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Ancient Egyptian Medical Texts

Medicine in ancient Egypt was understood as a combination of practical technique and magical incantation and ritual. Although physical injury was usually addressed pragmatically through bandages, splints, and salves, even the broken bones and surgical procedures described in the medical texts were thought to have been made more effective through magic spells.

These spells were recorded in the medical texts of the time, written on papyrus scrolls, and consulted by physicians when needed. In the present day, most people would balk at the idea of visiting a doctor and having incantations muttered over them while they were rubbed with oil and fumigated with incense as amulets and charms were swung over their bodies, but to the ancient Egyptians, this was all simply a routine aspect of the medical practice. As the Ebers Papyrus, one of the medical texts of its day, states, "Magic is effective together with medicine. Medicine is effective together with magic."

Magic & Medicine

The Egyptian god of magic was also their god of medicine, Heka, who carried a staff entwined with two serpents (no doubt taken from the Sumerian god Ninazu, son of the goddess of health and healing, Gula). This symbol later traveled to Greece where it became the caduceus scepter of the healing god Asclepius and later associated with the "father of medicine," Hippocrates. The caduceus is recognized today as the symbol of the medical profession around the world. Magical practice and incantations invoked the power of the gods to accomplish one's goals, whether in medicine in in any other area of one's life. In medical practice, the spells, hymns, and incantations drew the gods near to the healer and focused their energies on the patient. Heka was the name of the god and also the practice of magic. According to Egyptologist Margaret Bunson:

Three basic elements were always involved in the practice of heka: the spell, the ritual, and the magician. Spells were traditional but also changed with the times and contained words which were viewed as powerful weapons in the hands of the learned. (154)

Doctors were well versed in magic and how it should be used most effectively. The doctor was the magician who knew the spells and the rituals which would unlock their power. When a doctor was called to a patient, he or she was expected to be able to cure the ailment because the gods would arrive once the proper spells were incanted along with the precise rituals. The triad of a doctor, spell, and ritual was considered as reliable by the ancient Egyptians as any medical procedure in the present day.