If you haven't read it I highly recommend Hornung's Idea into Image. It delves into Egyptian view of reality. They were almost primitive phenomenologists. All matter was of the same indivisible substance (Atum) that was caught in the golden moment of being (zeptep) and we exist as aspects of that same material to allow that beingness to reproduce itself. (Hornung doesn't say this, but if you overlay existentialist philosophy over it an interesting correspondence occurs). The book Breathing Flesh also uses the philosophy of body of Merleau-Ponty and the Coffin Texts to demystify how Egyptians regarded the body, but I warn you that book is boring, boring, boring.
Personally I'm fascinated by the cosmogony of Memphis and the cult of Ptah, but more so because I find that to exemplify Egyptian mythology and ideas about being to be depressing and even disturbing. Everything that is is but a thought of Ptah's mind. Outside of which is the infinite Nun.
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The difference between Atum and Ptah is that Ptah is imprisoned, wrapped in the mummy bandages, indicated stillness, immovability, and permanence. For all intents and purposes, Ptah is a slave to the eternal torment of solitude, his only company is his heart. Atum at least generated his own offspring.
Maybe I'm just over thinking it.
Personally I'm fascinated by the cosmogony of Memphis and the cult of Ptah, but more so because I find that to exemplify Egyptian mythology and ideas about being to be depressing and even disturbing. Everything that is is but a thought of Ptah's mind. Outside of which is the infinite Nun.
The difference between Atum and Ptah is that Ptah is imprisoned, wrapped in the mummy bandages, indicated stillness, immovability, and permanence. For all intents and purposes, Ptah is a slave to the eternal torment of solitude, his only company is his heart. Atum at least generated his own offspring.
Maybe I'm just over thinking it.
Statistics: Posted by Joseph D. L. — Wed May 08, 2024 2:30 am