Mummy's Wrap

Gods and Goddesses and Healing in Ancient Egypt

It was through the gods and the goddesses that such magic was able to take place, and thus, it was controlled by the temples and the priests within those temples. As medicine and magic were controlled through the temples, certain gods and goddesses were worshiped to aid in the treatments of illnesses and injuries. Interestingly, it is Sekhmet who is the most important goddess of medicine (Brier: 2001, 55). With the head of a lioness and a temper to match, she was a fearsome deity that none wanted to cross. According to legend, she became so enraged by the impiety of humans that she nearly killed all of human life. She was considered the warrior goddess yet somehow, she also earned the epithet of “mistress of life” (Wilkinson: 2003, 181). It is a simple case of “better the devil you know.” Sekhmet could easily take a life; she could easily send demons to cause a person to fall ill (Wilkinson: 2003, 181). Upon realizing this, the ancients began to worship her as a healing goddess, appeasing her so as to ward off her anger. It was from her temple that most of the physicians were trained (Brier: 2001, 56).

Other gods associated with healing were Isis, Horus and Thoth. Isis was so chosen because she had a number of epithets that endeared her to both physicians and magicians. She was the Mother of Horus, her nurturing nature attracting physicians to worship her and she was the goddess, “great of magic” (Wilkinson: 2003, 146) who controlled all things magical, luring magicians to her side (Wilkinson: 2003, 146-147). Horus was attractive as a patron deity of physicians because of his direct relation to Isis, his mother, his epithets as a sun god, a sky god, and the patron deity of the kingship (Wilkinson: 2003, 201). Thoth was a god of great knowledge, the legendary inventor of writing and the moon god (Wilkinson: 2003, 215). It was the knowledge of his character that attracted physicians, as was the fact that, according to myth, Thoth restored Horus’ lost eye in a battle against his chaotic uncle, Seth (Brier: 2001, 56).

While these gods were patrons of healing, there were other gods and goddesses that were patrons of a darker sort. These were known as “desert gods” and were worshipped in the Oases (Kaper: 2003, 125). These were the lords of the chaos of the desert (Kaper: 2003, 125). Demons, as was mentioned above, were held responsible for some illnesses (Brier: 2001, 62). Upon first glance, Neith appears to be a mother goddess much like Isis, and a warrior goddess much like Sekhmet, with a temper just as unpredictable as Sekhmet’s (Wilkinson: 2003, 157). She does have a darker side once the Oases are reached, although her role is that of a supporter to her son, Tutu (Kaper: 2003, 106). In the Oases, she is a mother goddess, but she is a mother to a master of demons. Neith is mistress of seven arrows, or demons, that only one other deity, Tutu, the sphinx god of the Western Oases, can control. Also interesting is the mention of Tutu in regards to Sekhmet as “The master of the demons of Sekhmet” (Kaper: 2003, 28). Due to the fact that Neith and Tutu can control the demons, it is a simple conclusion that they may have been worshipped to ward off illness. This is somewhat difficult to conclude only because of the lack of medical texts from the Oases, Tutu’s home.

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Tags: ancient egyptian herbal, ancient egyptian herbals, ancient egyptian medicinal, ancient egyptian medicine, ancient medicine, herbal, Herbals, medicinal, medicine

This entry was posted by Page Strong on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 18:00 and is filed under Ancient Egypt, Everyday Life, Herbals, medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.