ePub Plantation Church: How African American Religion Was Born in Caribbean Slavery by Noel Leo Erskine in History

Description

In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now strange to us; magic was of great importance both in the literary and mythic tradition and in ritual practice. Recently; ancient magic has hit a high in popularity; both as an area of scholarly inquiry and as one of general; popular interest. In Magic; Witchcraft; and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds Daniel Ogden presents three hundred texts in new translations; along with brief but explicit commentaries. This is the first book in the field to unite extensive selections from both literary and documentary sources. Alongside descriptions of sorcerers; witches; and ghosts in the works of ancient writers; it reproduces curse tablets; spells from ancient magical recipe books; and inscriptions from magical amulets. Each translation is followed by a commentary that puts it in context within ancient culture and connects the passage to related passages in this volume. Authors include the well known (Sophocles; Herodotus; Plato; Aristotle; Virgil; Pliny) and the less familiar; and extend across the whole of Greco-Roman antiquity. The second edition includes a new preface; an updated bibliography; and new source-passages; such as the earliest use of the word "mage" in Greek" (fr. Aeschylus' Persians ); a werewolf tale (Aesop's Fables); and excerpts from the most systematic account of ancient legislation against magic (Theodosian Code).