Through the Eras

Philosophyworld, even before death. A second important distinctionbetween Greek and Egyptian ideas was the wayknowledge of the gods could be acquired. In the Greekcult of Isis, knowledge of the goddess and release fromfate was achieved through the mystical trial of symbolicdeath and the revelation of viewing the sun at midnight.The Egyptians, however, stressed study as themeans of knowing truth. The Egyptian wisdom textsrepeat many times that studying with the philosopherswould lead to knowledge of maat (“right order”). TheEgyptians also stressed the importance of learning toread and studying the words of philosophers as the meansof enlightenment. There is no evidence that the Egyptiansbelieved in mystical revelation of knowledge in theGreek sense.THE FALL. Many secret Greek cults were based onthe premise that humanity had fallen from a previous paradise.According to these beliefs, people needed the cultsto be saved and thus regain access to paradise. It is possiblethat later Egyptian ideas communicated to the Greeksoriginated with The Book of the Heavenly Cow. This textfirst appears in the reign of Tutankhamun (1332–1322B.C.E.) after the Amarna Period (1352–1332 B.C.E.),when the Egyptians had briefly worshipped only the sundisc, the Aten. In this Egyptian version of mankind’s fall,man’s original state allowed people to have access to thesun’s light at all times. There was no night that separatedpeople on earth from the sun’s rays. Yet humansrebelled against the sun god. At first the sun god triedto kill all people by sending his fiery eye against humanity.In the end, a small group was saved, but they werepunished by having less access to the sun’s rays than theydid previously. Now the sun retreated on the back of theHeavenly Cow. Thus the Egyptians also believed that anoriginal paradise had been lost. Strife and death enteredthe world through people’s rebelliousness. These ideascontinued into later texts such as are found in the templeof the town of Esna. The Esna texts were written atthe same time as Greeks dominated Egypt. Thus theseGreek ideas might have found some inspiration in Egyptianideas.EGYPTIAN BASIS. Thus there does seem to be anEgyptian basis for many ideas propagated by the ancientGreeks about Egyptian spiritual knowledge. Clearly,however, the Greeks interpreted much of what they sawin ancient Egypt to conform with their own ideas of spirituality,philosophy, and secret knowledge. Though therewas an Egyptian basis for many Greek ideas about ancientEgypt, the Greeks’ distinctive interpretation led tomany modern views of Egypt as the land of mystery,spiritualism, and secret knowledge.HERODOTUS:Prime SourceHerodotus was a Greek historian who lived inthe fifth century B.C.E. His nine-book exploration ofthe causes of the war between Persia and Greece inthe fifth century led him to write about Egypt and itsrole in the Persian Empire. His study of Egypt is broad,investigating the antiquity of Egyptian civilization, thegeography of Egypt, the Nile and its behavior, andEgyptian manners and customs, especially religion.Herodotus took a special interest in anything he foundto be astonishing about Egyptian culture. For example,he expressed his wonder at the Egyptians’ architecturalachievements, describing buildings that modernpeople also found to be marvels, such as the pyramids.Yet he claims that King Khufu financed the buildingof the pyramids through his daughter’s acts of prostitution,a rather astonishing assertion. He also stressedEgypt’s invention of some aspect of culture, especiallywhen he thought that the Egyptians had inventedsome aspect of Greek culture. He assumed that anythingthe Egyptians invented that resembled Greekculture began first in Egypt, and then traveled toGreece. His work was repeated by Greek and thenRoman writers for centuries, leading to many falseideas about Egypt and its relationship to the classicalGreek and Roman world. Perhaps the most importantof these ideas was his equation of Egyptian and Greekdeities. Herodotus was the first to equate the Egyptiangod of writing, Thoth, with the Greek god Hermes.This equation eventually led to the Greek creationHermes Trismegistus or Thrice Great Hermes, a mythicalfigure that the Greeks credited with the inventionof astrology and alchemy, and the Egyptians creditedwith the invention of writing. Out of these ideas grewthe false impression that hieroglyphs were symbolsof philosophical ideas rather than representations ofordinary language like other writing systems. Thisidea resulted in centuries of misunderstanding untilJ.-F. Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822.The Greek vision of the Egyptians allowed manycommentators who followed to invent theories aboutthe Egyptians with no basis in empirical reality.SOURCESJan Assmann, Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom(New York: Kegan Paul International, 1995).Erik Hornung, The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on theWest (Ithica, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2001).SEE ALSO Literature: Egyptian Writing and LanguageArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 197