Table Of ContentEdwardO.D.Love
Code-switchingwiththeGods
Zeitschrift für ägyptische
Sprache und Altertumskunde
Beihefte
Herausgegeben von
Susanne Bickel, Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert,
Antonio Loprieno, Sebastian Richter
Beirat
John Baines, Elke Blumenthal, Julia Budka,
Richard Parkinson, Kim Ryholt, Stephan Seidlmayer,
Jean Winand
Band 4
Edward O. D. Love
Code-switching
with the Gods
The Bilingual (Old Coptic-Greek) Spells of PGM IV
(P. Bibliothèque Nationale Supplément Grec. 574) and
their Linguistic, Religious, and Socio-Cultural Context
in Late Roman Egypt
ISBN978-3-11-046113-8
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-046783-3
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-046636-2
ISSN2198-6932
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publicationdata
ACIPcatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenappliedforattheLibraryofCongress.
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de.
©2016WalterdeGruyterGmbH,Berlin/Boston
Typesetting:MetaSystemsPublishing&PrintservicesGmbH,Wustermark
Printingandbinding:Hubert&Co.GmbH&Co.KG,Göttingen
♾Printedonacid-freepaper
PrintedinGermany
www.degruyter.com
Acknowledgements
ThisstudyoriginatedasthethesisofaMasterofStudies(MSt)inOrientalStudies
undertakenattheGriffithInstituteoftheUniversityofOxfordduringtheacademic
year2013–2014.Such acourseofstudy wouldnothavebeenpossible withoutthe
generous studentship granted by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
(AHRC), andhence I amfirstly inthe debt ofthe AHRC whoawarded me suchan
opportunity based almost solely on my enthusiastic intentions. At that time, St
John’sCollegeprovidedanunparalleledenvironmentinwhichtolive,learn,study,
and socialise, and as a result will always hold that feeling of home. During that
academic year and since, the uncompromising patience and meticulous and eru-
diteguidanceofProfessorMarkSmith,ineveryaspectofsupervision,hasfacilitat-
edthisstudyinallitsmanifestations.
Duringtheacademicyear2014–2015,IwastherecipientoftheMichaelFoster
Memorial Scholarship, granted by the Deutsche Akademischer Austauschdienst
(DAAD)inconjunctionwiththeUniversityofOxford,inordertofacilitateresearch
abroad following graduation from my MSt. With this financial support and a net-
workthroughwhichtobeintroducedtoGermansocietyandculture,itwasProfes-
sorJoachimFriedrichQuackwhowelcomedmeinHeidelbergduringthatacademic
year, generously sharing his forthcoming or unpublished work on other Demotic
magical texts and sources exhibiting instances of Old Coptic scripts, as well as
feedbackcontributingtotheaccuracyofthetexteditionsinthisstudy,allofwhich
hasbeenmuchappreciatedthroughout.Theproductivityandpleasureoftheexpe-
rience was also thanks to the patience of my new colleagues in Heidelberg – of
both the Demotic and hieratic persuasions – in particular during the months of
silence during which I stumbled through the declinations and pronunciations of
what was supposed to be German. In their prior forms as articles, Svenja Nagel
was generous enough with her time to read through the treatments that became
chapters four and five, providing both suggestions and encouragement. Chapter
six would not have manifested as it has – though I bear all responsibility for its
current form – without two crucial discussions during the unprecedented “Egyp-
tianandJewishMagic”conferenceinBonnduringJuly2015.Thetreatmentofthe
textual content of the bilingual exorcism benefitted in no small measure from a
discussionwith,andreferencestofurtherliteratureprovidedby,ProfessorGideon
Bohak, while I also profited from a conversation on the topic of syncretism vs.
