Magic and philosophy: the papyri and the Oracles

In this lesson: Hekate in the Greek Magical Papyri, the Chaldean Oracles and Neoplatonist theurgy, and what the strophalos really was.

In late antiquity, Hekate led two very different lives at once. In the working spells of Roman Egypt she was a moon goddess of every realm, called on by dozens of names. In the writings of philosophers she became a cosmic power that carries life from the divine mind into the world. Much of what modern devotees say and use, from hymns to the “Hekate’s wheel”, traces back to this period or is claimed to. This lesson shows you what these sources really say, so you can use them with a clear head.

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. 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.

How the papyri were found and published

Historical Many of the best-known papyri passed through the hands of Giovanni Anastasi, a diplomat and collector in Egypt who sold large collections to European museums in the 1820s and 1830s. That is why they are now in Paris, Leiden, London, Berlin and Stockholm. The Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, numbered PGM IV, is the longest, with more than three thousand lines. The German scholar Karl Preisendanz published the Greek texts in the standard edition, Papyri Graecae Magicae (1928 to 1931). Betz’s English volume, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (1986), made them available to general readers.

Long before the papyri, magic and Hekate already met in Greek poetry. In Theocritus’ second Idyll (third century BCE), a young woman called Simaitha works a love charm by night. She spins a magic wheel, the iynx, and calls on the moon and on Hekate. This is a poem, not a manual, but it shows the link was familiar.

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.

Philosophers and emperors

Historical Iamblichus, writing around 300 CE in On the Mysteries, argued that theurgy was not the same as ordinary sorcery, called goeteia in Greek. In his view the gods were not forced. The rites made the soul fit to receive them. Whether that line holds is still debated, but it mattered to the people who practiced it.

The historian Eunapius tells a story about Maximus of Ephesus, a teacher of the emperor Julian (who ruled 361 to 363). In a temple of Hekate, Maximus is said to have made her statue smile and the torches in her hands catch fire. Eunapius admired Maximus, and the story is told to impress. It shows what Hekate meant to this circle: a goddess whose presence could be seen.

Questions beginners ask

Is it safe to use a hymn from the papyri? As a reading text, yes. Leave out any coercive lines, and say honestly that it was adapted from a spell.

Was Hekate a goddess of the dead? In some papyri and in Roman poetry she is linked with ghosts and the underworld. In the Oracles she is a life-giving power. Both pictures are ancient.

Do I need to learn Greek? No. Good translations exist. A little vocabulary, such as the words in bold in this lesson, helps you read them.

Myths to drop:

• “The papyri are older than Homer.” Most date from the Roman period, many centuries later.
• “The Chaldean Oracles came from ancient Babylon.” They are Greek verses of the second century CE. “Chaldean” was a prestige label.
• “Hekate’s wheel is ancient.” The labyrinth design is modern, as you saw above.

A worked example

Imagine you buy a pendant described as “the ancient Strophalos of Hekate, from the Chaldean Oracles”. Look closely. The Oracles do mention a strophalos, and Psellus describes it as a spinning golden sphere. Your pendant shows a flat circle with a labyrinth pattern, which matches no ancient image of Hekate and seems to come from the 1980s. So the word is ancient, the object it named was a spinning sphere and the design is modern. You can still wear it with joy, and if someone asks, you can tell them the true and more interesting story.

Simaitha’s prayer, in a Victorian translation

Historical Theocritus’ second Idyll is easy to read today in Andrew Lang’s prose translation of 1889, free on Project Gutenberg. Simaitha calls on the moon: “Do thou, Selene, shine clear and fair, for softly, Goddess, to thee will I sing, and to Hecate of hell. The very whelps shiver before her as she fares through black blood and across the barrows of the dead.” Then she prays: “Hail, awful Hecate! to the end be thou of our company.”

Read the lines twice. First notice what is ancient here: the night, the moon, dogs, the dead and a woman working a charm. Then notice what kind of text it is. This is a poet’s picture of a love-sick young woman, written for an educated audience, not a record of a real rite. “Awful” in Victorian English means “awe-inspiring”. When you quote a translation, check the meaning of its old words too.

Three Hekates side by side

It helps to compare three portraits from this lesson. In Theocritus she is a night goddess a desperate lover calls on. In the papyri she is a vast goddess of every realm, merged with Selene, Artemis and Persephone, called on in practical spells. In the Chaldean Oracles she is something like the soul of the cosmos, a saving power between the divine mind and the world. These are not stages that replaced each other neatly. They overlapped, in different circles, for centuries. Ask “whose Hekate is this?” whenever you read about her, and you will rarely be confused.

How to read about theurgy without getting lost

Theurgy can feel abstract. A few plain questions help. What is the goal? For Iamblichus and Proclus, purifying the soul and drawing it toward the gods. What is the method? Rites, prayers, symbols and objects such as the strophalos, understood as tokens that the gods themselves had placed in the world. How is it different from sorcery? In their view the gods were not forced. If you keep these three answers in mind, a difficult scholarly chapter becomes much easier to follow. Johnston’s Hekate Soteira is a good place to try it.

Try this

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?

Journal prompts: Which Hekate feels closer to you, the moon goddess of the papyri or the cosmic soul of the Oracles? How do you feel about beautiful hymns that sit inside coercive spells? What would it mean to you to adapt one honestly?

Recap

In the Greek Magical Papyri of Roman Egypt, Hekate is a moon goddess fused with Selene, Artemis and Persephone, praised in hymns that sometimes sit inside coercive spells. In the Chaldean Oracles and the Neoplatonist philosophers she is a saving cosmic power between the divine mind and the world. The strophalos was a spinning sphere used in theurgy, while the labyrinth design called “Hekate’s wheel” is a modern emblem from around the 1980s.

What next

Press “Mark as done” and continue with From witch queen to modern goddess. Read more about her emblems on Hekate’s symbols, and for the wider world of Hermetic and Neoplatonist thought, see Occult History for Beginners.

Further reading: Hans Dieter Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (University of Chicago Press, 1986; 2nd ed. 1992). Ruth Majercik, The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation and Commentary (Brill, 1989). Sarah Iles Johnston, Hekate Soteira (Scholars Press, 1990). Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World (Princeton University Press, 2019) is a readable overview.

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