An accessible historical exploration of the methods and motivations behind using magic in ancient Greece and Rome. In the ancient world, magic was everywhere. T

Original and comprehensive, Magic in the Ancient Greek World takes the reader inside both the social imagination and the ritual reality that made magic possible

Ancient Greeks and Romans often turned to magic to achieve personal goals. Magical rites were seen as a route for direct access to the gods, for material gains

In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now strange to us, magic was of great importance both in the literary mythic tradition and in ritual

This study is the first to assemble the evidence for the existence of sorcerors in the ancient world; it also addresses the question of their identity and socia