "scriptural" (the deeds involved are similar to those found
in the Bible), and "ascetic" (the deeds involve asceticism, virtue, and sin). In Byzantine times there
developed a fundamental postulate: "to recognize, avoid, and conquer the demons comes to be at
length something like a new science, a new compendium of knowledge, a philosophy of incalculable
value and difficulty that supplants other types of knowledge" (196). The author concludes by stating
that psychologically it was demanded that this fundamental postulate be recognized as true, since
not doing so would run the risk of madness.
The final essay, Antonio Garrido Moraga's "Anlisis Crtico de un Mitema: El Demonio en Algunos
Casos de la Literatura Espaola," is an attempt to arrive at a valid macrostructural typology (in the
manner of Lvy-Strauss) of the demonic in Spanish literature. Lope de Vega, Amescua, Caldern,
and Cernuda serve as texts for this attempt.
This compilation is thorough in its approach and the authors make forceful and convincing
presentations. The text is free from any egregious mistakes. Anyone interested in the history of the
occult sciences will find this book a worthwhile purchase.
Damon Predros
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Damon Predros, another collection of essays, is a product of the "XIII Curso-Seminario de Otoo
de Estudios sobre el Mediterrneo Antiguo" conference held at the University of Mlaga in
September 19-22, 2000. The collection also includes articles by Mrquez Romero and Jos Luis
Jimnez Muoz that were not presented at the gathering. The focus of this collection complements
that of the collection reviewed above by noting that once the ancients recognized the intermediary
beings' roles, passions, and weaknesses, they could try to make them "submit to their wills and
convert them into their instruments as servants and assistants ... capable of accomplishing for us
what for us is impossible" (2) -- hence the title of the work, .
Concepcin Mora's "La Magia como Respuesta a lo Desconocido: Una Visin Antropolgica" not
only reviews some of the scholars in anthropology who have worked to establish the boundaries
between magic and religion (Frazer, Malinowski, Redfield), but also goes through the practices and
methodologies of those associated with magic (e.g., exorcists, wise men, witches, shamans,
wizards). These are the people, the author summarizes, "to whom some power or supernatural force
has been attributed, who can use this power or force positively or negatively, although all of them do
not have an equal amount of power or efficacy. Their resources stem from oral traditions" (23).
Some of these practitioners of magic move easily between white and black magic and have had
and still do have the trust and confidence of some people.
In "Lugares Rituales y Magia en la Prehistoria: Dos Casos Singulares," Jos E. Mrquez Romero
demonstrates that although magic could be associated with a multitude of locations in prehistoric
times, it tends to be linked most often with painted caves and Paleolithic sanctuaries, and to a
lesser extent with entrenched stone circles from the Neolithic period. In order to understand
completely this interrelationship it is of paramount importance for the modern scholar to become
aware of what Eliade terms "archaic ontology," which is similar to Levy-Bruhl's "soul of the primitive"
or Lvi-Strauss' "savage mind" -- Mrquez Romero avoids any disparagement of prehistoric
thought. This ontology can best be seen in myth, ritual, and the animistic form of the experience
undergone in these rituals in such places as painted caves. Magic for the author must be viewed as
the "consubstantial element" (39) of all primitive rituals and ceremonies, which are intended to give
a social configuration to the beliefs of primitive peoples.
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"La Magia en la Grecia Arcaica y Clsica" by Jos Luis Calvo Martnez begins with a survey of
Greek literature from Homer to approximately 300 B.C. -- it should be noted that magic in literature
is viewed as being more than just another poetic function. The second kind of data in the essay is
the scientific and philosophic opinions on and manifestations of magic; the third comes from those
who actually practiced some form of magic. Epic, tragedy, the works of Hippocrates, Plato's Laws,
and the tabellae defixionum form the bulk of the material examined. Nothing really new is revealed
in this examination, but the survey of sources is well done.
