Healing in the Context of Regeneration and Sympathy the Reception of Egyptian Motifs in Byzantine Medical Literature

Abstract

 The Byzantine physician Alexander of Tralles reports quite a number of iatromagical therapies and healing amulets which very often recall Egyptian motifs. The main source for such a Byzantine reception of Egyptian motifs might be the graeco-egyptian papyri, the so called “texts of ritual power” and their tradition in late antique compilations like Cyranides and Testamentum Salomonis. Some examples of amulets cited by Alexander of Tralles concerning the motif of regeneration show the continuity of some Egyptian motifs during Byzantine and even until post-Byzantine times.