This book derives from a doctoral dissertation, the fruit of research carried out at the University of Regensburg, and presents an original and insightful examination of the depictions of magic in the works of Theocritus, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Seneca and Lucan. R. sets out to ascertain the extent to which these literary representations reflect the habits of real practitioners of magic, as attested in sources such as the Defixionum Tabellae and the Greek Magical Papyri in particular. The point is not comprehensively addressed in the commentaries on these works, and is only touched upon in D. Ogden, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds (2002), who does not aim to offer an examination as extensive as that undertaken here. R.’s study is, therefore, a very welcome contribution to this topic, and it casts substantial light on the changing representation of female practitioners of magic in Hellenistic and Imperial literature.

The volume is divided into four main chapters of different length: the first two outline R.’s methodology and objective, i.e. to create a bridge between literary and real sources on magic, and show how T. Hopfner's four-fold partition of the magical ceremony (i.e. ἐπίϑυμα, λόγоϛ, πρᾶξιϛ, φυλακτήριоν) does not rigidly apply to all cases, given the presence of several ritual variants in the PGM. Chapter 3 occupies most of the book and is divided into six sub-chapters devoted to passages from the above-mentioned poets. Each sub-chapter is divided into various sections, including a general introduction, an overview of the relevant scholarship, the analysis of the text and its connections with real magic, and a final summary. R. does not shrink from giving a comprehensive examination of the passages, contextualising each within their literary and socio-cultural dimensions. Not even matters of style or textual criticism are overlooked, and all texts are accompanied by a German translation.

The first source under scrutiny is Theocritus’ Second Idyll, a monologue in which a young lady called Simaetha performs love magic in order to attract her lover Delphis again. As R. observes, a careful comparison between the idyll and the PGM reveals that Theocritus’ account follows real magical practices very closely. Simaetha's magic is bound to be unsuccessful since it exaggerates the customary requirements of rituals of attraction. Such a dramatic exaggeration demonstrates, nonetheless, Theocritus’ acquaintance with magical ceremonies as attested in the PGM. R. also assesses the possible similarities between the Second Idyll and a fragment from the mimographer Sophron (fr. 4 Kassel–Austin), suggesting these are too vague to prove any direct connection.

The second text examined is Virgil's Eighth Eclogue, which is clearly influenced by Theocritus’ poem. R. observes that Virgil refashions Theocritus’ idyll in an original way by introducing some noteworthy differences: the action does not take place at night, the protagonist seems to be an older woman than Theocritus’ Simaetha, and the outcome of her ritual appears to be successful. Furthermore, the sympathetic analogies between the lover Daphnis and clay and wax, and between Daphnis and the heifer, which are absent in Theocritus, point to Virgil's awareness of the principles of magic, on which he draws to outshine Theocritus.

R. then examines the figure of Horace's Canidia as represented in Epod. 5 and Sat. 1.8. Attention is also paid to Sagana, Veia and Folia, the other witches accompanying Canidia, and to her identification with a woman from Naples by the name of Gratidia according to Porphyrio's commentary (Hor. Epod. 3.7−8), an identification that R. does not discard unlike M.T. Paule, Canidia, Rome's First Witch (2017), pp. 2–6. R.’s analysis of Canidia's magic reveals that Horace does not describe a precise magical ceremony, but, while single details of the rituals performed by the witches are generally in line with the information from the PGM, Canidia's magic is deliberately presented as obscure and without a logical order. R. concludes that Horace's main goal is not to give a precise account but, rather, to satirise magic and related superstitious beliefs by presenting Canidia and her rituals as nonsensical and, thus, ineffective.

The following two sub-chapters cover the descriptions of the archetypal witch Medea and her magic in Ovid's Metamorphoses and in Seneca's homonymous drama, respectively. R. discusses Ovid's changing portrait of Medea in Colchis, Iolcus and Athens, and especially the elaborate account of the magical rejuvenation of Aeson. As with her ability to pull down the moon, this kind of magic derives from earlier literary and mythical tropes, and has no parallel in the PGM. Yet, R. observes that features of the ceremony and the catalogues of herbs and magical ingredients reflect Ovid's awareness of the principles of magic. As R. proposes, in Seneca's tragedy Medea's figure and her magic are constructed within a poetic dimension. There are a few connections with the ceremonies attested by real magical texts, as suggested by the presence of utterances that recall the λόγοι of the PGM, but they are overshadowed by the magnification of Medea's supernatural skills, which serves the purpose of dramatising Seneca's account.

Lastly, R. looks into the dramatic figure of the Thessalian witch Erictho in Lucan's Bellum Civile. He argues that her necromantic ritual as well as her characterisation are beyond the conventions of magic and cross evidently into the realm of fiction and horror. The necromantic ritual is embedded within a large dramatic sequence as in the passages from Horace, Ovid and Seneca, which Lucan outdoes through the ghoulish and dehumanised portrait of Erictho.

In Chapter 4 R. elaborates on his previous results and notes the increasing distancing from the realistic representations of magical rituals observed in Theocritus and Virgil, which are replaced by fictional and dramatised depictions in Horace, Ovid and Seneca, culminating with Lucan's Erictho. While the negative characterisation indicates the progressive marginalisation of female practitioners of magic, magic itself becomes a literary product that does not need to relate to real, contemporary practices. It might have been worth underlining the importance of R.’s findings to gaining a better understanding of the nature and the dating of the magical ceremonies preserved in the PGM. The strong parallels with Theocritus suggest that these practices would have been widespread in the third century bc, a conclusion that is independently implied by I. Schaaf, Magie und Ritual bei Apollonios Rhodios (2014), who compares the account of Medea's magic in Apollonius’ Argonautica with the PGM.

The book closes with an extensive bibliography, but a general index would have been helpful to guide the reader through the rich discussion of specific magical tools, beliefs and practices (e.g. iunx/rhombos, hippomanes, pulling down the moon, the recurrence of the number three, the types of incantation etc.). That said, this volume clearly commands respect as an important work of reference. R. deserves commendation for this articulate and stimulating study that will be of great value not only to anyone interested in ancient magic but also to scholars working on any of these authors.