{"title":"Demons in Egyptian Medical Texts of the New Kingdom: A New Perspective","authors":"Elena Urzì","doi":"10.1163/15692124-12341328","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates the presence and action of demons in New Kingdom medical texts, in which these supernatural beings are recognisable only by their determinative, whereas the etymology of certain names is not always clearly understood. Several scholars have presented their own interpretations about this topic, most of whom believe these names can be ascribed to illnesses or to the supernatural sphere, though others have expressed reservations about these ascriptions. A fresh analysis of medical texts from an emic perspective helps in reconsidering this topic: prescriptions and incantations suggest the ancient Egyptians really perceived these entities as supernatural beings and not merely as manifestations of illnesses. The presence of the same demons in other contexts, such as funerary texts, confirms this hypothesis and encourages an in-depth study of the medical sources.</p>","PeriodicalId":42129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15692124-12341328","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
This paper investigates the presence and action of demons in New Kingdom medical texts, in which these supernatural beings are recognisable only by their determinative, whereas the etymology of certain names is not always clearly understood. Several scholars have presented their own interpretations about this topic, most of whom believe these names can be ascribed to illnesses or to the supernatural sphere, though others have expressed reservations about these ascriptions. A fresh analysis of medical texts from an emic perspective helps in reconsidering this topic: prescriptions and incantations suggest the ancient Egyptians really perceived these entities as supernatural beings and not merely as manifestations of illnesses. The presence of the same demons in other contexts, such as funerary texts, confirms this hypothesis and encourages an in-depth study of the medical sources.
期刊介绍：
The Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions (JANER) focuses on the religions of the area commonly referred to as the Ancient Near East encompassing Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia, as well as immediately adjacent areas under their cultural influence, from prehistoric times onward to the beginning of the common era. JANER thus explicitly aims to include not only the Biblical, Hellenistic and Roman world as part of Ancient Near Eastern civilization but also the impact of its religions on the western Mediterranean. JANER is the only scholarly journal specifically and exclusively addressing this range of topics.
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