To Prevent, Treat and Cure Love in Ancient Egypt

TO PREVENT, TREAT AND CURE LOVE IN ANCIENT EGYPT. ASPECTS OF SEXUAL MEDICINE AND PRACTICE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

PAULA VEIGA Universidade de Lisboa

Our Portuguese writer Eça de Queirós speaks of «the eternal fertility of the Nile» ; «the wide noise of the Nile called them eternally to natural, human, sweet ideas2» indirectly relating high temperatures as being conducive to sexual relations. But he also states that, considering ancient Egypt: «ancient Egyptians had only one wife, (…), polygamy was, in all times a social necessity for harmony3.» This expression may reflect the thought that ancient Egyptians considered sex a necessity for family procreation and this was true. Another expressing identifying the Egyptian landscape to sexual inclinations is this one: «the simple line (of the horizon) drives oneself to primitive feelings: reminds us of tranquility, quietness, a woman of beautiful lines, the abundance4». Pliny the Elder reports the increase of fertility in Egypt (cases of triplets) as being an effect of the Nile waters. Multiple births are ominous NB events. He reports some cases at his time and draws associations between twins and androgynous people5. There are expressions and words in the medical papyri that mention the private parts of human body. Having sex initiated a set of actions: cleaning, shaving, perfuming, moisturizing, and, in some cases as today, substances to prevent or avoid ill-effects. 1

Genitalia Genitalia carved or shaped from natural materials were used as amulets; both male and female organs represented prosperity, fertility, and thus health, so they had to be cherished. Shells6 were occasionally used for ornaments and amulets. The cowrie shell, because of its form suggesting female genitalia, was a symbol of fecundity. Fecundity figures often have exaggerated breasts and pubis. The Hebrew word7, like the Greek peritome, and the Latin circumcisio, signifies a cutting and, specifically, the removal of the prepuce, or foreskin, from the penis. In sur1

QUEIROZ, 1926: 139. Idem, 222. 3 Idem, 156. 4 Idem, 217. 5 PLINY THE ELDER, 2004: 80. 6 An existing example is a Cowrie shell on original string, 3rd Intermediate Period, Petrie Museum, UC37162. 7 berit milah in Hebrew; the word circumcision means literally «cutting around» and its practice is ancient and can be found among the ancient Hebrews and Egyptians. 2

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gical terms, circumcision8 may be the oldest known surgery in Egypt, as we can conclude from the reliefs of Ankhmahor‟s tomb, but mummified remains older than this relief show that this practice is of an earlier stage9. Circumcised foreigners are shown on the Narmer palette. At a Saqqara tomb in Saqqara, a carpenter from the Sixth Dynasty (2350-2000 BC), with his loincloth pulled to the back, reveals a circumcised penis, and the well known relief from Ankhmahor‟s tomb also portrays the circumcision of two pubertyaged youths. A priest squats before one standing youth whose hands are firmly held by an assistant. In the left hand, the priest holds the boy's penis and in the right is what appears to be a circular flint with which he is removing the prepuce. X-rays of Pharaoh Ahmose's mummy (sixteenth century BC) indicate that he was not circumcised, and it is possible that his successor, Amenhotep I, was also uncircumcised10. There is much evidence that circumcision declined in New Kingdom Egypt. In Roman Egypt, sixth century AD, the practice of circumcision11 on males was common. In a Greek text by Strabo12 he mentions this practice in the first century AD. In the Piankhi Stela and in a text from Philae, ama refers to someone unclean who is not allowed in palace or temple, and here uncircumcised makes the most sense. Finally, the term is at times used for date fruits, in which case uncircumcised makes no sense, but unripe would do13. Herodotus states that priests, during the mid fifth century BC, had the obligation of shaving their bodies every other day and had to be circumcised: «They practice circumcision, while men of other nations, except those who have learnt from Egypt, leave their private parts as nature made them14». The phallus had representations and meanings that flow to ideas of conception, fertility and prosperity; there were numerous amulets exaggerating its size. Pharaohs have special treatment of their own phalli and testicles, at least in the examples that we know of. Tutankhamun‟s lost phallus was, after all, buried since the sixties, in the sandbox and this generated much controversy. Ancient Egyptians practiced circumcision, probably as a rite of passage. From the Persian period onwards, ancient Egyptians seemed to think of men‟s reservoirs for semen as «blessed» by divine intervention; an idea expressed on the walls 8

