Abstract: This chapter surveys the sources for impotence magic in the ancient world. It discusses a number of classical writers who mentioned impotence magic in their literary works, including Ovid and Petronius. It also compares these writers with surviving curse tablets and with mentions of impotence magic in ancient medicine and science, particularly in the works of Pliny the Elder, Marcellus Empiricus of Bordeaux, Sextus Placitus, and the anonymous Kyranides. The chapter argues that ancient writers rarely distinguished impotence magic from other forms of love magic, because unlike in the Middle Ages, impotence was not a ground for annulling a marriage which had to be discussed in detail. However, like medieval authors, ancient writers took some of their information about impotence magic from popular culture rather than from written sources.

Keywords: curse tablets, Kyranides, Marcellus Empiricus, medicine, Ovid, Petronius, Pliny the Elder, Sextus Placitus,