Egyptian religious poetry

INTRODUCTION 47

there is evidence that the theory of the Logos was already evolved. “The lips of King Pepy are the two Enneads ; Pepy is the great Word” [P.T., Spr., 506]. And again King Pepy is said to create by speaking: “ Pepy is the scribe of the gods, saying that which is and creating that which is not” [P.T., Spr., 510]. This is the theory of the Word of God as the creative power ; and as the King was the God Incarnate, the theory of the Word made flesh is also clearly developed. That this was not an accidental and passing theory is shown by an inscription, which though actually dating to the time of the Ethiopian king Shabaka (circa 750 B.c.), was copied from a much earlier text, one probably belonging to the xviiith dynasty (circa 1550), about seven centuries earlier. It is obvious that the theory was being taught orally, and was only rarely committed to writing. It was probably known only to initiates and was not part of the faith of the common people.

The inscription in question concerns the god Ptah of Memphis :

Ptah the Great is the Mind and Tongue, integral parts of the god Atum. Ptah, the very great, from whom proceeded the gods and their powers, is both the Mind and the Tongue ; Thoth proceeded from the Mind, and Horus from the Tongue, that is to say, from Prah who is the power of Mind and Tongue. He is the origin of every concrete form, of every language, of all gods, of all mankind, of all animals and all reptiles that live, meditating on and commanding all things as he wills... . When the eyes see, the ears hear, and the nose breathes the air, they transmit to the Mind. It is the Mind which brings every matter to a successful issue, but it is the Tongue which repeats the thought of the Mind. It was the Mind that fashioned the gods, even Atum and his Ennead, for every divine Word came into being as the thought of the Mind and as the command of the Tongue. It is the Mind that makes the kas and the qualities, that creates all food and all offerings by the Word, that makes all things that are loved and all