Ancient magic in Greece and Rome

Magic was everywhere in the ancient world. The supernatural abounded, turning flowers into fruit and caterpillars into butterflies.

Magic packed a cloud of water vapour with energy enough to destroy a house with one well-aimed thunderbolt. It was everyday magic, but it was still magical. Philip Matyszak takes readers into that world.

He shows us how to make a love potion or cast a curse, how to talk to the dead and how to identify and protect oneself from evil spirits. He takes us to a world where gods, like humans, were creatures of space and time; where people could not just talk to spirits and deities, but could even themselves become divine; and where divine beings could fall from – or be promoted to – full godhood. Ancient Magic offers us a new way of understanding the role of magic, looking at its history in all of its classical forms.