ment of incantations and of formula?, spoken or written, a.s well as the close relations which in ancient culture undoubtedly subsisted between magic and reli;;ion, the priest combining in his own person tlie normal functions of worship with those of soothsaying and magic? But our critici.sm does not in reality obscure the illumin- ating value of Frazer's statements, which we now cite.
' Its (und.imental conception is identical with that of modern science. Underlying the whole system is a faith, implicit but real and firm, in the order and" uniformity of nature. The maj^cian does not doubt that the same causes will always produce the same elTects, that the performance of the propel ceremony accomj>anied by tlie aj^propriate spell will inevitably be attendwl by the desired results, unles.s, indeed, his incanta- tions should chance to be thwaru^ and sjioiled by the more potent chonns of another sorcerer. . . . Tlie fat.il flaw of ma^nc lies not in its general a.->suiiiption of a succes-sion of events* . . . but in its total misconc:e])tions of the nature of . . . that succession ... In ancient Kjjypt.the ma^cians claimed the power of compellintr even the liit,'hest gods to do their bidding.'
Hence arose a radical conflict between ma^c and religion.
*The hauj;hty self-sufficiency of the majrician . . . and his unabashed claim to exercise sway could not but revolt the priest. Sometimes, we may suspect, lower motives concurred to whet the ed^e of the priest's hostility. He professed to be the proper medium, the true intercessor between God and man, and no doubt his interests as well as bis feelings were often injured by a rival practitioner.' f
We may here briefly advert to the prevalence of magic and sorcery in ancient Greece and in ancient Greek settlements. Aristotle (Probl. xx. 34) refers to the superstition of the evil eye {/3a<rKaii'u and /Siiritoi'os, ySaffxai'io through the <i0fla\^6s (ta<6!). This particularly aH'ccted children and cattle (Verg. Eel. iii. 103). Theocritus (Idyll, ii. throughout, and vi. 39) clearly proves how prevalent sorcery was in the beginning of the 3rd cent. B.C. A century earlier Plato (Re.p. ii. 364 B) describes the wandering beggars and sooths.ayers who go about to rich men's doors persuading them that they have power from the gods to avenge any man on his enemies, and can induce the gods to do their bidding by certain enchantments and magic knots (iTraywrfah Kal KaTaoifffioii). Herodotus (in the 5th cent.), ii. 181, tells the story of Amasis, king of Egypt, who believed he had been spell-bound by his wife Ladica. The Greeks believed in and practised the magic KardSea/ioi {KaraSiad!) or knots as much as the Hebrews their -Qn (cf. Euripid. Medea, 1136-1230).
These KardSfafioi (Lat. dirw) were inscribed on their leaden tablets or on strips of p.apyrus or talc (Tacitus, Annals, ii. 69). The first actually known were discovered at Athens in ISU liy I\l. Kauvel, and two years later, in the public ceme- tery of the Pir.-cus, by Mr. Dodwell. Recently they were found among the tombs in Cyprus (of tlie Ist cent. A.D.). The character of the inscription or incantation which is scratched, is mainly as follows : ' I bind with this spell (KaToScJ) So-and-.so, his shop and all his property.' In the formula employed on one of the two Athenian leaden tablets the writer binds over his enemies by name to Hermes Cthonius, r^ kotoxos, and Persephone. In the other we read : ' I bind over such-and-such
fiersons to thee, Onesime.' Onesime may perhaps lave been the occunant of the tomb where the tablet was discovered.
In addition to this method of writing the name of the enemy on a tablet and marking it vith magical signs or characters, we have another,
• We prefer to omit here all reference to ' law.' The belief of ancient magic in the uniformity of nature can only have been of a very partial and rudimentary kind, viiL in the limited sphere of magical practice.
t Another contributing cause to the hostility of religion and of the priesthood towards magic was morally Justifiable. Alagia and the popular faith in it anned the oorcerer with awful powers over his fellow-men, which he often used for unscrupu. lous ends. Thu.s in early Konie wo find a law in the Twelve Tables which forbids charming away a neighbour's crops by Incantations (excatUarf).
606
SORCERY
SORE
Mhich at once reminds us of Babylonia (cf. Magic). A waxen image of tlie obnoxious person was made and caused to melt away in order that that person might melt away likewise (sympathetic magic). Cf. Verg. Ed. viii. 80; Horace, Hat. I. viii. 32; Tlieoc. Jdj/ll. ii.
Theie is good reason to suppose that these magic practices were introduced from Babylonia into Greece through Persia, ^schylus and Sophocles show no trace of them, but Euripides alludes to the yinp and iiriiiSds. In Antiplion (end of 5th cent.) we read of a love-potion or <pi\Tpov, while Plato speaks of magicians [Si/itip. 20,'i D) and of the Thessalian women who are said to draw down the moon (Gorg. 513 A).
Necromancy, or the special mode of obtaining aid or knowledge by the conjuration of the dead, was a form of divination and magic which may be appropriately treated under the head of sorcery, since the sorcerer or sorceress would likewise become the medium of communication with the departed spirit. Necromancy is a practice which is linked to the belief in the continued existence of spirits in the dark underworld or She61. Hence among the ancient Greeks vcKvla, or the summon- ing of the dead for interrogation about the future, became locally associated with caves and volcanic regions, where communication, it was supposed, would be easily established with the lower regions. Such a spot, called veKvo/iavTeiov or \pvxoTroij.irtiov, was the lake Aomos in Thesprotian Epims (Herod. v. 92), Lake Avemus in Campania, and Tsnarus in Laconia. There is, however, no clear proof that conjuration of the dead in Canaan was associated with any special spot. It seems ratlier to have been associated with the personality of the con- jurer than with special places. Nevertheless we might expect that caves or dark spots, and more especially sepulchres, would be selected by tlie Canaanite necromancers for the practice of their rites.