Paired with the concluding time period of Calvo Martnez' chronology is Manuel Garca Teijeiro's
"Temas Mgicos en la Literatura Helenstica." The author argues that during the Hellenistic period
not only did the Greek language move to its koine or universal form but that local forms of magic
extended throughout the Mediterranean in the Imperial period in a syncretistic manner. Magic, it is
argued, took on a scientific quality, with universal laws and regulations. The proof for this
transformation can be found in the poetry of the period (e.g., Apollonius of Rhodes and Theocritus).
In "La Magia en la Biblia," Antonio Piero moves the spotlight from the Greek world to Israel. This
essay, which is a summary of two chapters from his book En la frontera de lo imposible: Magos,
mdicos y taumaturgos en el Mediterrneo Antiguo en tiempos del Nuevo Testamento (2001),
indicates that ancient Israel was well-versed in magic. The author cites examples from the Old
Testament that evidence the magical use of prayer, sacred places, rites of sacrifices, apotropaic
rituals, amulets, the invocation of the dead, the divine name, miracles, and prophecy -- all of which
were forbidden by official legislation but tended to remain in private practice. In the New Testament
any sort of paranormal activity must be interpreted to see whether it comes through Jesus Christ. If it
does, it is not magic. If it does not, either evil spirits are at work or someone who has control over
the forces of nature. This is therefore termed magic.
Claudio Moreschini heads back to the Graeco-Roman world with his intriguing "Apuleyo Mago o
Apuleius Philosophus Platonicus?" The premise of the essay is quite simple: the Christian belief is
that demons and the terror caused by them are evidenced through a series of proofs, literary or
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folklore, which are extremely varied. The pagan, however, views demons as causing not necessarily
fear but rather reverence (this reverence is limited to people of the middle and elite classes).
Among the latter interpretation are the observations of Plutarch, Apuleius, Maximus of Tyre, and
Philostratus. It is Apuleius who sums up this notion by observing that magic, at least as evidenced in
his own writings, is a form of philosophy and theurgy; the philosopher is the priest of all of the
numina and is in contact with all divinities, with which he is allowed to speak.
The last essay that touches upon the classical world is "Magia Literaria y Prcticas Mgicas en el
Mundo Roman-Cltico" by Francisco Marco-Simn. The author suggests that it is difficult to get an
accurate picture of Celtic magic in Ireland because most accounts that deal with this phenomenon
are mediated through myths and Christian hagiographical narratives. Marco-Simn also argues that
orality played a large part in the way the traditions and religious knowledge of this phenomenon
were conveyed. Celtic magic, in conclusion, must be sought in the vernacular epigraphy written in
the Gallic tongue. The accounts of such writers as Pliny the Elder do not supply a clear picture of
Celtic magic; they only stress Celtic peculiarities and the inversion of Roman practices and ideas.
The final three essays break away from the Classical world and focus on Byzantine,
Andalusian/Muslim, and Medieval and Renaissance Spanish writings. In "La Magia en Bizancio:
Una Ojeada de Conjunto," Antonio Bravo Garca gives an overview of magic in Byzantine times:
magic in Byzantium was a constant presence, notwithstanding Church opposition, which from the
fourth century had imperial legislation on its side to punish severely not only those involved in
causing harm but also those sympathetic to the practice of magic. Amulets, tabellae defixionum,
exorcism, and myriad forms of divination were prevalent. Maribel Fierro's "La Magia en Al-Andalus"
concentrates on the ancient and modern Muslim preoccupation with magic. In particular, the author
addresses the question whether there is revelation after the composition of the Koran. Although
magic has been prohibited and strenuously punished during all periods and in all places in the
Muslim world, it nevertheless has been an "integral part in Muslim beliefs, rituals, and social
customs" (248-249). The last essay, Miguel ngel Prez Priego's "Tratados y Prcticas Mgicas
en la Literatura Espaola Medieval y Renacentista," is a cursory examination of motifs and themes
pertaining to magic that appear in Medieval and Renaissance Spanish writings. The authors
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discussed range from Bishop de Lope Barrientos, Martn de Castaega, Pedro Ciruelo, Don
Enrique de Villena, to Juan de Mena and Diego Snchez de Badajoz.
