Books on Ancient Magic and Religion

Although not really light reading, any adult with a real interest in Greek religion or the role of women in ancient Greece should read and be able to understand Portrait of a Priestess: Women And Ritual in Ancient Greece. Joan Breton Connelly does a great job separating out the various types of priestesses and breathes life into the women charged with serving as intermediaries between mortals and the gods.

Read for information on the different types of priestesses and their functions.

Ancient Greek Divination covers the oracles at the various famous cult centers and the independent practitioners in 5 chapters. Following an introductory programmatic first chapter, the second and third cover the practices at and origin myths of Delphi, home of the Pythian, and Dodona, which is associated with Zeus, other less famous oracles and the healing shrines. The fourth and fifth chapters describe the various practitioners of divination or sign-reading who were independent and could travel, for instance, with military leaders to help decide whether the signs for battle are in order, or set up shop like a modern fortune-teller. The final chapter also explains why magic came to be so ill-regarded.

In Ancient Greek Love Magic, Christopher A. Faraone peppers his discussion of love and the magic used by mortals to bind the objects of their affection, with myth, including the tale of the seeds with which Hades tempted Persephone.

Much Greek literature paints women as rapacious, sexual creatures. If this were the common male viewpoint, Faraone says, you wouldn't expect to find so many spells to make women interested. This perspective makes Ancient Greek Love Magic another important work for those trying to understand the position of ancient Greek women. Although a friend describes it as reading like an expanded doctoral thesis, I find Faraone fascinating.

Read for information on the kinds of love magic.

Household and Family Religion in Antiquity, edited by John Bodel and Saul M. Olyan, may be another book requiring concentration to comprehend, but it is packed with information by many leaders in their fields. In the household, practical magic and religion often combined to deal with the usual familial concerns, like ancestors, fertility, sickness, and childbirth. Household and Family Religion in Antiquity is the result of a 2005 conference on the topic of domestic religion at Brown University. It covers Western Asia in the first and second millennia B.C., ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

Read for information on all aspects of ancient domestic religion and how household religion varied depending on the overarching political structure.

Magic in the Ancient Greek World, by Derek Collins, continues in the vein of Faraone. It covers curse tablets/binding magic, anti-magical legislation in the Greco-Roman world, and the anthropology of magic. It has a lot of information and you may love it, but it is too specialized for me.

Read for information on magic in ancient Greece, including, but going beyond love magic.