Fig

The Fig in Ancient Egypt


 * Egyptian Name:**

//D'b// (Common Fig)

//K'w// or //Knti// (Sycamore Fig)

Both the Common Fig and the Sycamore Fig were known in ancient Egypt from the earliest times, and figs are one of the most common fruits depicted in reliefs and tomb paintings. High in sugar and protein, figs were eaten fresh or dried, pressed to make wine, and were used in cooking (for instance, to stuff geese and other animals.) Fig wine was likened to flame for the way it burned the throat.

Medically, figs were used as a laxative, and the leaves were used for "cooling a broken bone." A recipe to treat scorpion stings calls for cinnamon oil to be mixed with bruised green figs. Actual figs or pottery models were buried with the dead, and the resurrected pharaoh was known as "one of the four gods who lives on figs and who drinks wine."

According to a biographical text, a 3rd Dynasty nobleman named Methen had rows of fig trees planted alongside his house. It is recorded that Ramses III offered 15,500 baskets of figs to the Temple of Amun-Ra. Figs were a favorite food of the sacred baboons of the god Thoth. During festivals of Thoth, figs were eaten, dipped in honey.

The Israelite exiles longed for figs: ". . . and wherefore have ye made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us unto this evil place? There is no grain, no figs, no grapes, no pomegranates, and no water to drink!" (Numbers 20, 5)

Fruit of Ancient Egypt