![]() ![]() According to Egyptian mythology, the dead present themselves before Osiris, god of the afterlife. The heart was even crucial in judgment after death. Flinders Petrie details not one but two conceptions of the heart, the ab (“the will and intentions”) and the hati (“the physical heart”). It tells me the Egyptians considered the heart to be the “centre of human intelligence.” Also, The Religion of Ancient Egypt (1906) by Sir W.M. ![]() Rick Riordan’s YA series The Kane Chronicles (2010–2012) isn’t much help, but nonfiction like An Introduction to Egyptology (1990) by James Putnam backs up Smith’s portrayal of Taita. ![]() My son is into Egyptology, so books on Egypt are always lying around. By contrast, he views the heart as the “fountain from which all thought and emotion springs.”Īncient Egyptian thought did indeed value the heart. In his view, the brain is useless, mere “pale porridge that fills the skull,” “soft amorphous curds,” a “bloodless puddle of curdled milk.” He can’t understand why the gods put such worthless goop in us. ![]() As Taita operates, he reflects on the body’s organs. Early in the book, Taita must trepan the skull of an injured man, an operation scholars believe the ancient Egyptians actually performed. Noncerebral thinking is the idea I find fascinating. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |