The realm of magical texts displays a very high level of continuity (Ritner 1995; Quack 1998; general discussion in Ritner 1997; texts in translation in Quack 2008b). Snake spells first attested in the Pyramid Texts were still in active use, and the majority of objects inscribed with the so-called Spell A and B of the Horus stelae, which were standard temple spells, derive from the Late and Graeco-Roman Periods. It is evident from monuments that the extant manuscripts preserve only a fraction of the texts in circulation.
Beneficial magic is well attested throughout the Late and Graeco-Roman Periods. The material may be divided into texts used in relation to the temples and cult (Quack 2002c) and those intended for private individuals, but the division is not always clear. An example is afforded by the Manual on the Pantheistic Bes which is preserved in one copy from the ‘‘Brooklyn Library’’ (c. sixth century bc; Sauneron 1970) and one or two others from the Tebtunis temple library (Quack 2006b; Ryholt i. p.f), all written in Hieratic. These texts were originally intended for the magical protection of the priests who carried out the cult on behalf of the king but were later also used for private individuals, with the seven-headed Bes protecting men and the nine-headed Bes women and children. The manual provides instructions for the creation of magical papyri amulets with the figure of Bes, and an actual example of such an amulet is preserved (cf. Pinch 1994: fig. 17). The nine-headed Bes is also well attested in bronze figures, small amulets, and on gem-stones. By the same token a short protective spell attested in several amuletic papyri for children from the Saite period was also used in the mammisi of Graeco-Roman temples (Fischer-Elfert 1995; Burkard 2006).
Magical texts intended for the influence and control of the health or feelings of others as well as divinatory magic are, by contrast, quite rare. Harmful magic seems always to have been very restricted, with the notable exception of the official execration rituals performed by the state itself (Quack 1998: 84), and for the Roman Period - whence most of the literary texts derive - official Roman hostility towards Egyptian magic may also have been an important factor (Ritner 1995: 3335, 3355-6). The main corpus from the Graeco-Roman Period is preserved in a cache of papyri discovered in the early nineteenth century, perhaps at Thebes, the so-called Theban Magical Library (late second-third century ad; translations Betz 1992; material and background Dieleman 2005: 11-21). It seems to have contained at least a dozen magical papyri, as well as handbooks on alchemy. The majority of the manuscripts are written entirely in Greek, but a few mix Egyptian and Greek. The latter manuscripts employ a total of no less than seven writing systems - Greek, Demotic, alphabetic Demotic, Hieratic, Old Coptic, Cipher, and Charakteres (magical letters) - and it has been argued that this was a deliberate strategy to restrict access to their contents (Dieleman 2006). The texts preserve randomly arranged spells concerning divine revelation through lamps, bowls, mediums and dreams, and other types of magical divination; spells designed to control the mind and health of others; and spells of healing.
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