Magic in Ancient Egypt » (Revised)

GERALDINE PINCH is a former lecturer in Egyptology at Oxford University. She is the author of numerous books on ancient Egypt.

The Egyptians were famous in the ancient world for their knowledge of magic. Religion, medicine, technology, and what we would call magic coexisted without apparent conflict, and it was not unusual for magical and "practical" remedies for illness, for example, to be used side-by-side. Everyone resorted to magic, from the pharaoh guarding his country with elaborate magical rituals to the expectant mother wearing amulets to safeguard her unborn child. Magic in Ancient Egypt examines the fascinating connections between myth and magic, and the deities such as Bes and Isis who had special magical importance. Geraldine Pinch discusses the techniques for magic, its practitioners, and the surviving magical texts, as well as the objects that were used in magic--figurines, statues, amulets, and wands. She devotes a chapter to medicine and magic, and one to magic and the dead. Finally, she shows how elements and influences from Egyptian magic survived in or were taken up by later societies, right up to the twenty-first century.

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A Cambridge University Egyptologist provides an examination of the magical techniques, practitioners, surviving magical texts, and objects used in magic in Egypt from roughly the early fourth millennium BC until the fifth century AD. Very good and ample b&w illustrations. First published by the British Museum Press in 1994. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)