Prof. Joachim Friedrich Quack from the Ägyptologisches Institut in Heidelberg is preparing a publication focusing this issue (circumcision). 9 It should be noted that a study by Dr. Mark Spigelman FRCS (University College London), questions whether circumcision is the actual procedure being carried out in this relief, suggesting instead that it was a surgical intervention intended to treat an indeterminate pathology: M. SPIGELMAN, 1997: 91-100. 10 J. HARRIS, K. WEEKS, 1973: 126-30. 11 Greek word peritemnein, the normal word used for circumcision in the Septuaginta. 12 63/64 BC–c.AD 24; Grego Στράβων, Geography, Book XVII, chapter 2, 5 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/17B*.html. Strabo states that boys were circumcised at the age of 14, girls at puberty and he also says that men were circumcised (peritemnein) and women were excised (ektemnein; literally “cut out [ek]”). Philo, Questions and Answers on Genesis III, 47, does lump male and female circumcision, in a discourse on Jewish male circumcision and hence I presume he uses the Septuaginta word. 13 Maybe combined with a taboo for eating fish as several postscripts to Book of the Dead spells couple the eating of fish with sexual activity and interpret ama in this direction. 14 HERODOTUS, 2003: 109.

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of Hibis temple at the Kharga Oasis, reproduced in Edfu, Philae, Dendara and Esna temples15. In one of the Edfu‟s inscriptions reproduced by Sauneron, the os, (ww ?), plural entity, can be interpreted as the semen originating from the bone (see next paragraph); the determinative shows what seems like a woman receiving in a cup on top of a channel coming from her pubic area (womb?)16: «Thou floodest the wombs with seed from the bone». In ancient Egyptian, seed and poison are represented by the same expression: mtwt, which makes us guess that the different liquids in the human body may not be completely distinguished one from another in graphic representation and that this opposite definition can refer to malignant substances as well. In Papyrus Jumillac milk and semen altogether may represent total reintegra17 tion . Semen can mean the creation done by a god holding the power of Ma‟at insinuating that the soul has to take some semen to have life during the passage on to the other life. The vessel of the body is represented by , another phallic insinuation, maybe transmitting the idea that all substances from the body were carried by the male organ. Further readings had issued a possible comprehension of ancient Egyptian‟s ideas of conception; In his work Sauneron18 speaks about the os, masculine contribution, the seed, that was coagulated by the god, in most cases, Khonsu, the ram; reserved in the male human body for further use. The feminine womb was the environment or skin where the fetus grew. Ancient Egyptians thought that semen originated in the spinal cord. This idea may have come from the butchery performed on oxen and the anatomical observation of temple priests, who may have considered bovine phalli as a possible extension of the vertebral sequence. This explains the emphasis given to the last vertebrae of the skeleton. When a man complained about impotence, they thought that some damage vertebrae were the cause of it. The myth of Osiris being cut in pieces by his maleficent brother Seth must have originated the idea of having the genital area completed as a whole. The name os sacrum may derive from that idea19. Plato later considered that the seed is of divine origin, a flux from the spine, thus continuing this idea. Several verbal forms dress phallic expressions, for penis: @ms , @nn ; the sign Gardiner D52 is used also to: procreate, urinate, moist: bah; bnn; mTA; mt, anatomical conduit; mwt. Several options using this sign as determinative or verbal form were used to designate sexual intercourse: usn; paí; pi; pwí; dada; tata; 15

SAUNERON, 1960: 19-27.

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, «fécondes les femmes au moyen de la semence venant de(s) os». 17 DUQUESNE, 2000:58. 18 SAUNERON, 1960. 19 FAYAD, 1998: 28; the Romans called the bone the os sacrum, which literally meant the holy bone and the Greeks termed it the hieron osteon, the same thing, the holy bone. In Greek hieron meant not only sacred but also a temple, in the female, the ovaries and uterus, the sacred organs of procreation. And, since the sacrum is usually the last bone of a buried body to rot ancient peoples believed the sacrum to be the focal point around which the body could be reassembled in the afterlife. Was this a thought possible to exist in ancient Egyptian minds? Maybe…

