The Sphinx: Let us try to “clear the air” of modem
presuppositions and place ourselves in the time-
environment that Plato himself perceived. As he
looked at the world around him and observed
changes taking place, wouldn’t linear time have
seemed obvious to him? Within the scope of his
own consciousness, for example, he could tell that
things “weren’t the way they used to be” and that
new events were regularly taking place.
The Chimæra: On a small scale, yes. But, seen at the
“Forms level”, various events could be viewed as
modifications of a single Form of political behavior
or as more complex combinations involving more
than one Form. Thus the conquest of Athens by
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Sparta or the conquest of Sparta by Athens were
essentially variations on the same Form [of
conquest], distinguished by variable applications
of other Forms [such as economic pressures,
military power, political imperialism, etc.]. Viewed
in this context, events could indeed be considered
cyclical.
The Sphinx: Well, have we justification to presume that
Plato truly thought in that context? After all, it is a
perspective so broad that it could have been
attacked as useless for concrete applications. In
point of fact this was the basic Sophist criticism of
Plato - that his philosophy, while it might be true
on a macrocosmic scale - was of no help to people
who were trying to solve immediate problems. So
the Sophists advocated problem-solving
techniques that ignored macrocosmic Forms.
The Chimæra: In the Republic, Laws, arid Statesman
we have three attempts by Plato to make his
political philosophy relevant. But it would be a
mistake to say that he merely attempted to “scale
down” this Form or that Form to a problem-
solving level, in order to compete with the
Sophists. A Form is not that sort of “thing”; it is
not an axiom which can be applied to various
problems. Rather it is a sort of sum-total of
identifying characteristics in various phenomena
which relate them, as sphinxes and chimæras are
variations of the Form “mythical beast”.
The Sphinx: Speak for yourself. But we have now
reached a point where we can explore the
development of Forms-theory prior to Plato’s
time ... excuse me, Plato’s point of focus in the
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continuum. Because the Forms - and especially the
ones that were applicable to statesmanship -
weren’t all that nebulous. In fact they were the
guiding principles of the most ancient civilization
in the Mediterranean -and the one with the most
highly-developed political system as well. I am
talking, of course, about Egypt.
The Chimæra: The most highly-developed political
system? You’re going to get some objections on
that score. The accepted impression of Egypt is
that it was a simple military monarchy, reinforced
by a death-obsessed religion, which cared nothing
for philosophy. I quote Bertrand Russell:
P h i l o s o p h y b e g i n s w i t h T h a l e s , w h o ,
fortunately, can be dated by the fact that he
predicted an eclipse which, according to the
astronomers, occurred in the year 585 B.C.
Philosophy and science - which were not
originally separate - were therefore born
together at the beginning of the sixth century. 115
The Sphinx: Bertrand Russell was ever quaint. “Sixth
century” my claw! For thirty recorded centuries
before Thales, Egypt had existed as a national
system - not a mere city-state or even federation of
city-states. It was older to the Greeks than the
Greeks are to present-day humans. Scientifically it
d e v e l o p e d a r c h i t e c t u r e t o a p r e c i s i o n
unapproached again until the present century [and
in some aspects still unequaled]. 116 It developed
115 Russell, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy, page 3.
116 Stecchini, Livio, “Notes on the Relation of Ancient Measures to the
Great Pyramid” in Tompkins, Peter, Secrets of the Great Pyramid,
pages 287-382.
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elaborate, codified medical skills [including that of
open-skull brain surgery] which were used with a
high measure of success. 117 It possessed the only
accurate calendar in the entire Mediterranean
until the time of Julius Cæsar [when Cæsar
introduced a modified Egyptian calendar to the
Roman Empire]; the Egyptians’ own records date
back to 4241 BCE! 118 And what of the hieroglyphic
alphabet, introduced more than seven thousand
years ago? 119
The Chimæra: I expect that part of the problem lies in
the fact that the alphabet you just mentioned was
so very hard to read. Indeed it was almost a sort of
cipher used exclusively among the Egyptian
intelligentsia. Training of a scribe took about
twelve years, and even then a scribe was not in a
position to understand the significance of most of
the philosophical material he was recording. By
Plato’s time other, less complex linguistic systems
had come into use for both reading and writing,
and probably no one in Athens could read
hieroglyphic, let alone gain access to philosophical
texts hoarded by the Egyptian priesthoods. So it is
not so very surprising that Egyptian philosophy
was not discussed by the Greeks, except for
tourist-type accounts such as that of Herodotus
and the Egyptian passage of Plato’s own Timæus.
