Monday, June 27, 2016
Religion and Magic
Knut Kleve, "Samson Eitrem (1872-1966)," in Hermae: Scholars and Scholarship in Papyrology, ed. Mario Capasso (Pisa: Giardini Editori e Stampatori, 2007), pp. 187-191 (at 188):
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Eitrem also paid at least lip-service to the view that religion and magic differ fundamentally. Eiliv Skard,9 a former pupil of Eitrem and my teacher of Greek philosophy, showed enthusiastically how the great Festugière,10 invited to Oslo by Eitrem, had demonstrated the difference by just two gestures — folded hands for religion: «Thy will be done»; grasping hands for magic: «Let me have it!»Hat tip: Ian Jackson.
9 Eiliv Skard, 1889-1978, Professor of Ancient History of Ideas, Oslo.
10 A.J. Festugière, O.P., 1898-1982, Directeur d'études at the École pratique des hautes études, Paris.