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nk; rkh; nhp. The phallus determinative is written in the hieroglyphic writing also to represent a donkey, bull, husband, male, prepuce; Gardiner D52, non-ejaculating phallus mt, and D53 dropping liquid phallus may also represent the act of ejaculate or fertilize. Semen as human milk may alternate in the connection with the xpr (rebirth) concept of ancient Egypt. About female genitalia there is an illustration of the vagina and uterus of Nunn20 indicating words for uterus; ; in the Kahun Papyrus, Plate V, II, 1-29 this means womb in general, as different from that means vulva, the exterior door of the womb to which medical prescriptions are applied. Also indicated for women‟s genitalia are these terms, kAt or iwf for flesh, which appears to refer to the interior walls of the vagina, and spty which appear to correspond to labia of the vagina. There is also a pubic area representation, kns. The clitoris is mentioned by @nn-n-kAt in the Litany of the Sun21. The representation for women‟s genitalia is hnmt ; being woman hmt ; this leads us to observe in hieroglyphic representation that there is a receptacle containing fluid (well full of water) , Gardiner‟s N41, and also , Gardiner‟s F45, representing a bovine uterus and its fallopian tubes with both ovaries22. The bovine horns in uterus shape, the cow as Hathor‟s maternity symbol can stress out the connection of these signs as the feminine function of conception. In the Book of Thoth, B02, column 6, 4-6, and one can read23, vulva, but also nurse; what makes important being a woman is the ability to breed: «(…) the vulva which is a nurse to the learned one May I enter within its threshold (…?)»24.

The placenta Women «expecting» could have been represented with the foretell-expect-think sign: which presents us the so-called placenta sign, the phallus, a plural (could it be twins) and a determinative of thinking action. Ancient Egyptians did not understand the woman„s participation in fetus growing; they thought that she was limited to feed the fetus through the placenta, x 25. The hieroglyphic expression for protector has also 20

NUNN, 2002: 47 References provided by T. DUQUESNE; E. HORNUNG, 1975-76; T. G. ALLEN, 1974: 195; D. MEEKS, 1980: 250 no 77.2751. 22 Female internal organs extend outward and back from the sides of the upper end of the uterus are the two fallopian tubes or oviducts; literally, egg tubes. They are approximately four inches long and look like horns facing backward. The ovaries are organs about the size and shape of unshelled almonds, located on either side and somewhat below the uterus. 23 Examples of hnmt variations related to childbirth, maternity or nutrition that turns into life in the dedication from the sarcophagus of Hatshepsut to her father Tutmes I: nswt bit M3 t-k3-r s3 R H3t-spswt hnmt (t)- Imn nh. Ti dt/ King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Maat-ka-re, Son of Ra, Hatshepsut united to Amon. That She may live forever. 24 Terence Duquesne‟s translation refers the vulva as the womb of wisdom where the student is the door or the exterior way out, this was the reference provided: R. JASNOW, K.-TH. ZAUZICH, 2005. 25 Gardiner‟s J1 unclassified; S. AUFRÈRE 2003: 17-27, makes a very convincing case that this glyph represents a sieve for grain. 21

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this sign, nx, , which supports the idea of the mother as the nurturer of the new life. It was common to feed the newborn a piece of the placenta, mwt remeT, crushed in the mother‟s milk. If he puked it, he would die, if he ate it, he would live. We know now that placenta tissue is iron rich26. Iron, which is particularly abundant in the placenta, is important in the production of free radicals. Protective mechanisms against free radical generation and damage increase throughout pregnancy and protect the fetus27. The figure represented in Narmer‟s palette28 (the item in front of the king where four men carry sticks, being two of them topped by hawks) and a jackal, is suggested to be the royal placenta29. The bag-shaped sign, later associated with the god Khonsu, was first explained as the royal placenta and its worship was known in ancient Egypt; however, no written or archaeological evidence is available to support this view. Since the placenta has an indisputable link with the newborn‟s life, it was buried somewhere near the house30 or thrown into the Nile to ensure that the child would survive. In mummification procedures female genitalia had special attention they were treated with gentle care and were stuffed with supplementary resinous flax stripes to emphasize breasts and pubis. Often, women were not given to the embalmers immediately. Instead, they were allowed to sit and putrefy for a few days. This was a measure to prevent necrophilia. However, this caused problems with the embalming process and many female mummies are in poorer condition than their male counterparts31.

