The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West.

• Author: Peck, William H.
• Position: Book Review

By ERIC HORNUNG. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca: CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2001. Pp. viii + 229, illus. $29.95.

Two divergent images of ancient Egypt and its traditions exist. The more recent of these is based on the academic discipline that is the product of two hundred years of investigation and study. The second, much older, widespread and traditional view is rooted in the works of the classical authors. Through them were transmitted explanations of the esoteric mysteries of the ancient civilization filtered through an essentially Greek understanding. The Greeks believed that Egypt was the "font of wisdom." The notion that Egyptian mysteries were purposely coded in picture writing and only available through initiation into secret societies of supposed antiquity has been a part of the "lore" of Egypt ever since. In fact, it is to this late classical view and interpretation of the culture that we owe this popular picture of Egypt.

The modern study of Egyptology had its beginnings with the French expedition of 1789, which enabled the subsequent decipherment of the language, thereby making ancient texts directly available and the first-hand study of the culture and history of Egypt possible. The desire to understand and explain ancient Egypt and the Egyptians had been thwarted since late antiquity by the simple inability to read the language. The most common sources available to western scholars were Herodotus' Histories, incorporating a literary style of exaggerated comparison and contrast in describing the country and its people, and Pluturch's De Iside et Osiride, the sole source from antiquity that gives a reasonably complete, however Greek-influenced, account of the Osiris myth. Along with these, the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of late texts related to Hermes Trismegistus (Thoth "Thrice Great") had considerable influence. Hermes Trismegistus was thought to be both a god and the founder of a religion. His cult, Hermeticism, became the cornerstone of much of the esoteric association with Egypt that was to follow, influencing a range of followers as diverse as Goethe, Mozart, Madame Blavatsky, and Rudolph Steiner.

The author of the work here reviewed is a noted Egyptologist in the traditional academic sense with extensive publications on Egyptian religion and symbolism. Here he attempts to elucidate the background of the popular fascination with ancient Egypt, based on...