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Document Details :

Title: An Invocation on an Obsidian Gem with Hermeneutical Glosses
Author(s): KOTANSKY, Roy D.
Journal: Le Muséon
Volume: 132    Issue: 3-4   Date: 2019   
Pages: 259-290
DOI: 10.2143/MUS.132.3.3287185

Abstract :
An unusual magic gem carved on obsidian preserves on its bevelled edge a Greek invocation to an otherwise unidentified ‘lofty-throned’ Creator God, asking to provide health and salvation for its wearer and to check every evil and malevolent demonic force. On its two other surfaces there is preserved a series of seemingly ‘magic’ syllables that, upon closer inspection, contain, inter alia, hermeneutical glosses in Greek of a number of transcribed, foreign words from other languages, mostly Hebrew/Aramaic, but also others, including possibly Sanskrit (called 'Indian'). The text also shows evidence of imbedded scribal glosses, as well as references to Egyptian deities, especially Min, along with a handful of new angel-names.

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