UC Berkeley

Based on a large corpus of texts, presented in catalogue form as an appendix, I analyze the tradition of a set of Greek ritual utterances defined here as incantations from classical antiquity through the early modern period. The foci are late antiquity and Byzantium, with perspectives forwards into modern Greece and a consideration of the influence of Greek material on Latin incantations in the medieval West. The textual evidence is organized typologically, first by intended purpose (healing and apotropaic; erotic; cursing and other aggressive functions), then by internal compositional motifs. This typology is intended to facilitate the tracing of continuity and change. I argue that incantations, and related ritual practices for erotic compulsion and cursing, represented precious traditional knowledge for those who chose to make use of them. This knowledge in turn was not passively received but rather selectively transmitted, augmented, and adapted for maximum relevance and efficacy in the contemporary context of use. The backbone of the tradition as a whole is a broad and diverse circulation of technical literature in the form of practical recipes, intersecting with and reinforced by popular oral transmission, in which learned practitioners of medicine, and some ecclesiastics, took an occasional interest.