This volume, like its predecessor, is a detailed examination of the role of magic in the ancient and
medieval world. The essays are well written, informative, and comprehensive. Both volumes
accomplish the goals set out by the editors.
MHNH 1
The first two volumes of MHNH. Revista Internacional de Investigacin sobre Magia y Astrologa
Antiguas, edited by J. L. Calvo Martinez and A. Prez Jimnez, follow the same format: I. Studia, II.
Documenta et Notabilia, and III. Recensiones. Volume 1 comprises nine articles, plus Giuseppe
Bezza's introduction and Italian translation of the Greek text of the horoscope found in Vaticanus
graecus 191, 242v-248v and Parisinus graecus 2507, 105r-113v (along with the critical apparatus)
and five book reviews. The contributions in the last two categories will not be discussed in this
review.
The first article, "Cien Aos de Investigacin sobre la Magia Antigua" by Jos Luis Calvo Martinz,
is a bibliography that anyone interested in ancient magic and the occult should have. The meticulous
bibliography is divided into these categories:
I. Magic in General: 0. Bibliography, 1. Anthropological and Philosophic Studies, 2. Historic Studies;
II. Magic in Ancient Peoples and Cultures: 1. Oriental Magic (and Religion), 2. Jewish Magic, 3.
Egyptian Magic (a. Pharaonic, b. Coptic and Demotic), 4. Christianity (a. General Works, b.
Demonology, c. Magic and Scripture, d. People Gifted with Magic, especially Jesus);
III. Magic in Greece and Rome:
A. "Real" Magic:
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0. Bibliographies,
1. Sources (a. Magical Papyri, b. tabellae defixionum, c. Amulets),
2. Translations,
3. Lexica,
4. General Works (a. Collections, b. Monographs and Encyclopedia Entries, c. On the "Concept" of
Magic, d. On Magic as "Force"),
5. Magic and Religion,
6. Magic and Science, especially Medicine,
7. Magic in Context (a. Syncretism and/or the Influence of Other Cultures, b. Neoplatonism and
Theurgy, c. Hermetism and Gnosis, d. Astrology and Magic),
8. Magic and Language,
9. The Suppression of Magic: Magic and Law,
10. Types of Magic and Magical Practices (a. Evil, b. Meteorological, c. Erotic, d. Defixiones,
Binding Spells, Curses, e. Divination, f. Exorcisms),
11. Passages and Practical Examples from the Magical Papyri,
12. The Elements of Magical Practice
a. Supernatural Agents: Divinities and Demons [i. Abraxas, ii. Akephalos, iii. Aion and
Theos Hypsistos, iv. Iao, v. Egyptian Gods: Isis, Osiris, Horus, Seth, Thoth,
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Harpocartes, etc., vi. Hecate, Selene and other Similar Syncretized Female Deities, vii.
Other Gods and Greek Divinities, viii. Mithras and Other Oriental Deities, ix. Gods or
Goddesses that appear in magical texts whose identities are doubtful, x. Demons and
Angels, xi. Palindromes and Numerology],
b. Human Agents [1. Magicians, Mediums, etc., ii. Witches],
c. The Spoken Word,
d. Objects used in Magic [i. Amulets, ii. Plants, iii. Animals, iv. Objects and Instruments
Endowed with Magic]);
B. Literary Magic:
B.1. Greece: 1. General Works on Greece and Rome, 2. Authors and Genres (a. Homer: Circe,
Helen, Odysseus, Aeolus, the Phaeacians, the Sirens, the Nekuia, etc., b. Pindar, c. Drama [i.
