This paper offers an in-depth exploration of a group of small Viking Age figurines commonly referred to as ‘valkyries’ in Viking and Old Norse scholarship. After presenting an overview of the long ...research history pertaining to these finds and their varying definitions, this study re-analyses their various formal and stylistic features and proposes a new typological system based on a comprehensive investigation of the current find corpus. This is followed by a deconstruction and discussion of the ambiguous gender characteristics of the figurines and an exploration of the potential new avenues of their interpretation. The study is supplemented by detailed catalogues of all presently known finds of so-called armed ‘valkyrie’ figures as well as high-quality illustrations that demonstrate their great iconographic value for studies of Viking Age clothing, martial equipment and ritual behaviour.
O presente artigo visa analisar uma importante dimensão no contexto dos vínculos globais do mundo moderno: a circulação de crenças e práticas mágico-religiosas promovidas por africanos e ...afrodescendentes, fossem estes escravos ou livres, da África, Portugal e o Brasil. Do conjunto dessas crenças, privilegiamos o uso de amuletos protetores, ou sacos de mandinga, para demonstrar o alcance dessa circulação. A documentação que usamos na pesquisa são os processos sofridos por africanos e afrodescendentes acusados de feitiçaria e pacto demoníaco por parte do tribunal inquisitorial português.
This paper proposes a novel source for –or at least influence on– the iconography of the Moon trump in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, which preserves the design from the Tarot de Marseille. In fact, the ...Moon template appears to date back to the earliest days of the Tarot. The proposed source or prototype is a Greco-Roman talismanic design against the Evil Eye known as the “all-suffering eye”, which frequently occupies the reverse face of Byzantine copper/ bronze “Holy Rider” amulets. The paper identifies compositional elements that correspond in the Evil Eye and Moon card designs, presents reasons why the moon and the Evil Eye might have been thought of as cognates, and considers other likely inputs into the Moon card’s visual program.
A wide range of objects were used in rituals and their purpose was to mediate divine power in the Graeco-Roman world. These included amulets, which were objects commonly inscribed with mysterious ...formulae and used by mainly pagans as a protection against numerous illnesses, as well as witchcraft, occultism, curse tablets, magical gems and also magical bowls. There were also magical handbooks and binding spells. Each of these reside under the category of magical texts or objects. These objects were believed to be effective based on their messages and also the sense of power that they were believed to possess which was magical. Their messages often went together with a ritual curse. Magic was basically based on the belief that the divine elements could be exposed to manipulation by different means including inter alia sacrifices, charms, and even gifts. This obvious misinterpretation of God’s character assumed that one could acquire God’s favour through ‘buying’ it. This article briefly considers such objects in a biblical literature perspective, and how they were often used as means to mediate divine power.
This article examines Islamic manuscripts stored in several collections of the people of Southeast Sulawesi (Baubau) and West Java (Cirebon and Indramayu), which have been digitized by the EAP ...British Library and the Digital Repository of Endangered and Affected Manuscripts in Southeast Asia (DREAMSEA). The study was conducted based on a paratext approach which explains the elements outside the written text in the manuscript. Practically, Arabic script and language are widely used in religious texts to transmit knowledge and Islamic teachings. However, it is not widely revealed that Arabic script and language are also used as magical practices such as amulets, medicine, invulnerability, the knowledge of using weapons, and the like used in various conflicts, both with others and with the colonial side. On the other hand, this paper illustrates that Arabic script and language in the magical tradition became an inseparable part of efforts to legitimize rulers in the archipelago in the 19th century.
If colour is one of the observation criteria taken into account by the Egyptian doctor within the medical diagnosis, its role in the choice of materia medica is more difficult to estimate. The ...situation is quite different in the field of magic. Considering the role of colour in therapeutic and prophylactic practices, this contribution distinguishes between different aspects : colour understood as brightness and light, colour as a material, and colour as a classificatory tool.
Parer l’humain de divin Thomas Galoppin
Cahiers mondes anciens,
01/2022, Letnik:
15
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
In some Greek and Latin testimonies of Late Antiquity, several stones are used as core material in the making of different objects; these objects are described as jewels (body ornament) and as ...amulets (powerful objects). The texts in which the making of these garments is told include a divine empowerment of the objects. Three examples show how the divine adornment for mortal use is conceived. These cases are: 1. the pantarbe in a ring which, in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica, repels fire itself, 2. the isiac emerald in fibula that, in the Damigeron-Evax lapidary, gives charm to the wearer, and 3. the remaking of the kestos of the goddess Aphrodite by the Cyranides, around an obsidian stone and from the pattern of a divine diadem capable of emasculating men or even of changing gender assignment.
PDF
