Coptic Spell: Spell for a Man to Obtain a Male
Lover
(Egypt, perhaps 6th century)
One of the great problems in studying the history of sexuality
in the past, as with other areas of human personal life, is that
the vast majority of sources come from sources left by social
elites. In many areas and periods only the elites could write,
and even where a wider section of the population could write (as,
probably, in classical Greece), the texts that have been preserved,
usually by monastic copying and in monastic libraries for Greek
texts, were works produced by the elites.
In Christian Egypt (or "Coptic Egypt") there seems
to have been fairly widespread literacy - in both Greek and Coptic
languages - and much popular material has survived on papyrus.
The particular climate of Egypt has alone made this possible.
We are in a position then to explore aspects of Christian society
in Egypt which remain obscure elsewhere. One set of sources which
has been made available to English readers are the various collection
of ritual "spells". These texts, dating from the first
to the eleventh century, show a religious life quite different
from that of the elite theologians who were writing at the same
time. See for these texts - Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith, eds.,Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic texts of Ritual Power,
(San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994)
One of the spells translated in this volume is for a man to
obtain a male lover: evidence of a homosexual sub-culture, neither
philosophic nor literary which we may believe existed at other
times and places in the ancient world, but which has left little
evidence.
Spell 84: For a Man to Obtain a Male Lover [p.177-78]
Text: Ashmolean Museum 1981:940
Description: vellum, 8x10.5 cm, originally folded to 2.5x 1.3
cm (by the evidence of creases); perhaps 6th century
Bibliography: Paul C. Smither, "A Coptic Love Charm", Journal of Egyptian Archeology 25 (1939< 173-174
Translator: David Frankfurter
This text contains a same-sex love spell commissioned by one
Papalo to "bind" another man, Phello (this name literally
means "the old man" or "the monk"), by means
of a variety of powerful utterances (especially ROUS). Besides
extending the scope of erotic binding spells in late antiquity,
this spell also employs formulae common to several Coptic texts
of ritual power. The folds in the text and the description of
the text's depositing (lines 6-7) imply that this spell was intended
to be placed near the beloved man.
TEXT
+CELTATALBABAL [.]KARASHNEIFE[.]NNAS'KNEKIE, by the power
of Yao Sabaoth, ROUS ROUS ROUS ROUS ROUS ROUS ROUS ROUS
(ring signs)
+++I adjure you by your powers and your amulets and
places where you dwell and your names, that just as I take you
a put you at the door and the pathway of Phello, son of Maure,
(so alos) you must take his heart and his mind; you must dominate
his entire body.
When he (tries to) stand, you must not allow him to stand
When he (tries to) sit, you must not allow him to sit
When he lies down to sleep, you must not allow him to sleep.
He must seek me from town to town, from city to city,
from field to filed, from region to region,
until he comes to me and subjects himself under my feet-
me, Papapolo son of Noe-
while his hand is full of all goodness,
until I satisfy with him the desire of my heart
and the demand of my soul,
with pleasant desire and love unending,
right now, right now, at once! Do my work
Notes:
The reference to "his hand full of all goodness" may
be connected with the Hebrew use of "hand" for "penis".
Source.
From: Marvin Meyer and Richard Smith, eds., Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic texts of Ritual Power,
(San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994)
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Paul Halsall, 1998
