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

however, delivered them as those healthy ones. The abnormal, pathologic development of the foetus, its position, the anatomical structure of the mother's body, or any harmful or aggravating circumstances which appeared during labour all manifested in the moments of delivery. Thus human fear and precaution resulted in the appearance of a wide range of mythical and practical acts which were intended to protect against and prevent misery. An oracular amuletic papyrus from Turin summarises the potentialities this way: "We shall (cause her) to conceive male and female children. We shall keep her safe from the Horus birth, from a miscarriage(?) (d3.t) and from giving birth to twins. We shall keep her safe from any (kind of death and any (kind of) sickness in giving birth. " (J.E.S. Edwards)

11 The timing of birth was also decisively important. In ideal case, it came "at its proper time",

12 as it is presented in the above quoted inscription from Esna. In other situations abortion could have happened. It was assumed that the primary reason for abortions, (which seems to be quite frequent,) had been due to the damaging influence of god Seth.

13 Pre-mature deliveries — in which the loss and death of the foetus was inevitable — were not differentiated from other pre-mature deliveries, where the foetus survived, however. Both pre-mature birth, and extended, over-due pregnancies were dangerous for mother and child alike. For that reason regulation of closing and opening the uterus had become of extreme importance. In general gynaecological prescriptions of that time the key issues included the closing and opening of the uterus, and consequently the stopping of, or initiating of haemorrhage. Applying these medical techniques specifically on pregnant women meant either to induce normal delivery or to prevent a pre-mature one. The birth concept described in this manner was known in the Old Kingdom, as it is indicated in the expression "not yet open for delivery", mentioned in the Westcar Papyrus (5/11). The continuous survival is attested in numerous texts until the Roman period.

14 The Bremner-Rhind Papyrus (BM 10188) — from Ptolemaic times — indicates a poetic metaphor of ill-timed birth and death in relation to Osiris: "The Lord, the Child who came forth from the womb of the one whom the gods made pregnant, who opened the West at his time so that the Child departed untimely. "

,5 The too early opening of the uterus is related to the name of god Seth. The mythic forepicture illustrates the fight between Horus and Seth for the throne of Osiris, where Seth aims at Isis with Horus still pre-natal in the womb.

16 According to the Medical Papyrus from London, containing many casting of such spells (L 37—42, L 45), the favourite method of Seth was to frighten and cause dreams with phantoms, usually by his night incubus in a donkey-shape (L 40). Such demon-like actions by Seth were followed by haemor11 I. E. S. Edwards: Oracular Amuletic Decrees of the Late New Kingdom, Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, Fourth Series, Vol. 1, London, 1960, p. 66—67, Vol. 2. pi. 23—24: T.2. lines 112—115. 12 Győry Hedvig: "Szülni fogsz hónapjaid szerint" (Your will give birth according your months) LAM 5/12, 1995, p. 1146—1151. 13

. E.g. CT 464 (337b—338a) 14 Moreover it survives much later by transmissions e.g. is discernible still in middle aged Egyptian — Jewish Arab iatromagical sources, see Gideon Bohab, Greek, Coptic and Jewish Magic in the Cairo Genizah, Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 36, 1999, p. 27—44 15 Raymond Oliver Faulkner: The Papyrus Bremner-Rhind, Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca III, Bruxelles, 1933, p. 12 BM 10.188, col. 6,16—18. = R. Faulkner: The Bremner-Rhind Papyrus — \,JEA 22, 1936, p. 125. 16 H. Te Velde: Seth, God of Confusion. A Study of his Role in Egyptian Mythology and Religion, Leiden, 1977, p. 28—29.