Two Greek Magical Papyri in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden

I would like to extend my thanks to Dr. M.l Raven, the curator of the Egyptian Department of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, who granted permission to publish the photographs of J 384 and 395 and allowed me to inspect the originals, as weIl as to the museum's photographers, M.J. Bomhof and A. De Kemp, for providing the prints. My gratitude also goes to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for supporting this project, and to the Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften for including this volume in the present series and for a subsidy towards the cost of its publication. Finally I would like to thank R. Merkelbach for his help in connection with this project. Robert W. Daniel INTRODUCTION The papyri J 384 (previously V) and J 395 (previously W) of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden are now usually consulted in K. Preisendanz' standard edition, 2 Papyri Graecae Magicae (Stuttgart 1974 ), and referred to as PGM XII and XIII respective1y. These two large papyri are among the most important magical texts that have survived from late antiquity - especially J 395 with its famous 'Leiden Cosmogony'.