Health and Medicine in Ancient Egypt: Magic and Science

Health was a constant concern in life and even the deceased needed extra care so that they would be at their prime when enclosed in the sarcophagus; and in the possession of magical ‘weapons’ so that when they reached the Afterlife, they would be in complete possession of all their physical abilities. Medicine in ancient Egypt was trying to restrain all malefic beings from action and to preserve the well-being of the individual. Through this work, all descriptions and conceptions observed in the existing legacy of ancient Egypt will lead to conclusions that attest this unique duality: its main aim is to synthesize information from ancient Egyptian daily life; everything that has been written upon it and analyzed until today, throughout the world, in different perspectives and several languages, thus giving a contribution for international research and also possible future contributions for medicine and Egyptology.

This work is divided into four chapters:

• Chapter 1: Sources of Information; Medical and Magical Papyri;
• Chapter 2: Heka –“the art of the magical written word”;
• Chapter 3: Pathological types;
• Chapter 4: Medical-magical prescriptions and their ingredients; this list is a description that contemplates from the global perspective to details, revealing all, from general existing sources to particular ingredients used in prescriptions.