r/Greco_Roman_esoterica

Terms:

• Nekuomanteion = Oracle of the Dead
• psuchomanteia, “rites for divination from souls,”
• Psuchagōgos = evocator of souls = those who helped restless ghosts by locating their body and then consulted them on why they’re restless. Also an epithet of Hermes. Itinerant diviners and magicians and were prominent in pythagorean circles in southern italy. Deemed as charlatans by Plato. 
• Goetes = sorcerers whose powers are connected to the dead. Possibly originally “ shamanic” in nature.  Oriignally their power was thought to derive from evocation of spirits
• “Shamans” = send their souls outside of themselves, they perform these rites in underground chambers of wisdom, and have an ability to prophecy.  Linked to the Pythagorean tradition.

 

First literary reference  = The Odyssey. We can trace the literature from classical Greece to the fall of Rome.  However, the only  direct “documentary” evidence for necromancy is the PGM and is influenced by the Egyptian understandings. 

Necromancers were typically male Greeks, but the literati placed their origins in Egypt and Near East. Pythagoras reputedly learned mysticism in Egypt and Babylon. The Persian magi are associated with necromancy. In literature, women become associated with the art and are usually portrayed as wicked or evil.  Necromancy was always considered odd, and the Platonists in particular condemned it. Romans in particular feared necromancy and, not by coincidence, most of the depraved emperors were said to use it.

Necromancy is similar to practices Greeks used to placate the dead in their tombs.  Ghosts hovered around their tombs.  Tombs of course were used for curse tablets. Pythagoreans particularly connected with tomb necromancy.  Not greatly dissimilar from katabasis (descent into the underworld as used in the Mysteries) as the initiate is confronted with ghosts and terrors. 

Battlefields with their recently dead are also a place for necromancy. Can also perform necromancy in dark woods and marshes (naturally dark places). Oracles of the dead were also located in caves or lakeside.  Curse tablets were often deposited here as well. 

Hades, Persephone, Hermes and Hecate-Trivia were associated with necromancy. The Pythagorean “shamans” were associated with Apollon. However, in art, at least one of these “shamans” has a thyrsus and thus is linked to Dionysus. The PGM because of its Egyptian influence has quite a few deities associated, including sun and moon. 

The basic rite of evocation is not, in and of itself, magical and closely resembles the rites of the dead performed at tombs.  One constructs a pit and a fire: the pit is for blood and wine libations for the spirits of the dead, the fire is for a holocaust offering for the deities of the underworld.  What makes it magical are extra steps and understandings 

• Purification: several ways for the necromancer to achieve purity, which becomes a rite in itself and sometimes involve sacrifice of animals
• Timing: usually done at night, although could be performed in naturally dark places like thick woods and caves. Darkness is what was essential. Often done at night off the full moon. 
• Circumambulation: could be practiced around the pit and fire. 
• Offerings: the aforementioned pit and fire.  Blood and wine were libations; black sheep were usually the animal offerings. 
• Utterances, chants, prayers, magic words. 
• Stones and dolls. Pliny makes mention of a “holding stone” used to hold onto ghosts once summoned.  Probably the closest thing in today's terms would be a crystal?  The use of dolls and poppets were also known.
• Dress:  dress in black
• Incubation: it is thought that after all these steps were performed, the necromancer would go asleep (or trance or lucid dreaming?).  Sleep, dreams, death, and night are all connected; the soul is detached from its body. The ghost would speak to the necromancer in their dreams.

Divination: ghosts were asked to divine through lamps and bowls.  Boys were used as mediums for it was thought their innocent souls were better for such things. This gave rise to the idea that boys were sacrificed in such rites. 

The ghosts most likely to be evoked were those that had died before their time, either violently or otherwise. These ghosts would have been confused or angry and wanting to talk to someone.  Also, if they were not buried properly, they would want to reach out for someone to find their bodies and bury them; this was actually one of the chief duties of the necromancer. 

Why consult ghosts?  Ghosts see the past clearly (they were thought to chat with each other so all the ghosts have knowledge of what collectively happened through humanity). A ghost attached to a tomb sees everything that happens around its tomb.  And Pythagoras and Platonists believe a soul detached from its body and earthly concerns has a special wisdom.  For all this, consulting ghosts about the future is not necessarily the main point; they are more likely to know the past and present. 

Keep in mind however the prevailing afterlife view was that once the shades of the departed reached Hades, they drank the waters of Forgetfulness. So how did they remember their past lives?  That goes back to the previous discussion the ghosts most likely to be consulted were those that had died untimely and/or not been properly buried.  Those ghosts would not yet have reached the underworld. 

Finally, the necromancer is someone who inveigles the line between life and death.  The ghosts are partially animated to life by the evocation and particularly by drinking the blood offering; the necromancer himself “dies” in some sense by descending into darkness and especially by practicing incubation, for dreams are a boundary between the waking world and the world of the dead.  

Edit: heavily based on _Greek and Roman Necromancy_ by Daniel Ogden