THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

this while professing “perfect indifference” to their efficacy. The answer lies in the
continuing effort to seek, that this indifference implies an openness to various options,
and is in fact akin to Skeptical ataraxia, the freedom from dogmatic bondage to either
contending viewpoints.
The social and literary realities underlying the rise of Gnosis in Egypt thus far
examined arise, in part, from the split within the priesthood in Egypt that occurred in
Ptolemaic times following the battle of Raphia in 217 B.C.E. The old tensions of
Upper and Lower Egypt, between the stronghold of Amun at Thebes and Ptah at
Memphis, continue on in this era. 64
The Memphite priesthood was accorded
substantial rewards for their pro-Ptolemaic stance and the marriage of the high priest
of Ptah, Psenptaïs, to Berenice, daughter of Euergetes II aptly reflected this union of
church and state. Berenice was the mother of high priest Petubastis (120-75 B.C.E.)
and it is clear that the assumption of theological power by a completely bilingual
high-priest with an Egyptian theologian for a father, and direct filial links to the
crown, furthered the already growing bonds between Alexandria and Memphis. It
seems to me that the change of venue for the regular priestly synods from Alexandria
to Memphis in 197 B.C.E. 65
was a signal development occurring in a time of complete
secession by the Thebaïd during the successful revolt of Ankhmakis. The Ptolemies
sought chthonic legitimacy through the political power of Memphis at a time of great
internal weakness. In the year following the relocation of the synod to Memphis one
can’t help concluding that those bodies of priests who did not join the secessionists in
the south were able, as a consequence, to dictate terms to the thirteen year-old
Epiphanes. 66
There is also the possibility that Ankhmakis’ father, Harmakhis, was the
same figure as the High Priest Harmakhis of Memphis, which underlines the fact that
the struggle for chthonic legitimacy by the Ptolemies required appeasing Memphis at
all costs. 67
That any High Priest could head off and set up a separatist kingdom must
have been the greatest fear of all Ptolemaic kings and queens. In this sense it is
perhaps incorrect to think of Psenptaïs marrying into the royal family – at least an
equally important dynamic at work was that of the royal family marrying into
Memphis.
The extensive Ptolemaic temples, built or restored from the Delta to the south
at large expense, extend in high relief through the Upper Egyptian heartland and are a
testament to Ptolemaic attempts at appeasement in the face of this proud intransigence
With the exception of Memphis, there is every suggestion that this appeasement more
64
Crawford, “Ptolemy, Ptah and Apis in Hellenistic Memphis,” 8.
65
Ibid., 19.
66
Crawford does not state this as strongly: “it seems unlikely that the thirteen year-old
Epiphanes was able to dictate a policy to the priests.” Crawford also notes that this decree
was likely composed initially in Egyptian (Ibid., 33).
67
Reymond develops this intriguing hypothesis in “Alexandria and Memphis,” 9. Harmakhis
became the fifth High Priest of Memphis in 217 B.C.E., the year of Egypt’s glorious
performance at the battle of Raphia. It is a curious coincidence in the extreme that the
earliest expression in proto-Coptic we have bears the epithet of this secessionist king as we
have seen in Chapter 6.