Therapies, Pseudo-Science And Bizarre Remedies Of Egyptian Medicine
Everything known about ancient Egyptian medicine comes from four different types of sources: works of art, the writings of ancient historians, palaeopathology and papyri. Medical papyri can be regarded almost as recipe books, detailing individual cases and their treatment and covers various topics. One can find, among other things, gynecological, ophthalmological and veterinary prescriptions; prescriptions for the treatment of burns, wounds, fractures; remedies for the treatment of various animal bites; beauty recipes; and, of no less importance, magical formulas.
An invocation to I-em-hetep, the Egyptian deity of medicine by Ernest Board. (Wellcome Images/ CC BY-SA 4.0)
Fusion Of Rational Practice And Magic
The author of an Egyptian medical treatise dating back to the time of Ramses I, the first pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, who boasted of having been a pupil of the schools of Sais and Heliopolis, wrote that no remedy would be of any value without spells, and also that, on the other hand, no magic ritual would be effective unless accompanied by an appropriate therapy. Some scholars have observed that the fusion in medical texts, of magic formulas and recipes confirmed in their power by magic, is indicative of the ambiguity of the borders between medicine and magic. As the Egyptologist Ann Rosalie David has pointed out, diseases were divided into two classes: if the cause of the ailment was obvious, rational methods could be used to alleviate it; if not, magic was introduced to try to cure it. It should be noted that many prescriptions had a very ancient origin, and some were believed to be of divine origin.
