Ashmolean Parchment AN 1981.940
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox document
| document_name = Ashmolean Parchment
AN 1981.940
| image = Ashmolean Parchment AN 1981.940.jpg
| image_size = 260px
| date_created = 6th or 7th century
| location_of_document = Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford, England
| writer = Apapolo
| media_type = Vellum
| subject = Love spell
| purpose = Conjuring romantic love and sexual passion
}}
The manuscript designated Ashmolean Parchment AN 1981.940 contains a love spell in Coptic (written in a Hermopolitan dialect) regarding male homosexuality.{{cite web |url=https://papyrus-stories.com/2021/06/15/ancient-same-sex-love-spells/ |title=Ancient Same Sex Love Spells |last=Cromwell |first=Jennifer |date=15 June 2021 |website=papyrus-stories.com |access-date=9 April 2022}} It is held and preserved at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.
Description
This vellum leaf was obtained by the British Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith from an Egyptian {{lang|fr|avocat}} named Fanous.{{cite journal |last1=Smither |first1=Paul C. |date=1939 |title=A Coptic Love-Charm |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3854650 |journal=Journal of Egyptian Archaeology |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=173–174 |doi=10.2307/3854650 |jstor=3854650 |access-date=9 April 2022|url-access=subscription }} It dates back to 6th or 7th century, and measures 10.5 cm wide and 8 cm high.{{cite web |url=https://www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/index.php/manuscript/kyp-m5/ |title='KYP M5', Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts and Objects |editor-last1=Dosoo |editor-first1=Korshi |editor-last2=Love |editor-first2=Edward O. D. |editor-last3=Preininger |editor-first3=Markéta |date= |website=coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de |access-date=9 April 2022}} The creases in the manuscript show that it was originally folded to 2.5 × 1.3 cm.{{cite web |url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/copticspell.asp |title=Coptic Spell: Spell for a Man to Obtain a Male Lover (Egypt, perhaps 6th century) |author= |date= |website=sourcebooks.fordham.edu |access-date=9 April 2022}} Its provenance is unknown, but the dialect suggests somewhere in middle Egypt, perhaps Hermopolis and its surrounding areas.
The text is an incantation by a man named Apapolo (Papapōlō), the son of Nooe (Noah), to compel the love of another man Phello (Phlo), the son of Maure. Phello will be restless until he finds Apapolo and satisfies the latter's desire. The text provides the only example in Coptic language of a love spell between men.
The English translation from the Kyprianos Database of Ancient Ritual Texts and Objects of the University of Würzburg:
{{Cquote|[magical words: Celtatalbabal. Karašneife Nnas Kneife, by the power of Iao Sabaoth! Rous Rous Rous Rous Rous Rous Rous Rous]
I adjure you by your powers and your phylacteries and the places upon which you dwell and your names that in the way that I will take you and place you at the door and the path of Phlo the son of Maure, you will take his heart, his mind (?), you will master his whole body! If he stands you will not let him stand, if he sits you will not let him sit, if he sleeps you will not let him sleep! He will seek after me from village to village, from city to city, from field to field, from land to land, until he comes to me and he subjects himself beneath my feet – me, Apapolo, the son of Nooe – his hands filled with all good things, until I fulfil with him the desire of my heart and the request of my soul in a good desire and an unbreakable affection, now, now, quickly, quickly, do my work!}}