Through the Eras

PhilosophyEGYPTIANMagicThe Egyptian god Thoth in the form of a baboon, protecting aroyal scribe. THE GRANGER COLLECTION, NEW YORK.Because of this Greek belief, a wide variety of moderntruth seekers have looked to the Egyptians for inspiration.They include the freemasons, Rosicrucians,theosophists, anthroposophists, and Afrocentrists. Thesegroups share a belief that the Egyptians both createdthe first civilization and that their knowledge has onlyrecently been rediscovered by modern science. Many ofthese modern groups also believe that Egyptian spiritualknowledge far exceeded the knowledge that can begleaned from the surface of hieroglyphic texts. Thoughmost nineteenth and twentieth century C.E. Egyptologistsrejected this approach to Egyptian culture, a scientific,rationalist, and text-based study of Egyptianspiritualism has recently added Egyptological knowledgeto the mix of data on Egyptian secret knowledge. TheEgyptologists Jan Assmann and Erik Hornung made importantcontributions to this debate, finding the roots ofthe idea of secret knowledge in Egyptian society itself.The story of Setne Khamwas was written in thePtolemaic Period (332–30 B.C.E.). It tells the story ofthe struggle between Setne Khamwas and the magicianNaneferkaptah for possession of a book of magicwritten by the god Thoth. Naneferkaptah had takenthe book with him to his grave. Setne Khamwasthen stole it from the tomb. This story and perhapsothers like it no longer preserved possibly shaped theGreek view of the Egyptians as great magicians. Thestory stresses that mankind has access to magic, butonly the gods know the ultimate secrets of life. WhenSetne attempts to learn through magic more detailsabout the afterlife than should be available to peopleon earth, his children die. The gods punish him fortrying to know too much. Because Setne was exploringa book said to be written by Thoth, it connectswith Greek ideas that Egyptian magic stems from thegod they believed was Thoth’s equivalent in their ownculture, Hermes Trismegistus. Greek writers regularlymisinterpreted Egyptian stories to create a philosophycalled Hermeticism that they believed was Egyptian,but in fact was a Greek misinterpretation of Egyptianculture.THOTH. In the Old Kingdom (2675–2170 B.C.E.)the Egyptians regarded the god Thoth as a violent deitywho helped the king defeat enemies. But in the MiddleKingdom (2008–1630 B.C.E.) the Egyptians identifiedThoth as the author of The Book of the Two Ways, a textthat described the afterlife. All preserved copies of thistext come from the town of Hermopolis in central Egypt.There the local deity was Thoth and thus he receivedcredit for this first statement of knowledge of the nextlife. The Coffin Texts—spells inscribed on Middle Kingdomcoffins—refer to the “divine books of Thoth” andto this god as the “lord of wisdom.” In the New Kingdom(1539–1075 B.C.E.) Thoth continued to develop asa god of culture and invention. The Egyptians regardedThoth as the author of many sacred writings. In the Bookof the Dead—spells meant to guide the deceased to thenext life—the deceased identified himself with Thothand claimed that knowledge justified his entrance to theafterlife. Thoth was regularly the other gods’ scribe, responsiblefor divine documents, letters, and decrees. TheEgyptians now described Thoth as “lord of divinewords,” that is, the hieroglyphic writing system. Thothbecame responsible for regulating the calendar andmeasuring time. At the judgment of the dead, Thothrecorded the final verdict for each individual. In general,Thoth was increasingly viewed as the god who controlledknowledge and the recording of knowledge, and hencewas also the ruler of philosophy.THOTH AND AKHENATEN. Though King Akhenaten(1352–1336 B.C.E.) banned the worship of all godsexcept for Aten, the disc of the sun, his new capital atAmarna was located in Thoth’s home province. Perhapsfor that reason, a statue now excavated in Amarna showsa scribe sitting at Thoth’s feet recording his wisdom. The194 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)