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Women in Ancient Egypt

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Prescription for safeguarding a woman whose vagina is sore during movement: You shall ask her "What do you smell?" If she tells you "I smell roasting," then you shall know that it is nemsu symptoms from her vagina. You should act for her by fumigating her with whatever she smells as roasting.

Kahun Medical Papyrus

Women suffered from deadly diseases such as smallpox, leprosy, spina bifida, polio. Even smaller problems, such as diarrhoea and cuts, could prove fatal! Almost everyone suffered from rheumatism and abscessed teeth (the desert sands got into most Egyptian foods). Doctors or scribes, other than giving advice for such conditions, occasionally even got into giving advice for such things as 'female troubles' and tips for the complexion!

In ancient fiction, women tended to be secondary figures to the plot. She was the wife, daughter or mother, left behind while the man went off on his adventure. This points towards the fact that tales were written by men, for men. It is not until the end of the Dynastic period where women started actually characteristised in stories - mostly as bad women. For example, in the Tale of the Two Brothers, as in the story of Joseph in Egypt, the woman was married (in this case, to one of the brothers), yet she made advances to the hero of the story. He rejected her and in revenge told her husband that the hero had raped her. In this story, even the hero (who avoids this trap) married, and was betrayed by an unfaithful wife!

Love songs and romantic poems had a much more favourable image of women. Semi-erotic, they showed women who expressed their own sexuality, showing that women desired men just as much as men desired women. References to sexual intercourse were freely written, showing Egypt's relaxed attitude towards sexual relationships.

 

 

 

Women, Food and Drink

When it comes to food and drink, women could eat and drink as much as their male counterparts. Although Egyptians tend not to be depicted actually eating food, they were shown drinking.

The Egyptian word for 'to pour' sti also meant 'to impregnate' (depending on the added determinative hieroglyph), so these scenes could well be visual puns! Women were even depicted as getting drunk and throwing up, which was seen as a good Egyptian joke!

Women's Education and Career

Other than the scribe god Thoth's wife Seshat - the goddess of writing - very few women were seen with a scribe's writing kit, let alone actually seen writing! These high ranking or royal women were often given a private tutor, who taught them reading and writing. The female pharaoh Hatshepsut's daughter, Neferura, had a private tutor, Senmut (one of Hatshepsut's favourite courtiers). Surprisingly, some ostraca suggest that some ordinary housewives were able to read and write - there were laundry lists, female fashion advice and other female concerns found! These women, though, would be the wives of educated men, so this was not common through the land of Egypt.

Despite this, due to the fundamental biology of a women, she only had a certain range of jobs available to her. She was married at the age when the males were starting their job training, and naturally became mother and housewife, though a wife could become her husband's official representative from time to time. For example, if a husband was absent, she could take charge of his business for him. When a high-class woman found little to occupy her time, a religious position such as a priestess for a certain god or goddess, was encouraged. In this capacity, she was expected to make contributions to the temple - and was not just a "pretty face" for the particular temple she worked for.

Women with talent could get jobs in the music scene (which has links to sexuality), weaving or mourning (the women hired to grieve at funerals), while those well connected women could get professional positions such as domestic supervisors or domestic administrators. Women who took people into their servicegenerally employed women, while men took men into their service.

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02 - 10- 01
By Caroline Seawright

Interesting Articles Main Women in Ancient Egypt