Egyptian Mythology Research Articles

Sections of Hell in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptian mentality was characterized by endless philosophical ideas. The foundations of the sources of these philosophical ideas were born from the natural phenomena in ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptian found the phenomenon of the Nile flooding and then its recession and the drought that affected the country and its positive and negative impact on crops. He also found the phenomenon of sunset at night and its interpretation was its death. The explanation for the sunrise in the morning was its revival after death. Also, in ancient Egyptian mythology, the god (Osiris) was resurrected after his death. All of this naturally had an impact on the ancient Egyptian mentality and its reality on ancient Egyptian society in particular. The concept of death and resurrection that emerged in the ancient Egyptian mentality explained that there is another life after death and this life settles in a world that separates his material world. The life after death that the ancient Egyptian believed in was settled in the underworld. What concerns us here is the section in which the guilty were punished after their trial in the court of the god (Osiris) in the underworld. It is known that criminals and outlaws in the material world were punished and held accountable according to the decisions of the court that were conducted inside or outside the temples. Among these decisions were execution, flogging, imprisonment, and others. The ancient Egyptians worked to apply them to the underworld by recording the texts of (Coffins), the Book of the Dead, the Book of (Amudat), and the Book of (Caves). He included in these books a topographical division of the underworld, the most important of which is the section of Hell, which in turn divided it into many sections, including lakes of fire, islands of flame, and hills, as well as the presence of fiery pits and fiery furnaces. These sections related to Hell played an actual role in punishing the guilty for what they committed in their earthly lives. Because of the breadth of the subject, the areas of hell in the underworld, we have chosen for this research the section (Fire Pits, Fire Furnaces), and other places that were used for torture, as this subject carries the utmost importance to know what is going on in the ancient Egyptian mentality and the extent of the religious and philosophical intellectual level that he reached to uncover the mystery of life after death, and his awareness of the topography of this hidden world and his attempt to match it with his material world, and to put forward different ideas for punishing sinners in the material world and seeking to apply it in the underworld.

The Tree "Yggdrasil" as a Symbolic Key to the Interpretation of the Novel by Mark Z. Danilevsky's "House of Leaves"

The object of research in this article is a novel by Mark Z. Danilevsky's "House of Leaves" in the context of postmodernism. The subject of the study was the mythical element of the novel (ash Yggdrasil). This element is considered as a hermeneutic key to the interpretation of the novel by Mark Z. Danilevsky's "House of Leaves". Also, the subject of the study is space and time in the novel, inextricably linked with the mythical component of the works. As a result, a detailed analysis of the mythical component of the "House of Leaves" is given in the context of the poetics of postmodernism, as well as some characteristics of the space-time of the novel. Hermeneutical interpretation is performed using the poem "Yggdrasil", located on the last page of the novel, as a symbolic key. The grapheme "Yggdrasil" and the symbolism of the components of the limit tree in their relation to the exemplification of the structure of the novel as a whole are analyzed. The mechanism of the inclusion of the work in the context of world literature is described through the actualization of semantic and etymological inclusions of mythical motifs about the creation of the world in the text of the "House of Leaves". The analysis of intertextual references to Egyptian mythology through the symbols of the ouroboros and the solar disk is given. The plot of the path of the sun god Ra in the "House of Leaves" is analyzed. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that we have analyzed the symbolic detail in the novel: the hidden symbolism of the "Ash Tree" as the tree of the limit; elements of biblical mythology; the image of the inverted world; labyrinth, stairs. The interpretation of the work as a model of the world is considered, where the ambiguity of mythological and spatio-temporal layers, based on the inevitable symbolic references-threads, function as an instrument of appeal to the cultural unconscious. The connection of the mythologies of Egypt, Tibet, the texts of the "Upanishads" and "Kabbalah", as well as the artistic and literary intertext with the "House of Leaves" is analyzed. As a result of this hermeneutic analysis, an ironic postmodern interpretation of the work of Mark Z. is described. Danilevsky through the symbolism of emptiness (unselfishness).

The testis, eunuchs, and testosterone: a historical review over the ages and around the world.

Testosterone therapy for men with testosterone deficiency is widely used, yet remains controversial. The rich and fascinating history of the testicles, including human castration, provides a valuable perspective on this important topic. This study reviewed the history of testosterone from antiquity to the modern day. Primary sources consisted of books and relevant articles, augmented by a MEDLINE search using the key words "testis," "testicles," "castration," "eunuchs," "testosterone," and "testicular function." An early scientific observation was that castration reduced sexual development and activity, originating with domestication of animals approximately 10 000years ago. Human castration appears in ancient Egyptian mythology more than 4000years ago, in Greek mythology from 8th century BCE, and in the Bible. The history of eunuchs in China spanned 2000years, beginning with the Hsia dynasty (2205-1766BCE). The concept that the testicles produced some factor responsible for male sexual development and behavior was thus known throughout the world since the beginning of recorded history. Testosterone was isolated and synthesized in 1935 and was soon available as a treatment. Multiple benefits of testosterone therapy were apparent by 1940. Recent large, controlled testosterone studies have conclusively demonstrated sexual and general health benefits, with a strong safety profile. Testosterone has been a known substance for <1% of the historical timeline, yet knowledge that the testes were responsible for male sexual development and behavior has been known since the beginning of recorded history. Today, modern evidence has demonstrated the importance of normal levels of testosterone for general health as well as sexual function and desire. Yet, testosterone therapy remains controversial. We believe this historical review provides a helpful perspective on this age-old issue.

Nouvelles Perspectives Dans L’etude De « Yom » Dans Genese 1: La Piste Aithiopienne

The source of the text of Genesis has been a core of the contemporary theology studies. One of the most important of these studies is the James E. Atwell’s (2000). He argues that Genesis 1 is directly inspired by Egyptian mythology. But, considering his arguments, the study of the typology of “Yom” shows a new paradigm that we can conclude the existence of a new source. This study gives proves that if Egypt constitutes an important step, the sources are far and deepest.

A Mysticism Approach to Yeats Byzantium

William Butler Yeats is the most famous poet in the history of modern Irish literature. He is called the greatest poet of our time by T.S Eliot. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925. He has a strong interest in mysticism and has made unremitting exploration of it throughout his life. Mysticism is an important source of Yeatss life creation. From the early collection of Irish folklore and mythology to the formation of the later mysterious system, Yeats constructed his own set of mythological systems. Yeats mysticism is particularly evident in his poem Byzantium. His poems are full of mystery due to the combination of Irish folk mythology, Swedish mysticism philosophy, Judaism and Christian doctrine, Indian Buddhist thought, ancient Greek and ancient Egyptian mythology and other factors. Among them, his poems are famous for the symbol of Oriental mysticism. This paper makes a detailed interpretation of Byzantine and then implements the analysis of this masterpiece in each section. Based on this analysis, this paper focuses on the interpretation of mysticism in poetry and its impact in order to achieve a better understanding of the mysticism embodied in poetry and provide a valuable reference for future research on related issues.

The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960 by Kathryn Hume

Reviewed by: The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960 by Kathryn Hume Fiona Cox The Metamorphoses of Myth in Fiction since 1960. By Kathryn Hume. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2020. xii+192 pp. £85 (pbk £28.99). ISBN 978–1–5013–5987–3 (pbk 978–1–5013–7824–9). Kathryn Hume opens the volume by asking: 'Why should contemporary Anglophone writers use myths from ancient Greece and Rome, from Pharaonic Egypt, from the Viking north, from Africa's west coast, and from Hebrew and Christian traditions?' (p. i). This is, of course, a big question eliciting a range of responses, and the wide, inclusive sweep of mythologies indicates the vast scope of this volume, a breadth that is all the more striking since the book is relatively short. Hume's extraordinarily wide-ranging expertise and reading are evidenced throughout the volume as we move from Mailer to Acker to Vonnegut, Pullman, and Calvino (the one non-Anglophone writer), and many more. The dizzying array of primary sources is indicated in the chapter titles—for example, the final chapter, Chapter 6, is entitled 'The Contemporary Functions of Myth as Artistic Tool: Pynchon, Arthurian stories, Faber, Pullman, Morrow, Ducornet, Marcus, Atwood, Vonnegut, Naylor, Morrison, Silko, Östergren, Winterson, Grossman, Rucker'. This is an astonishing range of writers and subjects to cover in just 28 pages. Previous chapters take as their focus 'Multiple Selves and Egyptian Mythology', 'Mythological Worlds and Death', 'Orpheus and Eurydice: Variations on a Theme', 'Invented Myth: The Problem of Power', and 'Situational Myth: Posthuman Metamorphoses'. All promise a wide selection of sources enriching the discussion. Hume writes well and engagingly and I read the book with pleasure and profit. I learnt a great deal and was introduced to a range of authors whose works I have not yet considered. I particularly enjoyed the nuanced discussion of Janette Turner Hospital's Orpheus Lost. The presentation of Neil Gaiman's work and thought was also especially suggestive and persuasive. There is a particular emphasis in the volume on dystopian fiction, which has been understudied to date, at least in the area of classical reception. The virtues of the volume are, however, directly tied to [End Page 241] what might be perceived as its shortcomings. There were many times when I would greatly have welcomed far more detailed discussion of an author or a work, but found myself tantalized with a brief analysis before the discussion moved on to the next book or the next author. Since so many authors and texts are covered there is a lot of introductory discussion, which sometimes comes at the cost of more probing analysis. I also think that much of the exposition could have been enriched by closer engagement with other scholarly works within the field. Certainly there has been much work on contemporary literature and classical reception which is absent from the Bibliography and which could have added texture to the discussion of authors such as Winterson, Byatt, and Morrison. I am thinking particularly of studies such as Tessa Roynon, The Classical Tradition in Modern American Fiction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021), and Judith Fletcher, Myths of the Underworld in Contemporary Culture: The Backward Gaze (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019). I am aware, however, that a more focused and substantial engagement of selected authors would have reduced the extraordinary scope of this volume, and that would have been to its detriment. I closed the book wishing that there was much more, but grateful for the pleasure of being introduced to so much fresh material. This is a book that will open the eyes of any reader to unfamiliar worlds and undiscovered texts and which makes a genuine contribution to the expanding field of engagements with, and rewritings of, classical Greek and Roman myths in fiction of the last sixty years. Fiona Cox University of Exeter Copyright © 2023 Modern Humanities Research Association

Frammenti mitografici latini provenienti dall’Egitto

The aim of this paper is to provide a new analysis of four latin fragments preserved on the verso of P. Gen. inv. Lat. 7 (2nd century AD). They have often been considered as an inventory of works of art linked to P. Gen. inv. Lat. 5, but content and palaeographical evidence indicate that they are two different texts. These four fragments contain two texts of mythographic content concerning Roman divinities and heroes, Egyptian mythology (the presence of Isis, Horus and Aegipan suggests a reference to episodes of the myth of Osiris), mutations of divinities and religious mysteries of Persephon, mentioned together with divinities and demigods traditionally linked to the underworld.

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Reflections from Gods to Medicine in Egyptian Mythology

Amaç: Bu çalışmada, eski Mısır mitolojisinden günümüz tıbbına nelerin yansıdığının değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır.Yöntem: Mısır mitolojisi için 01.01-01.03.2022 literatür taraması; PubMed/Medline, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, Library Genesis, Springer, Jstor Ebsco, ProQuest, Social Sciences Index Retrospective, National Geographic Magazine, medical and anatomical history books veri tabanlarından yapılmıştır. Ek olarak, Milli Kütüphane, HuthiTrust, Europeana Collections, Project Gutenberg, New York Kütüphanesi Dijital Koleksiyonları, Bibliotheques d’Orient dijital kütüphanelerinde de araştırma yapılmıştır.Bulgular: Mısırlılarca Ra, bazı ilaçları yapan, Imhotep, tıbbın babası, Thoth, Corpus Hermeticum’u yazarı kabul edilmektedir. Mumyalama geleneği, Osiris ile bağlantılıdır. Horus'un Gözü’nde yapılan hesaplama ve sembolleştirmenin bugünkü verilerle uyuşması, nöroanatomi alanı için büyük bir başarıdır. Ayrıca, bu hiyerogliften, reçetelerde kullanılan “Rx” sembolünün türetilmesi, Horus’un anne karnında kalış süresinin 40 haftalık gebelik süresi ile örtüşmesi diğer bulgulardır. Heka’nın asasına dolanmış çift yılan, halen tıp mesleğinin sembolüdür. Günümüzde Ammon boynuzu adıyla anılan serebral hipokampüsün bu adı, Ammon’dan aldığı söylenmektedir.Sonuç: Eski Mısır tıbbının, bir taraftan mitolojiyle iç içeyken diğer taraftan deneysel ve kanıta dayalı yönünün oldukça ileri olması önemli ve şaşırtıcıdır. Bu medeniyet, günümüze temel oluşturan zengin tıbbi mirasıyla halen ilgi uyandırmaktadır.

Renaissance Buried Alive in “The Collar and the Bracelet”

Through a close reading and interdisciplinary analysis of the 1975 novella al-Tawq wa al-Iswira (The Collar and the Bracelet) by Yahya al-Tahir 'Abdallah and the 1986 cinematic adaptation directed by Khairi Bishara, this article demonstrates how the textual and visual narrations converge and diverge in their representations of the Upper Egyptian village at a point of potential Nahda, or renaissance. It further demonstrates how the novella and the film utilize the image of the circle, alluded to by the titular collar and the bracelet, to uncover and disrupt the circular patterns of oppression that dominate rural life. These patterns of oppression are made manifest through the juxtaposition of binary oppositions: life and death, modernity and tradition, myth and science, and patriarchal structures and the push for increased gender equality. This study examines not only the question of Nahda/renaissance in the novel but also the representation of women and their position within the popular imagery. As this study uses parallel narratives to read Abdullah's works, it traces the link between the representation of women in the novel and other women's representations with a distinct presence in the mythology, literature and the folklore; such as Isis in the ancient Egyptian mythology, and Na'sa in the folkloric story of Ayyoub Al-Masri (the Egyptian Job). Even though it is apparent that men have absolute power and occupy the pinnacle of gender hierarchy power in the rural village of the novel, this article questions the veracity of such a claim. While the novel begins with what seems to be assent to that gender hierarchy, the hierarchy is revealed as false through different contexts: Egyptian mythology, anthropology, folklore, and intertextual reading with other works by Yahya al-Taher and writings of others.

Visual Analysis of Sekhmet’s Costumes and Attributes in Marvel Comic Book

The purpose of this study is to analyze the costume and attributes of Sekhmet's character in one of marvel's comic books titled "The Heroic Age: Prince of Power, where Sekhmet is a female supervillain character that was adapted from Egyptian mythology. In The Heroic Age: Prince of Power, issue 3, Sekhmet is visualized wearing costumes and attributes that match the description and visualization that can be found in ancient Egyptian artifacts. This research used descriptive qualitative with a narrative method and one of Tsukamoto's manga matrix theories, the costume matrix, to analyze further the ornaments and attributes that Sekhmet wore in the comic. This study found that Sekhmet's ornaments and costumes were indeed adapted from Egyptian mythology. However, even with so much similarity, there was an additional costume and attributes that differentiated the visualization of female supervillain Sekhmet and the Egyptian mythology goddess Sekhmet where female supervillain Sekhmet is visualized wearing attributes and costumes specialized for male soldiers, which adds masculinity factor to Sekhmet's female character.&#x0D; Keywords: Egyptian Mythology; Manga Matrix; Marvel; Sekhmet; Visual Analysis

Visual Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Mythology Character in Marvel Comic

The goal of this research is to find the transformation in the perception framing of the ancient Egyptian Goddess in marvel’s comic book. This research studied the visual aspects of the character design of Sekhmet, one of marvel’s super-villain characters that were adapted from ancient Egyptian mythology. Marvel comic is one of the most popular American comic books that tell stories of its original superheroes and super-villain characters. The focus of this research is Sekhmet’s character that was designed based on an ancient Egyptian Goddess with the same name, Hathor-Sekhmet. This study used a qualitative research method to describe the character of Sekhmet based on its original narration in Egyptian mythology and marvel’s comic book version. Then using the manga matrix method, the character design’s form, costume, and personality matrix were studied and analysed. This method helped to find the relation and similarities among the theories and the perception elements. This method helped to find the relation and similarities among the theories and the perception elements. This study proved that Sekhmet’s character design contained imagery framing that formed a new perception of the lion goddess image, where in the costume matrix there has been an addition of leather, metals and gold attributes and accessories and in the personality area, Sekhmet personality shifted from its neutral character to an evil villain character. This imagery framing transformation affects the way Sekhmet is being perceived by readers

The Significance of Number Three in The Ancient Egyptian Religion

Ancient Egyptian symbols were employed to represent a wide range of concepts and ideas during different periods of the Egyptian civilization like the idea of trinity. Trinity was formed by combining three components. This idea came into existence from the Pre-dynastic period till the Christian era. Moreover, the ancient Egyptians worshipped their deities in groupings known as triads. Triads are classified into two types: regular and irregular. Furthermore, three used to appear as guardian demons in the Ancient Egyptian religious books. Moreover, in the ancient Egyptian mythology, three signify conflict. Additionally, the ancient Egyptians communicated with the deceased in three different ways. Also number three has an importance in the sacred architecture in ancient Egypt. This study aims to demonstrate the significance of number three and the earliest appearance of numerals in Ancient Egypt. Furthermore, the origin of the idea of trinity. Later, this idea developed into the triad. The methodology of this paper is to study number three and the idea of trinity from the ancient Egyptian religious aspect. However, while seeking to comprehend the ancient Egyptians, their culture, and their symbols one should first understand and study their religion, as the ancient Egyptian religion affects them in all the aspects of their life.

Interspecies systemic chimeras

Inter-species chimeras are both fantastic and monstrous creatures from Greek or Egyptian mythology, and a long-established research tool. Recent advances in the field of pluripotent stem cells have made it possible to extend the repertoire of inter-species chimeras to "systemic" chimeras, in which the mixing of cells from both species involves all organs including the germline. These chimeric embryos and fetuses open up new research avenues and potential medical applications. We will review the latest advances in the field. We will discuss the concepts of developmental complementation and developmental equivalence. We will discuss the methodological hurdles to be unlocked, as well as the biological and ethical limits of these new technologies.

ОБРАЗ КОНЯ В ГРУЗИНСКОМ СКАЗОЧНОМ ЭПОСЕ В КОНТЕКСТЕ СРАВНИТЕЛЬНОЙ МИФОЛОГИИ

В грузинском сказочном эпосе встречается большое количество сюжетов, которые широко распространены в странах ближнего Востока и Европы. По сюжетному указателю Аарне-Томпсон-Утер конь-чародей встречается в разных типах грузинских волшебных сказок, особенно в типах ATU314 Золотистый, ATU530 Принцесса на стеклянной горе и ATU531 Ясновидящий конь. Целью статьи является выявление связей сказочных и эпических мотивов, которые содержат общие мифологические черты в образе волшебного коня. Исследование этих мотивов выясняет типологическое и семантическое сходство сказочных фигур с мифологическими божествами.Настоящая статья ориентирована на сравнительное изучение фольклорных сюжетов. Основные методы: структурный анализ и сравнительно-типологический метод. Важно сравнить диахронические элементы устных повествований с определенными трансформациями эпоса и сказки. Для структурного и сравнительно-типологического анализа мифопоэтических символов в сказочном эпосе опорой служат основные положения работ «Морфология сказки» и «Исторические корни волшебной сказки» В. Я. Проппа. Для выявления основных черт содержания использованы культурологические и этнографические труды.В результате исследования установлено, что, в отличие от литературного эпоса, устная сказка еще сохранила отдаленную связь с мифологическими представлениями о звере как о чудесном помощнике человека, основанными на древних тотемистических верованиях. Мифическое происхождение сказочного коня, в первую очередь, олицетворяется в обладании им четырех стихий, проявляющихся в его огненной и крылатой сущности, а также тесной связью с землей и водным миром. Волшебный конь сказок полностью проявляет все детали своего мифического происхождения.Символика коня в мифическом аспекте весьма знакома фольклористам, но сопоставление разных жанров фольклора на примере грузинского материала дает возможность выяснить взаимосвязи сказочных, эпических и мифологических мотивов в междисциплинарном аспекте.Сюжеты волшебных сказок как грузинской народной прозы, так и тех культурных особенностей, которые касаются взаимоотношений эпических традиций кавказцев и других народов мира, создают широкое поле исследователям для текстуального анализа.

Madness and psychiatry in K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams

ABSTRACT This article analyses K. Sello Duiker’s The Quiet Violence of Dreams (2001) as a novel concerned with madness and psychiatric incarceration. It aims to reposition the scholarship on the novel, which has focused largely on the exploration of same-sex intimacy. The article argues that this emphasis not only undermines Duiker’s project of contesting essentialized identities but downplays his expansive sense of social justice. Connecting the text to the growing body of anti and critical psychiatric thinking, beginning with Michel Foucault, the article unpacks Duiker’s contemplation of psychiatry as an instrument of oppression. Madness is conceived as fluid, a spectrum and an experience more profound than the language of psychiatry can apprehend. The injustice suffered by the pathologized and incarcerated is linked to other forms of oppression through the author’s use of multiple focalizations. Drawing on Egyptian mythology, the novel contests psychiatric knowledge with the notion of madness as spiritual insight.

George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays, edited by Jean Arnold and Lila Marz Harper

Reviewed by: George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays ed. by Jean Arnold and Lila Marz Harper William Lee Hughes (bio) George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays, edited by Jean Arnold and Lila Marz Harper; pp. xiv + 330. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, $109.99, $84.00 ebook. The straightforward title of George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays suggests two implicit questions: why should we read George Eliot today? And how should we read George Eliot today? Readers of Victorian Studies may balk at the question of whether or not we should read Eliot now. Of course we should read Eliot. However, Eliot's place in the canon of Victorian studies was not always assured, and we would do well to remind ourselves that Eliot's popularity in English departments has a history. Included in the introduction to this volume is a short history of Eliot's reception alongside a "Mid-Twentieth-Century Memoir" entitled "George Eliot, Then and Now" by Thomas Pinney (4). This brief history of Eliot's reception notes that, with the advent of aestheticism, late-Victorian readers "bypassed Eliot's earlier realism," and the World Wars then led to criticism of the "conventional Victorian morality" that readers found in Eliot (4). Pinney's memoir, written especially for this collection, describes his experience with an Eliot who was "quite out of fashion" until her revival in the mid-twentieth century: "George Eliot? Who? She was not even an also-ran" (5). Indeed, it took the work of countless scholars to secure Eliot's place in Victorian studies. The collection's answer to the second implied question is, of course, that we should read Eliot with an eye toward interdisciplinarity. The book accordingly is divided into five interdisciplinary sections, on periodical studies and the history of the book, Eliot's research methodology, Eliot and Victorian science, animals and environmental studies, and gender studies and feminism. Each section does two things. At least one essay reasserts Eliot's importance to the study of the Victorian period while at least one other essay connects Eliot to a problem or issue that twenty-first-century readers are struggling with right now in the humanities. As a bicentennial collection that celebrates Eliot's two-hundredth birthday, George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays aims to reestablish the centrality of Eliot to Victorian studies while simultaneously gesturing toward her value for a wide range of disciplines in the humanities. The essays on periodical studies and the history of the book offer new perspectives on Eliot in the context of print culture and make connections to contemporary media studies. Wendy S. Williams argues that Eliot cultivated her public image as a great artist especially through her poetry, which she included in her novels as epigraphs or "mottoes" alongside epigraphs of other great poets (46). Alexis Easley connects Eliot's engagement with the New Journalism in Wise, Witty, and Tender Sayings in Prose and Verse Selected from the Works of George Eliot (1872) and our current social media context in which "writers use tweets, postings, and recirculated content to establish their own celebrity identities—and where readers consume literature both as tit-bits and as full-length texts" (36). Together, these essays help us to think about Eliot as a kind of social media personality in addition to, or perhaps as an alternative to, a great author of the British canon. While many of us are familiar with Eliot's quarry for Middlemarch (1871–72), we may be less familiar with her methods of conducting research and organizing information for other novels. As Andrew Thompson demonstrates, Eliot wrote Romola (1862–63) in the context of the professionalization of the discipline of history, which put Eliot under enormous pressure to "get things right" (65). In detailing Eliot's [End Page 140] meticulous research on fifteenth-century Rome, Thompson argues that the novel must be read in terms of nineteenth-century historicism and the historical novel. Romola is not only a novel; it is also a work of scholarship. Similarly, Eliot's use of Christian and Hebrew mythology is well known, but, as Molly Youngkin shows, Eliot's engagement with Egyptian mythology has been overlooked. Egyptian mythology appears in all of Eliot's major novels...

Toxicology and snakes in ptolemaic Egyptian dynasty: The suicide of Cleopatra.

The decadent Lagids'dynasty was especially interested in drugs and poisons meanwhile Alexandria became a prestigious center of learning and the first medical center of the ancient world. Scholars dedicated to toxicology would research in the famous Museion and the Hellenistic rulers of Alexandria and other kingdoms had court physicians specialized in pharmacology and venoms. As the last member of Ptolemaic Dynasty, Cleopatra VII inherited the throne and also the great inclination of Ptolemies towards medicine and science. In this city toxicological education seems to have had its most systematic development, and for Galen [1] "human and prompt executions' were made in Alexandria with the intervention of cobras". Attracted by the knowledge of venoms and poison, Cleopatra began to test them on condemned prisoners to see the different reactions produced in the body and found toxic limits. When she decided to commit suicide, the use of poison would make sense given the possibility to choose the best one to get a quick and relatively pain free death. Knowing that oral poisons would cause disturbances as painful spasms, nauseas, abdominal cramps and slow end, she presumably compared the major effects of venemous snakebites caused by the various species living in Egypt, specially three families: vipers, hydrophids and elapids. Cleopatra probably realized that viper bites generally produce violent local pain with inflammation, oedema, skin discoloration, pustules, vomiting and blood loss. With the cobra venom, hemotoxic or neurotoxic, instead, death could happen within half an hour, by respiratory failure and general paralysis without leaving any trace on the flesh, though. It has been said that Cleopatra used the cobra to kill herself because it would also make sense in terms of Egyptian mythology, being associated with the sacred uraeus worn by the pharaohs. However, there are several problems with this theory and some scholars recently argue it's more likely she would drank a cocktail of drugs or applied a toxic ointment, as Strabo suggested. Studying the different poisons and the snakes that she could have selected and the symptoms and consequences that they could produce in her body, we'll try to delve into her possible lucubrations and reflexions, weighing the difficulties in each case. Undoubtedly, the mysterious end of Cleopatra remains unsolved, offering a constant source of legends and theories. Keeping this in mind we will try to present the pros and cons of each of her possible decisions.

George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays

George Eliot: Interdisciplinary Essays

Apep-Ra Duel in Ancient Egyptian Mythology and the Miracle of Turning the Staff into a Snake: A Comparative Consideration

Antik Mısır medeniyeti, dinsel alanda farklı anlayışlara sahip olmuş, çeşitli inanışları ve kavimleri sınırları içerisinde barındırmıştır. Bu kavimlerden biri olan İsrailoğulları hakkında hem Kur’an’da hem de Tevrat’ta geniş bilgiler yer almaktadır. Buna göre onlar, Mısır’da kaldıkları süre boyunca birçok zulüm ve baskı altında kalmışlar, Hz. Musa’nın öncülüğünde dönemin firavununa ve Mısır’ın diğer yöneticilerine baş kaldırarak Mısır’dan ayrılmışlardır. Bu süreçte firavun ve sihirbazları ile mücadele eden Hz. Musa, birçok mucize gerçekleştirmiştir. Bu mucizelerden biri olan asanın yılan olma hadisesi hem İsrailoğullarının Mısır’dan çıkması hem de firavun ve adamlarının yenilgisi ile sonuçlanmıştır. Dahası, sihirbazlarla girilen düelloda asanın yılan olma hadisesi firavun ve adamları arasında derin bir iz bırakmıştır. Çünkü onlar, Hz. Musa’nın asasının dev bir yılana dönüşerek sihirbazların asalarını yutmasını kendi mitos ve inanışları bağlamında değerlendirmişlerdir. Burada karşımıza çıkan mitos ve inanış, Apep yılanı ile ilgilidir. Hz. Musa’nın asasının yılan olma hadisesi, firavun ve adamlarının inanışlarına Apep yılanı mitosu üzerinden büyük bir darbe indirmiş, firavunun dinî ve siyasi otoritesini ciddi şekilde zedelemiştir. Bu makalede Kur’an’daki Hz. Musa’nın asasının yılan olma hadisesi, Antik Mısır literatüründeki Apep yılanı mitosu ışığında tartışılmaktadır.