Chapter 44
According to Heliopolitan theology, the nine original gods who appeared in Egypt in the First Time were Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Nepthys and Set. The offspring of these deities included well-known figures such as Horus and Anubis. In addition, other companies of gods were recognized, notably at Memphis and Hermopolis, where there were important and very ancient cults dedicated to Ptah and to Thoth.1 These First Time deities were all in one sense or another gods of creation who had given shape to chaos through their divine will. Out of that chaos they formed and populated the sacred land of Egypt,2 wherein, for many thousands of years, they ruled among men as divine pharaohs.3
What was ‘chaos’?
The Heliopolitan priests who spoke to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in the first century BC put forward the thought-provoking suggestion that ‘chaos’ was a flood – identified by Diodorus with the earth-destroying flood of Deucalion, the Greek Noah figure:4
In general, they say that if in the flood which occurred in the time of Deucalion most living things were destroyed, it is probable that the inhabitants of southern Egypt survived rather than any others … Or if, as some maintain, the destruction of living things was complete and the earth then brought forth again new forms of animals, nevertheless, even on such a supposition, the first genesis of living things fittingly attaches to this country …5
Why should Egypt have been so blessed? Diodorus was told that it had something to do with its geographical situation, with the great exposure of its southern regions to the heat of the sun, and with the vastly increased rainfall which the myths said the world had experienced in the aftermath of the universal deluge: ‘For when the moisture from the abundant rains which fell among other peoples was mingled with the intense heat which prevails in Egypt itself … the air became very well tempered for the first generation of all living things …’6
Curiously enough, Egypt does enjoy a special geographical situation: as is well known, the latitude and longitude lines which intersect just beside the Great Pyramid (30° north and 31° east) cross more dry land than any others.7 Curiously, too, at the end of the last Ice Age, when millions of square miles of glaciation were melting in northern Europe, when rising sea levels were flooding coastal areas all around the globe, and when the huge volume of extra moisture released into the atmosphere through the evaporation of the ice fields was being dumped as rain, Egypt benefited for several thousands of years from an exceptionally humid and fertile climate.8 It is not difficult to see how such a climate might indeed have been remembered as ‘well tempered for the first generation of all living things’.
The question therefore has to be asked: whose information about the past are we receiving from Diodorus, and is the apparently accurate description of Egypt’s lush climate at the end of the last Ice Age a coincidence, or is an extremely ancient tradition being transmitted to us here – a memory, perhaps, of the First Time?
Breath of the divine serpent
Ra was believed to have been the first king of the First Time and ancient myths say that as long as he remained young and vigorous he reigned peacefully. The passing years took their toll on him, however, and he is depicted at the end of his rule as an old, wrinkled, stumbling man with a trembling mouth from which saliva ceaselessly dribbles.9
Shu followed Ra as king on earth, but his reign was troubled by plots and conflicts. Although he vanquished his enemies he was in the end so ravaged by disease that even his most faithful followers revolted against him: ‘Weary of reigning, Shu abdicated in favour of his son Geb and took refuge in the skies after a terrifying tempest which lasted nine days …’10
Geb, the third divine pharaoh, duly succeeded Shu to the throne. His reign was also troubled and some of the myths describing what took place reflect the odd idiom of the Pyramid Texts in which a non-technical vocabulary seems to wrestle with complex technical and scientific imagery. For example, one particularly striking tradition speaks of a ‘golden box’ in which Ra had deposited a number of objects – described, respectively, as his ‘rod’ (or cane), a lock of his hair, and his uraeus (a rearing cobra with its hood extended, fashioned out of gold, which was worn on the royal head-dress).11
A powerful and dangerous talisman, this box, together with its bizarre contents, remained enclosed in a fortress on the ‘eastern frontier’ of Egypt until a great many years after Ra’s ascent to heaven. When Geb came to power he ordered that it should be brought to him and unsealed in his presence. In the instant that the box was opened a bolt of fire (described as the ‘breath of the divine serpent’) ushered from it, struck dead all Geb’s companions and gravely burned the god-king himself.12
It is tempting to wonder whether what we are confronted by here might not be a garbled account of a malfunctioning man-made device: a confused, awe-stricken recollection of a monstrous instrument devised by the scientists of a lost civilization. Weight is added to such extreme speculations when we remember that this is by no means the only golden box in the ancient world that functioned like a deadly and unpredictable machine. It has a number of quite unmissable similarities to the Hebrews’ enigmatic Ark of the Covenant (which also struck innocent people dead with bolts of fiery energy, which also was ‘overlaid round about with gold’, and which was said to have contained not only the two tablets of the Ten Commandments but ‘the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod.’)13
A proper look at the implications of all these weird and wonderful boxes (and of other ‘technological’ artefacts referred to in ancient traditions) is beyond the scope of this book. For our purposes here it is sufficient to note that a peculiar atmosphere of dangerous and quasi-technological wizardry seems to surround many of the gods of the Heliopolitan Ennead.
