Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. You are about 15 years old and may be either male or female. Because your father or some other ancestor was a doctor, you wish to follow in their footsteps. Although not trained as a scribe, you also spent many years at a temple school, learning to read and write. The only difference is that you especially copied out medical papyri. One of the greatest doctors in your country's history is Imhotep, raised to the status as the god of medicine. You bow down before his statue every morning and offer him incense. Apart from being a brilliant doctor, Imhotep is also revered for another line of work. What other profession did he excel in?
2. Of vital importance is faithful worship of the goddess Sekhmet, portrayed as a lioness. According to myth, she was sent out into the world to wipe out mankind when they rebelled against the sungod. Equally, she worked at wiping out disease and war. The saying is 'who can kill can also cure'. As doctor, your title derives from the word for pain. What are you known as?
3. Newly qualified, you can choose to specialize in treating certain parts of the body such as eyes, head or stomach. Alternatively, you may decide to treat bad teeth, mix herbs or stitch up wounds. However, as newcomer you are a veritable jack-of-all-trades. Your first month is spent ridding houses of fleas and rats. Meanwhile the women of the village pester you for advice on what?
4. An elderly leader of your village suffers from an aching tooth. He summons you to his villa. The first thing you do is to recite a magic formula to expel 'the enemy who lives in the tooth'. A week later, the tooth is still painful. You mix ground up beans with willow bark and honey to apply it to the offending tooth. Alas, it has no effect. What is your final solution to the problem?
5. If you are a female doctor, you may well go into the field of obstetrics. You dispense advice on childbirth and contraceptives. The first known woman to train as a doctor dates from Imhotep's time. She ran a training school in the city of Sais and her title was 'lady overseer of the lady physicians'. Do you recall her name?
6. The chief priest of your village approaches you, confessing that he has an embarrassing problem. He is balding and asks you to make his hair grow back. You send him outside to catch a certain creature to bring to you. With the creature caught, you recite a few spells, make a paste and smear his head with it. What did you instruct him to catch?
7. In the event that none of your spells or herbs work on the suffering patient, you still have a loophole to save face. Diseases are divided into three categories. The third provides you with a way out of an impossible situation. What is your diagnosis?
8. The local builder was plastering the temple wall when he stepped back and tripped over the high priest's pet baboon. His assistants carry him to your door and implore you to help him. You diagnose a broken collarbone. While the builder groans in pain, you consult a medical papyrus before making a poultrice of grease and crushed ostrich eggshell. Why do you use eggshell?
9. You are taught not to simply assume disease to be random or incidental. There is the real possibility that the patients' enemies cast a spell on them to cause the illness. You prescribe natural remedies such as coriander, fennel, safflower and linseed oil to treat the symptoms. However, to break the spell you recommend patients to do what?
10. Because your only brother is ill with an untreatalbe disease, you refuse to give up on him. You send him to a nearby temple to spend the night there. Hopefully, the temple's god will appear to him in a dream and reveal a divine remedy. Added to that, your brother must pour water over a statue of the god Horus and then drink it. Why does the water become so potent?
Source: Author
sterretjie101
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
bloomsby before going online.
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