Aeschylus, ii. Sophocles, iii. Euripides, iv. Aristophanes], d. Theocritus and Sophron, e. Lucian);
B.2. Rome: 1. General Works on Rome, 2. Authors (a. Pliny the Elder, b. Horace, c. Vergil, d. Ovid,
e. Propertius, f. Tibullus, g. Petronius, h. Lucan, i. Apuleius).
This bibliography is superb.
Similar to the bibliography by Calvo Martinz is the fifth essay, Aurelio Prez Jimnez's "Cien Aos
de Investgacin sobre la Astrologia Antigua," which supplies us with a detailed and meticulous
bibliography on ancient astrology. The bibliography contains a statement on the importance of
research in this area, previous bibliographies, a brief introduction to the Near Eastern origins,
studies and primary sources for Graeco-Roman texts compiled in the last century, and a thematic
bibliography. The major divisions of the bibliography are as follows:
1. General Works: 1.1. Bibliographies, 1.2. Dictionaries and Encyclopedias, 1.3. General Studies
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on Astrology, 1.4. Monographs, 1.5. Anthologies, 1.6. General Works with Entries on Astrology, 1.7.
Linguistic, Lexical, and Terminology Scholarship;
2. Greek Astrology: 2.1. General Works, 2.2. Astrologers and Authors;
3. Roman Astrology: 3.1. General Works, 3.2. Astrologers and Authors, 3.3. Astrology and the
Emperors;
4. Astrology and Philosophy: 4.1. General Works, 4.2. Fatalism, the Great Year and Palingenesis,
4.3. the Universe, Microcosmos, Macrocosmos;
5. Astrology, Religion, Myth and Astral Mysticism: 5.1. Astrology, Myth and Religion, 5.2. Astral
Mysticism, 5.3. Astrology, Religions associated with the sun and Near Eastern cults;
6. Astrology, Judaism, Gnosticism and Christian Thought: 6.1. General Works, 6.3. (there is no
section 6.2.) Authors: Church Fathers, Gnostics, Heretics;
7. Polemics on Astrology;
8. Technical Aspects: 8.1. Constellations, 8.2. the Zodiac, 8.3. Decans, 8.4. Planets, 8.5.
Horoscopes and Dodecatropes, 8.6. Melothesia, 8.7. Geography, 8.8. Botany, 8.9. Metals, Stones
and Jems, 8.10. Medical Arts, 8.11. Varia.
Manuel Garca Teijeiro's "El Cuento de Miedo en la Antigedad Clsica" tackles the question of
when authors first wrote horror stories for the sake of narrative. In other words, when were the first
"true" horror stories written? Garca Teijeiro defines horror stories as literary, with the goal of
causing terror: these stories may be based on popular themes but have to be created uniquely by
the author with the sole aim of causing fear. In search of the first "true" horror story, Garca Teijeiro
reviews supernatural narratives in tragedy, Philostratus, Antonius Liberalis, Phlegon of Tralles,
Lucian's Philopseudes, Xenophon of Ephesus, Heliodorus, and Antonius Diogenes. He finds the
answer in Petronius (61 and 63) and Apuleius (Metamorphoses 1.5-19 and 2.21-30). This essay is
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perhaps the best in this volume.
Fritz Graf's "Mythos und Magie" examines how the words "myth" and "magic" are understood in
modern and ancient times. In the modern world, "myth" has positive connotations, while "magic"
does not. In the ancient world, however, both terms had pejorative implications. Graf examines the
causes for the change in meaning.
"Sobre la Emergencia de la Magia como Sistema de Alteridad en la Roma Augstea y Julio-
Claudia" by Francisco Marco Simn traces the public and private reactions to magic from the late
first century Republic to the early Empire. The perception of magic as having negative subtexts
reaches its climax in Pliny, who sees that magic has two qualities: the internal, as found in Nero, and
the external, as found in Parthia. The latter symbolizes malevolence and danger to the fledgling
Empire. This is a remarkable analysis of the opinions on magic at that most critical time in Roman
history.
