Within the Greco-Roman world—that is, ancient Greece, Rome, and the other cultures they encountered, particularly ancient Egypt—magic refers to individual, frequently private, supernatural practices carried out outside the official jurisdiction of official priesthoods associated with state, community, and household cults and temples as matters of public religion.
Pompeian wall painting: hermaphrodite sitting, left hand raised towards an satyr approaching from behind.
Private magic was practiced by Jews and early Christians in the Roman Empire, as well as by people in Greek and Roman societies. Ovid's Fasti, Pliny the Elder's Natural History, amulets, curse tablets, and the Greek Magical Papyri are among the primary sources used to research Greco-Roman magic.
The materials that surfaced from the excavations of the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were discovered beneath volcanic ash at the base of Mount Vesuvius in the middle of the 18th century, exposed a highly embarrassing aspect of the ancient world: the cities' obsession with erotica. Not just any random naked sculpture, but also phallic-shaped oils lamps, jewelry, frescoes showing lovers having sex, scenes of fornications, and, most 'scandalously' of all, a statue of the Greek god Pan, who is half-goat and half-man, penetrating a female goat.
The Romans were known for their liberal views on sexuality, and Pompeii was home to a thriving brothel system with dozens of rooms decorated with sensual murals. Private villa bedrooms also had artistic representations of sexuality on their walls. Residents of Pompeii wore amulets shaped like phallus around their necks as protection against evil spirits, and each house was adorned with a variety of paintings with sex-related themes.
The open display of sexually explicit objects created such discomfort and dismay among the 18th-century people that King Charles III of Bourbon ordered the indecent treasures to be hidden away in a secret cabinet out of public view.
The hidden cabinet, or "gabinetto segreto," was initially housed at the Museum Herculanense in Portici, and only those with special written authorization from the King were permitted to visit it. However, the censorship just increased the demand to see the sexy paintings. Illustrations of the frescoes and copies of banned displays were secretly reproduced and distributed to French elites.
Following the museum's transfer from Portici to what is now the Naples National Archaeological Museum, there was a brief period during which the collection could be viewed without restrictions, until King Francis I of Naples paid a visit in 1819 with his wife and daughters. The humiliated king quickly whisked away his wife and daughter and directed the museum to lock the collection away in a secret chamber that only gentlemen of "mature age and respected morals" could access. Women and children were banned from entry.
The use of oracles, necromancy, curses, and love spells in Ancient Greek magical practices included amulets, talismans, medications, potions, spells, and curse tablets. There was a thin boundary between magic, superstition, religion, and science in many ancient cultures. The ancient magicians were revered as wise men, experts of chemistry, mathematics, and the arts, and they were also thought to be custodians of secrets. Magicians were revered and feared because it was thought that they possessed magical abilities.
Everyone in ancient Greece was vulnerable to magic spell attacks, even those in positions of authority - politicians and orators. Hexes might be buried with the deceased, who were thought to have the ability to transport curse requests to the underworld, and magic spells could be made in secret. "I bind to the earth" was a common opening for katares (or curses) discovered in the Kerameikos cemetery, which is close to the historic marketplace where politicians gave speeches in public, according to Lisa Orkin.
Greek love spells and incantations have been the subject of a great deal of fascinating investigation. Love magic encompassed two distinct categories of spells: one intended to induce an erôs, or "erotic seizure," in the target, and another to foster philia, or "affection" or "friendship." (Book: Love Magic in Ancient Greece, 2001) Of course, love spells were indispensably common in hermaphrodites of Pompeii.
French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme created Phryne Before the Areopagus (Phryne devant l'Areopage) in 1861. The topic of discussion is Phryne, a courtesan and hetaira from ancient Greece who was tried for impiety. After her lawyer Hypereides undressed Phryne and revealed her nude bosom, "to excite the pity of her judges by the sight of her beauty," Phryne was found not guilty.
The court, bewitched by a 'wizard', awakens from the nudity of a prostitute. Hermaphroditism was a legitimate existence, but adultery was illegal. Rumors circulated by the wizard, accusing Phryne of adultery with hermaphrodite nobility, and everyone bought into the accusation.
All privacy was made in public until Phryne's nudity was revealed in court and the last fig leaf of justice was ripped off. What most people don't realise, though, was that wizards were also androgynous; they aim to possess both nobles and prostitutes, testing the sexual orientation of nobles through prostitutes, and eventually usurp the kingdom.
Phryne is one of the fortunate unfortunates. Are you Phryne today?
Elena Zannaki
1:17 PM
Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Thessaloniki, Greece
Artpendix Press
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