The Greek Magical Papyri is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek, which each contain a number of magical spells, formulae, hymns, and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 100s BCE to the 400s CE. The manuscripts came to light through the antiquities trade, from the 1700s onward. One of the best known of these texts is the Mithras Liturgy.
The Egyptian god Set seen on the papyri.
Papyrus is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge. Papyrus can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined side by side and rolled up into a scroll, an early form of a book.
Papyrus (P. BM EA 10591 recto column IX, beginning of lines 13–17)
An official letter on a papyrus of the 3rd century BCE
A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrus
Roman portraiture fresco of a young man with a papyrus scroll, from Herculaneum, 1st century AD