L’Ostrakon di Neapolis: comparazione con la ricetta di un papiro magico greco

Abstract

The text of an ostrakon found in Sardinia brings comparisons with a recipe for a defixio preserved
in a Greek magical papyrus dated to the IV century C.E. The deity evoked in the ostrakon to serve
the summoner is Marsya, an important figure in the Roman civil religion during at least the later
Roman republican era, but successively almost completely forgotten. The author compares the
text of the papyrus with the one of the ostrakon and speculates on its structure referring to other
defixiones. In the last part, some questions are posited about the identity of Marsya, hypothesizing
its decadence from relevant public cult figure to regional/folkloric survival. The matter is still open
to debate and research.

Keywords: defixiones, black magic, ancient folklore, Sardinia, Marsya.