The Sphinx: The last known use of hieroglyphic writing
even in Egypt itself was in 394 CE [on the Temple
117 Cottrell, Leonard, Life Under the Pharaohs, pages 189-191.
118 Casson, Lionel, Ancient Egypt, page 146.
119 Ibid., page 141.
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of Isis at Philæ]. 120 Thereafter all knowledge of the
language vanished from human knowledge until
Champollion decoded the Rosetta Stone in 1822
CE. And only a small number of Egyptian texts
have been translated today -by a smaller handful
of people who can read the language. So perhaps
Russell’s statement can be partially excused, if not
condoned.
The Chimæra: Then, too, Egypt has suffered a savage
pillaging over the centuries. As a symbol of
“heathen paganism” it was viciously despoiled by
the early Christians and their Moslem successors.
C o u n t l e s s a n c i e n t t e m p l e s w e r e e i t h e r
appropriated or razed by the Catholics, and
thousands of statues and inscriptions were
disfigured. In 389 CE a Christian mob, acting on
the orders of the Christian Roman Emperor
Theodosius, burned the great library of Alexandria
to the ground. 121 Even so, millions of book-rolls
were rescued or gathered together from other
re
positories and the library was reestablished -
until 636. In that year Alexandria was taken by
Omar, the Third Caliph of Islam, who decreed:
“The contents of these books are in conformity
with the Koran or they are not. If they are, the
Koran is sufficient without them; if not, they are
pernicious. Therefore let them be destroyed.” They
were burned as fuel to heat the city’s baths; it took
six months for all of them to be consumed. 122 So it
is not too surprising that modern researchers have
120 Ibid.
121 Tompkins, op. cit., pages 3-4.
122 Berlitz, Charles, Mysteries from Forgotten Worlds, page 36.
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only a pitiful few scraps of information from
previously-undiscovered tombs or overlooked
monuments.
The Sphinx: Before we explore the links between the
Egyptians and Plato, it may help if we bring out
some of the salient characteristics of the Egyptian
political system. To begin with, it was cyclic rather
than linear. Individual pharaohs and dynasties
came and went, but the social system and political
structure remained constant. Each successive
pharaoh, for example, was merely the momentary
personification of a permanent, semi-divine entity
that governed Egypt in the name of the gods. The
nation itself was not viewed as merely one in a
series of political units located in northeast Africa;
it had existed as a divine creation before recorded
history, and it would continue to exist indefinitely.
Various natural cycles and human lifetimes would
impact upon it, but the essence of Egypt would
remain untouched by [linear] time. 123 Consider,
for example, the following hieroglyphic inscription
accompanying an image of the scarab-beetle
Xepera, principle of cyclical regeneration and
immortality:
I was the spirit in the Primeval Waters. He who
had no companion when his name Came Into
Being. The most ancient form in which I Came
Into Being was as a drowned one. I was he who
Came Into Being as a circle. He who was the
Dweller in his Egg. I was the one who began
everything, the Dweller in the Primeval Waters.
First the Wind emerged for me, and then I
began to move. I created my limbs in my glory. I
123 Compare this to the Chinese view of China as the “Middle
Kingdom” ( Chhung kuo), the “focus” of civilization and creativity.
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was the maker of myself; I formed myself
according to my desire and in accord with my
heart. 124
The Chimæra: If each pharaoh were held to be divinely-
appointed, what was the actual selection
procedure? And how could a human-supervised
selection procedure retain credibility as a divine
process?
The Sphinx: It compares rather intriguingly with the
system for selection of philosopher-kings in the
Republic. During stable dynasties new pharaohs
were selected from among the male offspring of
the late pharaoh. There was more latitude in this
process than one might think, because (a)
pharaohs generally had many wives and
concubines, resulting in scores of children, and (b)
the education and selection of pharaohs were
handled by colleges of priests, themselves
detached from the secular government but
exercising a sort of guardianship over it.
