Scholars since the nineteenth century have debated whether the gold leaves are “amulets.” This and other magical labels have distorted discussion among scholars about the materiality of the tablets. Instead, I approach the gold leaves through the analytical approach of Material Religion, which examines religious practices primarily in terms of their material expressions rather than their supposed belief content. Viewed through this lens, the tablets and their texts find three useful comparisons: first, the genre of hexameter incantations (epoidai), which points to analogies in performance practice between medicine and private mysteries; second, the inscribed Ephesia Grammata, which articulate a logic of materialization comparable to that of the gold leaves; and third, inscribed lead curses, which supply a material infrastructure for communication with the powers of the underworld. The material approach suggests that the materiality of the tablets constituted an aspect of their poetic performance.