319 S9l AN INTERPRETATION OF ARCHAIC MEDICAL TREATISES THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE By William D. Wagers, B.B.A, M.L.A. Denton, Texas May 1993 COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1991, 1992, 1993 by William D. Wagers. All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form without express permission from the author. Wagers, William, D., An Interpretation of Archaic Medical TreatisesL Master of Science (Biology), May 1993, 88 pp., 3 tables, 12 illustrations, glossary, bibliography, 41 titles. Ancient peoples did not distinguish between philosophy, religion, and science. Scientific truth did not exist apart from divine truth. Any new idea, finding, or theory was assimilated into a monolithic mythological structure. This is one of the causes of the underestimation of ancient science: it is always packaged in a myth - the method of preserving information in an oral culture. The mythological medium allowed the preservation and dissemination of hard-won, empirical, scientific knowledge through generations of preliterate peoples. The context for mythological memorization, or simply tradition, needed to be easily and naturally acquired. The ideal context was the anthro- pomorphic context, the ontogenic context. This is the Grand Allegory - the anthropomorphization of information. Biomyths are essentially biological texts allegorized in esoteric language. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Greek quotations of the New Covenant are reproduced by permission from the MacGreek New Testamentr" 1986 P.B. Payne. It contains the Greek New Tesamen, Third Edition (Corrected) 1983 United Bible Societies, eds. K. Land, M. Black, C.M. Martini, B.M. Metzger, and A. Wikgren and derived, in part, from the machine-readable text created by Timothy and Barbara Friberg at the University Computer Center of the University of Minnesota. English quotations of the Bible are reproduced by permission from the Bible TM - K JV 1989 P.B. Payne. It contains the Xbig James Bible including the Apocrypha derived from the computer text in the archives of the Zondervan Corporation. Hebrew quotations of the Old Covenant are reproduced by permission from the MacHebrew ScripturesT " 1987 P.B. Payne. MacHebrew Scriptures contains the Bib/k Hebraica Stuttgartens, ed. K. Elliger and W. Rudolph (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1967/77) 1967, 1977 Deutsche B ibelgesellschaft/United Bible Societies. The machine-readable text of MacHebrew Scriptures was derived from the Michigan-Claremont BHS, the computer text produced initially under the direction of H. Van Dyke Parunak (then of the University of Michigan) and Richard E. Whitaker (representing Claremont Graduate School) with funding from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Revisions were coordinated by Whitaker with special support from the Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint Studies (CATSS) Project and its teams at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem under E. Toy, at the Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia under A. Groves, and at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The following special fonts were used in the preparation of this document: Graeca", Hebraica", IPA, and SemiticaM fonts which are available from Linguist's Software, Inc., P.O. Box 580, Edmonds, Washington 98020-0580, telephone (206) 775-1130. Beverly Hills-1.5 font which is available from ADH Software, P.O. Box 67129, Los Angeles, CA 90067-0129. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS INTRODUCTION - PREFORMATIONISM ... ....... t ... METHODOLOGY.. .... ... .f.. .11 RESULTS . ... r 6 The Book of the Work of Beginning (Genesis) . 23 The Conceptus (Genesis 1) . 25 The Embryo (Genesis 1:26) . ... ........ 34 The Uterus (Genesis 2) . 38 The Foetal Placental Circulatory System (Genesis 2:8) . 47 Severing the Umbilical Cord (Daniel 4:10) . 51 The Symbolism of the Umbilical Cord. 54 The Formation of the Placenta (Genesis 2:18-24) . 57 The Cause of Parturition (Genesis 3) . 61 The Caduceus . .. 63 The Placenta as a Model for Divine Communication . 66 ......................DISCUSSION72 .... GLOSSARY.. ... ... ......................... .76 REFERENCES. .. ... .. ............. .....79 iv LIST OF TABLES Table I. Modern Terminology for Genesis 1:1-2.. ............ 33 II. Modern Terminology for Genesis 2:8 .. 48 III. Modern Terminology for Genesis 2:21-23.......... 59 V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. The Homunculus Inside the Human Sperm. From a copy of a drawing by microscopist Nicolaus Hartsoker made in 1678. 5 2. The Bundle of Life. Reproduced from M. A. Murray, The Bundle of Life," Ancient Egypt, Vol. 65 (London University College, 1930), p. 5* . 11. 1 . 