Some Curiosities of Yesterday

The woman of today is lucky because she can know at once whether she is pregnant or not. But before? What did they do to be sure? The women of Egypt 3,500 years ago, like those of today, wanted to know right away the sex of the baby that was going to be born. From the papyri we understand what they did. They took 2 dishes, putting barley in one and wheat in the other, and emptied their urine into these dishes. If the barley sprouted, it meant she would have a boy. If the dish of wheat sprouted, it meant the baby to be born would be a girl. There are more than 12 papyrus sheets that tell us of these tests by women curious to know the sex of the baby to come.

The papyrus fragments also tell us the other ways of knowing whether the baby would be a boy or a girl. If the future mother craves a lot of sweets, a girl will be born. But if she eats a lot of garlic and has a healthy look, it will be a boy, and if the pregnant woman's eyes grow larger, it will also be a boy. But if she gets spots, a girl will be born. The national health institute of Egypt confirmed in 1963 that 70% of the tests with barley and wheat came out positive. And this makes us think that the experiments of 3,500 years ago were almost correct. The ink of the ancient Egyptians tells us that they had a very advanced technology.

This ink contained copper and was not carbon-based, as everyone who studied the papyri until now believed. Researchers always believed that all ink was made only with carbon. What the Egyptian scribes (soferim) used was a discovery by the University of Copenhagen. Note that 'papyrus' gave us what we call today 'paper'. To make the sheets of the 'papyrus plant' they took the pith (ilik) of the plant, which also served to make boats, ropes, mats, sandals and baskets. The root of the papyrus served to make medicines and perfumes. The University of Copenhagen says it is thanks to the copper that the ink on the papyrus fragments did not disappear.

Dionysus was the god of wine. Dionysus in Greek means born twice. According to Greek mythology, Zeus fell in love with Semele. Zeus's wife, Hera, was very jealous. She went to Semele and told her to ask her lover, Zeus, not to change form when they were to meet, and to show himself to her as he really was. Zeus in his natural state was a lightning bolt (şimşek), and indeed Semele obliged Zeus not to change when he came to make love to her. Zeus did what Semele asked, and she vanished the moment Zeus approached her. A dramatic situation, because Semele was pregnant.

Zeus at once took the baby before it died and put it in his thigh, where it was incubated for some months. When the time came to be born, it was born from Zeus's thigh. That is how it took the name 'Dionysus', 'born twice'. Dionysus became the symbol of reincarnation, and reincarnation is the symbol of rebirth — that is, of spring. This is celebrated with dancing and drinking wine, almost like 'ad lo yada'. It is from this pagan tradition that we have today what we call 'Carnival': the Carnival of Rio, the Carnival of Venice, and more. And Purim falls in the same season. At the end of the Carnival they sacrificed animals to offer to the gods and afterwards judged the author of the sacrifice.

The author of the sacrifice was the sharpened knife that had served for the slaughter. To punish the knife, they threw it into the sea. So much for another curiosity of the past.

In the Roman period, when one was invited to eat at another's house, one had to bring a napkin to make a bundle in which to put the food left over, to give to the slaves of one's own house. If the master did not bring back this bundle, the slave had the right to complain, because the slave was the master of the kitchen.

Something that seems curious to us today is the public 'latrines' (toilets) that men used. The 'latrines', more than out of necessity, also served for socializing, for talking with one's neighbours, learning the news of the day, giving one's opinion and meeting friends.

In Ephesus we have a very ornate latrine. Beneath the seat water always ran, cleaning the place. The goddess who watched over the latrines was the goddess Fortuna. So the men knew they were not going to fall ill.

Ostracism: a curiosity of ancient Greece was to expel a person believed to be against the state, or to prevent leaders who might in the long run become dictators. This was called ostracism and obliged the expelled person to stay 10 years away from his city or country. It was a way of avoiding a dictatorship. This ancient custom would be a good example if it were practised on certain rulers of various countries of our time.

Another curiosity is the famous army of ancient China, where all the soldiers, in the form of statues, were made of clay, and each of these thousands of statues of soldiers has a different form, no one resembling another.

Some are on horseback, others like infantry going on foot. These statues of soldiers, discovered in 1974, were all buried. The soldiers belonged to the emperor Qin Shi Huang, who lived around 210 before our era, in the city of Xi'an. The large statues represented the generals, meaning that each statue, depending on its role, had a different size (boy). There were even soldiers on war chariots, all made of terracotta, or clay. In total, more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 war chariots, 520 horses. The reason this army was made, it is said, was either to defend the emperor in the world of the dead, or that the emperor wanted to show his power and glory.

It is also said they were made in place of human sacrifices. Heads, arms, hands and feet were prepared and fitted one by one. Most of these statues are perfectly preserved.