The next three essays deal with astrology. In "Los Compuestos de - en Gmino: Su Valor
Astrolgico (y Astronmico)", Esteban Caldern Dorda demonstrates that as astrology and its texts
developed and increased in the Graeco-Roman world, compounds formed with - also
increased. For example, Geminus' first century A.D. Introduction to Astronomy uses twenty-nine
verbs, eleven substantives, six adjectives, and three adverbs with the compound prefix. In
comparison, the second century Tetrabiblos by Claudius Ptolemy has four times as many
combinations. Wolfgang Hbner's "Zur Verwendug und Umschreibung des Terminus in
der Astrologischen Lehrdichtung der Antike" examines the preference for the terms ,
, and over the terms , , or in
Greek didactic poems. The first instance of horoscopus or horoscopare appears in Manilius'
Astronomica. Lastly, Santiago Montero Herrero's "Astrologa y Etrusca Disciplina: Contactos y
Rivalidad" notes that Varro's circle attempted to syncretize astrology and Etruscan forms of
divination, but that with the rise of the Empire this effort at unity broke down, with the senatorial class
going back to Etruscan rites and astrology serving individual needs.
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The last essay of this collection, "El Esoterismo Grecorromano en la Red" by Juan Francisco
Martos Montel and Cristbal Macas Villalobos," is a survey of magical, astrological, and hermetic
Internet sites that deal with the Graeco-Roman world. The survey contains numerous URLs, but as
happens with most written media that deal with the Web, it is now somewhat out of date. For
example, the authors supply results of Google and Lycos searches for the following five terms:
"astrology" -- Google: 80,900; Lycos: 28,536
"magic" -- Google: 30,000; Lycos: 222,276
"hermetism" -- Google: 10,200; Lycos: 7,649
"Hermes Trismegistus" -- Google: 489; Lycos: 544
"hermetic" -- Google: 14,300; Lycos: 10,320
As of the writing of this review, the numbers are (and of course these numbers also will be
superseded):
"astrology" -- Google: 4,980,000; Lycos: 2,235,322
"magic" -- Google: 28,800,000; Lycos: 10,111,359
"hermetism" -- Google: 3,080; Lycos: 1,424
"Hermes Trismegistus" -- Google: 13,400; Lycos: 6,164
"hermetic" -- Google: 271,000; Lycos: 85,988
The essay is nevertheless a good survey of the vast amounts of materials that can be accessed on
the Internet.
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MHNH 2
In volume two there are eleven articles, plus Giuseppe Bezza's introduction and Italian translation of
the Greek text of the horoscope of Eleutherius Zebelenus of Elis (along with the critical apparatus), a
brief analysis of Pedro Gallego's Summa de Astronomia, and ten book reviews. Again, only the
articles will be discussed in this review.
The series of essays begins with Antonio Bravo Garca's " : Materiales para una
Historia de la Magia y la Demonologa Bizantinas," which is a greatly expanded version of the
essay cited above, "La Magia en Bizancio: Una Ojeada de Conjunto," which was published in
Damon Predros.
"El Tratamiento del Material Hmnico en los Papiros Mgicos: El Himno " by Jos Luis
Calvo Martnez compares the papyri XII.238-269, XIII.762-833, and XXI 1-25 in K. Preisendanz
Papyri Graecae Magicae: Die griechische Zauberpapyri. These texts invoke the divine name to
consecrate a gold ring and to get a direct view of the divine. The author contrasts the three texts
using eleven criteria and concludes that these three papyri did not copy from each other but used a
common model.
The focus of "El 'Milagro de la Lluvia,' Los Julianos Et Alii" by lvaro Fernndez Fernndez is an
attempt to verify the person(s) responsible for the miraculous storm that helped Marcus Aurelius
defeat the Germanic tribes in the 170s A.D. The account is found in authors such as Claudius
Apollinaris, Tertullian, Dio Cassius, Eusebius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Orosius. The possible
candidates responsible for the event are the Chaldeans, the divinity of the emperor, an Egyptian by
the name of Arnuphis, or the Christian soldiers in the XII Legio Fulminata. In sum, as Christianity
grew in the Empire the cause of the rain became Christian; prior to the rise of Christianity, the texts
allow for pagan attribution.
