Magic and Medicine in Ancient Egypt, Sunday, 1/29, 2-3 PM

Across the ancient Mediterranean world, Egypt was renown for its magical and medical lore. Scholars traveled from afar to visit its unparalleled libraries, study its age-old texts, and learn the wisdom of its priestly scholars. The categories we label as magical or medical were not nearly as distinct in Egypt as we believe them to be in the modern world today, but they existed on a continuum concerning treatment of ailments attributed to a mixture of physical and spiritual 4 causes. This talk, by Dr. Foy Scalf, will discuss how the ancient Egyptians viewed these categories by surveying the surviving evidence for the practice of magic and medicine.