Like other primitive races the peoples of Chaldea scarcely discriminated at all between religion and magic
- Date of account
- Ancient traditions presented in a work published 1916
- Source
- Myths & Legends of Babylonia & Assyria
- Reference
- Myths & Legends of Babylonia & Assyria · selected passage 56
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English synthesis of Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian material
- Translation
- Lewis Spence, with cited translations and retellings
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
Like other primitive races the peoples of Chaldea scarcely discriminated at all between religion and magic
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
Source passage
Source text · mention onlyLike other primitive races the peoples of Chaldea scarcely discriminated at all between religion and magic. One difference between the priest and the sorcerer was that the one employed magic for religious purposes whilst the other used it for his own ends. The literature of Chaldea--especially its religious literature--teems with references to magic, and in its spells and incantations we see the prototypes of those employed by the magicians of mediæval Europe. Indeed so closely do some of the Assyrian incantations and magical practices resemble those of the European sorcerers of the Middle Ages and of primitive peoples of the present day that it is difficult to convince oneself that they are of independent origin.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyLattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.
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