Porphyry and Black Magic

Abstract

In the De abstinentia( ii, 41, 5) Porphyry is the first philosopher to give an exact definition of goeteiaor black magicsaying: "All black magic is accomplished through the opposite sort [i.e. evil] daemons. This paper will be presented in two parts: in the first part, there is the description about the difference between Magic - the sacred science of the Persian Magi ( De abstinentia iv, 16, 1) - , and the black magic ( De abstinentia ii, 41, 5); in the second part, using Porphyry's definition of black magic and other philological data, it's shown that Porphyry was not merely a philosopher interested in black magic in a theoretical manner, but also a practicing sorcerer.