Egypt has always been a nerve-wracking place for people with a negligible love of reptiles. Scorpions, snakes, crocodiles ... all kinds of hellish creatures dwell in the Nile, on its banks and even in the desert. While crocodiles are known from Egyptian fairy tales to devour lovers of unfaithful wives (we will report on this fairy tale in the podcast), the relationship of the ancient Egyptians to snakes was ambivalent. The king wears the Uraeus snake on his forehead, in temples we encounter Uraeus friezes, the Mehen snake surrounds Re in his sun barge and protects him ... on the other hand, the snake Apophis is the worst adversary of the sun god and consequently has to be defeated at night and be dismembered. Also, hieroglyphs of snakes were occasionally crossed out in texts, so that their image could not cause damage. It was similar with scorpions, whose sting could be as deadly as the bite of a snake.
While we nowadays have the option of combating the toxic effects with antisera and treat symptoms such as circulatory problems, blood clotting disorders or paralysis in a targeted manner, the ancient Egyptian doctor had hardly any options for snakebites and scorpion stings. The pBerlin 3038 knows three recipes for fumigations against scorpion stings, and there is also the instruction to grind the "scorpion herb" in beer or wine and ingest it. Unfortunately, it is completely unclear which plant the "scorpion herb" could mean.
Of course, the Egyptians knew what to do. As already mentioned, in Egyptian medicine the boundaries to magic are sometimes blurred, and after all, divine help can never hurt. So it happens that from the 2nd half of the New Kingdom (around 1300 BC) so-called "Horus stelae" were made. The largest surviving specimen of these Horus stelae is the Metternich Stela.
Metternich Stela, Metropolitan Museum, New York
Inv.Nr. 50.85
about 350 BCE, reign of Nektanebo II.
hight: 83,5 cm
width: 33,5 cm
In the central field of the stela we see the god Horus as a child, who stands on crocodiles and holds lions, snakes and scorpions in his hands. He is accompanied by the god Thoth, who is also responsible for the healing arts, and his mother Isis, "the one great of magic". The texts on the front and back of the stela contain spells for healing poisonous stings and bites, tales of how Thoth and Isis healed Horus themselves from poison, and a narration of how Isis healed a woman's child after a scorpion sting.
Her heart became sad, since it was not known whether he would live. When she went around her town wailing in grief, there was no one who came at her voice. My heart became sad for the little one because of her, enough to give life to the innocent one. I called to her, saying: "Come to me! Look, my mouth has life. I am a knowledgeable daughter of her town, who can repel the the scurrying serpent with her utterance, for my father has taught me to know. [...] Oh, may the child live and the poison die: Then Horus will become healthy for his mother Isis, then everyone who is suffering will become healthy as well."
So the Egyptians trusted that Isis and Thoth, on the basis of these mythological precedents, could help them too when they were in such a predicament. But how could the Horus stelae develop their effect?
We know of this and other stelae that they were set up in temples and that healing therefore also took place there. Not only were the incantations repeated which Isis and Thoth recited to protect the child Horus; at the same time, water was poured over the Horus stelae, which was then caught in the lower part of the stela and given to the patient as a healing potion. The stela itself produced the remedy through the magical power inherent in the images and hieroglyphic texts.
Not only the Egyptians were apparently convinced of the power of Horus when it came to the healing of scorpion stings: From the 5th century CE, a Greek papyrus survived that contains a protection spell against scorpions and snakebites and was supposed to protect a house and its inhabitants. The spell of the obviously Christian family is directed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Christ, God ... and Horus.
Literature
- James P. Allen, The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, New York, 2005.
- Karl Preisendanz, Papyri graecae magicae, Band II, Leipzig, 1931 (dort pp. 190-191, P3).
Comments