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B3: Woman Giving Birth
Unlike the contemporary western practice of delivery on the back, a
woman gave birth in ancient Egypt sitting or squatting on bricks, or
kneeling. This sign depicts a woman delivering her baby in this way,
with the arms and head of the baby poking out from underneath. It
serves as an ideogram for the verb  msj, "to give birth," and as a determinative in related words.
To
the ancient Egyptians, the birth of a child was much desired because he
would perpetuate his parents' funerary cult and thereby ensure their
continued pleasant existence in the afterlife. Motherhood was the
greatest desire of the ancient Egyptian woman, but it was not always
easily achieved. Infertility must have been a common problem and women
had a number of methods of overcoming it: medical, magical and
religious. Often the source of the problem was the man, who could
suffer from impotence. Even if a baby was conceived and delivered
successfully, it faced a threat from evil spirits who could dry up its
mother's milk or cause other illnesses. The goddess Hathor served as a
protector of mothers and babies during these dangerous periods.
Motherhood in ancient and modern Egypt is the topic of Glyphdoctors' founder Nicole Hansen's Ph.D. dissertation.
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  Last modified: Saturday, April 28 2007, 03:53 PM |
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