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

3 From an ostrakon in the Louvre, De Horrack, Zeitschrift fwr a S. u. A., 1868, 2. And again at Denderah, the King is said to "establish the laws like Thoth the twice-great one." See Diimichen, ibid., 1867, 74.

4 Lepsius, Erster Gotterkreis, Taf. 1, 2. Text S. 181.

6 Brugsch, Worterbuch, 803, and many other references.

6 For a long list of references, see Pietschmann in loco. I have so far cited some of these references to show that the statements of Pietschmann are based upon very ample authority. In what follows, however, these references may be omitted as they are not owing to my own industry, and the scholar can obtain them from Pietschmann's book for himself.

Thoth is thus the God of writing and all the arts and sciences. On a monument of Seti I. he is called " Scribe of the nine Gods." He writes " the truth of the nine Gods," and is called " Scribe of the King of Gods and men."

Hence he is naturally inventor of the hieroglyphics, and patron and protector of all temple-archives and libraries, and of all scribes. At the entrance of one of the halls of the Memnonium at Thebes, the famous " Library of Osymandias," called " The great House of Life," we find Thoth as " Lord in the Hall of Books." l

In the Ebers papyrus we read : " His guide is Thoth, who bestows on him the gifts of his speech, who makes the books, and illumines those who are learned therein, and the physicians who follow him, that they may work cures."

We shall see that one of the classes of priests was devoted to the healing of the body, just as another was devoted to the healing of the soul.

These books are also called " The Great Gnoses of Thoth." 2 Thoth was thus God of medicine, but not so much by drugs as by means of mesmeric methods and certain " magic formulae." Thus he is addressed as " Thoth, Lord of Heaven, who givest all life, all health." 3

THE THREE GRADES OF THE EGYPTIAN MYSTERIES

Moreover, Thoth was also Lord of Rebirth : 4 " Thou hast given life in the Land of the Living ; Thou hast

1 Op. dt., p. 16.

2 Compare this title, die grossen Erkentnisse des Tehuti* with the Coptic Codex Brucianus — Void le livre des gnoses de V Invisible divin." Amelineau, Notice sur le Papyrus gnostique Bruce, p. 83 (Paris, 1891). See also Carl Schmidt, Gnostische Schriften in koptischer Sprache aus dem Codex Brucianus (Leipzig, 1892).

3 Op. cit., p. 20.

* Herr der Metempsychose (Lord of Palingenesis), says Pietschmann, p. 23.

made them live in the Region of Flames; Thou hast given respect of thy counsels in the breasts and in the hearts of men — mortals, intelligences, creatures of light."

The Land of the Living was the Invisible World, a glorious Land of Light and Life for the seers of ancient Egypt. Mortals, Intelligences, Creatures of Light, were, says Pietschmann, the " three grades of the Egyptian mysteries."1 These grades were, one may assume from our treatises: (1) Mortals — probationary pupils who were instructed in the doctrine, but who had not yet realised the inner vision ; (2) Intelligences — those who had done so and had become " men," that is to say who had received the " Mind " ; (3) Beings (or Sons) of Light — those who had become one with the Light, that is to say those who had reached the nirvdnic consciousness.

So much for what Pietschmann can be made to tell us of Thoth as Wisdom-God among the Egyptians.

THOTH ACCORDING TO REITZENSTKIN

To the information in Pietschmann may be added that which is given by Reitzenstein in the second of his two important studies, Zwei religionsgeschichtliche Fragen nach ungedruckten Texten der Strassburger Bibliothek (Strassburg, 1901). This second study deals with " Creation-myths and the Logos-doctrine," the special Creation-myths treated of being found in a hitherto unpublished Greek text, which hands on purely Egyptian ideas in Greek dress and with Greek godnames, and which is of great interest and importance for the general subject of which our present studies form part.

1 Op. tit., p. 24 n.