Enrique Ramos Jurado's "Magia y Tergia en De Mysteriis de Jmblico" assesses Iamblichus'
differentiation between magic and theurgy. The latter ran the risk of being confused with magic and
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therefore of being debased; it was practiced in special circles that were intertwined with philosophy.
Theurgists, moreover, unlike magicians, were allowed to have true contact with the divine. They
could in fact contemplate the true nature of the gods. "Il Segreto della Madre Lucente: Estasi e
Teurgia nel Sincretismo Gnostico" by Ezio Albrille again studies theurgy, focussing on its
relationship Gnostic syncretism (especially the states of ecstasy that are associated with both
practices).
Pablo A. Toijano's "Salomn, Lilith, San Jorge y el Dragn: Un Ejemplo de Reinterpretacin
Mgica en la Antigedad Tarda" suggests that the iconography of king Solomon as a horseman
(found on amulets, etc.) may have been the sources of the iconography of St. George and the
Dragon. Thus, a story with Judaic roots was transformed into one widely accepted by Christians.
The amulets with king Solomon on them are intrinsically associated with exorcism.
A similar developmental and syncretistic approach is taken by Godefroid de Callatay in "La Grande
Ourse et le Taureau Apis," where the author notes that Aratus' Phaenomena vv.91-93 makes an
association between the Great Bear and the figure of a bull. The author knowledgeably explains that
the Egyptians had allotted that part of the sky to the Egyptian bull Apis, which later came to be
known as Epaphos.
Mara Paz de Hoz' "Men, un Dios Lunar, con Corona de Rayos" follows the same pattern and
demonstrates how the lunar deity Men came to be associated with the solar deity Helios during
Imperial times. It is a brief yet fascinating look at the merger of these two gods.
As in volume one, the last three essays deal with astrology. "Precedentes de las Doctrinas
Antiastrolgicas y Antifatalistas de Tertulliano" by Virginia Alfaro Bech and Victoria E. Rodrguez
Martn reviews Tertullian's juxtaposition of curiositas christiana with curiositas vana or curiositas
profana. The first type of curiosity, which Tertullian terms necessaria, eschews astrology because
the only type of knowledge it seeks is the knowledge that comes from Christ's resurrection.
Moreover, Tertullian is aware of the "societas between magic and astrology: they are mentioned
jointly and are considered allied" (212) against the true knowledge that is found in Christianity. In "La
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Astrologa y los Astrlogos en la Antologa Palatina: Alusiones y Parodias," Guillermo Galn
Vioque studies references to astrology in the anthology: 11.318, 9.112, 7.157, 5.105, 6.501,
11.159, 11.160-164, 11.114, 11.183, 9.82, 12.227, 11.383, and 14.141-142. He concludes by
noting that the allusions and references are not many in number, even though astrology was very
popular. In fact, the allusions and references are always found in pejorative or satirical contexts and
make fun of astrology and astrologers. The last essay, Aurelio Prez Jimnez's "PERI DEIPNOU: A
Propsito de Heph. III 36," examines Hephaistion's enumeration of the twelve signs of the zodiac
relative to the seating arrangement () for twelve at banquets. Comparable seating
arrangements in Manilius, Dorotheus, Julian of Laodicea, Nicetas of Paphlagonia, Peter of Antioch,
and Firmicus Maternus are examined as possible models.
The two volumes of MHNH. Revista Internacional de Investigacin sobre Magia y Astrologa
Antiguas are useful for anyone interested in ancient magic or astrology. The essays are of an
excellent quality and do much to increase our knowledge of these phenomena. It is satisfying to see
that our philological cousins in Spain are at the forefront of research in these areas.
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