Horus, Isis, and the Dark-Eyed Beauty A Series of Magical Ostraca in the Brigham Young University Collection
Keywords
Magic, Coptic, Ostraca, Horus, Isis
Abstract
O.BYU Mag., a Coptic love spell written continuously over three successive ostraca, consists largely of a narrative in which Horus asks for the help of his mother Isis to win the love of a woman whom he meets in the underworld. It is one of twenty-two known Coptic magical texts that mention Egyptian or Greek deities, and its narrative is paralleled almost exactly in three of these. Dating to the seventh or eighth century CE, it provides important evidence regarding the knowledge and survival of Egyptian deities at a time when Egypt was thoroughly Christian.
Original Publication Citation
“Horus, Isis, and the Dark-Eyed Beauty: A Series of Magical Ostraca in the Brigham Young University Collection.” Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 64.1 (2018): 199–259 (with Korshi Dosoo).
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Blumell, Lincoln H. and Dosoo, Korshi, "Horus, Isis, and the Dark-Eyed Beauty A Series of Magical Ostraca in the Brigham Young University Collection" (2018). Faculty Publications. 3460.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/3460
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2018
Permanent URL
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6270
Publisher
Degruyter
Language
English
College
Religious Education
Department
Ancient Scripture