Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. III — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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The main point of interest is that there was a tradition which explained the past on the hypothesis of periods of culture succeeding one another, — the oldest being supposed to have been the wisest and highest; the most archaic hieroglyphic language, which perhaps the priests of Manetho's day could no longer fully understand,1 was supposed to have been the tongue of the civilization before the Flood of Hermes I. It may even be that the remains of this tongue were preserved only in the magical invocations, as a thing most sacred, the " language of the gods."
The point of view, however, of the circle to which our writer belonged, was that the records of this most ancient civilization were no longer to be read even in the oldest inscriptions; they could only be recovered by spiritual sight. Into close relation with this, we must, I think, bring the statement made in § 37, that Osiris and Isis, though they themselves had learned all the secrets of the records of Hermes, nevertheless kept part of them secret, and engraved on stone only such as were adapted for the intelligence of " mortal men."
The Kamephis of the Isis-tradition, then, apparently stands for Kneph as Agathodaimon, that is for Hermes, but not for our Hermes I.,2 for he has no physical contact with the Isis- tradition, but for Hermes II., who was taught by Hermes I.
1 It is said that with regard to ancient archaic texts which are still extant, modern Egyptology is able to translate them with greater accuracy than the priests of Manetho's day ; but this one may be allowed to question, unless the ancient texts are capable solely of a physical interpretation.
2 The Hermes, presumably, who was fabled to be the son of the Nile, not the physical Nile, but the Heaven Ocean, the Great Green, the Soul of Cosmos, and whom, we are told, the Egyptians would never speak of publicly, but, presumably, only within the circles of initiation. This Nile may be in one sense the Flood that hid the Books of Hermes in its depths or zones ; but equally so the son of Nile may be the first Hermes after the Flood.
THE BLACK RITE
But what is the precise meaning of the " black rite " at which Kamephis presides ? I have already suggested the environment in which the general meaning may be sought, though I have not been able to produce any objective evidence of a precise nature. Reitzenstein (pp. 139 ff.), however, thinks he has discovered that evidence. His view is as follows :
The key to the meaning, according to him, is to be found in the following line from a Magic Papyrus * :
"I invoke thee, Lady Isis, with whom the Good Daimon doth unite,2 He who is Lord ev TO>
Reitzenstein thinks that the Good Daimon here stands for Chnum, and works out (p. 140) a learned hypothesis that the " black " refers to a certain territory of black earth, between Syene and Takompso, the Dedocaschoenus, especially famed for its pottery, which was originally in the possession of the Isis priesthood, but was subsequently transferred to the priesthood of Chnum by King Dos"er. Reitzenstein would thus, presumably, translate the latter half of the sentence as " the Good Daimon who is Lord in the perfect black [country]," and so make it refer to Chnum, though indeed he seems himself to feel the inadequacy of this explanation to cover the word " perfect " (p. 144). But this seems to me to take all the dignified meaning out of both our text and that of the Magic Papyrus, and to introduce
1 Wessley, Denkschr. d. k. Akad. (1893), p. 37, 1. 500.
2 So R., though this is a meaning to which the lexicons give no support ; the verb generally meaning " to defer " or " assent to."
local geographical considerations which are plainly out of keeping with the context.