Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

It is, says the Hellenist commentator again, " the Cup (of Anacreon) speaking forth speechlessly the Ineffable Mystery."

The Jewish commentator was a contemporary of Philo's, and the Hellenist was prior to him ; thus we see that the Cup symbol was used in precisely the same significance as in our text in at least the first century B.C., and that the idea was referred to the Greek theologers — in other words, the Orphics — and not to Plato.

1 Kpar'fip — bowl or basin.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOL TO BE SOUGHT
IN ORPHIC TRADITION

With the above data before us, I think we may be persuaded without difficulty that the idea of the Cup, or Mixing-Bowl, did not owe its origin to any invention of Plato's, but that the greatest of philosophers, when he makes use of the symbol, does but employ a familiar image well known to his audience — as, indeed, is very apparent in the summary fashion in which he introduces the figure. In other words, the symbol or image was a commonplace of the Orphic tradition, and doubtless, therefore, familiar to every Pythagorean.

Now, in our treatise it is noticeable that this Cupsymbol is equated with the Monad1 or Oneness — a technical Pythagorean term.

1 It is of interest to notice that one of the apocryphal Books of
Moses was called The Monad, and another The Key ; this argues
an early date and wide renown for our two treatises so entitled.
See R. 182, n. 3.

XVI

THE DISCIPLES OF THRICE-GREATEST
HERMES

PTAII, SKKHKT AND I-EM-HETEP (ASCLEPIUS)

BUDGE, in his Gods of the Egyptians (vol. i. ch. xvi.),
tells us that the Great Triad of Memphis consisted of
Ptah, Sekhet, and I-em-lietep.

Ptali, as we have seen, was the "Sculptor or Engraver," the Demiurge par excellence. He is called the "Very Great God who came into being in the earliest time " ; " Father of fathers, Power of powers " ; " Father of beginnings and Creator of the Egg[s] of the Sun and Moon " ; " Lord of Maat [Truth], King of the Two Lands, the God of the Beautiful Face . . . who created His own Image, who fashioned His own Body, who hath established Maat throughout the Two Lands" ; " Ptalj the Disk of Heaven, Illuminer of the Two Lands with the Fire of His Two Eyes." The " Workshop of Ptalj " was the World Invisible.

It was Ptali who carried out the commands concerning the creation of the universe issued by Thoth.

The Syzygy or female counterpart of Ptafr was Sekhet, " who was at once his sister and wife, and the mother of his son Nefer-Tem, and a sister-form of the Goddess Bast" (op. cit., i. 514). She is called: " Greatly Beloved One of Ptah, Lady of Heaven, Mistress of the Two Lands " ; and one of her commonest names is " Nesert," that is " Flame."

It was Thoth (Tekh) who, with his Seven Wise Ones, planned the world (ib., 516). But if Ptah is the executive power of Thoth and his Seven Wise Ones, so is Thoth the personification of the Intelligence of Ptah. It is in this way that Sekhet becomes identified with Maat, the inseparable spouse of Thoth.

NEFER-TEM

The third member of the Memphite Triad is Nefer- Tem, or the " Young Tern." In the Ritual (Ch. Ixxxi., version B) we read the " apology " : " Hail, thou Lotus, thou type of the God Nefer-Tem ! I am he who knoweth you, and I know your name among the Gods, the Lords of the Underworld, and I am one of you." Again, in Ch. clxxiv. 19, Nefer-Tem is compared with " the Lotus at the nostrils of Ra " ; also, in Ch. clxxviii. 36, Nefer-Tem has the same title.

In the later texts Nefer-Tem is identified with many Gods, all of them forms of Horus or Thoth (ib., 522).

Here we are in contact with the Ptah-tradition of Memphis which, we have seen, played an important part in the heredity of the cosmogenesis of our " Poemandres " tractate. In it the simultaneous identification and distinction of Thoth and Ptah and of Maat and Sekhet are naturally explained, and the Son of these Powers is the Young Tern, identified with the Young Horus or Young Thoth who is to succeed his Father. Are we here on the track of the ancestry of our Tat ?

At Heliopolis (Amm) the Ancient God Tern was equated with Ra. Tern was the Father-God, Lord of Heaven, and Begetter of the Gods (op. cit., i. 92, 93). Usertsen I. rebuilt the sanctuary of Heliopolis about

2433 B.C., and dedicated it to Ea in the two forms of
Horus and Temu (ib., 330).

"Tern was the first living Man-God known to the Egyptians, just as Osiris was the first dead Man-God, and as such was always represented in human form and with a human head. . . .