Ramesside Egypt:Magic

“The distinction between the magical and the religious is one of definition. The word magic is often used simply to label actions, sayings, and ideas that do not seem reasonable from a Western positivist or Christina point of view.”

- Herman Te Velde “Funerary Mythology, p. 29”

Terminology

•Greek: magikē “art” • Persian: magush “to have power”

•Middle Egyptian: hekau/heka Coptic: hik• “smithing the kas (vital essences)”?• A pun?• Intensifying prefix h + ka (vital essence)• Referred to as a god

Magic• Magic was a real and potent force, tangible means of communicating, manipulating

and controlling the gods• Divine origin

• Gods use it• For benefit of humanity

• Used for practical and religious purposes• Magic used for variety of purposes:

• revelation• healing• divination, necromancy• curses• gain skill, money, sex• safe passage through afterlife

• Defence against human and spiritual enemies• wax and clay figures of Seth ritually destroyed

Concern Number in BorghoutsAbdominal diseases 1Vague malign influences affecting several parts of the body

1

Blindness 5Semen of a demon 6Women’s ailments, childbearing ailments

11

Protection of children 2Administration of medicines

40

Protection against dangerous animals

12

Protection against scorpions

8

Protection against crocodiles

3

Concern Number in Borghouts

Love charms 1

Dangerous or dead people, the evil eye

5

Night visions 3

Evil influences, death 3

Dangers during epagomenal days (liminal period of the year)

9

Specific disease, demons 6

Everyday ailments 2

Haemorrhage 4

Burns 3

Headaches 4

P. Leiden/London.On the recto are a series of spells and recipes arranged in twenty-nine columns written between ruled lines. These include spells for divination, love spells, poisons and spells of healing. On the verso are apparently discontinuous memoranda, prescriptions and short invocations.

Ritualists• Practitioners are called ‘ritualists’

• ‘Priests of Heka’ or ‘Hekau’• Lector priests• Jannes and Jambres (Exodus 7)• Royalty: Khamwaset (son of Ramesses II); Tiye &

Ramesses III• Folk magic: ‘scorpion charmers’, midwives, ‘protection

makers’• "... there are many varieties of divination to choose from.

There are dream-interpreters, omen-interpreters, augurs, prophets, Ammon-prophets, nativity-casters, mages and astrologers.“ - Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander Romance 4

• Collections of spells – Book of Thoth• Magic prescribed to people

Case study: Ramesseum Tomb 5 (MK)

Bundle of 118 reed pens

Box of 17 papyri containing largely magico-medical texts, but also literary compositions together with an onomasticon, hymns, and rituals.

Masks• Ritualist “expresses the will of supernatural

powers by impersonating them… ‘I am god X’” – Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian magical texts p. x

Dreams• Dreams conduit through which the gods could communicate to

humans• Joseph interprets pharaoh’s dream• “Incubation” practiced, whereby a person would sleep in a temple in order to

receive prophetic dreams from a god • ". . .Make a drawing of Besa on your left hand and enveloping your hand in a

strip of black cloth that has been consecrated to Isis (and) lie down to sleep without speaking a word, even in answer to a question. Wind the remainder of the cloth around your neck. . .come in this very night.” – P. Brit.Mus. 122

• Bad dreams could be a sign of being the target of a spell

Amulets• "...an object that protects a person from trouble.“ – Pliny,

Natural History 30• udjaou 'the thing that keeps safe' mekti 'protector'• used by both the living and the dead, worn on necklace,

found in tombs, wrapped up with mummies• took the shape of small statues of gods, animals, objects,

body parts, symbols (djed, ankh, Isis knot, wadjet eye)• Made from different materials:

• stone, clay, wood, ivory• different substances had different powers• magical writing also considered as amulets

• Hydrocephali• Book of the Dead chapter 162 • Placed underneath the head of the mummy, to warm it