Magic and philosophy: the papyri and the Oracles

Your goal in this lesson: to see how Hekate changed in late antiquity, in working magic on one side and in philosophy on the other.

The Greek Magical Papyri

Historical The Greek Magical Papyri, often shortened to PGM, are papyrus texts mostly from Roman Egypt, dating roughly from the second century BCE to the fifth century CE. Many came to European collections in the nineteenth century, possibly from a single find near Thebes. They are practical: spells for love, protection, revelation, healing, restraint and success, with prayers, hymns and long lists of divine names. The standard English edition is edited by Hans Dieter Betz. Scholars cite passages by papyrus and line, for example PGM IV 2785 to 2890, a long hymn to a triple, moon-linked goddess.

In the papyri Hekate is fused with Selene the moon, with Artemis, with Persephone and sometimes with the Mesopotamian underworld goddess Ereshkigal. She is a goddess of every realm, called by dozens of names. Roman poets had a similar formula: Virgil’s Aeneid (4.511) speaks of “triple Hecate”, and later writers name her Luna in heaven, Diana on earth and Hekate or Proserpina below.

Some of the most beautiful hymns sit inside spells meant to compel someone. Knowing that keeps you clear. If you use a papyrus hymn as a prayer of praise, which many modern devotees do, it is honest to say so: this is a hymn adapted from a spell, with the coercive parts left out.

The Chaldean Oracles

Historical The Chaldean Oracles are verses in Greek, probably from the second century CE, later attributed to Julian the Chaldean and his son Julian the Theurgist. The original book is lost. Fragments survive in later philosophers, especially Proclus in the fifth century and the Byzantine scholar Michael Psellus in the eleventh.

Here Hekate is not a witch’s goddess at all. She is something like the soul of the cosmos, a saving, life-giving power that stands between the divine mind and the world. Sarah Iles Johnston’s Hekate Soteira, “Hekate the Saviour”, is the classic study of this side of her.

Theurgy and the strophalos

Historical Neoplatonist philosophers such as Iamblichus and Proclus practiced theurgy, “god-working”, rites meant to purify the soul. Proclus wrote a hymn to Hekate and Janus, and his biographer Marinus says he saw luminous visions of Hekate.

The Oracles mention a strophalos of Hekate, a whirling object. Psellus describes a golden sphere with a blue stone, spun on a strap during rites.

Modern The labyrinth-in-a-circle design now sold as “Hekate’s wheel” appears on no known ancient image of her. It seems to have been adopted in American goddess spirituality around the 1980s. It is a lovely modern emblem, and it is modern.

Try this

Today’s exercise: draw two columns, “Hekate in the papyri” and “Hekate in the Oracles”. Write three words in each. Then circle any word that would also fit the Hekate of Hesiod from lesson 2. What has stayed, and what is new?

Quick recap

• The magical papyri merge Hekate with Selene, Artemis, Persephone and Ereshkigal.
• Some papyrus hymns sit inside coercive spells: praise is a modern selection.
• In the Chaldean Oracles she becomes a saving cosmic power.
• The strophalos was a spun sphere; the labyrinth “wheel” design is modern.

Keep going

Press “Mark as done” and continue with From witch queen to modern goddess.

Need a refresher? Go back to Hekate in ancient Greece or see the whole course.

Sources

• Hans Dieter Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, 2nd edition (Chicago, 1992), PGM IV 2785 to 2890.
• Ruth Majercik, The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation and Commentary (Leiden: Brill, 1989).
• Sarah Iles Johnston, Hekate Soteira (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990).
• Virgil, Aeneid 4.511.
• Marinus, Life of Proclus 28.

Go deeper: the Hekate pages on this site

Mark as done