Magyar László szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 170-173. (Budapest, 2000)
KÖZLEMÉNYEK — COMMUNICATIONS - Győry, Hedvig: "Providing protection to a new-born on the day of his birth ". Extra-and intrauterine complications and abnormalities in ancient Egypt. — „Az újszülött védelméről gondoskodni születése napján ". Méhen kívüli és belüli komplikációk és rendellenességek az ősi Egyiptomban
According to ancient Egyptian beliefs, the life of the infant starts prior to birth. The body of the foetus was formed with its double with the £a-soul together. The formation of the body was made by the competent hands of God Khnum on his potter's wheel — as it was held throughout almost all periods of pharaonic Egypt. (In the great Sun Hymn of Akhnaton, however, the human bodies were shaped by Sun-God Aton. 5 ) The sculptures, reliefs or drawings and paintings show the foetus "ready" for birth — already having the ka-soul — as a small-sized adult, only the nudity and the gesture of finger-sucking indicate an infant. Creation was accomplished according to the wishes of gods. Reflecting this, on a sculpture inscription of Djedkhonsu-iufankh 6 of the 21 st Dynasty, it reads as follows: "Khnum, the excellent adviser has created me to be efficient. Khnum fashioned me as one effective, an adviser of excellent counsel. He made my character superior to others. He steered my tongue to excellence. (Lichtheim III. p. 15.) " The Khnum Hymn 7 engraved on the wall of the Esna Temple — already from the Roman period — continues the same tradition, although it describes the creation in a more natural manner: "He has fashioned gods and men, He has formed flocks and herds; He made birds as well as fishes, He created bulls, and gendered cows. He (8) knotted the flow of blood to the bones, Formed in his (workshop) as his handiwork, So the breath of life within everything, (Blood bound with semen) in the bones, To knit the bones from the start. He makes women give birth when the womb is ready, So as to open — as he wishes; He soothes suffering by his will, Relieves throats, lets everyone breathe, To give life to the young in the womb. He made hair sprout and tresses grow, Fastened the skin over the limbs: He built the skull, formed the cheeks, To furnish shape to the image. He opened the eyes, hollowed the ears, He made the body inhale air; (10) He formed the mouth for eating, Made the (gorge) for swallowing. 5 Maj Sandman: Texts from the Time ofAkhenaten, Brüssel, Bibi. Aeg. VIII. 1938, p. 94, 10. ss. 6 Karnak, Dyn. 21 st . — Jozefa Maria Antoon Janssen, Der Hocker des Djedchonsu-iwefanch. Probe einer Übersetzung der Inschriften der Kairo 559, in Studi in Memoria di Ippolito Rosellini nel primo centenario della morte, Vol. II. Pisa, 1955, p. 117—29. = Miriam Lichtheim: Ancient Egyptian Littérature. A Book of Readings. III. The Late Period, Berkeley-Los Angeles — London, 1980, p. 15. 7 Serge Sauneron: Le temple dEsna III. Le Caire , 1968, col. 250, 6—21, p. 130—134 = Serge Sauneron: Les fêtes reliegieuse dEsna, Esna V. Cairo, 1962, p. 95—97. = Miriam Lichteim: o.e., p. 112—113, Serge Sauneron: Esna VIII, Les textes figuratives, Le Caire, 1982, p. 94—107
