Description: This study of two related Demotic-Greek magical handbooks provides new information about the interaction between native Egyptian priests and the Hellenized elite of Roman-period Egypt through a careful analysis language interference, textual layout, religious imagery and ritual techniques.
Brief description: Jacco Dieleman, Ph.D. (2003) in Egyptology, Leiden University, is Assistant Professor of Egyptology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He works on the literature and religion of ancient Egypt, with an emphasis on the later periods.
Review Quotes: 'This is an important book that contributes a great deal to the study of the Greco-Egyptian magical formularies...I learned a great deal from this book, which is an important contribution to the study of ancient magic, in Egypt as well as the many other regions in which such materials are to be found. The arguments from Demotic, scribal practices and scripts can be technical, but are tremendously rewarding, and have major implications for several areas of the social history of ancient magic and religion. It is well worth the time of scholars and graduate students in these areas, as well as Egyptology and papyrology.'
Lynn LiDonnici, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2005.
'In general, the author has produced an excellent study of the Demotic and Greed magical papyri, a very controversial material that for long needed and overall close examination... Overall, I would like to stress once again the importance of Jacco Dieleman's study, since it is a remarkable accomplishment from which both Egyptologists and classicists will greatly benefit.'
Nikolaos Lazaridis, Rezensionsjournal für die Geschichtswissenschaften, 2005.