Urine In Berlin Papyrus 3038 we find the prognostic for childbirth that links barley to masculine and wheat to feminine and this can be explained by the phonetic resemblance of names; ‘it, barley resembled it, father; mwt, mother, sounded like mtwt, cereal32. The scientific explanation for the test may be that the pituitary gland controls the functions of other endocrine glands specifically a hormone that exists in the ovaries,

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«Women» in ancient Egypt, Giving Birth, http://www.philae.nu/akhet/Childbirth.html CASANUEVA, 2003: 1700-1708 28 Cairo‟s Egyptian Museum, Pre-dynastical, c. 3200 BC; the SdSd as seen on Upwawet may not be placenta: perhaps a ceremonial pillow. The question is unsettled. 29 Upwawet's image is generally portrayed with a hieroglyph that has been described as representing the king's placenta, surmounting a standard known as a shedshed; the hieroglyph being a peculiar bolsterlike emblem which may have represented the royal placenta which was regarded as the kings «double». 30 Egypt is around 97% desert land; more now than in Pharaonic times, for sure and Set inhabited these places, arid and hot. It is always the place to find precious gems; the desert is also associated with the mountain sermon, as in The Bible, relating the experience of meeting with God as attested in prayers to Meretseger. As burial site, it is a point that begins the cycle of rebirth. 31 D. IKRAM, 1998:103-107. 32 SAUNERON, 1960. 27

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oxitocine, also in the uterus and mammal glands; and prolactine that we find abundantly in mammal glands, exists in pregnant women‟s urine33.

Human milk as a medicine Perfect newborns come with enough hydrates so they will not need more liquids besides human milk which prevents them from infections, allowing newborns protection for the first period of their fragile lives reducing diarrhea, shortening disease prone situations and diminishing the risk of dehydration. A Swedish team is investigating a new approach to the scientific use of human milk; a folding variant of alpha-lactalbumin from human milk that induces apoptosis in tumor cells and kills bacteria in people with tumor cells34. We must not forget that there is increasing evidence that chronic ingestion of cows‟ milk among women is implicated in gynecological cancers, especially of the breast. Human milk is highly nutritional compared to ordinary food and it has always contraceptive qualities that were not neglected since to breastfeed delayed another pregnancy, and the milk could be «diagnosed» as good by it‟s‟ smell35. It was recommended to hit the mother‟s back when she was still pregnant and feed her with bitter barley bread so the milk would come in its full nutritional value. Milk from a mother that just had given birth to a male child was considered the best; it was food to a child; increased other mothers‟ fertility; healed burnings; treated the eyes; treated infant‟s diarrheas; healed colds, pneumonias, bronchitis and coughing from newborns. Milk of superior quality was kept inside anthropomorphic vases in the shape of a woman‟s body emphasizing the breasts; these were the «Nannies‟ vases», in different shapes even Ísis looking ones where she was breastfeeding a sick Hórus and her milk was flowing from the little holes in the nipples. Their functions included to produce milk in postpartum women who were not lactating. Their use was accompanied by amulets and magic; to reinforce the lactic power as the example of a mother with a sick child that ate a rat and skinned its bones, then kept them in a purse hanged from the baby‟s neck, so he could get better from the infection disturbing him. Prescriptions can be found in the several papyri36. The offering of milk was a symbol of nourishment, purification and rejuvenation37. In the Jumillac Papyrus we find the reference to the milk goddess Hezat mother of Anti, who had disturbed the temple of Hathor and for that, Re and the Ennead pu33

What may have been the earliest test on urine to determine pregnancy recorded in the Berlin Medical Papyrus c. 1350 BC. 34 Catharina Svanborg Research Group, HAMLET, a folding variant of alpha-lactalbumin from human milk that induces apoptosis in tumor cells and kills bacteria, http://www.mig.lu.se/svanborg/hamlet.html 35 BARDINET, 1995: 445 (Ebers 796). 36 BARDINET, 1995: 437-454. 37 DUQUESNE, 2000:57.

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nished him by separating his flesh and entrails from his bones. Hezat squirted her milk over his skin and by magic restores Anti‟s body38. The human milk also indicates protection of some sort because the word bzA stated in a passage from the Pyramid Texts ensures the king‟s rebirth by something of milk; (bzA = zA / sA)39. Coptic medicine had a prescription that used garlic mixed with oil for a skin disease called psora40, that was believed to stimulate the production of milk in women.

Human blood as a medicine 41 Menstruation, @smnnt, , was called «the purifications» by ancient Egyptians; the time when a woman sets free from all impure substances. She is freed from work of all kinds and cannot enter temple rooms. There is a prescription surviving from Pharaonic times that uses the first flow of menstrual blood to keep breasts firm42.

