Magic and Byzantine Art

Abstract The term magic has been long understood as problematic. Studies of Byzantine magic have rapidly developed over the past several decades, and have come to suggest various ways of understanding the term. Two Early Byzantine amulets, serving as case studies, display conventional linguistic structures, including persuasive analogy, speech-acts, and show-acts. These linguistic structures and ways of organizing information operate equally in religious, medical, and philosophical examples. Accordingly, art and texts of ritual power exemplify intersecting communities of thought and are useful for interpreting various types of social practices. Magic studies are interdisciplinary, and as such they open new directions for the history of Byzantine art, Byzantine religion, Byzantine mentalities, Byzantine women, Byzantine Jews, and even a history of the Byzantine “individual.”