NECROMANCY

necromancy: communication with the

dead, often as a method of divination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=XjOHnge7wK8&list=PLGXPEr72jez0KNdhkW8RFCd
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Odysseus Meets the Ghost, Elpenor, in
the Underworld with Hermes, Attic
red-figure pelike, the Lykaon Painter,
440 BCE, from Athens, Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston
Know Thyself mosaic, 1st c. CE,
Via Appia, Rome
Odysseus descends to the Underworld, late 1st c. BCE,
fresco, Esquiline Hill, Rome, Vatican Museums
Why would someone resort to
necromancy?
To get predictions of the future
Or some other similar knowledge
To perform a curse
Or binding spell
Sometimes due to bribery
To get rid of a pestersome ghost
Most common reason for necromancy
lay a restless ghost
To see a loved one again
Not so common
Ghosts could be joyful or angry
nekromanteion: a specific place of necromancy, often
believed to be physically connected to the underworld
Hercules capturing Cerberus,
mosaic, first half of 3rd c. CE,
Llria (Spain), Archaeological
Museum of Spain
Plan of cave nekromanteion,
Heracleia Pontica, Bithynia,
present day Turkey
Tainaron Cave, Cape Metapa,
Greece
Acheron River, Glyki, Greece
Lake Avernus, Italy
Theater Scene: Two Women Visit
a Witch, Dioskourides of Samos,
mosaic, 150125 BCE, House of
Cicero, Pompeii, National
Archaeological Museum of Naples
How to Go About Necromancy the
Ancient
Be purified
Way
Set out offerings
Dig a pit or two
Sacrifice a black sheep
or bull on a fire
Call up a ghost using
incantations
Make sure you have a
sword
Do a special ritual
involving strange
ingredients for
reanimation Odysseus Consulting the shade of
Threaten it if you need to Tiresias,Tomb
DolonOfferings, Bosanquet
Painter, red-figure
Painter,
calyx-krater, ca. white-ground lekythos,
380 BCE, Cabinet
Flick milk at it
ca. 440Paris
des Mdailles, BCE, National
Archaeological Museum of Athens
lecanomancy: a method of divination
involving a bowl of water or liquid
Whenever you want to inquire about matters, take a bronze
vessel, either a bowl or a saucer, whatever kind you wish. Pour
water: rainwater if you are calling upon heavenly gods, seawater
if gods of the earth, river water if Osiris or Sarapis, spring water
if the dead. Holding the vessel on your knees, pour out green olive
oil, bend over the vessel and speak the prescribed spell. And
address whatever god you want ask about whatever you wish, and
he will reply to you and tell you about anything. And if he has
spoken dismiss him with the spell of dismissal, and you have used
this spell will be amazed.

PGM IV.223243
Other forms of divination
Lecanomancy
Lychnomancy
Catoptromancy
Cephalomancy

Roman oil lamp, 1st c. CE, terracotta

So what were these people
actually doing?
A terrifying Disneyland experience
Odysseus Consulting the shade of
Tiresias, Dolon Painter, red-figure
calyx-krater, ca. 380 BCE, Cabinet
des Mdailles, Paris
Roman Attitudes towards
Necromancy
Very uncomfortable with it
No images
Predictions of death
Outlawed in 357 CE
Associated with murder
Associated with necrophilia
Busts of Hadrian and Antinous, marble, 117
138 CE (Hadrian) 130140 CE (Antinous),
from Rome, British Museum
Caracalla Farnese, marble, 212 CE, from the
baths of Caracalla, National Archaeological
Museum of Naples
Jewish Attitudes towards Necromancy

There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son
or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination,
one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a
sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or
one who calls up the dead.

Deuteronomy 18:1011
Christian Attitudes towards
Necromancy

Raising of Lazarus, wall painting, 3rd c. CE,

Catacomb of the Giordani, Rome
NECROMANCY
Know Thyself mosaic, 1st c. CE,
Via Appia, Rome
Necromancy
Orpheus Oracle cave, Lesbos, Greece
Trophonius Oracle cave,
Lebadeia, Greece
Memento mori, mosaic, 30 BCE
14 CE, Pompeii, National
Archaeological Museum of Naples
Enjoy your life mosaic, 3rd c.
BCE, Antioch, Turkey
Skeleton mosaic, 2nd c. BCE,
House of the Faun, Pompeii,
National Archaeological Museum
of Naples