\[ **up: [[History--Ancient]] | [[Civilisation and culture--Ancient]] | [[Egypt]] --- # Civilisation and culture of ancient Egypt ## Daily life ### Child rearing [[The Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all used wet nurses as needed.]][^1] --- ### Cosmology [[“The tail-eating snake stood for the world with the ancient Egyptians ...”]][^2] #### Religion [[“Well developed systems of numerology are to be found in the older writings of the Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, and Jews.” It was not invented by Pythagoras.|“The use of numbers for symbolical and divinatory purposes was common to nearly all ancient religious systems. Well developed systems of numerology are to be found in the older writings of the … Egyptians ...”]][^3] --- ### Medicine [[“Ancient Egyptian papyruses from 1500 BCE refer to the curative properties of mould …”]][^4] --- ## Through the Greco-Roman lens ### Herodotus [[“It is well known that sometimes Herodotus describes exotic barbarians in order to construct a picture of barbarism to be compared pejoratively with familiar Hellenism ...”|“It is well known that sometimes Herodotus describes exotic barbarians in order to construct a picture of barbarism to be compared pejoratively with familiar Hellenism: we appreciate who ‘we’ are through contrasts with various inferior ‘others’. But sometimes these exercises do not function straightforwardly to shore up pride in ethnic identity. For example, his treatment of Egypt is in part a textbook study in exotic inversion. Weaving is woman’s work in Greece; in Egypt the men do it. Greek men piss standing up; Egyptian men crouch down, like Greek women. So far what is going on is a denigration of effeminate Asiatics, or a fantasy to that effect. But Herodotus is also deeply impressed by the antiquity and perceived sophistication of the Egyptians, which he contrasts with Greece to disadvantage to the latter. It is not the case that a thoughtful Greek would be unaware of alternatives, or immediately prefer homegrown to foreign beliefs and practices.”]][^5] --- ## ‘the mother of the arts’ [[Bede (Author)|Bede]] — quoting Macrobius’s *Saturnalia* — calls Egypt ‘the mother of the arts’.[^6] [^1]: M. Papasavrou, et al, ‘[[Papastavrou, et al. ‘Breastfeeding in the Course of History’, 2015.|Breastfeeding in the Course of History]]’, *Journal of Pediatrics & Neonatal Care* 2, issue 6 (8 September 2015), p. 2. [^2]: Denise Chao, ‘[[Chao. ‘The Snake in Chinese Belief’, 1979.|The Snake in Chinese Belief]]’, *Folklore* 90, no. 2 (January 1979), p.193. [^3]: Manly P. Hall, ‘Introduction’, in *[[Taylor. 'The Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans', 1816.|The Theoretic Arithmetic of the Pythagoreans]]* (London: J. Valpy, 1816; Samuel Weiser, 1972), p. viii. Citations refer to the 1972 edition. [^4]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 9. [^5]: Robert Wardy, *[[Wardy. 'Doing Greek Philosophy', 2006.|Doing Greek Philosophy]]* (London and New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 59. [^6]: Faith Wallis, ed. and trans., *[[Bede. 'The Reckoning of Time', trans. Wallis, 1999.|Bede: The Reckoning of Time]]* (Liverpool University Press, 1999), p. 57.