“Some Magical Gems in London” GRBS 57 (2017) 403-30. (original) (raw)
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Ancient Greek Engraved Gems: A New Proposal for Interpretation
Innovation, 2024
Traditionally, the typology of engraved gems has been divided into two broad categories: property seals and amulets or talismans. With the idea of analyzing them in depth, it is possible to classify these two groups as seals for civil or practical use and seals for therapeutic or magical use. After carefully studying their iconography and thoroughly analyzing the Greco-Roman sources, we have divided the first type of seals, those for civil or practical use, into several subgroups: administrative and official seals, personal seals and seals for initiations. In this article, we will be talking specifically about the group of seals that we considered might have been intended for initiations, as a way of trying to give an answer to the questions that arose when we studied the iconography of this small but very interesting objects. The subjects covered by this kind of seals being are mainly hybrid beings, heroes (specifically Heracles) and the gods Hermes, Aphrodite and Eros. Even though we know the proposal is kind of daring, we think it could give a new approach to the study of seals and new ideas to bear in mind when explaining the iconography. To finish the paper, we also share some evidence to support this proposal, coming from both written sources and iconography.
Magical Amulet from Paphos with the ιαεω - palindrome (2013)
During the first excavation campaign of the Paphos Agora Project (3rd July – 6th August 2011), an interesting object was discovered. In Trench II, Area 2 (Room 5), in the upper, late Roman layer, an oval amulet was found (siltstone, 39.41 x 41.32 x 4.81mm). The layer is dated to the 6th century AD, partially due to the presence of ceramic objects of the Cypriot Red Slip Ware type (Hayes form 2, AD 450-550). The obverse of the amulet contains a schematic, simplified figure of a sitting Harpocrates and below the mummy of Osiris in a boat, as well as depictions of animals (a crocodile, a rooster and a snake) and symbolic astrals (a half-moon and a star). On the reverse, however, an eight-line text of the so-called ιαεω- palindrome, consisting of 59 letters of the Greek alphabet, was carved. According to the current state of knowledge, it was translated in the following way: “Yahweh is the bearer of the secret name, the lion of Re secure in his shrine”. Both the depiction and the text carved into the surface of the amulet clearly indicate the influence of the Orient and the context of solar ideas; the object may be dated to the 5th-6th century AD.