Magic in the Ancient World by Fritz Graf - Book Report/Review Example

Introduction Magic in the Ancient World is a text written by Fritz Graf. It was fist written in French and later translatedto English by Franklin Philip. This review is on the English version of the book. Through this book the author makes an attempt to reveal the ancient world to its readers. I picked this book for review because of the reputation the author has on Greek religion and because the book touches on magic practices that were practiced in the ancient world. Religion and magic are antagonistic and reviewing the work of Fritz will give a sense of how magic was regarded in the ancient time. This text shows that magic was widespread in the ancient world. Magic in the Ancient World Fritz Graf takes us back to the ancient world and specifically to the underworld of magic. He helps us to see what the sorcerers and witches did and how the general society viewed this art. He tries to pin point the origin of magic, or to put it correctly, where magic was said to have appeared earliest. This book has seven chapters and has a total of 308 pages. The chapters are systematically reviewed below. The author draws his sources widely including from those touching on the bible. Indeed in chapter one, he highlights a significant texts touching on the biblical Moses (Graf 6). Chapter One In this chapter the author makes a general introduction to the book. What comes out here is that in the ancient time, practicing magic was more than common – he uses the word ‘omnipresent’ (Graf 1) to describe the commonness of this practice. The author gives a brief outline of the history of the study of magic – he covers this roughly from page 8 to 19 (Graf 19). He also outlines how the magic literature was passed down. The author therefore gives a snippet preview of the publications and ancient magical texts that he uses to complete his work - the publications are largely anthropological, historical, and papyrological based. Chapter two This chapter is titled ‘Naming the Sorcerer’. In this chapter, the author makes an avid effort to examine magic in the context of Persians, Greeks, and Romans. He does this by discussing the terminologies used in magic studies. The terms are magus, magos, agyrtes, goes, mantis. He also examines how magic practices are named – the names include pharmakon, veneficium, and veneficus. This chapter is detailed on Greek and Roman magic and gives a good foundation to understanding magic as it was in the Greek and Roman ancient world. Unfortunately, the chapter uses many foreign terms and words which interfere with a smooth reading of the chapter, for instance the terms iunges and trohkiskoi are used (Graf 39). Though in some cases the foreign terms are explained – all that explanation is disruptive to some extent. Chapter three This chapter is titled ‘Portrait of the Magician, Seen from the Outside’. This chapter helps to show how the magicians were identified in the Roman Empire. If a person could achieve what others could not, then such a person became a suspect of witchcraft. The author substantiates this with two examples. He discusses the case of Furius Cresimus. In the eyes of his neighbors Furius Cresimus was too successful and this success could only be attributed to magic (Graf 68). The second case the author discusses is that of Apuleius. Apuleius succeeded to marry a wealth widow against all odds that he faced (Graf 65). At this time therefore a great social turnabout would be an indication of magic in practice. People whose normal performance seemed to exceed what was considered normal were viewed as magicians. This is why indeed the author observed in the introductory section of the book that Moses and Jesus were viewed by the people as magicians. There were also laws that were instituted to deal with such people, for instance, the Twelve Tables of Roman Law. Chapter four In this chapter, the author goes deeper to revealing magic. He does this by discussing the initiation rites of the magicians. The description is detailed and step wise. The helps the reader to clearly see a person turned into a magician and start practicing magic. The author examines the secrecy of the papyri rituals of Greco-Egypt. The author shows that these initiations are somehow connected to cults. I find this interesting because of the impact that this can have on the debate on whether magic is a science or a religion especially if the comparison made in page 107 is considered where the author points out that the rituals as well as mystery cults take up similar canonical structure of a rite of passage. The coverage of the author in this chapter seems to suggest that magic is a religion. Chapter five The fifth chapter goes deeper into the world of ancient magic. It reveals the instruments of practice used. It shows the evidence of the magic practice in the ancient world. The curse tablets, voodoo dolls and the practice of imprecation are discussed. The practices pointed out as evidence are shown to have been practiced all over the ancient world. Chapter six Chapter six is titled ‘Literary Representation of Magic’. In this chapter, the author focuses on two issues: Theocritus and Lucan. He discusses the Idyll - ‘Pharmakeutriai’ and the necromantic ritual which was performed by Erictho. These two are common issue in magic studies and the author uses this chapter to discuss and try to identify what in them is ritual fact from that which is literary imagination. In general, this chapter attempts to shade light on portraits of magicians and point out which are factual and which are as a result of literary fiction. Chapter seven This is the concluding chapter of the book. It is titled ‘Words and Acts’. This chapter tackles a number of issues. The first one is sympatheia which touches on the theories suggested in magic studies and how the available materials on magic do not really align with the theories. Another issue is that of prayers systasis. Other issues that this chapter focuses on are those of coercion, and magic and reversal. Further Analysis This book is presented in a very systematic manner. The chapters are well organized and they flow out clearly. This makes it very easy to understand and follow through. This text helps a reader to have a better understanding of the debate on where magician should be classified whether as a religion or not. His coverage of the topic is progressive and goes deep as he covers more chapters. The forth chapter is quite interesting because of the correlation it makes between magic and cultism. The book is heavily scholarly referenced – this is done in the form of endnotes and a bibliography. There is an index section as well. This is expected taking into consideration the academic reputation of the author. Some of the challenges that may be encountered in reading this text include the foreign terms and texts that are used in the book. Some of the terms are explained while others are not. This generally may interfere with the reading of the book. It is also noted that some of the endnotes reference materials which are not published – technically such referencing stand to be refuted or rather cannot be viewed as scholarly. Conclusion The author succeeds in showing that indeed magic in the ancient world was an omnipresent practice. He does this in seven chapters which are well discussed with each one succeeding the previous one smoothly. His work is generally well referenced and understandable. It is recommended for better understanding of the magic in the ancient world. Work Cited Graf, Fritz. Magic in the Ancient World. Massachusetts: HUP, 1997. Print. Read More