This sounds more like monolatry - the notion of other Gods within or as manifestations of one. Ancient Egypt had similar concepts, especially with Amun-Ra in the New Kingdom. The Leiden Papyrus says every deity is part of Amun's body, and the solar litany of Seti I speaks of every other God as the body of Amun-Ra, or Amun-Ra doing a specific action as that deity. We see this also with Horus of Edfu, with Gods of his pantheon assigned to parts of his body or issuing from his mouth, a nod to the logos.
Excellent points. Herodotus mentions 'Orphic and Bacchic' rites as being 'Pythagorean and Egyptian' in origin, so it's always fascinating to me when we are able to draw those parallels.
I am wary of linking Egyptian religion to the Greek mystery cults, especially now that we know more about Egyptian rituals. That said, I cannot discount some sort of theological cross-pollination between the two regions especially when it comes to how they understood the relationship between their head deity and the rest of the pantheon.
So fascinating without taking into account certain particular points. They are important, no doubt, but first of all I would like to thank you for the large amount of work you put into this fine and detailled essay. I am not an egyptologist, that's why I know too little to be able to say anything relevant about the theologies of the Nile's religion. So I am just interested in what ancient Egypt brought to Greek culture. And of course I am really looking forward to studying the text in detail. Again thank you.
Awesome work as usual Tiberius. Glad to see other's keying in on this proto-monotheistic leaning in the Great Rhapsodic Hymn to Zeus. It is very clear they were moving in the direction of a Transcendent and Immanent God figure in Zeus very early on.
This sounds more like monolatry - the notion of other Gods within or as manifestations of one. Ancient Egypt had similar concepts, especially with Amun-Ra in the New Kingdom. The Leiden Papyrus says every deity is part of Amun's body, and the solar litany of Seti I speaks of every other God as the body of Amun-Ra, or Amun-Ra doing a specific action as that deity. We see this also with Horus of Edfu, with Gods of his pantheon assigned to parts of his body or issuing from his mouth, a nod to the logos.
Excellent points. Herodotus mentions 'Orphic and Bacchic' rites as being 'Pythagorean and Egyptian' in origin, so it's always fascinating to me when we are able to draw those parallels.
I am wary of linking Egyptian religion to the Greek mystery cults, especially now that we know more about Egyptian rituals. That said, I cannot discount some sort of theological cross-pollination between the two regions especially when it comes to how they understood the relationship between their head deity and the rest of the pantheon.
So fascinating without taking into account certain particular points. They are important, no doubt, but first of all I would like to thank you for the large amount of work you put into this fine and detailled essay. I am not an egyptologist, that's why I know too little to be able to say anything relevant about the theologies of the Nile's religion. So I am just interested in what ancient Egypt brought to Greek culture. And of course I am really looking forward to studying the text in detail. Again thank you.
Awesome work as usual Tiberius. Glad to see other's keying in on this proto-monotheistic leaning in the Great Rhapsodic Hymn to Zeus. It is very clear they were moving in the direction of a Transcendent and Immanent God figure in Zeus very early on.