Strach przed magią w greckiej szkole retorycznej epoki Cesarstwa

The article investigates the problem of magic practiced in the community of Greek rhetoric schools in the period of the Roman Empire between the 1st and 6th century AD. References, found in many sources (The Lives of the Sophists by Philostratus, Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius of Caesarea, numerous te􀁛ts by Libanius, letters of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, the life of Saint Severus the Great of Antioch written by Zacharias Rhetor), reveals that teachers of rhetoric, who competed against each other for students, accused each other of using magical practices to attract students to their schools. Those magical practices were supposed to include putting a spell on people with the captivating force of stars, using specially prepared human heads, magical 􀂵dollies’ or probably a special whirling disk called 􀂵iyn􀁛’. Part of the society, in fact, regarded teachers of rhetoric as people who with their eloquent or grandiloquent speeches 􀂵cast magic spell’ on their listeners. Their patron god was Hermes, the god of magic and secret arts. All that made the rhetoric school communities regarded as especially susceptible to all magic practices.