Aphrodisiac lettuce as a medicine Lettuce was considered an aphrodisiac, being forbidden to celibate priests43. Ancient Egyptians thought it cured sterility in women. In the Contendings of Horus and Seth recorded in Chester Beatty papyrus I, Seth was fooled with a lettuce after inviting Horus to his home and making a homosexual attack on Horus. Horus however manages to catch the semen of Seth, which he later shows his mother Isis. She is outraged, cuts off his hand and throws it into the marshes and by her magic creates a new one for him. Then, using powerful unguents, she makes Horus‟s phallus arise and catches the semen in a jar, spreading it on lettuces which Seth later eats. Thoth helps Horus, and when Set thought he would make a fool out of Horus in front of the Gods, the semen of Seth comes out from the marshes where Horus‟s hand had been thrown by Isis. Horus‟s semen appears as a gold disc on the head of Seth who is the one humiliated. Giorgio Samorini44 suggests that the lettuce from ancient Egypt is the Lactuca serriola, part of daily diet and frequently offered to deceased. «Tests showed that 1 gram of lactucarius induces calming and pain killing effects because of the presence of lactucin and lactucopicrin. At the highest doses [2 to 3 grams], the stimulating effects of

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Idem, 53; Hezat was a form of Hathor worshipped as a white cow in the 12 th and 18th nomes of ancient Egypt. 39 Idem, 57 40 Greek, literally psora means itching disease of the skin, more specifically scabies or itch, and psoriasis. 41 represents liquid issuing from lips (Gardiner D26) so, we can comprehend the ancient Egyptian thought as today the entrance of a woman‟s genitalia are called the «vagina lips». 42 BARDINET, 1995: (Ebers 808bis). 43 «The saints from Thebes felt all temptations here. Here they suffered more than anywere else: nature repelled them and their dreams could not live in all that brightness. (…) the wide noise of the Nile called them eternally to natural, human, sweet ideas.» QUEIROZ, 1926: 222. 44 SAMORINI, 2005.

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tropane alkaloids prevail», says Samorini. «This finally solves an ethno botanical riddle and explains the association between Min and lettuce». Typical tropane alkaloids of plants are atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. According to Samorini, tropane alkaloids present in Lactuca serriola can be also found in plants of the nightshade family, such as the legendary mandrake, long reputed for its magic and aphrodisiac powers. The name lettuce comes from Latin lactuca, to milk or lactate. Pliny the Elder, in the second century AD, also wrote about lettuce's ability to dampen sexual desires an opposite to what ancient Egyptians made of its use. He wrote in his Naturalis Historia that «lettuces have special properties, (…) they are soporific, and can check sexual appetite, cool a feverish body, purge the stomach, and increase the volume of blood»45. This light green vegetable is normally associated with Min with his erect penis representing fertility. The Lactuca serriola, wild version of lettuce, may be the grandmother of our Lactuca sativa46. The Lactuca serriola is an oblong, pointy leaves vegetable with fluid that drops from leaves when broken off.

Medicines for birth control Men used a rudimentary linen sheath to provide its wearer with protection from certain insects and diseases that served as a condom if the linen was really soft. Women in ancient Egypt used a type of vaginal tampon to prevent pregnancy. One of these types of prescriptions can be perceived from a text using honey and crocodile dung amongst other ingredients as a vaginal unguent47. Magic is ubiquitous in everything health related. Also in this area we are able to detect some prescriptions mentioned in the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri. To be pregnant was to perform a task and since it is necessary to cast away any lurking danger with amulets the uterus had special protectors, Bes, Hathor, Isis, Heqat and Tjenenet48. The woman‟s body has to be regularly anointed with beneficial unguents, contained in female-shaped vases with hands resting on top of the belly (womb) and the covered top of these vases also prevented bad spirits to reach the soon-to-bemother.

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PLINY THE ELDER, 2004: 225. Lactuca serriola L., prickly lettuce, wild lettuce Source: Plants Database, http://plants.usda.gov/index.html 47 BARDINET, 1995: 441 (Kahun 21,22,23); 443 (Ebers 783) 48 Tjenenet, tnnt, was represented in Middle Kingdom at the mammisi of Ermant, as the goddess of beer; tenemu (beer). Ermant or Hermontis was the first capital of the fourth nome with its higher peak at the XII dynasty. She was represented as a woman with the bovine uterus symbol, Gardiner F45 on top of her head connecting her to Meskhenet and associating her with the royal birth. There‟s a record in the Cairo Museum‟s Stela remembering Ahmes donation (c.1550-1527 a. C.) from a brewery inside the temple of Ptahem Khent-Tjenenet. 46