synthesis – among other things – with Doctor Joseph Sanzo, who was also good
enoughtonotonlyprovidemewithfurtherreferences,butalsoacopyofhismono-
graph.Atboththisconference,andthaton“CulturalPluralityinAncientMagical
Texts and Practices” in Heidelberg during September 2014, my thoughts and hy-
potheses regarding magical practice in the context of the GEMP were both under-
mined and supported, stimulated and dissuaded, by discussions with Professors
JaccoDielemanandRichardGordon,whoseopennessqualifiedbycuttinghonesty
vi Acknowledgements
was very much appreciated. Despite never having met in person, Korshi Dosoo
wasgenerousenoughtocorrespondextensivelyonthecompositionoftheTheban
MagicalLibrary,sharingvaluableoriginalinsights,andallowingmetosummarise
the most up-to-date appraisal of the archive in this study. My first academic year
in Heidelberg concluded with the privileged offer from Professor Tonio Sebastian
Richter and his fellow editors of the ZÄS to publish the following study not as a
series of articles in the ZÄS, but as a Monograph in their relatively new Beiheft
series, and I was absolutely delighted to accept their proposal, and will continue
toremainmostgratefulforsuchanopportunity.ImustalsosingleoutDoctorLutz
Popkoforaccommodatingwithsuchfriendlinessallmyqueriesconcerningformat-
tingandsubmissionsfortheZÄSwhenthisstudywasstillinarticleformat,asalso
wasthecasewithKatrinHofmannandDoctorMirkoVondersteinwhenthisstudy
passedintothejurisdictionofDeGruyter.
ForpermissiontoconsultP.BibliothèquenationaleSupplémentgrec.574(PGM
IV),IamtrulygratefultoMonsieurChristianFörstel;Conservateurchargédesman-
uscrits grecs in the Département des Manuscrits at the Bibliothèque nationale de
France, who, along with the staff at the Richelieu-Louvois Library, welcomed me
warmly,facilitatinganeffortlesslyproductiveresearchtripduringthe20thand21st
March 2014. During that time I was generously hosted by Dr Chloé Ragazzoli and
Dr Adrian Travis, without whose hospitality such a trip would have not been via-
ble,andwhoseadvicethroughoutmystaywasgratefullyreceived.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to at last extend particular thanks to
Catherine Warsi of the Griffith Institute for her inexorable ability to humour me
withspontaneousrequeststoconsultmaterial,coupledwiththeperpetualwilling-
ness of her colleagues; Elizabeth Flemming, and Doctors Franscico Bosch-Puche
andVincentRazanajao,toacceptmyintrusionintheTopographicalBibliography,
everysuchinstanceofwhichbeingofbothcomfortandencouragementduringthe
course of my MStand my not infrequent trips backto the Archive since. The sup-
port of another Oxford colleague Luigi Prada, must be noted not least due to his
assistancewiththeGreek-languagetext,butinparticularbecauseofhisinsistence
thatitmustn’tbe,whilethatofmyHeidelbergcolleagueSusanne([su:zanə])Töp-
fer has certainly made significant contributions to maintaining the momentum
neededtoseethismonographthrough.ItisalsomyhopethatthoseThreeLadies
fromKHSwillconsidertheirimpactfuleffortswellinvested.
As was the case throughout the entire process of my BA and MSt, my Rents
continuedtobetirelessandstaunchsupportersofmypassionanddirectionduring
thelastacademicyearofresearch,perseveringwithmybeingabroad,andprovid-
ing support without which such a focus, and its product, would have been unat-
tainable. Pa’s grammar school education, and perhaps more so his assiduous ap-
proach to proofreading, has also contributed no-end to the refining of the text as
it now stands, while his inherent knack for the succinct has had a considerable
impactonthedevelopmentofmywritingstyleoverthepreviousthreeyears.With-
Acknowledgements vii
outadoubttheadamantlyresolutesupportIreceivedfrommyotherwiseindescrib-
able Mutti was the foundation for every stepping-stone along the way that has
converged in the writing of this study. As for Tom, perhaps if I had not ‘got over
myself’, this study would not have manifested in the way it has, but regardless –
thereisstillonlyoneJohnMorrison.
Angelika,mymuse,youareinspiring.
