Amulet

An amulet is a spiritual object believed to confer protection or grace upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's Natural History describes as "an object that protects a person from trouble". Anything can function as an amulet; items commonly so used include statues, coins, drawings, plant parts, animal parts, and written words. The word phylactery is sometimes used as a general synonym likewise referring to any unspecified amulet, but also has a specific definition within Judaism. Certain amulets may also qualify more specifically as a devotional article, good luck charm, or even both in rare circumstances, but those categories represent only subsets of amulets (the proper, inclusive term).

Amulets are sometimes subdivided into two classes: those purported to carry extraordinary properties or impart fortune (these are typically part of folk religion including shades of paganism) and those that are not believed to have any inherent properties of their own without a qualifying faith or lifestyle (these are most common within Catholicism and usually involve a formal blessing by a clergyman). Lines in this area blur almost from the immediate outset: many from the latter group are not officially described as providing any preternatural benefit to a bearer who does not have an appropriate disposition or sacred objects of formalised mainstream religion as in Christianity, but the very text inscribed on others (such as the Brown Scapular) appear in conflict with this sanctioned definition (as do early practices involving the Green Scapular, which was believed to gain favor for someone of any faith if it was planted in their home by a member of the Catholic faithful, even secretly).

Talismans and amulets have interchangeable meanings. Amulets refer to any object which has the power to avert evil influences or ill luck. An amulet is an object that is generally worn for protection and made from a durable material (metal or hard-stone). Both amulets and talismans can be applied to paper examples as well. Amulets are sometimes confused with pendants, small aesthetic objects that hang from necklaces. Any given pendant may indeed be an amulet but so may any other object that purportedly protects its holder from danger.

The use of amulets (meket) was widespread among both living and dead ancient Egyptians. They were used for protection and as a means of "...reaffirming the fundamental fairness of the universe". The oldest amulets found are from the predynastic Badarian Period, and they persisted all the way through to Roman times.

Pregnant women would wear amulets depicting Taweret, the goddess of childbirth, to protect against miscarriage. The god Bes, who had the head of a lion and the body of a dwarf, was believed to be the protector of children. After giving birth, a mother would remove her Taweret amulet and put on a new amulet representing Bes.

Amulets depicted specific symbols, among the most common are the ankh and the Eye of Horus, which represented the new eye given to Horus by the god Thoth as a replacement for his old eye, which had been destroyed during a battle with Horus's uncle Seth. Amulets were often made to represent gods, animals or hieroglyphs. For example, the common amulet shape the scarab beetle is the emblem of the god Khepri.

The most common material for such amulets was a kind of ceramic known as Egyptian faience or tjehenet, but amulets were also made of stone, metal, bone, wood and gold. Phylacteries containing texts were another common form of amulet.

Like the Mesopotamians, the ancient Egyptians had no distinction between the categories magic and medicine. Indeed for them "...religion was a potent and legitimate tool for affecting magical cures". Each treatment was a complementary combination of practical medicine and magical spells. Magical spells against snakebite are the oldest magical remedies known from Egypt.