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
1 Kingship and the Gods, pp. 181-2; The Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt, pp. 209, 264;
Egyptian Myths, pp. 18-22. See also T. G. H. James, An Introduction to Ancient Egypt,
British Museum Publications, London, 1979, p. 125ff.
2 Cyril Aldred, Akhenaton, Abacus, London, 1968, p. 25: ‘It was believed that the gods
had ruled in Egypt after first making it perfect.’
3 Kingship and the Gods, pp. 153-5; Egyptian Myths, pp. 18-22; Egyptian Mysteries, pp.
8-11; New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology, pp. 10-28.
4 See Part IV.
5 Diodorus Siculus, volume I, p. 37.
6 Ibid.
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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
7 Mystic Places, Time-Life Books, 1987, p. 62.
8 Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt, p. 13; Egypt before the Pharaohs, pp. 27, 261.
9 New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology, p. 11.
10 Ibid., p. 13.
11 Ibid., pp. 14-15.
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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 quasitechnological 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
12 Ibid.
13 Hebrews 9:4. For details of the Ark’s baleful powers see Graham Hancock, The Sign
and the Seal, Mandarin, London, 1993, Chapter 12, p. 273ff.
14 Cited in Egyptian Myths, p. 44.
15 Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Magic, Kegan Paul, Trench, London, 1901, p. 5; The
Gods of the Egyptians, volume II, p. 214.
16 New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology, p. 27. If Set’s usurpation is included as a
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Frequently represented on temple and tomb walls as an ibis, or an ibisheaded 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 m 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
reign, we have seven divine pharaohs up to and including Thoth (i.e., Ra, Shu, Geb,
Osiris, Set, Horus, Thoth).
17 The Gods of the Egyptians, volume I, p. 400; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes,
Cambridge University Press, 1987, pp. 22-3. see also From Fetish to God in Ancient
Egypt, pp. 121-2; Egyptian Magic, pp. 128-9; New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology,
pp. 27-8.
18 Manetho, quoted by the neo-Platonist Iamblichus. See Peter Lemesurier, The Great
Pyramid Decoded, Element Books, 1989, p. 15; The Egyptian Hermes, p. 33.
19 See, for example, Diodorus Siculus, volume I, p. 53, where Thoth (under his Greek
name of Hermes) is described as being ‘endowed with unusual ingenuity for devising
things capable of improving the social life of man’.
20 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, volume II, p. 307.
21 Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, p. 179; New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology,
p. 16.
22 New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology, pp. 9-10, 16; Encyclopaedia of Ancient
Egypt, p. 44; The Gods of the Egyptians, volume II, pp. 130-1; From Fetish to God in
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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
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
Ancient Egypt, p. 190; Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, p. 230.
23 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, volume I, p. 2.
24 Chapter CXXV, cited in ibid., volume II, p. 81.
25 See Parts II and III for Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha. A good summary of Osiris’s
civilizing attributes is the New Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology, p. 16. See also
Diodorus Siculus, pp. 47-9; Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, volume I, pp. 1-12.
26 Diodorus Siculus, p. 53.
27 Ibid.; Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, volume I, p. 2.
28 Diodorus Siculus, p. 55.
29 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, volume I, p. 11.
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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