Figure : Birthing Brick from South Abydos
Birthing bricks served both functional and spiritual roles in Ancient
Egyptian society. They were one of the many magical items used to
protect the mom and the infant during childbirth while also acting as a
physical support for a woman in labor. Birthing bricks often had images
decorating its faces. On this particular brick, the scene painted
depicts a mother, child, and two female attendants. It merges the two
stages of the birthing process: the delivery itself (shown through the
servants assisting the mother) and the successful birth (suggested by
the child playing in the mom’s arms).
This birthing brick makes many allusions to the supposed divinity of the
mortal mother. Firstly, the mother and child sit on a grand, divine
throne rather than the customary four-legged chair. The mother’s hair is
painted blue, which is a symbol of godliness in Egyptian art, and
matches the blue hair of the Hathor figures surrounding her (Hathor is
the goddess of fertility and birth). The baby boy the mother is holding
is presented with black hair, indicating that he is a mere human. This
presentation of the birth suggests that the artist thought the concepts
of delivery and motherhood to be of a divine nature. It is especially
telling that the mother’s and son’s hair colors differ, suggesting that
the mother’s divinity is independent of the child’s status. The birthing
brick indicates that Egyptians might have believed a pregnant woman to
have intrinsic, almost magical, power.
While at face value this newfound power might seem beneficial to women,
there is the possibility that ultimately, it isolates pregnant women
from the rest of society and pronounces their otherness. The strong
association between men and procreation made by the Egyptians renders
anyone else involved, such as the women, a subordinate and executor of
the man’s will. The divinity of the women portrayed in the South Abydos
birthing brick could stem from the fact that she is the vessel of the
godly man, or in other words, divine by proxy. In some sense, her
emphasized transition from mortal to divine serves to reinforce what
power she has lost because of the transition itself. While she is
divine, her identity becomes reduced to child-bearer rather than the
“storm”11Unknown, Instructions of Ptahhotep, 175. she once
was.