Ancient Egypt
The scale of ancient Egyptian history is overwhelming. Americans (North and South) wrestle with the consequences of five hundred years of invasion, conquest, and settlement. Europeans argue over what delineates different phases of their history (modern, the rise of the nation-state, phases of the Renaissance, medieval, post-Roman, and so on). Well, that gets you back only 1500 years. Classicists pride their discipline on another thousand years. Egyptians look on, bemused. They go back 6000 years without breathing hard. Ancient Egypt (a deep and long category, obviously) represents a civilization that still fascinates us. Think pharaohs, pyramids, mummies, hieroglyphs, the Sphinx, the Nile, "King Tut." Children and adults love such stuff. I debated with myself whether to be a purist on Ancient Egypt and end my listings with Alexander the Great's conquest and the great era of the Ptolemaic dynasty, but you would miss so much in those 275 years leading up to the pragmatic and unimaginative Romans building their empire on Egyptian grain. I wanted to include the Pharos lighthouse, Alexandria and its library, Cleopatra. So I did, and I will. This page, these offerings, like the rest of Whistlestop, will be carefully curated and vetted and supplemented as I find and list interesting items.
Egyptian Magic
Egyptian Magic
For millennia, Egypt, the dark land, has been considered the home of magic. The feats of her priests and magicians were renowned throughout the ancient world, from the simplest legerdemain (according to present interpretation) to the heights of necromancy and sorcery. Even their most severe critics, the ancient Hebrews, admitted the power of Egyptian magic. In the famous sorcerers' duel between Moses and Egyptian priests before Pharaoh, the Egyptians were almost as skilled as Moses.
This well-known study of ancient Egyptian magic, by E. A. Wallis Budge, long curator of Egyptian antiquities at the British Museum, sums up everything that is known about the wonder-working of ancient Egypt. After a general discussion of the role of magic in Egyptian religion proper — Dr. Budge covers the powerful amulets that warded off evil spirits; the scarabs of immortality; the use of wax images and spirit placements; magical pictures and formulas; magic via the secret name; magic of sounds; rituals; curses; destruction of hostile magic; determination of fortunate dates, and many of the other practices of the ancient Nile dwellers.
Dozens of magic formulas are given in full — both in the original Egyptian sounds, as far as they can be recreated — and in English; dozens of excerpts are also given from the magical papyroi, tomb inscriptions, and other sources. Many wonderful tales are told in these Egyptian stories; mind control, enforcing will upon animals, suspended animation, calling up the dead, finding ancient books of incredible magical power, and other miraculous events that we may or may not believe.
Reprint of the 1903 edition.