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Medicines for sexual transmitted diseases (STD) The prevalence of STD in ancient Egypt is thought to have been very low. This status quo was the same for centuries until expeditions from Europe arrived there. Although their society was highly divided in classes, it was functional. Gonorrhea was maybe the only pathology recorded to have existed in ancient Egypt to have been diagnosed as such. In Ebers Papyrus, text in hieratic script, reports the use of cannabis sativa, SmSmt: «Cannabis is pounded [ground] in honey and administered into her vagina. This is a contraction» 49. The 1907 Merck Index (page 132) lists emulsions of cannabis seeds to treat the effects of gonorrhea. The antibiotic properties of cannabis alkaloids were the subject of a large-scale symposium in Czechoslovakia50. Gynecological pathologies are described in some medical papyri with special reference to the Kahun Papyrus51.

Cancer Cervical cancer (of the entrance to the womb, uterus) can be described as the carcinoma uteri, referred in the papyrus, where the smell coming from the vagina is considered a sign of disease. The most common symptom of cancer of the cervix is abnormal bleeding. The expression nemsu uteri, according to Stephen Quirke; «wrapped womb» would be of oncological pattern52. Bardinet translates nemsu as one of several uterine substances53.

Abortion It was one of the biggest fears and once again magic comes to its aid. Premature and deficient newborns were prevented as possibilities of life were reduced at birth. Probable examples of these were the daughters of Tutankhamen dead at five and six months of gestation. In the London Papyrus MS, Verso Column V, Column VI and Column VII54 there are enchantments to prevent «the flood» as it was called abortion due to its abundant bleeding.

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Formula No. 821, Location Plate #96, Lines 7-8 KABELIK, 1955: 4-6. 51 GRIFFITH, 1898. 52 COLLIER, 2004. 53 BARDINET, 1995: 222. 54 GRIFFITH, 1904.

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Conclusions According to ancient Egyptian literature, the act of eating and the mouth by itself had associations with sex. Fruits and flowers are compared to human body parts, especially females, pomegranates are compared to teeth, breasts and mandragora are associated with beautiful hair and skin conditions, and lotus is used to describe fingers. «Fertility was personified (…) animals and plants did not loose their divine epiphanical ability (…)»55. As in every health concern in ancient Egypt, sexuality was addressed with nature combined with human endeavor. Prosperity associated to procreation turned sex into a positive activity to be encouraged. The number of offspring and their victory in the battle over pathological conditions and hunger was a synonym of a family‟s vitality. Sekhmet, the goddess that represents both plague and medicine, is mentioned in the Harris Papyrus 50056, and this reveals sexual pleasure in connotation to vibrant health. Another example of nature‟s association to sexual vitality are pomegranates and sycamores and that can be read in poems from Egypt's New Kingdom likely composed much earlier as this: «Saam-plants here summon us, (…) That I planted with flowers And sweet-smelling herbs. (…) Hearing your voice is pomegranate wine, I live by hearing it. Each look with which you look at me sustains me more than food and drink»57. Medicines using human secretions were used to treat pathologies as well as vegetable and mineral substances were also part of the real and spiritual sphere of healing. The important conclusion is the will to arise the reflexion on female‟s importance as breeder and also protector of new life and the opposite male as an independent creator, as some Gods are examples58, completely useless because he is not «equipped» with the all-nutrient «precious liquid containing vessel» as represented in Gardiner‟s N41. Maybe this unidentified sign, Gardiner‟s J1 sometimes-placenta-sign can resume the

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CARREIRA, 1999: 22. «(…) Sekhmet the great beloved of Ptah; Nefertem, defender of the Two Lands, and all the gods of Memphis…» (Papyrus Harris, Sections 151-412), BREASTED, 1906: 183. 57 Poem 2, from IIc, The Third Collection, Papyrus Harris 500; It has been suggested that the ancient Egyptians made a wine from pomegranates known as shedeh, it is mentioned in love poems where a girl‟s kiss is said to be sweeter than shedeh, but the link between pomegranates and shedeh has not yet been proved. The bark and root of the tree were recommended in medicinal prescriptions for getting rid of parasitic worms. 58 Min is an example as he procreates by himself. 56

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options; round precious liquid containing vessel that provides life59. We may also conclude that the symbiotic relation between male and female fluids (semen and milk) gives us the eternal idea of the complete form of existence.

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On the next day of this presentation, Lise Manniche presented «In the Womb» that reflects this line of thought and, by coincidence, guides the author of this paper‟s conclusions towards the meaning of placenta in ancient Egypt.

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