Voces Magicae: the power of words in the Greek magical Papyri

• Grant number: 15/04140-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: June 01, 2015
• End date: November 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Classical Literatures
• Principal Investigator: José Marcos Mariani de Macedo
• Grantee: Patrícia Schlithler da Fonseca Cardoso
• Supervisor: Robert C. T. Parke
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Oxford, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/21068-2 - Voces Magicae: the power of words in The Greek Magical Papyri, BP.MS

Abstract

This project is part of a master's degree research about the use of voces magicae in the Greek Magical Papyri entitled "Voces Magicae: the power of words in the Greek Magical Papyri"1. The voces magicae, apparently meaningless words with a magical function, are a common feature in this collection of magical texts from the Greco-Roman Egypt. The original project analyzes their use concerning their syntactical context and spells' structures. Three main questions were encountered since the beginning of the research: 1) the use of Coptic language on the spells and on voces magicae sequences; 2) the criteria used to determine what is and what is not a vox magica; and 3) the inefficacy of the three preliminary categories used to classify the voces magicae facing occurrences of it analyzed since the beginning of the research. The project for this scholarship has as its objective to analyze those three questions in order to develop the research currently done in Brazil and enhance the quality of its overall results. (AU)