this: the right one, write on the membrane of a black sheep with myrrh-ink, and binding it with sinews of the same animal, tie it on; the left, on the membrane of a white sheep, and use it the same way. The left, of 'prosthymēri,' is most complete, and has the memorandum:

The last working is a matched pair, and it is built entirely out of oppositions held in balance: right and left, black sheep and white, tied to the two sides of the body. Even the writing materials are paired — black-sheep skin in black myrrh-ink, white-sheep skin for the other. This is the old logic of the amulet: the body is protected on both flanks, dark and light, the world's dualities bound to you and thereby mastered. And the binding is total in its economy — the charm on the black membrane is tied with sinews of that same black animal, nothing foreign admitted; the beast supplies its own thread. The left is singled out as plēréstaton, 'most complete,' and named for a vox, 'prosthymēri' — a cousin of the 'prosymēri' spoken to the right side far back at the vision. The rite's own protective names bracket the body left and right, first to last. And now the manual does the thing that makes this ending unique in all the magical papyri: it says the left amulet 'has the hypómnēma,' the 'memorandum' — and what follows is not more barbarous names but four verses of Homer. The most sacred writing on the most complete amulet is the Iliad.