Belief in magical practices was apparently widespread in the cultures of the ancient Middle East. Magical power to heal sickness and other acts of white witchcraft or sorcery are ascribed to gods, heroes, and men in the extant literature of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Canaan. There was also a fear of malevolent magic or sorcery, especially in Mesopotamia, and a search for counteraction. According to the biblical record, the ancient Hebrews, as well as their pagan neighbours, were conversant with these practices, fears, and avoidances. It is disputable whether any of the Hebrew terms rendered "witch" or "sorcerer" in various translations refer to witchcraft in the special modern sense. Very often they have to do with mediums and necromancers applying certain techniques of divination. The so-called witch of Endor used by King Saul, according to the story in the First Book of Samuel, is a good example of this; actually the King James Version calls her "a woman that hath a familiar spirit," and the Revised Standard Version, "a medium." On the other hand, a passage in the Book of Ezekiel referring to certain women who, through the use of "magic bands" and veils, control the souls of other persons seems clearly to refer to sorcery. Such women are castigated as vainly going against God and his power. Sorcerers and magicians in general are denounced frequently in the Old Testament as antisocial as well as anti-God, and their offenses are punishable by death. The vehemence and frequency of the denunciations indicate that some such practices were prevalent; the New Testament writers also denounced them as immoral and idolatrous.

In ancient Greece and Rome only magical practices intended to do harm were condemned and punished; beneficent sorcery was approved and even official. It was believed that certain persons could do harm to others in their economic, political, athletic, and amorous endeavours and even cause their death. Such activities were often ascribed to the gods themselves, who, unlike the Judeo-Christian God, were not purely good and were, moreover, subject to the same impulses as human beings (and also to human sorcery). Certain goddesses--e.g., Diana, Selene, or Hecate--were associated with the performance of malevolent magic that took place at night and according to a fixed ritual, with various paraphernalia and spells. A story recounted by Apuleius in The Golden Ass (2nd century), probably reflecting popular belief, centres on the alleged tendency of the witches of Thessaly (a region notorious for its witches) to gnaw off bits of a dead man's face and their power to assume various animal forms to carry out their ghoulish purpose.

Among the Germanic peoples, who spread throughout Europe during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, fear of witches was widespread. Here, too, the gods were sponsors and practitioners of sorcery, as well as subject to its power, while kings practiced and suffered from malevolent magic. Types of witchcraft were assigned to whole social classes or families. As in the Greco-Roman world, such powers were especially attributed to women, and the old-woman witch type that was to become central in later European witch scares was a frequent figure in literature. Similar themes appear in the literature of the ancient Slavic peoples.