17 3. Egyptian Homunculus in the Great Egg. A prince or sun-god is surrounded by the Ouroboros, a serpent holding its own tail. Reproduced from Marshall Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1989), Vol. 1, Tome 2, p. 822. Drawing of a mortuary papyrus of Hirweben A. Cairo Museum. Dynasty 21. Reproduced from Hornung, Conceptions of Gd in Ancient Egypt, p. 164.. 18 4. Orphic Eros in the World Egg. A Hellenistic carnelian showing the egg has split open into heaven and earth. Repro- duced from A.B. Cook, Zeus, a Study n Ancient Religion, Vol. II (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1965), p. 1048, figure 9077. 20 5. Phanes Hatching from the Cosmic Egg. Drawing of a marble relief exhibited as No. 2676 in the Royal Museum in Modena. Reproduced from A.B. Cook, Zeus, a Study in Ancient Reli- gion, Vol. II (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1965), p. 1052, figure 909. 21 6. The Cosmos of the T k .. .. ... .. .. 26 7. A Biocosmos. A cutaway drawing of the human conceptss. 29 8. Comparison of a Biocosmos and the Hebrew Cosmos. Derived from Figures 6 and 7. r.31 9. Simplified Villous "Trees" of the Human Placenta Showing Fetal Circulation......... ......... .. 49 10. The World Tree. Elamite Pottery Design: The World Tree; Susa, Sassanian Period (The Louvre). Reproduced from Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God- Occidental Mythology (New York: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 11.. 55 vi 11. The Caduceus - Symbol of Modern Medicine.. 12. The Tree of Eternal Life. Mycenaean "Signet Ring of Nestor: The Tree of Eternal Life; Pylos, c. 1550-1500 B.C. Reproduced from Jose ph Campbell, The Masks of'God: Occidental MytAo/ogy (New York: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 51.. 67 vii INTRODUCTION - PREFORMATIONISM My hypothesis is that certain ancient texts currently classified as myths" are actually detailed descriptions of medical observations. I refer to such biomythological texts generally as biomyths. They are descriptions of biological phenomena akin to those found in modern biological or medical textbooks. These myths are essentially biological texts allegorized in meta- phorical language. Biomyths are commonly misinterpreted as the anthropo- morphization of a god or the deification of an ancestor. Whereas some creation myths are thought to refer to the creation of the World, the Cosmos, or the Universe, they actually describe not the creation of a physico-chemica/ macrocosmos but of a biochemical microcosmos - a biocosmos or biocosm. A biocosmos is a living thing, a self-contained, biological wor/d In amphibians, birds, fish, and insects, the biocosm is the egg. In plants, the biocosm is the seed. In animals and humans, the biocosm is the conceptus - the fertilized ovum and its products prior to birth, i.e., the amniotic membranes, fluid, embryo, umbilical cord, and placenta. In creation biomyths, the biocosm is generated by a father-god and a mother-god who taken together form a biocosmic egg. in the literature, this is termed the World Egg or Cosmic Egg. The parents are related to each other by blood. Either the father or the mother forms the "sky" and the other forms the "earth." Humanity, if not all organic life, is formed inside the egg and personified as the archetypal semi-divine ancestor, e.g., Adam, Anthropos, Marduk, Moses, Phanes, Purusha. Though he will eventually rival his I 2 parents, this androgynous "man" embodies a more restrictive creative ability. After some dramatic event, the "man" must leave his parents and subsequently begets or adopts a race of people. After an inhuman life span, he dies His descendants rule, or should rule, the land. He, his father, or his apotheosized son rules the heavenly biocosm. This scenario represents only an outline as there are literally hundreds of versions, some barely recognizable, from around the world. Because biomyths were originally oral, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other versions are now lost. Biomyths were originally composed for some practical purpose. An obvious example of biological information with a practical purpose is medicine, e.g., dentistry, obstetrics, psychology, surgery, and veterinary Biomyths would have been ideal for the training of preliterate and semi- literate practitioners of the medical arts. The biomyths identified to date deal exclusively with reproduction While reproduction is of obvious interest to any culture, it bordered on obsession in patrilineal (e.g., Semite) and matrilineal (e.g., Egyptian) cultures because it determines parentage, descent, and inheritance. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to the interpretation of myth as scientific record is the presumed lack of sophistication of ancient peoples, particularly in the sciences. While ancient societies are often characterized by reverence for their culture