May 5, 2021
Drawing Down the Moon:
Defining Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World
Radcliffe Edmonds
Professor of Greek, Chair of the Department of Latin, Greek and Classical Studies, Bryn Mawr College
BFG Graham, Introducer, and Radcliffe Edmonds
Minutes of the 31st Meeting of the 79th Year
President Stephen Schreiber called the meeting to order at 10:15 AM. Jane Silverman read the minutes from the previous week. Guests were Pug and Ann Edmonds, parents of our speaker Radcliffe Edmonds; Judy Funches, guest of Christine Danser; Maryann Belanger, guest of Marge D’Amico; Earlene Baumunk Cancilla, guest of Marge D’Amico; Lorraine McDade, guest and sister of Christine Danser; Barry Rabner, proposed for membership by Dick Scribner. There were 129 viewers.
Professor Edmonds was introduced by BFG Graham, who first met him a half century ago when he was two years old. She was great friends of his parents. He graduated from Yale University in 1992, received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago, taught at the University of Chicago and Creighton University, and joined the faculty at Bryn Mawr College in 2000.
In a recent interview, he said that he loved teaching at Bryn Mawr, in a small community of earnest and eager students with fantastic resources for research, with a faculty with a mix of disciplines and perspectives, in an idyllic setting. In addition to scholarship, he has enjoyed directing Greek plays on May Day and singing in the Bryn Mawr Renaissance Choir.
His research and teaching interests center on Greek social and intellectual history with particular focus on mythology, religion, magic, and Platonic philosophy. He recently edited a volume of essays on Plato and the power of images, and his most recent book is entitled Drawing Down the Moon. It is a study of the discourse of magic in the ancient Greco-Roman world in which he surveyed the different things labeled as “magic,” from curses and erotic spells to healing and divination. It was published by Princeton University Press and weighs more than two pounds. The paperback is due out in December. A reviewer said that the scholarship is impeccable, and it is an interesting read.
Professor Edmonds began his talk with excerpts from Aristophanes’ The Clouds and Ovid’s Heroides and went on to say that defining magic is intuitive. Just as a Supreme Court justice once said about defining pornography, that he couldn’t quite define it, "but I know it when I see it.” So it is with magic. Magic is not a thing but a way of talking about things. The word evokes the mysterious and marvelous, the forbidden and the hidden, the ancient and the arcane. In modern times, we think of the supernatural and the natural.
Prof. Edmonds talked about etic (inside thinking) and emic (outside thinking) with magic being in the epic category with reference to classic epic. Magic is not real science or real religion. It is a way for society to ritualize abnormal activity. Normality is that which is thought or expected, but what counts as normal depends on complex circumstances. And magic is non-normal. He showed a chart of the lexical definitions of magic, Greek and Roman, and the many words resulting. He talked further about magic versus religion and magic versus real science. Magic is impersonal and anti-social, and religion is personal.
He referred to Pliny’s Natural History, the Thessalian Wheel (a toy spinner), and showed a drawing of old Thessalian women with the wheel. They were thought to be witches, as witches were most often old, women, or alien. When things worked in ways not understood, it was magic. He noted Lucian’s Lovers of Lies, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Hippolytus’s Refutation of All Heresies. He talked about “drawing down the moon” and the power of the moon on the earth. Moon foam was used by alchemists to change silver to gold, and the drawing down of the moon was used by women to control men or lovers, and by the media in controlling the universe in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
In the question period, he was asked about the influence and evolution of Egyptian and Christian ways of looking at magic and the cultural fusion that magicians borrow from other cultures. When asked about Karma, he spoke about the connection between song and poetry in magic.
On a personal note, I think that I must read his book slowly to enjoy the magic.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynn Johnston
Professor Edmonds was introduced by BFG Graham, who first met him a half century ago when he was two years old. She was great friends of his parents. He graduated from Yale University in 1992, received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Chicago, taught at the University of Chicago and Creighton University, and joined the faculty at Bryn Mawr College in 2000.
In a recent interview, he said that he loved teaching at Bryn Mawr, in a small community of earnest and eager students with fantastic resources for research, with a faculty with a mix of disciplines and perspectives, in an idyllic setting. In addition to scholarship, he has enjoyed directing Greek plays on May Day and singing in the Bryn Mawr Renaissance Choir.
His research and teaching interests center on Greek social and intellectual history with particular focus on mythology, religion, magic, and Platonic philosophy. He recently edited a volume of essays on Plato and the power of images, and his most recent book is entitled Drawing Down the Moon. It is a study of the discourse of magic in the ancient Greco-Roman world in which he surveyed the different things labeled as “magic,” from curses and erotic spells to healing and divination. It was published by Princeton University Press and weighs more than two pounds. The paperback is due out in December. A reviewer said that the scholarship is impeccable, and it is an interesting read.
Professor Edmonds began his talk with excerpts from Aristophanes’ The Clouds and Ovid’s Heroides and went on to say that defining magic is intuitive. Just as a Supreme Court justice once said about defining pornography, that he couldn’t quite define it, "but I know it when I see it.” So it is with magic. Magic is not a thing but a way of talking about things. The word evokes the mysterious and marvelous, the forbidden and the hidden, the ancient and the arcane. In modern times, we think of the supernatural and the natural.
Prof. Edmonds talked about etic (inside thinking) and emic (outside thinking) with magic being in the epic category with reference to classic epic. Magic is not real science or real religion. It is a way for society to ritualize abnormal activity. Normality is that which is thought or expected, but what counts as normal depends on complex circumstances. And magic is non-normal. He showed a chart of the lexical definitions of magic, Greek and Roman, and the many words resulting. He talked further about magic versus religion and magic versus real science. Magic is impersonal and anti-social, and religion is personal.
He referred to Pliny’s Natural History, the Thessalian Wheel (a toy spinner), and showed a drawing of old Thessalian women with the wheel. They were thought to be witches, as witches were most often old, women, or alien. When things worked in ways not understood, it was magic. He noted Lucian’s Lovers of Lies, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Hippolytus’s Refutation of All Heresies. He talked about “drawing down the moon” and the power of the moon on the earth. Moon foam was used by alchemists to change silver to gold, and the drawing down of the moon was used by women to control men or lovers, and by the media in controlling the universe in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
In the question period, he was asked about the influence and evolution of Egyptian and Christian ways of looking at magic and the cultural fusion that magicians borrow from other cultures. When asked about Karma, he spoke about the connection between song and poetry in magic.
On a personal note, I think that I must read his book slowly to enjoy the magic.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynn Johnston