THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

However, the Sitz is Egyptian as is made clear by a number of overlaps with
the magical papyri and Egyptian theology. With respect to the latter, there is the
vision of uroboros and the outer darkness, the Egyptian symbol of unending time set
against chaos, present especially in the New Kingdom; the sun and moon ships,
descriptions of the water Nun and Amente in the Pistis Sophia are also derived from
Egyptian thought; 30
finally, the creation of humankind from the tears of god, the
original homophonic connection drawn from the Egyptian rmt = man, and rmjt =
tears, as in the following Coffin Text:
It is with my sweat that I created the gods. Mankind is from the weeping of my
eye (CT 1130) 31
Book IV 333.14-17 of the Pistis Sophia continues this motif:
If, on the other hand, it is a new soul (which) they take from the sweat of the
archons, and from the tears of their eyes.... 32
The Egyptian legend of the eye of Re is to be strongly connected in other ways
with the Pistis Sophia. 33
In Book 1, chapters 20, 31, 32, 35, 58, and 81, Sophia is
described as being attracted to this great light; this, in turn, aroused the emulous
hatred of the archons below her level. The head archon here emanated his own great
light and Sophia mistakenly descends towards this without her partner. At this point
the great lion-faced archon Jaldabaoth and all his minions surround her, oppressing
her and attempting to steal her light. Sophia cries out for help in the form of a number
of “repentance’s”. The light-power she originally saw above is eventually despatched
to her aid, and she is brought up from Chaos. The Leyden demotic papyrus I 384 (not
the Leiden-London magical papyri), dated to the 2nd century C.E., describes the
departure of Tefnut, daughter of Re, to Ethiopia following her rejection of her partner.
Re sends Thoth in order to bring Tefnut back, for her absence has caused a disruption
in Egypt. Thoth finds her in the desert where she has been attacked by an Ethiopian
cat which subsequently changes into a lion. In the form of a baboon Thoth persuades
her to return to Egypt. This myth, which exists in fragmentary form in the Leiden
papyrus, is a derivation of the earlier story of the eye of Re, found in the tombs of Seti
I and Ramses III, in which the eye of Re is despatched in order to end humankind’s
revolt against himself. 34
The eye of Re accomplishes this in the form of Hathor who
30
Philippe Derchain, “Mythes et Dieux lunaires en Égypte,”in Sources Orientales V: La lune,
mythes, et rites, 17-68. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1962.
31
Leonard H. Lesko, The Ancient Egyptian Book of Two Ways (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1972), 130.
32
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. IX, 666. See also Kákosy, “Gnosis und Ägyptische
Religion.”
33
Frantisek Lexa, “La légende gnostique sur Pistis Sophia et le mythe ancien Égyptien sur
l’oeil de Ré,”Egyptian Religion I, no. 1-3, (April 1933). I am indebted to Lexa for this
connection. I link up this myth with the broader Valentinian myth in Chapter 12.
34
Erich Hornung, Der Ägyptische Mythos von der Himmelskuh. Also Kurt Sethe, “Zur
altägyptischen Sage vom Sonnenauge das in fer Ferne war,” in Untersuchungen zur