Medicine and Society in Ptolemaic Egypt by Philippa Lang (review)

Medicine in ancient Egypt has traditionally been studied either as an important aspect of pharaonic culture (from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period), or from the perspective of Greek medicine practiced in Egypt during the Greco-Roman Period. However, scholars have generally made little attempt to examine the exchange of influence between Egyptian and Greek medical systems, or to study the impact that demography, agriculture, botany, and magico-religious practices had upon medical practice. This book sets out to address these issues within the context of Ptolemaic Egypt, using evidence from Egyptian and Greek medical texts, as well as archaeological and artifactual material, to consider disease occurrence and healing methods in this period.

Patterns of immigration to Egypt over the millennia are discussed in chapter 1, with special emphasis on the historical background of Ptolemaic Egypt. The effects of geography, climate, demographics, and biological conditions upon disease occurrence are considered, particularly with regard to changed epidemiological environments resulting from the influx of ethnic groups during this era. A sizeable number of Greek immigrants would have posed unprecedented medical challenges: possibly new disease strains (although there is no evidence of large-scale epidemics among new arrivals or indigenes); health hazards due to changes in diet and foodstuffs, as well as exposure to local bacteria, viruses, and parasites; and new concepts and treatments introduced by foreign medical practitioners associated with the immigrant communities. The extent to which medicine was regarded as part of ethnocultural identity is explored: did Greeks and Egyptians each pursue healing processes exclusive to their own communities, or was there any overlap or interchangeability between the two systems?

In chapter 2, the role of the gods within the two traditions is considered, with particular emphasis on the oracular and medical practices at religious sanctuaries in Egypt and Greece. Chapter 3 discusses Egyptian and Greek theoretical perspectives (the perceived nature and causes of illness, which dictate the principles of diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy), and how disease may be differently understood and interpreted by medical professionals and the lay population. A crucial difference was that, whereas the Egyptians believed that divine intervention played an essential role in treating a patient, the Greeks, although mindful of the gods’ power to heal, generally attributed ill health to the impact of environmental and dietary factors on naturally occurring bodily substances. The modern differentiation of Egyptian medicine as “irrational” and Greek practices as “rational” is also discussed, as is evidence for the transmission of medical ideas and practices between the two traditions during the Ptolemaic period.

The next chapter explores the responses of the patients and medical practitioners to illness, and the methods of treatment that were utilized by professional and folk healers in both traditions. Chapter 5 identifies the practitioners of Egyptian and Greek medicine, and defines their roles in healing; it also considers and compares patients’ opportunities for seeking treatment in pharaonic and Ptolemaic Egypt. Further important issues are addressed in chapters 5 and 6. These include whether Egyptian pharaonic medicine had any impact on the naturalistic and highly theoretical medicine practiced by Greek physicians at Alexandria, whether the Alexandrian system had any real influence beyond the royal court and related circles, and whether the tradition of human mummification in Egypt facilitated opportunities for high-status Greek practitioners to undertake human dissection and vivisection in Alexandria.

There is an extensive bibliography. However, important references have been omitted regarding the history of opium use in Egypt (p. 169)¹ and pharmaceutical quantification (pp. 181–82).² Typographical errors occur on pages 230 (repetition of the words “and resources”) and 49 (“bowels of water”).

The book effectively addresses two levels of readership: as a scholarly work, it fulfils a long-standing need among Egyptologists, classicists, and medical historians for a readily accessible discussion of medical practice in Ptolemaic Egypt; and for the wider general readership, it provides well-evidenced information about various aspects of the subject area.