Chapter 7 - Magic in Medieval Byzantium

Summary

In Byzantium, magic was consistently categorized as body of non-Christian knowledge and practices. The chapter first evaluates the definition of magic in the civil and canon law of the middle Byzantine period, as well as that of related terminology in other textual genres. Middle Byzantine legislation provides definitions of unsanctioned activities, and these sources offer useful guidelines for understanding the position of the Byzantine State and the Orthodox Church regarding what constituted magic. Material evidence for the combination of Christian and magical imagery is found in a sizable corpus of middle Byzantine amulets. Another important textual source for middle Byzantine conceptions of magic is saints' lives, in which the supernatural machinations and moral weakness of sorcerers and their clients are sharply contrasted with virtue and spiritual strength of Christian holy people and their followers. Women also appear as the practitioners of magic, often in the form of the drunken old woman who peddles false prophecies or who manufactures illicit amulets.