04 - Intertextuality between Compilation and Application: A Demotic Spell for Compulsion and the So-Called Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies

This paper will argue for the close intertextual relationship between manuscripts of applied magic and the compiled handbooks now known as the Greco-Egyptian magical formularies (Love 2016; Faraone and Torallas Tovar 2022a; Faraone and Torallas Tovar 2022b; Kyrianos Database). Such intertextuality has long been recognized, but this paper will focus on the forthcoming edition of an incompletely published papyrus with a Demotic spell for compulsion that represents a relatively rare example in Demotic of a single-sheet manuscript used in practical application. Parallels with the larger manuscript compilations prove decisive in interpreting the crux of this particular exemplar and demonstrate the widespread circulation of both precise phraseology and specific ritual procedures. Textual variants reveal the process of scribal transmission through adaptations made for local, individual usage. Papyrus Michigan 1444 (TM 874277) consists of a single sheet of papyrus inscribed with thirty-five lines of Demotic text (after corrected digital orientation of fragments) consisting of a spell to compel a man to love a woman (Wilfong 2015; Ritner and Scalf 2019; Quack forthcoming). It entered the University of Michigan collection in 1924 after being purchased in Egypt, but very little additional provenance information is currently known. The manuscript was produced for a woman with the Egyptian name Taromeway while the target of the spell is a man with the Greek name Kephalas - a less commonly attested case of a compulsion spell on behalf of a woman. Intertextuality is present from the very beginning of the text, where there is invocation of "the noble spirit of the man of the necropolis," a well attested procedure in the formularies (cf. Johnson 1977). This spirit is implored to chase Kephalas no matter where he goes until he loves Taromeway; the second portion of the spell repeatedly invokes the "divine compulsion" (ḫyṱ) of various forces to ensure its efficacy. Present throughout are passages paralleled in other Demotic, Old Coptic (Love 2016), and Greek texts from the handbooks (Faraone and Torallas Tovar 2022a). Much of the papyrus is in a lacunose state and parallels with the formularies are critical to establishing the correct reading of many passages, including the verb at the crux of the spell. Furthermore, clues in the provenance history combined with lamdacisms in the text has led to the suggestion that the manuscript had a Fayum provenience. If such a suggestion could be proven correct, this manuscript further establishes the close intertextual relationship between compositions otherwise attested primarily from the so-called Theban magical library (Dosoo 2016) and illuminates the processes by which scribes transmitted such compositions, both in the library scriptorium and in the street for paying clients.

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Presenters

Foy Scalf, University of Chicago

  SCS-29