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The Technique of Exorcism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Campbell Bonner
Affiliation:
University of Michigan

Extract

In the curious collection of lapidary and magical lore known as the Kyranides directions are given for making a ring with certain special virtues. The stone is to be νεμεσίτης, which is explained as a name given to a stone chipped from an altar of Nemesis made of λίθος κραταιός. We can only translate those words as “hard stone,” but the expression seems to be a technical term for a particular stone which we cannot identify. Upon such a stone a figure of Nemesis is to be carved; she is represented as a maiden resting her foot upon a wheel, holding in her left hand a cubit-rule (πῆχυς), in her right a twig (ῥάβδος). The writer concludes, ἐὰν οὖν τὸν δακτύλιον τοῦτον προσενέγκῃς δαιμονιζομένῳ, παραῦτα ὁ δαίμων ἐξομολογήσας ἑαυτὸν φεύξεται. These words are the occasion for this paper; but before proceeding to discuss them, something should be said about the design prescribed in the passage.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1943

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References

1 Mély-Ruelle, Les lapidaires de l'antiquité et du moyen âge: tome II, Les lapidaires grecs, p. 31, N 5–11. A somewhat different text, attributed to Harpocration, was published by Pitra, Anal. Sacr. et Class. V, 2, p. 297. There the νεμεσἰτης stone is said to have been built (κατεσκευασμένος) into a temple of Nemesis, and parts of the associated bird and plant are to be placed under the ring-stone.

2 The coins and gems show that ῥάβδος here means twig, not staff. Cf. also Hermas, Shepherd, Sim. 8.1. Volkmann (Arch. Rel. Wiss. XXXI, 66), who thinks that a magical wand is meant, overlooks the fact that in a gem-cutting showing Nemesis with rule and wand the two objects would be indistinguishable.

3 On Nemesis, see Posnansky, H., Nemesis und Adrasteia (Breslauer Philol. Abhandl. V, 2), 1890Google Scholar, and the articles by O. Rossbach in Roscher and H. Herter in Pauly-Wissowa; also P. Perdrizet, Némésis (Bull. Corr. Hell. XXXVI [1912], 248–274), and Volkmann, ARW XXVI, 296–321, XXXI, 57–76. Nemesis was invoked as a protector against the evil eye: Plin. N. H. 28. 22, cf. Wolters, Notes on Antique Folklore on the basis of Plin. N. H. 28. 22–29, pp. 31–34.

4 Perdrizet, op. cit., 261.

5 Posnansky, op. cit., 111.

6 Commodus, Pamphylia (Attaleia), Mionnet, Descr. des Médailles. Suppl. Vol. VII, p. 34, no. 43. Philippus senior, Moesia Inf. (Callatia), Suppl. Vol. II, p. 62, no. 55.

7 Julius Tambornino, De antiquorum daemonismo, 1909 (RGVV VII, 3).

8 The name Jesus Christ occurs once (p. 23, θ 7), but merely as a name of power in a charm, where it is introduced as a διονυσιακὸν ὄνομα.

9 Mark 1. 34 is an exception. There Jesus does not allow the demons to speak “because they knew him.” Apparently he did not wish his nature and mission to be revealed prematurely.

10 Yet it was accepted by Deissmann, Licht vom Osten, 223, n. 8, by Klostermann in his note on Mark 5. 9 (Das Markusevang., in Lietzmann's Handbuch), and by Lagrange on Luke 8. 30 (L'évangile selon Saint Luc).

10a A. Dieterich argued strongly in 1891 in favor of the view that the passage under discussion was taken over from a prayer of the Essenes or the Therapeutae (Abraxas, 137–148); Reitzenstein, writing thirteen years later, seems to doubt the Jewish origin of the prayer in spite of the names and incidents drawn from the Septuagint (Poimandres, 14, with notes 1 and 2).

11 In a passage cited by Tambornino (52 f.) Psellus (de operat. daem. 13) says that a demon of the subterranean kind that hates the light has no faculty of reason, hence hears no words spoken and fears no rebuke; consequently he is often rightly called ἄλαλον καὶ κωφόν.

12 A. Loisy, L'évangile selon Saint Marc, 153.

13 Both commentaries belong to the International Critical Commentary series.

14 J. Wellhausen, Das Evangelium Marci2, 39; Loisy, Klostermann, Lagrange, as previously cited; Creed, The Gospel according to St. Luke (8. 30).

15 See McCown, C. C., The Testament of Solomon, 1922Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., p. 91*.

17 Ibid., p. 13* f., 16*–59*.

18 M. R. James's translation in The Apocryphal New Testament, 379.

19 W. Peek, Der Isishymnus von Andros und verwandte Texte, esp. the inscriptions of Ios and Kyme, pp. 122–125.

20 Philostr. Vit. Apoll. 4. 25 (166).

21 Philostr. Vit. Apoll. 3. 28 (128); for ἐξαγορεύω = ὁμολογῶ, cf. LXX, Lev. 5. 5.

22 In Luc. Philops. 16, “the Syrian from Palestine, known for his skill in these matters,” is reputed to ask the demon who has taken possession of a man whence he came into the body of the sufferer; and the demon tells how and whence he came, speaking Greek or the language of the country from which he had come. An allusion to the miracles of Jesus or one of the apostles has been suspected; see the notes on this passage in the editions of Hemsterhuys and Lehmann.

23 Hellenistische Wundererzählungen, 54.

24 Dittenberger, Sylloge3, 1168, ll. 79–90.