The Getty Hexameters: Poetry, Magic, and Mystery in Ancient Selinous

The Getty Hexameters looks in detail at a series of forty-four magical verses inscribed on a recently discovered lead tablet from Sicily in the fifth century BC, which is now in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Divided into two sections, the volume consists of a general introduction to the new inscriptions, together with a critical text and English translation, photographs, and drawings. The second section contains a collection of eleven interpretative essays which treat various aspects of the text, including religious and civic context, date and poetic language, transmission, and connections to ancient magic and ritual practice. The volume is the first complete critical edition of the Greek text to appear in print and contains important scholarship for the field of classics from an acclaimed list of contributors.