Through the Eras

Religionhas been a subject of much discussion. The English term“magic” tends to carry pejorative connotations that theEgyptian term does not. Frequently “magic” has beenopposed to “religion,” the one seen as somehow a debasedform of the other. At various times, scholars haveseen magic as unauthorized, abnormal, illegal, or as deviantbehavior. None of these connotations is present inthe Egyptian term. The association of “magic” with“heka” is not an invention of modern scholars, however.Coptic, the last stage of the Egyptian language, writtenwith the Greek alphabet, used the equivalent of heka totranslate the Greek terms for magic or magician.ORIGIN. The Egyptian Coffin Texts state that the creatorgod Atum created heka (“magic”) first of all his creationsin order to protect all he had ordained. In theTeachings for Merykare, the king is told that the god hadcreated magic as a weapon for mankind to ward off theblows of events. In view of these Egyptian statements regardingthe purpose of magic, Egyptologists have tendedto focus on the protective nature of heka in trying to defineit. One such definition involves Egyptian heka as actionsinvolving human contact with supernatural/divinepowers in order to exploit these powers to deal with specific,unforeseen events. Such events include sickness,scorpion sting, snakebite, safety during childbirth, andthreats from a living or dead enemy, evil spirit, or demon.Certain times, such as nighttime during sleep, andthe end of the year, were considered particularly dangerous,and required the use of magic as a means of protection.Magic could also be used to induce love.PRACTITIONERS. Practicing magic in ancient Egyptrequired reliance on the written word, so magicians hadto be literate. Most magicians belonged to the ranks ofthe priesthood, and bore titles such as “Prophet ofHeka,” “Chief of Secrets,” or “Lector Priest.” The manualsnecessary for the practice of magic, consisting ofcompilations of spells and instructions on their use, werecomposed, compiled, and stored in the temple scriptoriumcalled the “House of Life.” While most magicianswould have been men, texts from the workmen’s villageat Deir el-Medina preserve mention of a “wise woman”who may have functioned as a seer.MAGICIANS IN LITERATURE. Egyptian literaturedoes preserve accounts of famous fictional magicians andtheir incredible deeds. In Khufu and the Magicians, theOld Kingdom king Khufu (2585–2560 B.C.E.) is entertainedby his sons with tales of the deeds of great magicians.The lector priest Webaoner was said to havefashioned a crocodile out of wax and brought it to lifein order to avenge himself on the townsman who hadcuckolded him. The magician Djadjaemonkh performeda feat that would later be duplicated by the biblical Moseswhen he recited a magic spell to part the waters of a lake.In the Egyptian’s case he performed this feat so that oneof the female rowers of the king’s boat could retrieve apendant she had dropped overboard. The magicianDjedi was able to reattach a severed head through theuse of a spell. When the king, anxious to see such a fantasticdeed, asked for a prisoner to be brought as a testsubject, Djedi refused, preferring to perform his feat ona goose rather than a human.METHODS OF THE MAGICIAN. These literary talesserve to highlight the methods used by the magician.The primary tool of the magician was the magic spell.These spells frequently associated the problem at handwith an event or element in the divine world in order tobring about the desired result. A sufferer from scorpionbite would be equated with the infant Horus, who hadsuffered and been saved from a similar fate. Spells to hastenchildbirth equated the mother with Isis, and the infantwith Horus. Such spells could be recited over thesufferer, but there were other ways in which a personcould make use of a written text. Healing stelae knownas cippi had their surfaces covered with magical imagesand texts and were set up in temples, houses, or tombs.Frequently such stelae were accompanied by basins, andindividuals availed themselves of the power of the textsand images by pouring water over the stela and thendrinking it. Yet another way of ingesting the power ofthe written word was by washing off the ink of an inscribedpapyrus in a liquid such as water or beer anddrinking it or by licking the ink off an inscribed object.MANIPULATION OF OBJECTS. In addition to writtenspells, objects also played a role in Egyptian magicalpractices. Protective wands made of ivory and decoratedwith images of deities wielding knives served to protectwomen during childbirth. The names of enemies couldbe inscribed on images of bound captives known as execrationfigures or on red pottery and then smashed tobring about the destruction of the enumerated enemies.Images of such enemies could also be drawn on the socketsof doorposts, on the bottoms of sandals, or on footstools,so that every step or opening of a door caused theenemy to suffer. As in the story of Webaoner, figurinesof animals could be fashioned out of wax in order to accompanya spell. A spell against scorpions involved thefashioning of a scorpion of clay, and another requiredthe creation of a wax cat, presumably an enemy of thescorpion. From the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, aspell for the summoning of Thoth involved the creationof a wax baboon.238 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)