Christopher A. Faraone is Frank Curtis Springer & Gertrude Melcher Springer Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics at the University of ChicagoDirk Obbink is University Lecturer in Papyrology and Greek Literature and Tutorial Fellow in Greek, Christ Church College, University of Oxford

• PREFACE ; LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ; INTRODUCTION ; GREEK TEXT AND TRANSLATION ; PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS ; 1. The Getty Hexameters: Date, Author, Place of Composition ; 2. The Language of the Hexameter Verses from Selinous Variants and Archetypes ; 3. Spoken and Written Boasts in the Getty Hexameters ; 4. The Ephesia grammata: Genesis of a Magical Formula ; 5. The Ephesia grammata: Logos Orphaikos or Apolline Alexima Pharmakaa ; 6. Magical Verses on a Lead Tablet: Amulet or Anthologya ; 7. Myth and the Getty Hexameters ; 8. The Immortal Words of Paean ; 9. Poetry and the Mysteries ; APPENDIX: THE LEAD TABLET FROM PHALASARNA ; BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDICES

a stimulating discussion of a range of possible interpretations of the text ... [an] indispensable critical adjunct to the editio princeps.