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Document Details :

Title: A Bilingual Graeco-Aramaic Silver Lamella from Jerusalem
Author(s): KOTANSKY, Roy D. , TOMLIN, Roger S.O.
Journal: Le Muséon
Volume: 134    Issue: 1-2   Date: 2021   
Pages: 13-34
DOI: 10.2143/MUS.134.1.3289396

Abstract :
This paper presents the editio princeps of a bilingual Graeco-Aramaic amulet, or phylaktērion, engraved on a thin rectangular sheet of silver (lamella), in fifteen lines. It was acquired in Jerusalem fifty years ago and is palaeographically datable to the 3rd/4th century CE. The text initially preserves an invocation in Greek to the god ALDABAEIM, 'lord of the head and the temples', to heal Isidorus son of Cyrilla from his throbbing headache. It next summons MENEBRIŌEŌTH, who is appointed over sleep, and a group of additional deities, invoked both as a group and individually. An Aramaic section follows, also addressing Isidorus’ headache, but this time invoking magic names, many of which are abstract nouns transliterated from Greek. A short spell concludes the text with an invocation of IOUĒL, the only angel named on the amulet, to 'save Isidorus from the pain of the temples'.

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