#WingedWordsWindsday: 2022/08/24 -- Happy Egyptian New Year on 8/29!

 

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 42: August 17, 2022

 

 

Happy Ancient Egyptian New Year on August 29!

 

“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.

 

“Imhotep: The World’s First Polymath”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

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

                According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, 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, which became Djoser’s final resting place. It was the largest building on Earth at that time and served as a prototype for all subsequent pyramid construction throughout Egypt’s long history.

                Imhotep was not only a capable administrator and 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 contained 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 to be added to the Egyptian pantheon as a demigod, 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 esoteric traditions about the origin of the cosmos and humankind’s place within it. In these treatises, Imhotep (as Asclepius) 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 his disciples for the benefit of human beings.

                Imhotep, history’s first known polymath, is a superb role model for today’s young scientists. Unwilling to lock himself up in an ivory tower or to hoard knowledge solely for himself, he freely shared his wisdom with others so that their lives could be enriched through architecture, education, medicine, science, and statecraft. Imhotep’s example also serves to remind 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!

 

Recommended Reading

·         http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/woe/index.htm à The Wisdom of the Egyptians by Brian Brown (1923) provides an introductory overview of ancient Egyptian history, mythology, philosophy, and science.

·         https://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/imhotep.html à Read an overview of Imhotep’s life and legacy at Ancient Egypt Online.

 

The Greek and Roman constellation Ophiuchus (above) was based on the legendary Greek physician Asclepius (fl. ca. 1250 BCE), who in turn was based on the ancient Egyptian physician Imhotep (fl. ca. 2700 BCE). Ophiuchus is depicted holding a serpent (the constellation Serpens, a symbol of healing, like the caduceus) in this illustration from Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London ca. 1825 by Sidney Hall. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“The Riddle of the Sphinx”

From Apollodorus of Athens (2^nd Century BCE): Bibliotheca 3.5.8

·         Question: "Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?"

·         Answer: "The human being — who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then uses a walking stick in old age.”

 

“The Sphinx”

By Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

The Sphinx is drowsy,

The wings are furled;

Her ear is heavy,

She broods on the world.

"Who'll tell me my secret,

The ages have kept?--

I awaited the seer,

While they slumbered and slept;--

 

"The fate of the man-child;

The meaning of man;

Known fruit of the unknown;

Daedalian plan;

Out of sleeping a waking,

Out of waking a sleep;

Life death overtaking;

Deep underneath deep?

 

"Erect as a sunbeam,

Upspringeth the palm;

The elephant browses,

Undaunted and calm;

In beautiful motion

The thrush plies his wings;

Kind leaves of his covert,

Your silence he sings.

 

"The waves, unashamed,

In difference sweet,

Play glad with the breezes,

Old playfellows meet;

The journeying atoms,

Primordial wholes,

Firmly draw, firmly drive,

By their animate poles.

 

"Sea, earth, air, sound, silence,

Plant, quadruped, bird,

By one music enchanted,

One deity stirred,--

Each the other adorning,

Accompany still;

Night veileth the morning,

The vapor the hill.

 

"The babe by its mother

Lies bathed in joy;

Glide its hours uncounted,--

The sun is its toy;

Shines the peace of all being,

Without cloud, in its eyes;

And the sum of the world

In soft miniature lies.

 

"But man crouches and blushes,

Absconds and conceals;

He creepeth and peepeth,

He palters and steals;

Infirm, melancholy,

Jealous glancing around,

An oaf, an accomplice,

He poisons the ground.

 

"Outspoke the great mother,

Beholding his fear;--

At the sound of her accents

Cold shuddered the sphere:--

'Who has drugged my boy's cup?

Who has mixed my boy's bread?

Who, with sadness and madness,

Has turned the man-child's head?'"

 

I heard a poet answer,

Aloud and cheerfully,

"Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges

Are pleasant songs to me.

Deep love lieth under

These pictures of time;

They fad in the light of

Their meaning sublime.

 

"The fiend that man harries

Is love of the Best;

Yawns the pit of the Dragon,

Lit by rays from the Blest.

The Lethe of nature

Can't trace him again,

Whose soul sees the perfect,

Which his eyes seek in vain.

 

"Profounder, profounder,

Man's spirit must dive;

To his aye-rolling orbit

No goal will arrive;

The heavens that now draw him

With sweetness untold,

Once found,--for new heavens

He spurneth the old.

 

"Pride ruined the angels,

Their shame them restores;

And the joy that is sweetest

Lurks in stings of remorse.

Have I a lover

Who is noble and free?--

I would he were nobler

Than to love me.

 

"Eterne alternation

Now follows, now flied;

And under pain, pleasure,--

Under pleasure, pain lies.

Love works at the centre,

Heart-heaving alway;

Forth speed the strong pulses

To the borders of day.

 

"Dull Sphinx, Jove keep thy five wits!

Thy sight is growing blear;

Rue, myrrh, and cummin for the Sphinx--

Her muddy eyes to clear!"--

The old Sphinx bit her thick lip,--

Said, "Who taught thee me to name?

I am thy spirit, yoke-fellow,

Of thine eye I am eyebeam.

 

"Thou art the unanswered question;

Couldst see they proper eye,

Alway it asketh, asketh;

And each answer is a lie.

So take thy quest through nature,

It through thousand natures ply;

Ask on, thou clothed eternity;

Time is the false reply."

 

Uprose the merry Sphinx,

And crouched no more in stone;

She melted into purple cloud,

She silvered in the moon;

She spired into a yellow flame;

She flowered in blossoms red;

She flowed into a foaming wave;

She stood Monadnoc's head.

 

Through a thousand voices

Spoke the universal dame:

"Who telleth one of my meanings,

Is master of all I am."

 

The Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt, constructed during the reign of Pharaoh Khafre in the 26^th century BCE. (Photo Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)