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Quiz about A Doctor in Egypt
Quiz about A Doctor in Egypt

A Doctor in Egypt Trivia Quiz


So, you wish you lived in another time and place and had a different job? Play this quiz to walk a mile in someone else's ancient Egyptian sandals.

A multiple-choice quiz by sterretjie101. Estimated time: 7 mins.
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Time
7 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
298,251
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
6 / 10
Plays
2241
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: Guest 75 (1/10), Guest 72 (4/10), Guest 99 (4/10).
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Question 1 of 10
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? Hint


Question 2 of 10
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? Hint


Question 3 of 10
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? Hint


Question 4 of 10
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? Hint


Question 5 of 10
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? Hint


Question 6 of 10
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? Hint


Question 7 of 10
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? Hint


Question 8 of 10
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? Hint


Question 9 of 10
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? Hint


Question 10 of 10
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? Hint



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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?

Answer: Architecture

Imhotep, who lived around 2650 BC, was adviser to pharaoh Djoser and designed his Step Pyramid, the forerunner of the famous Giza pyramids. As well as being the high priest in Heliopolis, he was a magician, astrologer and carpenter. He found a 'House of Life' in Memphis.
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?

Answer: He among those in pain

The Ebert Papyrus, bought in Luxor in 1873 states that the doctor's secret is learning how the heart works. Egyptians believed the heart to be the principal organ in the body with the brain of little importance.

Calamities that befell the ancients included snake bites, scorpion stings, common tuberculosis, pneumonia, smallpox, polio and malaria. Cancer may have been identified by the phrase 'the disease that eats the flesh'.
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?

Answer: All of them

Cosmetics played an important part in daily life, equally for men and women. Papyri advise on remedies to combat wrinkles by mixing turpentine and wax to apply to the face. More than 160 recipes for perfumes and unguents are known. Egyptians seemed surprisingly hygiene-conscious, especially among the upper classes but did not identify the presence of germs.
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?

Answer: Pull the tooth

Some doctors specialized in dentistry. Fillings and bridgework have been identified in mummies. Teeth were badly ground down by the desert sand found in bread, with particles of the mill stone in the flour.

A breath sweetener consisted of frankincense, myrrh and cinnamon boiled with honey. Chewing balls of natron had the same effect.
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?

Answer: Peseshet

Not much is known of female doctors but some of them were little more than glorified midwives. Obstetrics were fairly sophisticated with the ability to diagnose early pregnancy and also determine the gender of the child. For women who chose not to become pregnant, Arabian gum was used as birth control. The method is better left to the imagination.
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?

Answer: Hairless worm

Why the worm had to be hairless is still a mystery, but it was finely ground up and smeared on the head. Upper class Egyptians wore elaborate wigs to hide the fact that they shaved their heads to avoid head lice. Some wigs had tight braids while others sported generous curls. Wigs were made of real hair and some fine examples have been preserved in tombs.
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?

Answer: Untreatable

The categories were 'definitely curable', 'good chance of recovery' and finally, 'beyond human help'.

There were also categories of doctors. The common doctor was similar to a modern general practitioner, although a G.P. does not do cosmetics and pest control. Doctors known as 'the pure ones' performed surgery, while a higher category consisted of 'guardians'.

It is doubtful that 'guardians' started at the bottom and worked their way up the ranks. Doctors' status was determined by their social class at birth. In other words, doctors 'inherited' their professional rank from their father. Family traditions may have stretched back many generations.
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?

Answer: The bone must knit like seamless eggshell

In the case of a broken collarbone the doctor might have said: "You have a broken bone. Don't fear, I can treat it." Splints were made of rolled up linen, treated with honey.

The Edwin Smith papyrus, now housed in New York, is a treatise on orthopaedic surgery. It deals with 48 cases of wounds, dislocations and fractures. It consists exclusively of detailed cases, not mere theory. The origin of the treatise is attributed to a doctor who treated injuries of pyramid builders, possibly Imhotep himself. About 15 medical papyri have come to light so far.
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?

Answer: wear a protective amulet

Amulets were mostly small moulded faience symbols designed to ward off evil. Demons could also cause illness and were called 'those of the night'. The most popular amulets were the scarab of Khepri, the wedjat eye of Horus and the dyed pillar of Osiris.

Another interesting remedy was to lay hands on an animal and transfer the disease and any demons from the patient to the animal. Dogs seemed to be popular but unfortunate favourites of that practise.
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?

Answer: It is infused with spells

Called healing statues, they were covered in magic text. Pouring the water over the statue absorbed the power of the spells. By drinking the water, the spells entered the body and drove out the demons and the illness they carried.
Source: Author sterretjie101

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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