LiveScience.com posted a news story about a “love spell” inscribed in Coptic on papyrus dating to Late Antiquity, currently in the collection of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. While researchers are still debating the purpose of the spell, all agree that the visual images are quite striking, the main feature being a pair of bird-like creatures connected at their groins by a tube-like object. The article says in part:
“In the image, the winged creature on the left seems to be poking its beak into the open beak of its counterpart on the right — which also seems to have a nail through its head. A person’s outstretched arms surround the creatures.
“Both creatures are connected through what Dosoo said could be chains, bonds or a penis. The creature on the right has two ears (or horns), and both creatures have what look like feathers or scales on the front of their bodies. The small differences between the two creatures may be an attempt to show sex differentiation, Dosoo said, noting that the creature on the right may be a female and the one on the left a male.”
Read the entire piece:
https://www.livescience.com/63659-ancient-egyptian-magic-spell-deciphered.html.
