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From domestic apotropaic magic to state religion in the Roman world: ways there and back

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August 1, 2020
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Nuño, A. A. . (2020). From domestic apotropaic magic to state religion in the Roman world: ways there and back . Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis, 47, 113–128. https://ojs.lib.unideb.hu/classica/article/view/8021
Abstract

There are two main methodological approaches in relation to the study of apotropaic magic in the Graeco-Roman world. An historicist one, focused on the formal description of the data and on tracing their possible origins; and a psychologist-functionalist one, which interprets the data as a psychological relief to the anxieties produced by the misfortunes of dailylife. I propose to explore here an aspect of apotropaic magic frequently overlooked: its mutual relation with the religion of the State, which creates a common syntactic framework but also tensions and conflicts.