




  These are ancient magical spells used about the beginning of the Christian 
era (circa 100 BC to AD 100) by Egyptian "goetes", i.e. street magicians, who dispensed advice and cast spells - for a fee of course. These "goetes" are not to be confused with "magoi", the serious magician who could conjure up the dead for advice or summon the help of a divine entity (demons to the Christians but "daimones" to the greek speaking Mediterranean world. Socrates the philosopher attributed some of his ideas as coming from a "daimon" that spoke to him in his head). 

  I have extracted a few of the spells translated into english from the 
original greek and demotic (common) egyptian languages in K. Preisendanz's  
book "Papyri Graecae Magicae". This work does also contain some more elaborate spells that these "goetes" believed derived from the invocations of the 
"magoi", but which modern academicians suspect were really imitations of the 
"real thing" intended to impress the customer. 

  Here goes:
PGM I:222-231 (Translation by E. N. O'Neil)
  Indispensable invisibility spell: Take fat or an eye of a nightowl and dung rolled by a [scarab] beetle and oil of an unripe olive and grind them all 
together until smooth, and smear your whole body with it and say to [the god] Helios: "I adjure you by your great name, BORKE PHOIOUR IO ZIZIA APARXEOUCH 
THYTHE LAILAM AAAAAA IIIII OOOO IEO IEO IEO IEO IEO IEO NAUNAX AI AI AEO AEO 
EAO," and moisten it and say in addition: "Make me invisible, lord Helios, AEO OAE EIE EAO, in the presence of any man until sunset, IO IO O PHRIXRIZO EOA." 
PGM I:232-247 (Translation by E. N. O'Neil)
  Memory spell: Take heiratic [unused] papyrus and write the prescribed names with Hermaic myrrh ink. And once you have written them as prescribed [see next paragraph], wash them off into spring water from 7 springs and drink the water on an empty stomach for seven days while the moon is in the east. But drink a sufficient amount. 
  This is the writing on the strip of papyrus: "KAMBRE CHAMBRE SIXIOPHI HARPON CHNOUPHI BRINTATENOPHRIBRISKYLMA ARAOUAZAR BAMESEN KRIPHI NIPTOUMI CHMOUMAOPH AKTIOPHI ARTOSE BIBIOU BIBIOU SPHE SPHE NOUSI NOUSI SIEGO SIEGO NOUCHA NOUCHA LINOUCHA LINOUCHA CHYCHBA CHYCHBA KAXIO CHYCHBA DETOPHOTH II AA OO YY EE EE 
OO." After doing these things wash the writing off and drink as is prescribed.  This is also the composition of the ink: myrrh troglitis, 4 drams; 3 karian 
figs, 7 pits of Nikolaus dates, 7 dried pinecones, 7 piths of the single 
stemmed wormwood, 7 wings of the Hermaic ibis [bird], spring water. when you 
have burned the ingredients, prepare them and write.

PGM I:247-262 (Translation by E. N. O'Neil)
  Tested spell for invisibility: A great work. Take an eye of an ape or of a 
corpse that has died a violent death and a plant of peony (he means the rose). Rub these with an oil of lily, and as you are rubbing them from the right to 
the left, say the spell as follows: "I am ANUBIS, I am OSIR-PHRE, I am OSOT 
SORONOUIER, I am OSIRIS whom SETH destroyed. Rise up, infernal daimon, IO 
ERBETH IO PHOBETH IO PAKERBETH IO APOMPS; Whatever I, NN [i. e. the name of the person invoking the spell], order you to do, be obedient to me." 
  And if you wish to become invisible, rub just your face with the concoction, and you will be invisible for as long as you wish. And if you wish to be 
visible again, move from west to east and say this name [see the next 
paragraph], and you will be obvious and visible to all men.
  The name is: "MARMARIAOTH MARMARIPHEGGE, make me, NN [i. e. the name if the person invoking the spell], visible to all men on this day, immediately, 
immediately, quickly, quickly!" This works very well.

  So there you have it. I have enclosed my own comments with square brackets 
"[ ]" but preserved original insertions of comments by the ancient transcriber with parentheses "( )". The source of these quotations is "The Greek Magical 
Papyri In Translation: Including The Demotic Spells", Volume One: Texts, Edited by Hans Dieter Betz, c. 1986, and have been cited for instructional purposes only.  
 
 


                                 David Hindley
                                Cleveland, Ohio