Isis, for example (wife and sister of Osiris and mother of Horus) carries a strong whiff of the science lab. According to the Chester Beatty Papyrus in the British Museum she was ‘a clever woman … more intelligent than countless gods … She was ignorant of nothing in heaven and earth.’14 Renowned for her skilful use of witchcraft and magic, Isis was particularly remembered by the Ancient Egyptians as ‘strong of tongue’, that is being in command of words of power ‘which she knew with correct pronunciation, and halted not in her speech, and was perfect both in giving the command and in saying the word’.15 In short, she was believed, by means of her voice alone, to be capable of bending reality and overriding the laws of physics.
These same powers, though perhaps in greater degree, were attributed to the wisdom god Thoth who although not a member of the Heliopolitan Ennead is recognized in the Turin Papyrus and other ancient records as the sixth (or sometimes as the seventh) divine pharaoh of Egypt.16 Frequently represented on temple and tomb walls as an ibis, or an ibis-headed man, Thoth was venerated as the regulative force responsible for all heavenly calculations and annotations, as the lord and multiplier of time, the inventor of the alphabet and the patron of magic. He was particularly associated with astronomy, mathematics, surveying and geometry, and was described as ‘he who reckons in heaven, the counter of the stars and the measurer of the earth’.17 He was also regarded as a deity who understood the mysteries of ‘all that is hidden under the heavenly vault’, and who had the ability to bestow wisdom on selected individuals. It was said that he had inscribed his knowledge in secret books and hidden these about the earth, intending that they should be sought for by future generations but found ‘only by the worthy’ – who were to use their discoveries for the benefit of mankind.18
What stands out most clearly about Thoth, therefore, in addition to his credentials as an ancient scientist, is his role as a benefactor and civilizer.19 In this respect he closely resembles his predecessor Osiris, the high god of the Pyramid Texts and the fourth divine pharaoh of Egypt, ‘whose name becometh Sah [Orion], whose leg is long, and his stride extended, the President of the Land of the South …’20
Osiris and the Lords of Eternity
Occasionally referred to in the texts as a neb tem, or ‘universal master’,21 Osiris is depicted as human but also superhuman, suffering but at the same time commanding. Moreover, he expresses his essential dualism by ruling in heaven (as the constellation of Orion) and on earth as a king among men. Like Viracocha in the Andes and Quetzalcoatl in Central America, his ways are subtle and mysterious. Like them, he is exceptionally tall and always depicted wearing the curved beard of divinity.22 And like them too, although he has supernatural powers at his disposal, he avoids the use of force wherever possible.23
We saw in Chapter Sixteen that Quetzalcoatl, the god-king of the Mexicans, was believed to have departed from Central America by sea, sailing away on a raft of serpents. It is therefore hard to avoid a sense of déjà vu when we read in the Egyptian Book of the Dead that the abode of Osiris also ‘rested on water’ and had walls made of ‘living serpents’.24 At the very least, the convergence of symbolism linking these two gods and two far-flung regions is striking.
There are other obvious parallels as well.
