Material: Papyrus, ink
Date: 6th-7th century
Dimensions: 37.3 x 25.4 cm
Findspot: Egypt
Current Location: Yale University Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Papyrus Collection, P.CtYBR inv. 1791
“For a love of (a) woman, a very good charm”
See the drawings in the middle of the instruction for gaining the love of a woman? To the very left you can see a man and a woman, the figure in the middle seems to represent the practitioner while invoking the higher power, and the figures to the right are the woman and what looks like a daimon bringen her to the man.
This is the only attestation of this kind of graphical story-telling of a person’s desire, the ritual invoking, and the bringing of the woman in the Egyptian and Greek magical papyri.
For a love of (a) woman, a very good charm(?)
Write these on a sheet of tin. Off(ering): wild herb (?), froth from the mouth of a completely black horse, and a bat. Bury it at the door of the woman. You will see its potency quickly.eribietiod.thfphorar.th.ḍoapoae (magic signs)(magic signs) g̣ạịkôn a[..]aaaaeeeeeeeêêêêêêêiiiiiiiooooooouuuuuuuôôôôôôô aeêioyo taem(graphical storytelling and magic signs)
I adjure you by all of your holy names, by your offerings, by your phylacteries, by your thrones on which you sit, by your stolae that clothe you, by your perfect steles [and] places in which you exist. I adjure you by all of these for the matter of a sincere love and pain and fervent madness in the heart of the NN! Quickly!
I adjure the great power of Bersebour, the king of daimons […] I adjure you by all of these. Do not let her eat or [drink or lie down (?)] or sit until she is like a [black(?)] dog mad for her puppies and like a drop of water dangling from a vessel like a snake, desperate [for the] soul of the NN until she comes to NN! Quickly! […]
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