Christmas Lecture
17/12/2015
Christmas Lecture: Deciphering the secrets of Imsety

Dr. Malu Martínez Chantar

CIC bioGUNE

The relevance of the liver as a key component of the human body has been recognized since the dawn of civilization. Egyptians believed that, before mummifying the body, the storage of the liver in a Canopic jar under the custody of Imsety, one of the four sons of Horus and Isis, would protect the deceased. Similarly, the ancient Greeks considered the liver as the repository of the soul and intelligence. The immortality of the soul dovetails the liver prodigious recuperative powers. In fact, the myth of Prometheus revealed that the ancient Greeks knew about the phenomenon of hepatic regrowth. Indeed, one of the oldest and most widespread methods of predicting the future, from primitive cultures through several early civilizations, consisted on omen readings within the marks present in the liver of animals offered as a sacrifice to the gods.neoftheoldestandmostwidespreadmethodsofpredictingthefuture,fromprimitiveculturesthroughseveralearlycivilizations,consistedonomenreadingswithinthemarkspresentintheliverofanimalsofferedasasacrificetothegods.