Happy Egyptian New Year! :)

Hello everyone –

Next Monday, August 29^th, is New Year’s Day in the Coptic (ancient Egyptian) calendar! To commemorate this auspicious occasion, I’d like to share with you a poem about the genius of ancient Egypt and an article that I wrote a few years ago about the first known scientist in recorded history – he was, of course, an Egyptian!

Hermes Trismegistus was a legendary Egyptian sage from hoary antiquity.  The celestial globe and the caduceus signify his mastery of astronomy and medicine, respectively. (Image Credit: Public Domain)

“Egypt” (1882)

By Gerald Massey (1828-1907)

Egypt!  How I have dwelt with you in dreams,

So long, so intimately, that it seems

As if you had borne me; though I could not know

It was so many thousand years ago!

And in my gropings darkly underground

The long-lost memory at last is found

Of motherhood – you mother of us all!

And to my fellowmen I must recall

The memory too; that common motherhood

May help to make the common brotherhood.

Egypt!  It lies there in the far-off past,

Opening with depths profound and growths as vast

As the great valley of Yosemite;

The birthplace out of darkness into day;

The shaping matrix of the human mind;

The cradle and the nursery of our kind.

This was the land created from the flood,

The land of Atum, made of the red mud,

Where Num sat in his Teba throned on high,

And saw the deluge once a year go by,

Each brimming with the blessing that it brought,

And by that waterway, in Egypt’s thought,

The gods descended; but they never hurled

The deluge that should desolate the world.

There the vast hewers of the early time

Built, as if that way they would surely climb

The heavens, and left their labors without name –

Colossal as their carelessness of fame –

Sole likeness of themselves – that heavenward

Forever look with statuesque regard,

As if some vision of the eternal grown

Petrific, was forever fixed in stone!

They watched the moon re-orb, the stars go round,

And drew the circle; thought’s primordial bound.

The heavens looked into them with living eyes

To kindle starry thoughts in other skies,

For us reflected in the image-scroll,

That night by night the stars for aye unroll.

The royal heads of language bow them down

To lay in Egypt’s lap each borrowed crown.

The glory of Greece was but the afterglow

Of her forgotten greatness lying low;

Her hieroglyphics buried dark as night,

Or coal deposits filled with future light,

Are mines of meaning; by their light we see

Through many an overshadowing mystery.

The nursing Nile is living Egypt still,

And as her lowlands with its freshness fill,

And heave with double-breasted bounteousness,

So doth the old hidden source of mind yet bless

The nations; secretly she brought to birth,

And Egypt still enriches all the earth.

February 2013 Leadership Reflection:

Leaders and Innovators: Past and Future

        Everything in humankind’s present is connected to something in our collective past. We wouldn’t be cooking with microwave ovens, using word-processing software, or watching DVDs on our big-screen TVs without a long line of inventors and innovators behind us, with each generation of innovators building on the discoveries of their predecessors. Innovators, of course, are leaders extraordinaire – people who step out in front of the crowd and say, “We can do this task more efficiently if we can do it differently. Here’s how!”

        We can be leaders and innovators now, right here on campus, and we can also support those leaders and innovators of the rising generation through our daily professional work. On busy, hectic days, however, we might sometimes wonder if our efforts to help students navigate through the academic system will pay off eventually. Of course, the answer is most certainly YES! We can never know who the next world-changing innovative leader will be – perhaps a student that you met only yesterday will become a great leader in her or his field of study someday, and you will have had the privilege to help this person out! Exercising leadership in our everyday environment here at the University of Illinois can be a very exciting enterprise if we look at it in this way. J

        Here is a story that I wrote for the ACES James Scholars five years ago, which illustrates how innovative leaders can rise from obscure beginnings to great heights of positive influence that can send ripple effects into the future for millennia to come. It also teaches us to value people for who they truly are – and who they may yet become.

Meet Dr. Imhotep: History’s First Polymath

Adapted & Condensed from Cursus Honorum (Course of Honors) VIII: 9 (May/June 2008)

        According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/), a polymath is a person of encyclopedic learning, and the first polymath in recorded history is Imhotep (fl. 27th century BCE), an Egyptian scientist who was greatly revered both during and after his lifetime. Born a commoner, he rose through the ranks of Egyptian society through his profound learning in many fields of study until he was appointed grand vizier (prime minister) to Pharaoh Djoser, the best-known king of Egypt’s Third Dynasty. Djoser commissioned Imhotep to build a splendid royal tomb, and what resulted was the first Egyptian pyramid – the Step Pyramid at Saqqara. It was the largest building of its time and served as a prototype for all subsequent pyramid construction throughout Egypt’s long history.

        Imhotep was not only an innovative architect; he also served as High Priest of Heliopolis, a chief city of the realm. A major aspect of his priestly occupation was the practice of medicine, which included herbal remedies as well as highly advanced surgical techniques. Imhotep recorded his vast knowledge of the surgical arts in a treatise preserved on the Edwin Smith Papyrus, thus preserving his knowledge for future generations.

        Imhotep’s dedication to the healing arts led to a profound reverence for his memory among the Egyptian populace. Within a few centuries of his death, he became the first mortal added to the Egyptian pantheon, and he served as the prototype for the Greek demigod Asclepius – who, like Imhotep, was regarded as a divine patron of medical science. As Asclepius, Imhotep also appeared in the Hermetic literature of late antiquity, which preserved Egyptian traditions about the origin of the cosmos and humankind’s place within it. In these treatises, Imhotep is a dialogue partner of Hermes Trismegistus (the Greek version of the Egyptian deity Thoth), a legendary alchemist, physician, and astronomer who transmitted his knowledge to Asclepius/Imhotep for the benefit of human beings.

        Imhotep, history’s first known polymath, is a superb role model for today’s budding young scholars. Unwilling to lock himself up in an ivory tower or to hoard knowledge solely for its own sake, he freely shared his wisdom with others so that their lives could be enriched through architecture, education, government, medicine, and science. Imhotep also reminds us that no matter what field of study we may choose to specialize in, it is important to acquire a good working knowledge of several subjects so that we can wear many hats throughout our lifetime and be as useful as possible to our society. As long as we read his books and follow his example, Imhotep will live on in human memory as our history continues to unfold – even though his tomb remains undiscovered to this very day!

“[Humankind] will pursue the inmost secrets of Nature even into the heights and will study the motions of the sky. Nor is this enough; when nothing yet remains to be known than the farthest boundary of Earth, they will seek even there the last extremities of Night.”

à Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius, from a Dialogue Preserved in Heart of the Cosmos (Hermetic Tractate, Early 1st Millennium CE)

Webliography

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imhotep à This is a fact-filled biographical sketch of Imhotep compiled by the editors of Wikipedia.
• http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/woe/index.htm à The Wisdom of the Egyptians by Brian Brown (1923) provides a nontechnical overview of Egyptian mythology and philosophy, including the Hermetic tradition.
• http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/imhotep.htm à Here is an illustrated, edutaining essay about Imhotep and his legacy from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism.

Until next time –

Rob :)