The central details of the story of Osiris have been recounted in earlier chapters and we need not go over them again. The reader will not have forgotten that this god – once again like Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha – was remembered principally as a benefactor of mankind, as a bringer of enlightenment and as a great civilizing leader.25 He was credited, for example, with having abolished cannibalism and was said to have introduced the Egyptians to agriculture – in particular to the cultivation of wheat and barley – and to have taught them the art of fashioning agricultural implements. Since he had an especial liking for fine wines (the myths do not say where he acquired this taste), he made a point of ‘teaching mankind the culture of the vine, as well as the way to harvest the grape and to store the wine …’26 In addition to the gifts of good living he brought to his subjects, Osiris helped to wean them ‘from their miserable and barbarous manners’ by providing them with a code of laws and inaugurating the cult of the gods in Egypt.27
When he had set everything in order, he handed over the control of the kingdom to Isis, quit Egypt for many years, and roamed about the world with the sole intention, Diodorus Siculus was told,
of visiting all the inhabited earth and teaching the race of men how to cultivate the vine and sow wheat and barley; for he supposed that if he made men give up their savagery and adopt a gentle manner of life he would receive immortal honours because of the magnitude of his benefactions …28
Osiris travelled first to Ethiopia, where he taught tillage and husbandry to the primitive hunter-gatherers he encountered. He also undertook a number of large-scale engineering and hydraulics works: ‘He built canals, with flood gates and regulators … he raised the river banks and took precautions to prevent the Nile from overflowing …’29 Later he made his way to Arabia and thence to India, where he established many cities. Moving on to Thrace he killed a barbarian king for refusing to adopt his system of government. This was out of character; in general, Osiris was remembered by the Egyptians for having
forced no man to carry out his instructions, but by means of gentle persuasion and an appeal to their reason he succeeded in inducing them to practise what he preached. Many of his wise counsels were imparted to his listeners in hymns and songs, which were sung to the accompaniment of instruments of music.’30
Once again the parallels with Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha are hard to avoid. During a time of darkness and chaos – quite possibly linked to a flood – a bearded god, or man, materializes in Egypt (or Bolivia, or Mexico). He is equipped with a wealth of practical and scientific skills, of the kind associated with mature and highly developed civilizations, which he uses unselfishly for the benefit of humanity. He is instinctively gentle but capable of great firmness when necessary. He is motivated by a strong sense of purpose and, after establishing his headquarters at Heliopolis (or Tiahuanaco, or Teotihuacan), he sets forth with a select band of companions to impose order and to reinstate the lost balance of the world.31
Leaving aside for the present the issue of whether we are dealing here with gods or men, with figments of the primitive imagination or with flesh-and-blood beings, the fact remains that the myths always speak of a company of civilizers: Viracocha has his ‘companions’, as have both Quetzalcoatl and Osiris. Sometimes there are fierce internal conflicts within these groups, and perhaps struggles for power: the battles between Seth and Horus, and between Tezcatilpoca and Quetzalcoatl are obvious examples. Moreover, whether the mythical events unfold in Central America, or in the Andes, or in Egypt, the upshot is also always pretty much the same: the civilizer is eventually plotted against and either driven out or killed.
The myths say that Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha never came back (although, as we have seen, their return to the Americas was expected at the time of the Spanish conquest). Osiris, on the other hand, did come back. Although he was murdered by Set soon after the completion of his worldwide mission to make men ‘give up their savagery’, he won eternal life through his resurrection in the constellation of Orion as the all-powerful god of the dead. Thereafter, judging souls and providing an immortal example of responsible and benevolent kingship, he dominated the religion (and the culture) of Ancient Egypt for the entire span of its known history.
Serene stability
Who can guess what the civilizations of the Andes and of Mexico might have achieved if they too had benefited from such powerful symbolic continuity. In this respect, however, Egypt is unique. Indeed, although the Pyramid Texts and other archaic sources recognize a period of disruption and attempted usurpation by Set (and his seventy-two ‘precessional’ conspirators), they also depict the transition to the reigns of Horus, Thoth and the later divine pharaohs as being relatively smooth and inevitable.
This transition was mimicked, through thousands of years, by the mortal kings of Egypt. From the beginning to the end, they saw themselves as the lineal descendants and living representatives of Horus, son of Osiris. As generation succeeded generation, it was supposed that each deceased pharaoh was reborn in the sky as ‘an Osiris’ and that each successor to the throne became a ‘Horus’.32
This simple, refined, and stable scheme was already fully evolved and in place at the beginning of the First Dynasty – around 3100 BC.33 Scholars accept this; the majority also accept that what we are dealing with here is a highly developed and sophisticated religion.34 Strangely, very few Egyptologists or archaeologists have questioned where and when this religion took shape.
Is it not to defy logic to suppose that well-rounded social and metaphysical ideas like those of the Osiris cult sprung up fully formed in 3100 BC, or that they could have taken such perfect shape in the 300 years which Egyptologists sometimes grudgingly allow for them to have done so?35 There must have been a far longer period of development than that, spread over several thousands rather than several hundreds of years. Moreover, as we have seen, every surviving record in which the Ancient Egyptians speak directly about their past asserts that their civilization was a legacy of ‘the gods’ who were ‘the first to hold sway in Egypt’.36
The records are not internally consistent: some attribute much greater antiquity to the civilization of Egypt than others. All, however, clearly and firmly direct our attention to an epoch far, far in the past – anything from 8000 to almost 40,000 years before the foundation of the First Dynasty.
Archaeologists insist that no material artefacts have ever been found in Egypt to suggest that an evolved civilization existed at such early dates, but this is not strictly true. As we saw in Part VI, a handful of objects and structures exist which have not yet been conclusively dated by any scientific means.
The ancient city of Abydos conceals one of the most extraordinary of these undatable enigmas …