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A note on The Reversed Hand in Ancient Egypt

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

التاريخ والنقد ونظرية الفنون

Abstract

It is known that the ancient Egyptian art has lots of examples that depict the right hand identical to the left one. So, some human figures appeared as if they have two left hands. My note tries to explain this feature which I hold that it intended to banish expected and imagined evils. For this purpose, my explanation stands for the connection between the concept of reversing and that of banishing, evils or goods, in ancient Egyptian thoughts as well as the left side symbolism that often linked to negative notions
It is outstanding that the modern Egyptians name the magic which aims to reverse the bad intentions of its doer on himself: “the reverses = عكوسات". They also use the same term to describe this magic which is responsible of reversing, i.e., disabling one's normal life, so they believe in stopping these “reverses" through a reversed magic, such as wearing one's clothes in a reversed way. That was based on: the reverse encounters the reverse to banish it. I believe that the same concept controlled the ancient Egyptian thoughts that created such reversed hand depictions which intently put in a closer side to the viewer not far away of his sight.
In conclusion, the ancient Egyptian adopted the reversed hand depictions, as a reversed magic hidden in an artistic expression, to banish any form of negativity

DOI

10.21608/shak.2024.305571.1664

Keywords

reversed hand, reversed magic, left hand, Evils, Negative

Authors

First Name

عبد المنعم محمد عبد المنعم مجاهد

Last Name

مجاهد

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

جامعة دمنهور

Email

abdelmoneam.mougahed@art.dmu.edu.eg

City

الاسکندرية

Orcid

-

Volume

31

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

51036

Issue Date

2024-06-01

Receive Date

2024-07-18

Publish Date

2024-07-01

Page Start

367

Page End

368

Print ISSN

2314-7431

Online ISSN

2682-4868

Link

https://shak.journals.ekb.eg/article_394061.html

Detail API

https://shak.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=394061

Order

394,061

Type

المقالة الأصلية

Type Code

1,599

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

مجلة الدراسات الإنسانية والأدبية

Publication Link

https://shak.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

A note on The Reversed Hand in Ancient Egypt

Details

Type

Article

Created At

28 Dec 2024