Ashmolean Parchment AN 1981.940
The manuscript designated Ashmolean Parchment AN 1981.940 contains a love spell in Coptic regarding male homosexuality. 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 Lawyer named Fanous. It dates back to 6th or 7th century, and measures 10.5 cm wide and 8 cm high. The creases in the manuscript show that it was originally folded to 2.5 × 1.3 cm. 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, the son of Nooe, to compel the love of another man Phello, 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: