EGYPT
350
EGYPT
change of fortune, as in the case of Sinuhit, Twelfth
Dynasty, or in some clever stratagem, as in "How
Thutiy captured Joppa, Twentieth DjTiasty, and in
the storj- of Rampsinitos (Herod., 11,121). Saitie times.
The dramatis persona: of such tales and stories are often
persons of royal blood, the pharaoh himself not infre-
quently playing the principal part ; and the names which
they bear, as a rule, are real historic names, so that in
some cases it is not clear, at first sight, whether one has
to deal with history or with fiction. More frequently,
however, the names have been selected at random,
sometimes from proper names, sometimes from the
prcrnomina. or even from popular nicknames. More-
over, chronolog}', as is usual in popular fiction, is grossly
disregarded. In the story of " Satni-IChamois ", for
instance, Menephtah, instead of appearing as the
brother of the hero, is alluded to as a remote prede-
cessor of Ramses II (Usirmari of the tale, a prwnomen
of Ramses II in his youth). This literature of histori-
cal fiction was evidently very popular in Egj-pt at all
times and in all classes of society. That it was chiefly
from this source that Herodotus collected most of his
notices concerning the ancient kings of Egypt is evi-
dent from the chronological confusion and the great
mixture of names, prwnomif^a, and nicknames which
prevail in his writings. See on this all-important
point the very interesting introduction of Prof. Maspero
to his Contes populaires de I'ancienne Eg%-pte" (3d
ed., Paris. 1905).
Astronomy. — We have no special treatise on astron- omy written by ancient Egj^ptians in book form. The monuments, however, the temples and tombsespecially, give us a fair idea of their astronomical knowledge. On the whole, their notions were rather elementary. They knew the zodiac and the principal constellations, and had special names for Orion {Sahu) and Sirius (Sopdit), the former being sacred to Osiris and the latter to Isis, and for the thirty-six decani which presided over the thirty-six decades of the year. They had compiled tables of the risings and settings of a great many, if not all, of the stars visible to the naked eye. They knew the ditference between fixed stars and planets, and the apparently retrograde mo- tion of Mars at certain periods of the year had not escaped their attention. Beyond this they knew probably little or nothing (see Ginzel, " Handbuch der mathematischen u. technischen Chronologic", I, 153). We have seen above (II.. subsection Chronology) how the Egj-ptians used what they knew of astronomy for the division of time and its computation. They fancied the earth round and flat, surroimded with moimtains beyond which flowed a large river which they called Uernes (cf. the Ovpav6s of the Greeks). At the four cardinal points the mountains rose higher and sup- ported the celestial vaults, which they imagined as solid, although transparent. Over this vault flowed the celestial waters on which the sun, and the moon, and the stars floated in barks. The sun at the end of every day went out through the western mountains, and sailetl on the I'ernes first northward, then south- ward to the mountain of the east, where he entered our world again through a large gate. Egj-ptian my- thologj' saw in the celestial vault an immense cow (Hathor), or a woman, the goddess Nut, whom Shu (the atmosphere) had separated from her husband Qeb, or Sib (the earth), and who brought forth the Sim every morning, and swallowed it everj' evening (Masp<5ro in "Revue de I'histoire des religions", XV, 2G9 sqq.). The many representations of the celestial vault in tombs and on the inner sides of the lids of sarcophagi are purely mythological (op. cit., I, 151).
Mathematics. — Our earliest Egj^ptian treatise on mathematics is the Rhind PapjTus of the British Mu.seum [ed. Eisenlohr, Ein mathematisches Hand- buch der alten Acg\-pter, 1877; L. Rodet in Jour, de la Soc. Math, de France, VI (1878), 13!) sqq.]; it dates back to the Nineteenth DjTiasty. It contains: (a)
several theorems of plane geometry with rules for
measuring solids; (b) a manual of the calculator on a
purely arithmetical basis, not algebraic. [Rodet in
Jour. Asiatique (ISSl), XVIII, 1S4 sq.. 390 sq.]. The
numerical system was decimal, and contained figures
for one and for each power of ten; these figures were
repeated as many times as contained in the number to
be expressed. With the exception of two-thirds, the
only fractions which the}' could WTite with one sign
were those having 1 as mmierator.
Astrology. — Among the docimients belonging to this science the most important is a fragmentary astro- logical calendar (British Museum) written during the Nineteenth Dj-nasty. It contains a list of the things which it is proper to do or to avoid on each day of the year. The reason why such a day was fas or nefas was ordinarily taken from some mythological tradi- tion. The Greeks and Romans were not ignorant of this science, but the name "Elgyptian days" (dies .£gyptiaci), by which thej- designated it, shows clearly that they borrowed it from Egj-pt.
Medicine. — The Museum of Berlin preserves a copy of an Egii-ptian treatise on medicine, said to have been completed by, or at least under, kings of the First and Second Dynasties. There is besides, in the Univer- sity Library of Leipzig, a papyrus commonly known as the Ebers PapjTus containing a copy (Eighteenth Dynasty) of another treatise attributed to King Cheops of the Fourth D\-nasty. From these two docimients and others of less importance we may infer that the Egyptians knew little about theoretical medi- cine, as, for religious reasons, they were not allowed to study anatomy. Practical medicine on the other hand, was so far developed among them that the Egj-ptian physicians were those most highly esteemed by the Greeks and Romans. The names given to diseases are not always clear, but the description of symptoms is often sufficiently detailed to enable a physician to identify them. Pharmaceutical science was still more advanced. Four kinds of remedies are to be found in the recipes: ointments, potions, plasters, clysters; they were usually taken from vegetables, sometimes from minerals (as sulphate of copper, salt, nitre, memphitic stone); the raw flesh, blood (fresh or dried up), hair, and horn of animals were also used, especially to reduce inflammations. The elements of such remedies were first mashed, boiled, and strained, then diluted in water, beer, infusions of oats, milk, oil, and even human urine. But the Egj-ptians believed that not all diseases were of natural origin; some were caused bj' evil spirits who obsessed the patients.
For Egyptian Art see Temple.
Deveria, Catalogue des manuscrils egyptiens etc. qui sonl con' serves au nuisee egyptien du Louvre (Paris, 1S72); Maspero, Les inscriptions des pyramides de Saqqarah (Paris, 1894) — re- print from Recueit de travaux etc., vols. III-V, VII-XII. XIVj N wiLLE, Das agyptische Todteribuch der IS-M. Dynastie (Ber- lin. 1SS6); BuDQE, The Book of the Dead i3 vols., London, 1898; London and Chicago, 1901); Lepsius, Das Todtenbuch der Aegypter nach dem hierogtypbischen Papyrus in Turin (^Leipzig, 1S42); Lefebcre, Hypogees royaux in Mem. de la Mission arch- eotog. francaise, II-III, 1-2; Jequier. Livre de cequ'U y a dana VHadH (Paris, 1894); Erman, A Handbook of Egyptian Reli- gion, tr. by Griffith (London. 190,); Steindorff. The Reli- gion of the Ancient Egyptians (New York and London, 1905); WlEDEMAX.v, Die Religion der alten Aegypler (Munster, 1S90) — also to be had in English; Maspero, Eludes de Mythologie et d'arcJirologie egyptiennes (3 vols., Paris, 1893-98); Lange. Die Aegypter in DE l-A Sauss.vte, Lehrbuch der Religion-^geschichte (Tubingen, 1905), 1. 172-245; Erm.\n, tr. Tirard, Life in Ancient Egypt (London, 1895 — chapter xv is a general sketch of Eg\'ptian literature proper); Maspero, Les contes popu- laires de VEgypte ancienne (3rd ed.. Paris, 1905); Griffith, Stories of the High Priests of Memphis (London, 1900) ; Petrie, Egyptian Tales (London — after Griffith and Maspero).
V. The Coptic Church, the Church of the Copts or Egj'ptians, the usual modern name for the Church of Alexandria, though very often arbitrarily restricted to the period beginning with its secession (451) from the Catholic Church under its patriarch Dioscurus (q. v.) when it bcciiine a distinctly national church. The word Copl is an adaptation of the Arabic Qibt or Qubt
