Source books · Greek and Roman mysteries

The Greek Magical Papyri

copied II BCE - IV CE

How this book fits

Traditions
Greek and Roman mysteries Egyptian religion and magic
Role in the tradition
Primary source Written from inside the tradition: scripture, revelation, a grimoire, a manifesto or a practical treatise.
Public attention
Major Wikipedia has an article about it in 18 languages.

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From Wikipedia

The Greek Magical Papyri is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek, which each contain a number of magical spells, formulae, hymns, and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 100s BCE to the 400s CE. The manuscripts came to light through the antiquities trade, from the 18th century onward. One of the best known of these texts is the Mithras Liturgy.

From the Wikipedia article Greek Magical Papyri, revision 1372850925, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q1186625: “body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, containing magical spells, formulae, hymns, and rituals, dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE”.

In this study

In the chronology, among the works with no securely known author.

Working handbooks rather than a book: invocations, hymns, recipes, divination and dream procedures, curses, love spells and rites of divine encounter, copied and added to by many hands over some five centuries. The current edition is free to read.

Cited for 5 sourced claims here, among them correspondences of .