More than text: Approaching ritual papyri from Oxyrhynchus as inscribed objects
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Scott Possiel
Abstract
Although papyri serve as critical forms of evidence for the study of ritual in the late antique Mediterranean, much about their function and significance in ritual performance remains unknown. This paper investigates this dimension of ritual texts through an examination of three papyri from Oxyrhynchus (P.Oxy. 4242, 2833, and 5304) – a horoscope, a sortes collection, and a magical formulary. Pairing close readings with an object-centered approach to the study of ritual in the ancient world, this paper addresses the text of each papyrus as well as its visual and physical characteristics including size, columniation, layout, evidence of wear, and marginalia. This analysis illuminates not only the role of each papyrus within the practice of astrology, divination, or magic, but also its influence on ritual performance. By mediating the experience of ritual participants, these papyri exert object-agency. Therefore, this paper argues that such texts are not simply passive instruments consulted by practitioners but rather active participants and collaborators in the performance of ritual.
This article was first presented to the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions program unit at the Society for Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. I am grateful to Nancy Evans for organizing this panel and allowing me to participate. I also wish to thank David Frankfurter, Jennifer Knust, Jordan Conley, Andrew Henry, Alexis Felder, David Young, Chang Seon An, Elizabeth Schrader, and the anonymous reviewer for their generous feedback and insightful criticism on earlier versions of this project.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- Introduction
- Magic and Ritual
- Magic and Ritual
- Überlegungen zu einigen griechischen Wetterritualen
- And You Will Be Amazed: The Rhetoric of Authority in the Greek Magical Papyri
- Lawsuits with Headless Foes: A Greek Incantation Motif
- A Syntactic Approach to the Orphic Gold Leaves
- Materiality and Ancient Religion
- Materiality and Ancient Religion
- Accumulation, authority, and the cultural lives of objects: materiality and ancient religion
- Familiarity and Phenomenology in Greece: Accumulated Votives as Group-made Monuments
- The Cultural Biography of a Pilgrimage Token: From Hagiographical to Archaeological Evidence
- More than text: Approaching ritual papyri from Oxyrhynchus as inscribed objects
- Rethinking Orphic ‘Bookishness’: Text and Performance in Classical Mystery Religion
- Divine Names
- Divine Names
- “Noms de dieux!” Gods at the borders
- Nommer les dieux hittites : au sujet de quelques épithètes divines
- Le culte de Zeus Brontôn : l’espace et la morphologie du dieu de l’orage dans la Phrygie d’époque romaine
- Séquences onomastiques divines à Ostie-Portus
- Myths of Origin
- Myths of Origin
- Ex arches: Looking Back at Greek Myths of Origin
- Typhoeus or Cosmic Regression (Theogony 821 – 880)
- Herakles and the Order of Zeus in Hesiod’s Theogony
- The Politics of Beginnings: Hesiod and the Assyrian Ideological Appropriation of Enuma Eliš
- Our Co(s)mic Origins: Theogonies in Greek Comedy
- At the Origins of Dionysus and Wine: Myths, Miracles, and Festivals
- Creation in the Poimandres and in Other Creation Stories
- The God Aion in a Mosaic from Nea Paphos (Cyprus) and Graeco-Phoenician Cosmogonies in the Roman East
- Ἀρχή and δῖνος: Vortices as Cosmogonic Powers and Cosmic Regulators. Study Case: The Whirling Lightning Bolt of Zeus
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- Introduction
- Magic and Ritual
- Magic and Ritual
- Überlegungen zu einigen griechischen Wetterritualen
- And You Will Be Amazed: The Rhetoric of Authority in the Greek Magical Papyri
- Lawsuits with Headless Foes: A Greek Incantation Motif
- A Syntactic Approach to the Orphic Gold Leaves
- Materiality and Ancient Religion
- Materiality and Ancient Religion
- Accumulation, authority, and the cultural lives of objects: materiality and ancient religion
- Familiarity and Phenomenology in Greece: Accumulated Votives as Group-made Monuments
- The Cultural Biography of a Pilgrimage Token: From Hagiographical to Archaeological Evidence
- More than text: Approaching ritual papyri from Oxyrhynchus as inscribed objects
- Rethinking Orphic ‘Bookishness’: Text and Performance in Classical Mystery Religion
- Divine Names
- Divine Names
- “Noms de dieux!” Gods at the borders
- Nommer les dieux hittites : au sujet de quelques épithètes divines
- Le culte de Zeus Brontôn : l’espace et la morphologie du dieu de l’orage dans la Phrygie d’époque romaine
- Séquences onomastiques divines à Ostie-Portus
- Myths of Origin
- Myths of Origin
- Ex arches: Looking Back at Greek Myths of Origin
- Typhoeus or Cosmic Regression (Theogony 821 – 880)
- Herakles and the Order of Zeus in Hesiod’s Theogony
- The Politics of Beginnings: Hesiod and the Assyrian Ideological Appropriation of Enuma Eliš
- Our Co(s)mic Origins: Theogonies in Greek Comedy
- At the Origins of Dionysus and Wine: Myths, Miracles, and Festivals
- Creation in the Poimandres and in Other Creation Stories
- The God Aion in a Mosaic from Nea Paphos (Cyprus) and Graeco-Phoenician Cosmogonies in the Roman East
- Ἀρχή and δῖνος: Vortices as Cosmogonic Powers and Cosmic Regulators. Study Case: The Whirling Lightning Bolt of Zeus