THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

third century B.C.E. Alexandria, 46
and a possible Zervanite influence upon the festival
of Kore-Aion held in Alexandria can be detected. 47
The village of Eleusis east of the
city was named after the site of the famous Eleusinian mysteries in Greece, and a
rather exuberant yearly festival was held there. 48
Isis is perhaps the best attested deity
in Ptolemaic Alexandria, and there may have been an earlier cult of Isis with its own
temple on the hill of Rakotis before the foundation of Alexandria. Judaism of course
was strongly present in the eastern part of the city, but evidence for non-
Egyptian/Greek deities is sparse, limited at present to Cybele, the Phrygian goddess of
fertility, referred to in Alexandria as “The Mother of the Gods and the Saviour who
hears our prayers” and “The Mother of the Gods, the Accessible One”. 49
Finally, it
seems certain that Buddhist emissaries from the Indian king Ashoka arrived in
Alexandria around 200 B.C.E., a period of mounting religious excitement in Egypt. 50
An important factor has to be the existence of mystery-cults in Alexandria,
and the cult of Isis must rank as the most important. The Hellenisation of this
Egyptian goddess resulted in her acceptance in the remotest corners of the Greek and
Roman worlds. In her most potent form here she manifests fate. Her declaration, “I
conquer Heimarmene. Heimarmene obeys me” powerfully anticipates the first person
address of the female speaker in the Gnostic The Thunder: Perfect Mind: “I am the
one who is called ‘the Truth,’ and ‘Iniquity.’” (20.7-8 51
) Both female figures in effect
refute the widespread belief in astrological determinism. The self-professed
oxymoronic qualities of the female speaker in the Gnostic text suggests the shift into a
46
According to Dioscorides: Fraser, 279. Also, “the statement that Hermippus, the pupil of
Callimachus, wrote a commentary on the writings of Zoroaster, if true, suggests that
translations of Persian texts were also available for study at the library.”Fraser, Ptolemaic
Alexandria, 330.
47
Zervanism was an offshoot of Zoroastrianism which focused upon a higher unity of Time
within which the dark and light principles (Ahura Mazda and Ahriman) were contained,
hence the perceived connection with the Greek Kore, and the Egyptian Aion.
48
According to Satyrus. Strabo condemns the “immoralities” practiced there by men and
women., and Walter Burkert, while admitting that the evidence is inconclusive, draws the
following conclusion: “it seems that the Alexandrian festival took place in a temple, without
previous initiation; it was not a mystery celebration but rather belonged to an Egyptian
setting.” See Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1987), 38. The question of course that is not answered here is whether or not there
was participation by Egyptians.
49
Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 277. There is a suggestion of influence here with the later
Gnostic myth of one of the primordial female aeons, sometimes called Ekklesia, or Barbelo,
referred to as “The Mother of the Aeons.”
50
Eddy, The King is Dead, 278.
51
Coptic transcription from The Coptic Gnostic Library, vol. XI: Nag Hammadi Codices V, 2-
5 & VI, ed. Douglas M. Parrott (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1979), 250. A compelling presentation of
the close affinity between various passages in this text and the sayings of Isis is presented by
Rose Horman Arthur in her book The Wisdom Goddess: Feminine Motifs in Eight Nag
Hammadi Documents (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1984).