Greek Magic

Greek Magic collects, edits, and translates a vast number of Greek magical texts—spells, incantations, and related elements incorporated in prayers—from over one hundred manuscripts that date from the tenth through the eighteenth centuries and often preserve much earlier works. The result gives us a new understanding of the nature of belief and worship among medieval Greek-speaking Christians and offers a spellbinding resource for understanding the social world of medieval Byzantium.

These spells bear fresh and direct witness to practical concerns of daily life: their users hoped to protect crops from pests, cure various ailments, catch thieves, and ease childbirth. The rituals in which they are embedded range from the mundane to the spectacular and bizarre. These rites and spells are not, however, relics of antiquity that have simply seeped into the world of medieval Christianity. Instead, they reveal how medieval Christians adapted and remixed practices and techniques from the past and from their neighbours into new and vibrant social practices—now made accessible to modern readers.