Magic

Description

What remains of this text exhibits no syntactical pattern. The word "zodia" at the end of the first line that is legible, is followed by a series of vowels, six omicrons and six epsilons, in l. 2, and these are followed by the words "gune" and "paidin" in l. 3. The vowels suggest that we have here a piece of magic, and this notion is reinforced by the frequent use elsewhere of "zodia" to designate the crude figures so often seen on magical papyri. The collocation of "gune" and "paidin" is strange, but this oddity falls into place if the text is a set of directions for preparing a magical spell or an amulet. The Greek words then fix the positions relative to the vowels that are to be assigned to the "zodia" and the drawings of a woman and child. If the latter were perchance intended to represent Isis and the young Horus (Harpocrtaes), we might think of an amulet for promoting conception, childbirth, or lacation, although the more general purposes of maintaining domestic harmony or preventing illness would not be excluded.