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Footnotes. Of the Greek disciples of Egyptians and of Pythagoras and his symbols. 273:4 for this mystical Logos of Net (neith), the great Mother, Cf
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Footnotes
273: 1 Cf. M. L. ridellus, F. rideau, a curtain or veil.
273: 2 The technical term for the sitting statue of a god or goddess.
273: 3 ἀ π ε κ ά λ υ ψ ε ν —that is, no one within duality has expressed or shown that in which this aspect of feminine life veils itself.
273: 4 For this mystical logos of Net (Neith), the Great Mother, cf. Budge, op. cit., i. 459 f.
274: 1 H. flourished 550-475 B. C. A. was a town on the southern shore of Thrace.
274: 2 π ρ ο σ κ λ η τ ι κ ή ν. H. thus seems to suggest that it (? Amen) was a “word of power, ” a word of magic for evoking the ka of a person, or summoning it to appear. It does not seem very probable that the Egyptians shouted it after one another in the street.
OF THE GREEK DISCIPLES OF EGYPTIANS AND OF PYTHAGORAS AND HIS SYMBOLS
X. 1. And the most wise of the Greeks also are witnesses—Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxus, Pythagoras, and, as some say, Lycurgus as well—through coming to Egypt and associating with her priests.
2. And so they say that Eudoxus was hearer of Chonouphis 3 of Memphis, and Solon of Sonchis of Saï s, and Pythagoras of Œ nuphis of Heliopolis.
3. And the last especially, as it appears, being contemplated and contemplating, 4 brought back to the
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memory of his men their 1 symbolic and mysterious [art], containing their dogmas in dark sayings.
4. For most of the Pythagoric messages leave out nothing of what are called the hieroglyphic letters; for instance: “Eat not on what bears two”; 2 “Sit not down on measure”; 3 “Plant not phœ nix”; 4 “Stir not fire with knife 5 in house. ”
5. And, for myself at least, I think that his men’s calling the monad Apollo, 6 and the dyad Artemis, and the hebdomad Athena, and the first cube 7 Poseidon, also resembles those whose statues preside over the sacred places, and whose dramas are acted [there], yea and [the names] painted 8 [there as well].
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6. For they write the King and Lord, Osiris, 1 with “eye” and “sceptre. ” 2 But some interpret the name also as “many-eyed, ” since in the Egyptian tongue os means “many, ” and iri “eye. ”
7. And they write Heaven, as unageing through eternity, 3 with “heart, ” [that is] spirit, 4 [rising] from “altar” 5 underneath.
8. And at Thebes there used to be set up hand-less statues of judges, while the [statue] of the chief judge had its eyes tight shut, —seeing that Justice neither gives nor takes gift, and is not worked on.
9. And for the warriors, “scarab” was their seal-emblem; —for the scarab is not female, but all [scarabs] are male, 6 and they engender their seed into matter [or material] which they make into spheres, preparing a field not so much of nourishment 7 as of genesis.
Footnotes
274: 3 That is, presumably, Knouph or Knef.
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274: 4 θ α υ μ α σ θ ε ὶ ς κ α ὶ θ α υ μ ά σ α ς, passive and active of the verb of θ α ῦ μ α, generally translated “wonder, ” but meaning radically “look at with awe”; hence contemplate religiously (the art of θ ε ω ρ ί α ), and hence the Platonic (? Pythagorean) saying: “The beginning of philosophy is wonder. ” Compare the variants of the new-found Jesus logos (“Let not him who seeks, ” etc. ), which preserve both θ α μ β η θ ε ὶ ς and θ α υ μ ά σ α ς.
275: 1 That is, to the men of Greece the art of the Egyptians.
275: 2 ἐ π ὶ δ ί φ ρ ο ν (= δ ι -φ ό ρ ο ν )—variously translated “off a chair, ” “in a chariot, ” hence “on a journey. ” “That which bears two” is that which either carries two or brings forth two; the logos is thus, perhaps, a warning against falling into duality of any kind, and hence an injunction to contemplate unity.
