Mari Girgis and the Copts of Egypt: a personal view.

• Author: Sommers, William

Editor's Note: Sometimes reading a book can change your life. Bill Sommers during his assignments with the Agency for International Development always dug deeply into the history and culture of the countries where he was assigned. While in Egypt he bought a study of the village of Mari Girgis written by a French anthropologist and sociologist which also contained native songs and verses. Inspired by the book, Bill visited and re-visited Mari Girgis and found in his meetings with its villagers and chief priest "a rapport and understanding of life and its meaning" that he has never forgotten. Now, almost 20 years later, he has begun putting into a poetic format translations of songs and verses from the book. Two are printed below. Let's slow down a bit, and take a few moments to read and enjoy them.--Assoc Ed.

Egypt is a country over which the storms of history have blown, again and again, until it has become a repository of both Eastern and Western history. One of the oldest civilizations via the Pharaonic ages that covered nearly 5000 years of recorded history, Egypt also was ruled by Greeks, Romans, Persians, Ottoman Turks, Mamelukes, French, British, and finally by its own people--after the rise of Nasser. Each of those eras of dominance--long and short--has its monuments and, appropriately, its ruins throughout the land and in countless museums as well as fiercely held artifacts scattered throughout the whole of the known world!

Moreover, its influence on religion--particularly in the West--is no less profound. Alexander the Great made himself an Egyptian God in the western desert shrine of Siwa, while his successors, the Ptolemys, ruled for over 300 years, descendents of Alexander but also pharaohs who built and rebuilt many of Egypt's ancient temples and monuments. The Romans, searching for truth in their own religious muddle, promoted the worship of Osiris and Isis to the point where these sects grew and became a distinct part of the Roman Empire. Even the popes of Rome gathered the best Egyptian obelisks and built museums to house their gathering of Egyptian artifacts. And the West developed the idea of Masonic virtue based on the pyramids, while even today the U.S. dollar renews the Egyptian religious influence with the pyramid and its all seeing eye, the backside of the U.S. great seal. Actually, the eye in the Pharaonic tradition was the eye of the dead ruler who, using his everlasting soul--ba--could peek out through his tomb to...