OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

6.5 x 11 cm.

Lines:

Recto + Verso - 26

Publication side:

Recto and Verso

Palaeographic description:

–

State of preservation:

Very fragmented text

Content

Date:

IVth century A.D.

Origin:

Unknown place, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Sub-literary

Author:

–

Title / Type of text:

Magical text

Content:

An agoge - prescriptions for how to attract a person

Subjects:

Subliterature Love spell Magic

Named people:

–

Named places:

–

English translation:

...at the proper time purify [yourself for seven days and] take myrrh ink and [write] on [pure] papyrus ... of baths: ""Come here to me ... who have the power .../... and go into the house ... after causing fright and [after] hiding ... of the door. For by the contribution (?) of her ... by your [power, attract] to me her, NN, whose mother is NN, because ... /... to find sleep and ... brain ... of sacred phantoms Verso:... of the sea ... / [who copulate in the ocean, PSOI PHNOUTHI NINTHER, you are the one who are] daily visible [and who set in the northwest] of heaven, [and rise in the southeast. In the 1st hour] you have [the form of a cat; your name is PHARAKOUNETH. In the 2nd hour you have the form] of a dog; your name is / [SOUPHI. In the 3rd hour you have the form of a snake; your name is] ABERAN NEMANE [THOUTH. In the 4th hour you have the form of a scarab]: [your] name is [SESENIPS. In the 5th hour you have the form] of an ass; [your] name is [ENPHANCHOUPH. In the 6th hour you have the form of a lion]; your name is [BAISOLBAI ... who control] time. / [In the 7th hour you have the form of a goat; your name is] OUMESTHOTH. In the 8th hour you have the form of a bull; your name is [DIATI-PHE, who becomes invisible] ....

Provenance:

Unknown place, province of Egypt

Acquisition:

Acquired by S. Eitrem in Fayum 1920, together with other magical texts of the collection (P.Oslo I 1 and I 2)

Acquisition year:

–

Editions

• Eitrem S, P.Oslo I, 1925, 3
  ▾ Corrections:

  • O'Neil EN, in: Greek Magical Papyri in translation (1986) p. 278 (l. 1)Merkelbach/Totti in Abrasax I, 1990, p.117-118 ( l. 14)

Further Literature

Papyri Graecae Magicae, ed. Karl Preisendanz, vol. II (1931), no. XXXVIIIThe Greek magical papyri in translation, ed. Hans Dieter Betz, Chicago 1986, p. 278-279