275: 3 The χ ο ῖ ν ι ξ was a dry measure, the standard of a man’s (slave’s) daily allowance of corn. Hence, perhaps, in one sense the symbol may mean: “Be not content with your ‘daily bread’ only”; yet any meaning connected with “that which measures” would suit the interpretation, such as, “Best not on measure, but move in the unimmeasurable. ”
275: 4 φ ο ῖ ν ι ξ means a “Phœ nician” (as opposed to an Egyptian), a “date palm” (as opposed to a “pine”), and a “phœ nix”; in colour this was “purple red, ” “purple, ” or “crimson. ” The phœ nix proper rose again from its ashes; its colour was golden. φ υ τ ύ ε ι ν means “plant, ” but also “engender, ” “beget. ”
275: 5 μ ά χ α ι ρ α was, in Homeric times, the technical term for the sacred sacrificial knife—the knife that kills and divides the victim’s body, while the fire transmutes and consumes it. There may, perhaps, be some connection between the symbol and the gnomic couplet of Hesiod quoted above (iv. 3); it is, however, generally said to mean, “Do not provoke an angry man, ” but this leaves out of consideration the concluding words “in house. ”
275: 6 Cf. lxxv. 14.
275: 7 Presumably the ogdoad or eight.
275: 8 Or “written” or “engraved. ”
276: 1 Eg. Ȧ sȧ r.
276: 2 Generally a “throne” in the hieroglyphs. But for the numerous variants, see Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, ii. 113. Cf. li. 1 below.
276: 3 ἀ ϊ δ ι ό τ η τ α —lit., form-(or idea-) less-ness; transcending all forms.
276: 4 θ υ μ ὸ ν, one of the most primitive terms of Greek psychology—spirit or soul, or more generally life-principle.
276: 5 ἐ σ χ ά ρ α, an altar for burnt offerings; here probably symbolising Earth as the syzygy of Heaven.
276: 6 It is to be remembered that the “mark” of the warriors was their manliness (ix. 1).
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276: 7 Matter (ὕ λ η ) being the Nurse, “according to Plato. ” The legend was that the scarab beetle deposited its seed into dung which it first made into balls (lxxiv. 5).
ADVICE TO KLEA CONCERNING THE HIDDEN MEANING OF THE MYTHS
XI. 1. When, therefore, thou hearest the myth-sayings of the Egyptians concerning the Gods—wanderings and
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dismemberings, and many such passions 1—thou shouldst remember what has been said above, and think none of these things spoken as they [really] are in state and action.
2. For they do not call Hermes “Dog” as a proper name, but they associate the watching and waking from sleep of the animal, 2 who by knowing and not knowing determines friend from foe (as Plato says 3), with the most Logos-like of the Gods.
3. Nor do they think that the sun rises as a new-born babe from a lotus, but so they write “sun-rise, ” riddling the re-kindling of the sun from moist [elements]. 4
4. Moreover, they called the most crude and awesome King of the Persians (Ō chus) 5—who killed many and finally cut the throat of Apis and made a hearty meal off him with his friends—“Knife, ” 6 and they call him so unto this day in the Catalogue 7 of their kings, —not, of course, signifying his essence by its proper name, 8 but likening the hardness of his mood 9 to an instrument of slaughter.
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5. So too shalt thou, if thou hearest and receivest the [mysteries] about the Gods from those who interpret the myth purely and according to the love of wisdom, and if thou doest ever and keepest carefully the customs observed by the priests, and if thou thinkest that thou wilt offer neither sacrifice nor act more pleasing to the Gods than the holding a true view concerning them, —thou shalt escape an ill no less than being-without-the-gods, 1 [that is to say] the fearing-of-the-daimones. 2
XII. 1. The myth which is told is—in its very shortest possible [elements], after the purely useless and superfluous have been removed—as follows:
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