Voces magicae and Imperial/Late-Ancient World-Making (Part I)

Amsler, Monika (2021). Voces magicae and Imperial/Late-Ancient World-Making (Part I). Asdiwal. Revue genevoise d'anthropologie et d'histoire des religions(16), pp. 29-43. Association des étudiants en histoire des religions de l'Université de Genève

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The first part of this study dealt with the rational and logical premises behind the use of unintelligible words, the so-called voces magicae, as a means to effect change in a broken system (physical or social), a practice that gained momentum in the imperial period. Part 1 concluded that following the longstanding use of words as cures in carmina, prayers, or hymns, words and letters were ascribed dynamis, potency, in the imperial period. As a result, letters were treated with the same methods with which people treated herbs, foods, and other materia medica in order to use their potency to effect change. Since much of ancient materia medica was part of people’s everyday regimen, the use of these ingredients for change-effecting purposes had to differ from their regular use to produce a different effect. In the same vein, voces, sometimes used alongside substantial ingredients, had to run counter to everyday speech and writing practices to effect substantial change. For such differentiation, obscure words were chosen ; unnatural strings of vowels or consonants were composed; words were written backwards or repeated multiple times; phrases were decontextualized; or idiosyncratic alphabets were used.
The present article locates the most frequent methods applied to transform words into change- effecting ingredients amidst imperial period and late-antique education, school exercises, and ensuing forms of literary representation. It will then be argued that the phenomenon of the voces is conceptually linked not just to therapeutic practice but also to military strategies. Especially, the habit of depicting voces in formations will be linked to strategic charts found in military manuals.

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