THE HISTORY OF MAGIC · LESSON 2 OF 7 · 15 MIN
Greece & Rome — Curse Tablets and Theurgy
Defixiones, Hecate, magical papyri, the Neoplatonists and a Roman magic trial.
The Greeks gave us the word magic itself: mageia, originally the art of the magoi, Persian priests. To many Greeks it sounded foreign and suspicious — yet magic was everywhere in Greek and Roman life, from the humblest love charm to the loftiest philosophy.