Preface
This monograph is the third manifestation of a study which originally began as a
thesispresentedaspartfulfilmentofmyMasterofStudies(MSt)inOrientalStudies
undertaken in the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford during academic
year 2013–2014, under the supervision of Professor Mark Smith, and with funding
fromtheArtsandHumanitiesResearchCouncil(AHRC).HavingstudiedbothCop-
tic and Demotic during my BA in Egyptology, and having written a BA thesis on
an unpublished leaf from a Coptic magical codex in the Griffith Institute Archive,
Ibecame intriguedbytheshift fromDemotictoCoptic ‘via’OldCopticduring the
Roman period, and the bilingual genre that attests this phenomenon more than
any other; magical texts. Hence, by reading spells in both Demotic and Coptic as
well as studying the so-called Demotic magical papyri (PDM) and Greek magical
papyri(PGM)duringthecourseofmyMSt,Ibecameparticularlyinterestedinthe
outliersofthetradition oftheGraeco-Egyptianmagicalpapyri(GEMP) whichalso
appear to have occupied a nexus between the two traditions; the so-called Old
Coptic magical texts. Producing a re-edition of the Old Coptic/Egyptian-language
sectionsofPGMIIIandIVformyMStthesis,aswellasamethodologywithwhich
to analyse the interaction with deities exhibited by, and ritual mechanics utilised
in,thebilingualspellsinwhichtheywereembedded,thisthesisbecamethefoun-
dation for a series of four articles, three of which were submitted to the ZÄS in
January2015.
ThisperiodofeditingandaugmentingfollowingmyMStwasmadepossibleby
the Michael Foster Memorial Scholarship, funded by the Deutscher Akademischer
Austauschdienst (DAAD) in association with the University of Oxford, which al-
lowed me to undertake a research year at the Ägyptologisches Institut of the Ru-
precht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg during academic year 2014–2015. Working in
theacademicenvironmentinwhichProfessorJoachimFriedrichQuackhasfound-
ed his project to republish the PDM, P. BM 10808, and all unpublished magical
texts in Demotic and hieratic, as well as the environment in which Svenja Nagel
and Ljuba Bortolani are undertaking their comprehensive studies on the divina-
tions and, hopefully in the near future, “love spells” of both the PDM and PGM,
wasincrediblybeneficialtomefortheaugmentationandcontextualisationofthis
studywithincurrentscholarlydiscourse.Inaddition,duringthisperiod,founding
acollaborationwithYvanKoenigandMagalideHaroSanchez,whoareundertak-
ing a re-edition of PGM III and IV commissioned by the Louvre and Bibliothèque
nationaledeFrancerespectively,wascrucialforacquiringabetterunderstanding
of the two manuscripts and the current state of research on both. What’s more,
attendingtheconference“CulturalPluralityinAncientMagicalTextsandPractic-
es” in Heidelberg during September 2014 and the “Egyptian and Jewish Magic”
conferenceinBonnduringJuly2015providedtwoinvaluableopportunitiestodis-
x Preface
cuss ideas contained in this study with many of the scholars at the forefront of
researchintotheGEMP.
However, it was the offer of Professor Tonio Sebastian Richter and his fellow
editors of the ZÄS to publish the following study not as a series of articles in the
ZÄSbutasaMonographintheirrelativelynewBeiheftseries,whichprovidedthe
final impetus for the completion of this study in six sections. To the four articles
providing a new edition of the Old Coptic/Egyptian-language sections of PGM IV,
the graphemes and phonemes in which they were written, and the studies of the
bilingualdivinationsandlustspell–eachofwhichweresubsequentlydeveloped
further–Ihaveaddedachapteronthebilingualexorcismandthepractitionersof
thebilingualspellstoproducethestudyinitscurrentform.Ihopethisstudywill
provide a modest contribution to the insurmountable volume of scholarship still
required in order to analyse exhaustively the textual content of the GEMP, and –
in particular – that it will also highlight the significance of the bilingual spells of
PGM IV as not just a thus far underappreciated, idiosyncratic corpus of spells
whichareasuniqueastheyarediverse,butalsoasthelastvestigesinanymanu-
scriptoftraditionalEgyptianreligionpreservedintheEgyptian-language.
Heidelberg,December2015
