How to pronounce the Voces magicae in ritual
Their transmission by angels, and the hard evidence
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This article was inspired by a request for assistance with Greek pronunciation from Frater RC and fruitful discussions with Dr Robin Douglas and Angelo Nasios. It is also partly inspired by a couple of American Classics scholars engaged with translating the Greek Magical Papyri who made unjust accusations regarding my motivation when they had also requested my assistance, and I had pointed out that there is no justification for the ongoing misuse of a living language and misrepresentation of its culture. I am grateful to the Biblical scholars in particular who have substantiated this argument beyond question.
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I freely admit to being a long-time skeptic when it comes to modern practices based on the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) and ritual performance of magical calls as found in some esoteric ceremonial orders, especially when it comes to use of vocalisations such as these:
The reason for my skepticism is neither, as some may assume, scholarly bias, nor my perennial displeasure at the disrespect and belittlement of modern Greek.
It begins with the convoluted discussions of what is meant by instructions such as the following regarding pronunciation:
the “A” with an open mouth, undulating like a wave; [A, α]
the “O” succinctly, as a breathed threat. [O, ο]
the “IAÔ” to earth, to air, and to heaven. [ΙAΩ, ιαω]
the “Ê” like a baboon; [Η, η]
the “O” in the same way as above; [O, ο]
the “E” with enjoyment, aspirating it, [Ε, ε]
the “Y” like a shepherd, drawing out the pronunciation. [Υ, υ]PGM V. 24 – 30
Such descriptions have sparked any number of online debates on whether to pronounce the vowels this way or that, what a shrieking baboon might sound like, and whether the indication for ‘Y’ should echo panpipes or a sheepdog howl. I have seen some quite preposterous suggestions and attempts to “divine” the correct pronunciation that go to great lengths to ignore the actual, living, spoken Greek language of today, with various arguments attached.
If we explore the actual language as it has been spoken, sung, and evolved since late antiquity, we might come far closer to something resembling the “original” pronunciation and use of such incantations, hidden in plain sight.
A key point to bear in mind is that we are not debating the pronunciation of Classical Attic Greek (the version arbitrarily applied by some scholars to represent all of Greek speech in antiquity, largely regardless of region and period), but of Hellenistic Koine in Egypt and Asia Minor: two forms of pronunciation as disparate as those of (modern) Glasgow vs. New York, to provide but one analogy.
While there is clear historical evidence for the prosodic nature of Attic Greek, it is as bizarre to propose the Erasmian reconstruction of this particular variant as the only authentic pronunciation across Greek-speaking regions and periods, as it is to propose that all historical English should henceforth be spoken in a reconstructed version of Chaucerian or Shakespearean English (prior to the Great Vowel Shift):
And whereas Greek pronunciation has certainly changed since the time of Plato, there is tangible evidence that beyond regional dialect variations and standardisation (in the vein of English Received Pronunciation) during the 20th century; a practice found across many modern nations, it has not changed essentially since the time of Alexander.
Nor has it entirely lost its prosodic nature, as can easily be heard in Cretan, Cycladean, and Ionian dialects, still spoken to this day (I speak the latter in certain circumstances, the same way a British person from Newcastle might speak Geordie with friends, but attempt something closer to RP if presenting the news).
Warning for Greek-speakers: there is some quite salty language used in this clip, but it’s the only one I could find of the Corfu dialect that’s authentic rather than staged. For non-Greek speakers, listen to the rhythm and lilt.
Cretan dialect spoken in the Greek village of Hamidie in Syria, created by the forced expulsion of Cretans by Sultan Abdul Hamit in the 19th century. Their descendants still live there and still speak with a distinctive Cretan dialect.
Since the PGM date from well after the time of Alexander, and their many variants span seven centuries of potential composition and usage, “Modern” (more correctly, “Historical”) Greek provides a far more accurate guide to the Greek phonetic spelling of the early centuries CE, than does any attempt to rationalise use of the Erasmian system or otherwise, as is now widely accepted among Biblical scholars, who study the use of Greek from precisely this period (see this video and the footnote).1
Aside from lengthy tomes with difficult phonetic notation, we have concrete evidence for the pronunciation and enunciation of sacred vowels in the one place that practitioners may prefer not to look, but which nevertheless provides a valuable repository.
Every Greek has grown up with these sounds echoing as a soundtrack to the ritual year.
Have a listen before reading further, and note the vowels and how they are articulated. The markings seen below are Byzantine musical notation, known as nevmata. The word is pronounced NEV-mata and not “neumata” because by the Byzantine period the diphthong “eu” had already acquired its “ev-ef” sound):
The association between Greek vowels, the celestial bodies, and the deities they represent is long-established, so too is the Pythagorean basis for these connections.2
Less well understood in the English-speaking world are the connections between Pythagorean musical theory, the nomina barbara of the PGM and related texts, and Greek Orthodox hymnal chanting.
Voces Magicae with their attendant gestures and correspondences are not only found in mysterious papyri; they are embedded in the Orthodox liturgy too; for their source is one and the same: hieratic practices born of Graeco-Hebrew-Egyptian syncretism in late antiquity.
Known as monodic or monophonic (with a single line of melody), Byzantine music rests on a system derived directly from Pythagorean theory and a system of harmonics (αρμονικαί) inherited from Ancient Greek music.3
Even in times of great upheaval and religious change a civilization does not simply vanish, especially not its cultural accoutrements such as art and music. These two elements (theory and notation in the case of music) comprise valuable material evidence of precisely what sacred vowels should sound like.
Music and metaphysics
As early as the 5th-4th century BCE, Greeks had elaborated what is known as the Greater Perfect System (σύστημα τέλειον) of music; a system of harmonics and intervals based on Pythagorean mathematics, that give us the octaves and notes that evolved in Western music. The Greater Perfect System corresponded to colour, geometry, and the planets, and these correspondences later came to be reflected in the magical use of voice and harmonics, on which more below.
It was later elaborated and subdivided by Aristoxenos into what are known as octave species, to reflect regional differences in how music was played in different regions, giving rise to the various modes (Lydian, Phrygian, Dorian, etc), named for the regions where they predominated. What distinguishes these are the base pitch (the note from which counting the octave starts), and the intervals between the notes.
