This is the only ancient Greek love spell preserved on linen and it reminds of the scraps of clothes which were used in various rituals. The reddish-brown stains make me wonder if this could be blood since some instructions specify that the practitioner has to use a strip of cloth from someone who died violently, for example in the Greek ritual manual PGM II, 145-150, 167-175. Here the practitioner has to inscribe a figure of the Headless deity on a “piece of cloth from someone who died violently,” make it into a wick and burn it in an oil lamp for threatening an invoked deity in a divination ritual who refuses to appear.
The underlying believe likely was that spirits of people who died violently could facilitate direct access to chthonic, subterranean deities, so garment from a person who died like this was regarded as being capable of establishing a connection with their spirit which would help to transfer the inscribed message to the addressed higher powers.
In the following translation I use the symbol # to mark a single magic sign and ### to mark a group of magic signs:
# Iocho # Sim # Phnoue # Phthonthôn ### Perkmêm Biou Biou Bibiou ### Ochero # Nouri Epnebaï Serpôt Mouï Sro Rint Mêï Mêï Êï Ou Ousiri Serphouth Mouï Sro Mêï Mêï: Quickly fetch Tapias, whom Demetria bore, to Achillas, whom Helene bore, by means of the soul of the untimely dead man! Bakaxisych, the one who is entrusted with everything, Eulamô: Bring Tapias to Achillas, now now, quickly, quickly!
Artefact & Photo: Cologne, Papyrus Collection, Inv. 05512 © Institut für Altertumskunde an der Universität zu Köln (CC-BY)