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The disciples of Lord Hermes in Petosiris and Nechepso
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THE DISCIPLES OF LORD HERMES IN PETOSIRIS AND NECHEPSO
In the known oldest references to the Thoth-Hermes literature, there has so far not been discovered anything that suggests the existence of a distinction between Hermes [Thoth] and Tat [Thoth]; but the absence of references proves little. Already, however, Nechepso and Petosiris, in the second century B. C., make Hermes the teacher of the younger God-disciples Anubis and Asclepius; in which connection it is of interest to note the following passage from a horoscope for the first year of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, 2 set up by the priests of Hermes at Thebes—the Greek of which is very faulty and evidently written by “Barbari”:
“After enquiry based on many books, handed down to us by the wise Ancients, the Chaldæ ans, —both Petosiris, and especially King Necheus [sic; i. e. Nechepso], in as much as they also took counsel of our Lord Hermes and of Asclepius, that is of Imouthē s, son of Hephē stus. . . . ” 3
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From this we learn that in the second century A. D. the writings of Petosiris and Nechepso, together with the “Chaldæ an Books, ” still formed part of the Temple Library at Thebes; moreover, that Petosiris and Nechepso, in the second century B. C., based themselves on these Books as well as on Books ascribed to both Hermes and Asclepius. Moreover, from the Fragments of Nechepso 1 we learn that he had before him a sermon of Asclepius called Moirogenesis, concerning the Genesis of Fate, and also Dialogues in which Hermes instructs Asclepius and Anubis concerning the mysteries of astrology. These Trismegistic works must thus be dated prior to the beginning of the second century B. C.
Sethe, in his essay on Asclepius-Imhotep, has endeavoured to show that this Imuth was originally a man, and that divine honours were first paid to him in the reign of Amā sis (Amō sis—Ȧ ā ḥ -mes), about 1700 B. C.
TOSOTHRUS-ASCLEPIUS
Manetho, however, tells us another story, when he writes of a certain king of the Third Dynasty (B. C. 3700): “Toso[r]thrus reigned twenty-nine years. He is called Asclepius by the Egyptians, for his medical knowledge. He built a house of hewn stones, and greatly patronised literature. ” 2
Tosothrus is Tcheser or Tcheser-sa (Doś er), the second king of the Third Dynasty from Memphis. The “house of hewn stones” which he built, received remarkable confirmation from the excavations which were carried out by the Prussian General Minutoli in 1819, 3 in the Step-Pyramid of Ṣ aḳ ḳ ā ra. This temple,
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says Budge (op. cit., i. 219) “is certainly the oldest of all the large buildings which have successfully resisted the action of wind and weather, and destruction by the hand of man. ”
In the Inscription of the Seven Famine Years, 1 moreover, belonging in its present form to the later Ptolemaic period, but a copy of a far more ancient record, we read, in Sethe’s restored Greek text:
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“Tosothrus, in whose days (lived) Imouthē s. He was considered by the Egyptians to be Asclepius because of his knowledge of the healing art; he discovered the art of building with hewn stones, and, moreover, occupied himself with literature. ”
We thus learn that long before Manetho’s time there was an Asclepian literature, and not only did this deal with medicine but also with scripture in general and with “masonry. ”
IMUTH-ASCLEPIUS THE MASTER MASON AND POET
That Asclepius was specially occupied with the sacred building-art, may be seen from Sethe’s study, whose industry has discovered a book on Temple-building ascribed to Imuth, a “Book that came from Heaven northwards from Memphis. ” It was according to this Book that Ptolemy X. (Soter II. ) and Ptolemy XI. (Alexander I. ) enlarged the building of their ancestors at Edfu, “in agreement with the writing concerning the plans of the Temple of Horus, which the chief prelector of the priests, Imhotp, the son of Ptaḥ, had written. ”
There were also certain very ancient Sermons (or Songs) of Imhotp, and a saying from one of these
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[paragraph continues] Sermons, the “Song from the House of King Intf, ” is given by Sethe as follows:
“I have heard the words of Imhotp and Hardadaf; they are still much spoken of, but where are their abodes? ”
Perhaps this explains the statement in S. H. I. (Stob., Ec., i. 49; W. p. 467, 4) that Asclepius-Imuth was the inventor of poetry. Imuth was to the Egyptians what Orpheus, Linus or Musæ us was to the Greeks.
And so Reitzenstein (p. 121) concludes that the tradition of the old Egyptian and Hellenistic literature is unbroken. In Hellenistic times this view of the Divine Son of Ptaḥ of Memphis and of his chief Shrine at Memphis spread widely, and his cult was extended to Thebes and even to Philæ. At Thebes he appears united with the Theban Thoth and his younger likeness or image Amenhotep—the twin-brother of Imhotep (Asclepius) Son of Hapu, who is said to have lived as a man under King Amenophis III. (Ȧ men-ḥ etep), 1450 B. C., and who tells us himself how he became acquainted with the “Book of God” and saw in vision the “Pre-eminence of Thoth. ” 1
The chief Temple of Asclepius at Memphis was still honoured in later times, and even in the days of Jerome its priesthood was renowned for its occult wisdom. 2
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