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Ephesia Grammata
Ephesia Grammata (, "Ephesian Letters") are Ancient Greek magical formulas attested from the 5th or 4th century BC. According to Pausanias the Lexicographer (Eust. ad Od. 20, 247, p. 1864), their name derives from their being inscribed on the cult image of Artemis in Ephesus. Clement of Alexandria considers them an invention of the Daktyloi. They were "meaningless words" (ἄσημα ὀνόματα) potent to protect those who could speak them correctly, their power residing in their sound, so that they were ineffective if mispronounced. Plutarch (Quaest. Conv. 706D) reports that the Magi instructed victims of demonic possession to recite the Ephesia Grammata. In the 4th century comedy ''Lyropoios'' by Anaxilas, one character carries Ephesia Grammata inscribed on his belt. The best known Ephesia Grammata are a group of six words: : (or ) :' A version of this formula seems to be attested by a damaged inscription from Himera, Sicily, which must date to before the Carthagin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ephesus
Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital, by Attica, Attic and Ionians, Ionian Greek colonists. During the Classical Greece, Classical Greek era, it was one of twelve cities that were members of the Ionian League. The city came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC. The city was famous in its day for the nearby Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), which has been designated one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Its many monumental buildings included the Library of Celsus and a theatre capable of holding 24,000 spectators. Ephesus was a recipient city of one of the Pauline epistles and one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in the Book of Revelation. The Gospel of John may have been written there,Stephen L Harris, Harris, Stephen L., ''Under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magic Words
Magic words are phrases used in fantasy fiction or by Magic (illusion), stage magicians. Frequently such words are presented as being part of a Divine language, divine, Adamic language, adamic, or other Twilight language, secret or Language of the birds, empowered language. Certain comic book heroes use magic words to activate their powers. Magic words are also used as ''Easter egg (media), Easter eggs'' or Cheating in video games, cheats in computer games, other software, and operating systems. (For example, the words ''xyzzy (magic word), xyzzy'', ''plugh'', and ''plover'' were magic words in the classic computer adventure game ''Colossal Cave Adventure''. Please is colloquially referred to as the "magic word".) Invocations of magic Examples of traditional and modern magic words include: *''Abracadabra'' – magic word used by magicians. *''Ajji Majji la Tarajji'' – Iranian magic word (Persian). *''Alakazam'' – a phrase used by magicians. *''Chhu Montor Chhu''&nbs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charaktêres
''Charaktêres'' (singular: charaktêr) are letter-shaped signs lacking both semantic and phonetic correlations, which were used as magic signs in ancient literary documents. Forms and use In her 2013 thesis Kirsten Dzwiza studied 94 magical texts and recorded 699 different ''charaktêres'' occurring over 943 times. The character forms are mostly nonsensical and may include ring-letters, balls, points, closed elements, separate strokes, linear elements, small element, and hieroglyphs. The most common forms consist of asterisks and configurations of straight lines with small circles at their ends. The signs appear mostly on apotropaic spells and phylacteries, but also on a few ancient curse tablets. They may appear as loose groups of characters on a magical gemstone or spell to large groups alongside other figures on a magical text or table. They are often used alongside comprehensible arcane words, like the '' voces magicae'' in the texts of the Greek Magical Papyri. Charaktê ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voces Magicae
''Voces magicae'' (singular: ''vox magica'', "magical names" or "magical words") or ''voces mysticae'' John G. Gager (1999) Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World'. Oxford University, 278 pages. are pronounceable but incomprehensible magical formulas that occur in spells, charms, curses, and amulets from Classical Antiquity, including Ancient Greece, Egypt, and Rome. These formulas may include alternative names of gods or other unusual phrases which may have been intended as the secret, authoritative true name of certain gods. As an example: in the Greek Magical Papyri, the first spell of the first papyrus intended to summon a daimon assistant and included the phrase (in translation) "hisis your authoritative name: ARBATH ARBAOTH BAKCHABRE". The ''voces magicae'' have been said to be related to the Greek Ephesia Grammata. See also *Magic in the Greco-Roman world *Magical formula *Glossolalia Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is an activi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logos
''Logos'' (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Logos (Christianity), Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rationality, rational form of discourse that relies on inductive reasoning, inductive and deductive reasoning, deductive reasoning. Aristotle first systematized the usage of the word, making it one of the three principles of rhetoric alongside ethos and pathos. This original use identifies the word closely to the structure and content of language or Text (literary theory), text. Both Plato and Aristotle used the term ''logos'' (along with ''rhema'') to refer to Sentence (language), sentences and Proposition (philosophy), propositions. Background is related to which is cognate with . The word derives from a Proto-Indo-European root, *leǵ-, which can have the meanings "I put in order, arrange, gather, choose, count, reckon, discern, say, speak". In modern usage, it typically connotes the verbs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hesychius Of Alexandria
