Ashmolean Parchment AN 1981.940

What it is

A single leaf of vellum kept at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, catalogued as AN 1981.940, preserves a rare piece of Egyptian magic: a charm in the Coptic language in which one man asks unseen powers to kindle another man's passion for him. The sheet was made in sixth- or seventh-century Egypt and is tiny, about 10.5 by 8 cm, with creases showing it was folded down to the size of a thumbnail. Its speaker names himself Apapolo, son of Nooe, and names the man he longs for, Phello, son of Maure. Researchers report no other Coptic text of the kind that joins two men.

Where it comes from

The text was written in the sixth or seventh century, when Egypt formed part of the Byzantine world. The clearest clue is linguistic: its Coptic is a Hermopolitan dialect, which points to middle Egypt, perhaps the city of Hermopolis and the country around it. The British Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith obtained the piece from Fanous, an Egyptian lawyer, an avocat, and it has since belonged to the Ashmolean in Oxford.

How it is done

As written, the rite is an adjuration: a form of words that summons spirits and gives them orders. The speaker swears by the spirits' names, their dwelling places, their powers and their protective emblems, called phylacteries, and he calls on the power of Iao Sabaoth. The text opens with strings of what it marks as magical words, including one short call repeated seven times. It then imagines itself placed at Phello's door and on his path, ordering that his heart and body be gripped so that he can neither stand nor sit nor sleep until he tracks Apapolo down and gives him what he asks.

Tools and materials

The writing surface is vellum, that is, fine skin prepared to take ink. The leaf measures roughly 10.5 cm across and 8 cm high, and its creases show that it spent time folded to about 2.5 by 1.3 cm. Its force, as the words present it, lies in language rather than in added materials: spirits are bound by their names and dwelling places, guarded by phylacteries, and pressed into service under the authority of Iao Sabaoth.

What it is for

The declared aim is romantic and sexual: to wake love and passion in one named man. Apapolo asks that Phello grow restless, driven to search village after village, city after city, field after field, until he comes to Apapolo, sets himself at his feet with hands full of good things, and lets the writer carry out his heart's request. The text describes the bond it wants as desire that is good and an attachment that cannot be broken, and it ends by demanding speed, twice over.

Peoples and places

Every feature of the object is Egyptian: the language, the dialect of middle Egypt, and the probable connection with Hermopolis. The sheet reached the antiquities trade through Fanous, a lawyer (an avocat) in Egypt, who left no account of where it had come from. From Griffith the leaf passed to the Ashmolean at Oxford, where it is kept now. Because of its subject it also interests those studying homosexuality in ancient Egypt.

What people believe

The worldview behind the words is one where spirits can be commanded by whoever knows what holds them. The speaker adjures them by their names, their homes, their powers and their phylacteries, small protective charms, and he swears by Iao Sabaoth's power. Writing is treated as active: the charm speaks of being set at the beloved's door and on his road, and of gripping his heart, his mind and his whole body thereafter. Rest is denied him whether he stands, sits or sleeps, until he yields.

How scholars and sceptics see it

Coptic specialists have done much of the reading. Identifying the dialect as Hermopolitan is what grounds the guess that the piece came from middle Egypt, since the sheet surfaced without a recorded provenance. The claim that it stands alone, the sole love charm in Coptic joining one man to another, gives it a place in work on both magic and same-sex love in Egypt. A research project at the University of Würzburg has published a full English rendering, which is how most readers now meet the words.

Compare and confuse

The leaf is read alongside the wider Coptic magical papyri, the spells and spell-books surviving from Egypt in the Coptic tongue. Love magic in Coptic is otherwise attested for men and women, which is what sets this piece apart. It also figures in discussions of homosexuality in ancient Egypt.

Questions people ask about Ashmolean Parchment AN 1981.940

Good reading and sources

• Ashmolean Parchment AN 1981.940 on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data