1,300-Year-Old Mysterious Texts of ‘Love Spell’ on Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Decoded by French Lecturer
A French University lecturer has decoded a 1,300-year-old Egyptian magic spell written on a piece of papyrus with an image showing two bird-like creatures, has baffled the experts.
The Ancient Egyptians who ruled a significant chunk of the world for thousands of years had left behind a rich legacy of art, architecture and mythology. They even left a few enduring mysteries that scholars and archaeologists are striving to solve. Believe it or not, magic too has a consistent grounding throughout, the way it was practised and applied changes with people and that is how Egyptian love spell existed. Today, where we try our luck on Tinder or read other dating advice articles to stay with your loved ones forever, lonely hearts in ancient Egypt would often turn to superstitions to change their fate. A French University lecturer has decoded a 1,300-year-old Egyptian magic spell written on a piece of papyrus with an image showing two bird-like creatures, has baffled the experts. Egypt Opens 4,000-Year-Old Tomb to Public in a Bid to Promote Tourism.
Korshi Dosoo, a lecturer at the University of Strasbourg in France, published the papyrus recently in the Journal of Coptic Studies. Dosoo estimates that it dates to around 1,300 years—a time when Christianity was widely practised in Egypt. According to Dosoo, the most striking feature of the papyrus is its image. It shows two winged creatures similar to birds and is connected to each other by a band, chain, or some even believe a penis. One of the creatures appears to poke its beak into the others where an outstretched arm surrounds the two. There is also some text on the papyrus which is written in Egyptian Coptic, which is still widely spoken. Egypt’s Mysterious 2000-Year-Old Sarcophagus Opened by Archaeologists! View Pics of Three Decomposed Mummies.
The fragments of the texts as explained in a Live Science report reads, “I call upon you … who is Christ the god of Israel …” The next part includes the words, “you will dissolve” and mentions “every child of Adam…,” who according to the Hebrew Bible refers to the first man on Earth and lived with a woman named Eve in the Garden of Eden before being expelled by God. It further stated that remains also mention Ahithophel, a man who betrayed King David. 2000-Year-Old Black Sarcophagus Tomb Discovered by Archaeologists in Egypt.
Korshi Dosoo further noted that there are subtle differences between the two-winged beings. One has to appear to be small horns or ears, which according to the French lecturer is an effort to show that the creatures are two different sexes. He stated that the figure on the right of the papyrus is a male and the one on the left is a female. Dosoo believes that the spell was probably used when a young man was unable to marry his beloved. As per the experts, there are Coptic literary texts that record that at the time young women were primarily limited to home and had to marry the one approved by their parents. In order to win the love, young men would seek the help of love spells.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 27, 2018 12:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).