Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts

Now back in print after 25 years: A small but unusually exhaustive collection of magical texts from some of the most important ancient Egyptian manuals and stelae, translated and organized by the renowned Dutch Egyptologist J.F. Borghouts. Translations are helpfully annotated and indexed, and Borghouts has provided a succinct overview of Egyptian magic in his Introduction. Readers with Egyptian will find it easy to follow the references to the primary editions.

Now back in print after 25 years: A small but unusually exhaustive collection of magical texts from some of the most important ancient Egyptian manuals and stelae, translated and organized by the renowned Dutch Egyptologist J.F. Borghouts.

An entertaining and informative introduction to how ancient Egyptians practiced magic in their daily lives. In the ancient world, if you needed a love charm, wanted to contact your dead wife, or needed the ability to fly like a bird, the magicians of Egypt were the ones who could make it happen. In Ancient Egyptian Magic, Christina Riggs explores how the Egyptians thought about magic, who performed it and why, and also helps readers understand why we’ve come to think of ancient Egypt in such a mystical way. Readers will learn how to cure scorpion bites, discover why you might want to break the legs off your stuffed hippopotamus toy, and uncover whether mummies really can come back to life. Readers can also learn how to save a fortune on pregnancy tests—urinating on barley grains will answer that question— as well as how to use the next street parade to predict the future or ensure that an annoying neighbor gets his comeuppance. Was magic harmless fun, heartfelt hope, or something darker? Featuring demons, dream interpreters, the Book of the Dead, and illustrations from tomb paintings and papyrus scrolls, Riggs breathes new life into ancient magic and uses early texts and images to illuminate the distinctions between magic, religion, and medicine.

The Egyptians were famous in the ancient world for their knowledge of magic. Religion, medicine, technology and what we would call magic co-existed without apparent conflict, and it was not unusual for magical and 'practical' remedies to be used side by side.

"The ancient Egyptians were firmly convinced of the importance of magic, which was both a source of supernatural wisdom and a means of affecting one's own fate. The gods themselves used it for creating the world, granting mankind magical powers as an aidto the struggle for existence. Magic formed a link between human beings, gods, and the dead. Magicians were the indispensable guardians of the god-given cosmic order, learned scholars who were always searching for the Magic Book of Thoth, which could explain the wonders of nature. Egyptian Magic, illustrated with wonderful and mysterious objects from European museum collections, describes how Egyptian sorcerers used their craft to protect the weakest members of society, to support the gods in their fightagainst evil, and to imbue the dead with immortality, and explores the arcane systems and traditions of the occult that governed this well-organized universe of ancient Egypt."--Publisher's website.

This volume represents a selection of contributions on Mediterranean themes from a wider international interdisciplinary conference on Magical Texts in Ancient Civilizations, organised by the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations at Jagiellonian University in Kraków in Poland between 27-28 June 2013

IN the first volume of this series an attempt was made to set before the reader a statement of the ideas and beliefs which the ancient Egyptians held in respect of God, the "gods," the Judgment, the Resurrection, and Immortality; in short, to sketch in brief outline much of what was beautiful, and noble, and sublime in their religion. The "magic" of the Egyptians was of two kinds: (1) that which was employed for legitimate purposes and with the idea of benefiting either the living or the dead, and (2) that which was made use of in the furtherance of nefarious plots and schemes and was intended to bring calamities upon those against whom it was directed. We have now to describe briefly the principal means upon which the Egyptians relied for working magic, that is to say, magical stones or amulets, magical figures, magical pictures and formulæ, magical names, magical ceremonies, etc., and such portions of the Book of the Dead as bear upon these subjects generally. This Premium Edition includes : . An Easy to Read Layout making reading comfortable . Illustrations and engravings . More than 150 footnotes

A conference held in Heidelberg in 2014 resulted in this collection of essays, which explore the multifaceted aspects of magical texts and practices in antiquity, focusing especially on the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri. The authors concentrate on questions of cultural plurality and fusion, ranging from earlier Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek magico-religious traditions, through the original developments of Graeco-Roman Egypt, up to and including their integration into Jewish and Byzantine magical lore. Contributors: Alessia Bellusci, Gideon Bohak, Ljuba M. Bortolani, Christopher A. Faraone, William Furley, Richard Gordon, Adria Haluszka, Franziska Naether, Svenja Nagel, Richard Phillips, Joachim Friedrich Quack, Marcela Ristorto, Daniel Schwemer, Michael Zellmann-Rohrer