Hesychius of Alexandria () was a Greek grammarian who, probably in the 5th or 6th century AD, compiled the richest lexicon of unusual and obscure Greek words that has survived, probably by absorbing the works of earlier lexicographers. The work, titled "Alphabetical Collection of All Words" (, ''Synagōgē Pasōn Lexeōn kata Stoicheion''), includes more than 50,000 entries, a copious list of peculiar words, forms and phrases, with an explanation of their meaning, and often with a reference to the author who used them or to the district of Greece where they were current. Hence, the book is of great value to the student of the Ancient Greek dialects and in the restoration of the text of the classical authors generallyparticularly of such writers as Aeschylus and Theocritus, who used many unusual words. Hesychius is important, not only for Greek philology, but also for studying lost languages and obscure dialects of the Balkans in antiquity (such as Albanoid and Thracian) and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stromata
The ''Stromata'' (), a mistake for ''Stromateis'' (Στρωματεῖς, "Patchwork," i.e., ''Miscellanies''), attributed to Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215), is the third of a trilogy of works regarding the Christian life. The oldest extant manuscripts date to the eleventh century. The work is titled ''Stromateis'' ("patchwork”) because it deals with such a variety of matters. It goes further than its two predecessors and aims at the perfection of the Christian life by initiation into complete knowledge. It attempts, on the basis of Scripture and tradition, to give such an account of the Christian faith as shall answer all the demands of learned men, and conduct the student into the innermost realities of his belief. The contents of the ''Stromateis'', as its title suggests, are miscellaneous. Its place in the trilogy is disputed – Clement initially intended to write the ''Didascalus'', a work which would complement the practical guidance of the ''Paedagogus'' with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Androcydes (Pythagorean)
Androcydes () was a Pythagorean whose work ''On Pythagorean Symbols'' survives only in scattered fragments. The dating of his life is uncertain; he lived before the 1st century BC but possibly as early as the 4th. The frequency with which Androcydes is mentioned in other works indicates that he was a major source for the later Pythagorean tradition, and he is also of interest in studying the historical development of the literary and philosophical symbol. The Pythagorean symbols Walter Burkert featured Androcydes in his stemma of Pythagorean ''symbola'', consisting of gnomic utterances or maxims. Androcydes was regarded as one of the most important sources on the '' akousmata''. According to Grant (2002), he has said, ''wine and meat do harm the mind''. Paraphrases of his work in later writers demonstrate his method of interpreting these behavioral strictures. For instance, “Do not step over a yoke” should be understood as meaning “Do not transgress justice.” These int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crete
Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete is located about south of the Peloponnese, and about southwest of Anatolia. Crete has an area of and a coastline of 1,046 km (650 mi). It bounds the southern border of the Aegean Sea, with the Sea of Crete (or North Cretan Sea) to the north and the Libyan Sea (or South Cretan Sea) to the south. Crete covers 260 km from west to east but is narrow from north to south, spanning three longitudes but only half a latitude. Crete and a number of islands and islets that surround it constitute the Region of Crete (), which is the southernmost of the 13 Modern regions of Greece, top-level administrative units of Greece, and the fifth most popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phalasarna
Falasarna or Phalasarna () is a Greek harbour town at the west end of Crete that flourished during the Hellenistic period. The currently visible remains of the city include several imposing sandstone towers and bastions, with hundreds of meters of fortification walls protecting the town, and a closed harbor, meaning it is protected on all sides by city walls. The harbor is ringed by stone quays with mooring stones, and connected to the sea through two artificial channels. Notable finds in the harbor area include public roads, wells, warehouses, an altar, and baths. Most of these structures were revealed by excavations that began in 1986. The acropolis is built on a cape that rises 90 meters above the harbor and juts into the sea. The acropolis has many remains, including a temple dedicated to goddess Dictynna, fortification towers, cisterns, wells, and watchtowers that could have been used to guard sea routes. Today Falasarna is an agricultural area and tourist attraction. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hellenistic Period
In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the Roman conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt the following year, which eliminated the last major Hellenistic kingdom. Its name stems from the Ancient Greek word ''Hellas'' (, ''Hellás''), which was gradually recognized as the name for Greece, from which the modern historiographical term ''Hellenistic'' was derived. The term "Hellenistic" is to be distinguished from "Hellenic" in that the latter refers to Greece itself, while the former encompasses all the ancient territories of the period that had come under significant Greek influence, particularly the Hellenized Middle East, after the conquests of Alexander the Great. After the Macedonian conquest of the Achaemenid Empire in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
