Summer2019 Session12

Sunoikisis Digital Classics, Summer 2019

Session 12. Digital Methods and Ancient Magic

Thursday June 20, 17:00 - 18:15 CEST

Convenors: Gabriel Bodard (Institute of Classical Studies London) & Franziska Naether (Universität Leipzig/Stellenbosch University)

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVcdJVPzU1s

Slides:

Session outline

1. What is Magic? Between the unidentifiable and finding working definitions. Gabriel Bodard and Franziska Naether will summarize briefly the issues in defining magic from emic (= internal) and etic (= external, sometimes modern) viewpoints. Especially early modern classifications are highly problematic in regard of the ancient world. Some examples will be presented, using sources from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.

2. How to find magic in the internet? Magical texts are collected in a special part of the Trismegistos Database: https://www.trismegistos.org/magic/ A short introduction into this tool by Franziska Naether.

3. How to digitize magical texts and objects? Gabriel Bodard will describe three experiments with the application of various technologies to study magical texts (papyri, amulets, curse tablets), incluing EpiDoc markup, translation alignment, Treebanking, palaeographical annotation, advanced imaging technologies; including discussions of the magic-specific elements in the text.

Seminar readings

• F. Naether: Magic in the Internet: Investigation by Genre in Trismegistos. In: Kousoulis, P.; Lazaridis, N. (ed.): Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists, University of the Aegean, Rhodes, 22-29 May 2008. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta (OLA) 241, 2016, Leuven 2016, 1485-1494; available online: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa2-234583
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Further reading/digital resources

• Curse Tablets from Roman Britain: http://curses.csad.ox.ac.uk/
• Magica Levantina: https://papyri.uni-koeln.de/magica-levantina/index.html
• Léxico de magia y religión en los papiros mágicos griegos (LMPG): http://dge.cchs.csic.es/lmpg/
• Thesaurus Defixionum Magdeburgensis (taken offline?)
• A huge bibliography, especially on Late Antique Magic, is provided by the team of the Coptic Magical Papyri project; see http://www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/index.php/bibliography/

Essay title

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Exercise

1. Aligment of an ancient magical text (Greek, Latin, Egyptian; multiligual or with a modern translation) in Ugarit (http://ugarit.ialigner.com/), including relevant metadata and select commentary on magical techniques and commentary. Please feel free to contact G. Bodard and F. Naether to discuss your assignment.