PAGANS AND GNOSTICSinstilled in her a desire for men and defiled her with menstruation by
his kiss so that she would defile women who in turn would defile men
and divert them from good works.^29 Satan appeared to Christians in
female form.^30 It is no wonder that women preferred to honor the old
religion through the practice of magic, as the Talmudic cliche of "more
women, more witchcraft" suggests.^31 One of the incantation bowls
describes women making curses in the name of Ishtar and crawling
on their backsides.^32
At one level, women preserved pagan traditions of magic as part of
a system in which they had enjoyed greater religious status. At another
level, changes in the social nature of religious authority made magic
more important for women as a source of status, as a means of exerting
social control, and as a way to secure specific aims. In paganism more
than in other religious traditions, women seem to be more prominent
as sorceresses (and more equal to sorcerers), as the clients of magicians,
and as those who could cure witchcraft.^33 The conflict over authority
and control that was involved may be seen in the Talmudic story about
a woman who successfully cursed Rava.^34 This is paralleled by a story
about how the sister-in-law of the deacon Emmanuel at the village of
Seth Ghurbaq in the early seventh century anointed his body with oil
she had obtained from sorcerers in order to make him desire her.
When "the fire of love for her spread in him like the fire of a blazing
furnace," Rabban Bar 'Idta anointed him with holy oil as an anti-
dote.^35
Magic was thus thwarted by magic. Demons and the curses of their
human allies were turned back by amulets, iron talismans, and coun-
tercharms in the name of more powerful beings that tied their hands
and feet. One of the incantation bowls contains the picture of a demon
with its wrists and ankles bound (see fig. 8).36 The sorcerers themselves
wrote the countercharms on the incantation bowls to avert real or
potential harm to their clients, who then imprisoned the demons by
- Zaehner, Dawn and Twilight, p. 233. Zaehner (pp. 227, 230-31) also argues that
Az, the demon of greed, was considered to be female by Magians because Manichaeans
called her the mother of demons.
30 Hoffmann, Persischer Miirtyrer, p. 76. This may have been of Magian origin.
31 Rodkinson, Talmud, IX, "Aboth," 60.
32 Yamauchi, Incantation Texts, pp. 165, 169.
33 Bishop, Videvdiid, p. 209; Rodkinson, Talmud, XVI, "Sanhedrin," 320-21.
34 Rodkinson, Talmud, XIV, "Baba Bathra," 345.
35 Budge, Rabban Hormizd, I, 174-76; 11, 265-67.
36 Gordon, "Magical Bowls," pp. 320, 326; Montgomery, Incantation Texts, pp.
121-22.