- Title
- How perceptions of death interacted with animal magic in antiquity
- Creator
- Willis, Rebecca
- Relation
- Classicum Vol. 47, Issue 2, p. 16-27
- Relation
- https://search-informit-org.ezproxy.newcastle.edu.au/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.876470666985126
- Publisher
- Classical Association of New South Wales
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- The study of death, the inescapable part of life that permeates many features of human belief, perception, and experience, is termed 'thanatology'. Scholars of Greco-Roman and Egyptian magic were among the earliest to engage with a thanatological examination of belief, not least because of the intrinsic links between death, religion, and magic in the ancient Mediterranean. Magic in ancient Greece in particular has been identified by Sarah Iles Johnston as having been centred upon the living's ability to communicate and interact with the dead through practices such as necromancy. This has been further supported by Kimberly Stratton, who argues that the peak of magical practice in ancient Greece directly corresponded to the changing perceptions around the deceased, as the once 'impotent wisps... devoid of consciousness or power... were increasingly seen as active, powerful, potentially threatening, and needing to be placated or controlled'. As a result, Stratton concludes that the dead began to be perceived as not only a potential threat but also an opportunity to access otherworldly powers which could be obtained or compelled into service.
- Subject
- death; perceptions; religion; magic
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1491424
- Identifier
- uon:53092
- Identifier
- ISSN:0155-0659
- Language
- eng
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