Note 638 — Chapter X · THE SYSTEM OF THE PISTIS SOPHIA AND ITS RELATED TEXTS[459]

It is a curious example of the fossilizing, so to speak, of ancient names in magic that Shakespeare should preserve for us in the Tempest and Macbeth the names of Ariel and Hecate which we find in the Μ. τ. σ. No doubt both were taken by him from mediaeval grimoires which themselves copied directly from the Graeco-Egyptian Magic Papyri mentioned in Chap. III supra. Cf. the use of Greek “names of God” like ischiros (sic!) athanatos, etc. in Reginald Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft, passim.