Unsuitable princes were either diverted to
harmless careers or simply assassinated. With the
exception of a few temporary puppet-kings or
usurpers, then, Egyptian monarchs were generally
priest-kings [an intentional reference to the
Atlantean tern in the Critias] of exceptional
calibre. Incumbent pharaohs who began to behave
in maverick fashion [such as Akhenaten, the
monotheist mystic of the XVIII Dynasty] were also
assassinated with the tacit consent of the
priesthood. This method of “impeachment” does
not seem to have been abused, because an attack
on the divine pharaoh for purely-partisan motives
124 Clark, R.T., Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, page 74.
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would have been thought extremely ill-omened.
Only for an obvious betrayal of the pharaoh’s
sacred trust - as determined by the priesthood -
could assassination be contemplated.
The Chimæra: What sort of legal system did the
Egyptians have?
The Sphinx: Now we enter some particularly interesting
territory from a Platonic standpoint. As far as can
be deduced from surviving records, bureaucratic
and judicial affairs were not conducted according
to a centralized legal code superior to the
judgment of individual officials. Such officials
were given a more-or-less free hand within their
respective areas of responsibility - contingent, of
course, upon the maintenance of order, payment
of taxes, and general preservation of a harmonious
attitude among the people. There were no
legislated standards of good and evil/right and
wrong. Justice was meted out ad hoc according to
each supervisory official’s concept of fairness and
equity. The Egyptians prized this system very
highly; it was personified by the goddess Maat.
When an Egyptian died, a feather from Maat’s
crown would be weighed against his heart to
determine whether he would be granted a pleasant
repose in Amenti or be torn limb from limb by
monsters from the Tuat. I expect that would-be
crooks were inhibited accordingly, since the
Egyptian religion was taken quite literally.
one of the earliest Old Kingdom dynasties of Egypt
[and compare it to the concept of Tao]:
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If you are a leader who directs the affairs of a
multitude, strive after every excellence until
there be no fault in your nature. Maat is good,
and its worth is lasting. It has not been
disturbed since the day of its creator, whereas
he who transgresses its ordinances is punished.
It lies as a path even in front of him who knows
nothing. Wrongdoing has never yet brought its
venture to port. It is true that evil may gain
wealth, but the strength of truth is that it lasts; a
man can say, “It was the property of my
father.” 125
The Chimæra: A rather interesting contrast to the
governments of Mesopotamia, Persia, and Greece,
all of which laid stress upon codified law. I expect
you are leading up to a comparison to the Republic
and Statesman, wherein Plato argues for specially-
trained or specially-gifted rulers above the law. Are
you going to suggest that Plato took the Egyptian
system as an ideal governmental model?
The Sphinx: Let’s not jump the spear on this. I have a
few other points to make concerning the Egyptian
&nbs
p; system proper; then we’ll look into the matter of
its actual links with Plato. Again bearing the
recommendations of the Republic in mind,
consider the following: Almost uniquely within the
ancient world, Egypt was free from hereditary
caste, racial, or sexual discrimination in political
affairs. A social aristocracy was created by
property-inheritance, but a scion of poor or even
unknown parentage might just as easily rise to
high office upon demonstrating suitable prowess.
At various times the throne was held by Negroes,
Persians, Mesopotamians, Greeks, and assorted
125 Frankfort, Henri, Ancient Egyptian Religion, page 62.
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Asians without racial objections being raised.
Women enjoyed the same “citizenship” status as
men, including choice of mate and inheritance of
property. Queens such as Nefertiti and Ty wielded
as much or more power than their consorts, and
female pharaohs such as Hatshepsut and
Cleopatra ruled Egypt as decisively and with as
much popular sport as did male pharaohs. Even in
the Egyptian religious pantheon, gods and
goddesses enjoyed equal prestige.
The Chimæra: To an observer this extraordinary
flexibility and tolerance might well account for the
staying-power of the Egyptian system, in spite of
the occasional invasions, occupations, and even
civil wars that took place there. When the dust
cleared, so to speak, the political and social
institutions remained intact.
The Sphinx: Precisely. Egypt was no more a utopia than
any other human-run society was, is, or will be.
There were power-struggles, epidemics of
corruption, popular revolts, and all the rest.
During the Middle Kingdom (2150-1792 BCE) a
pessimistic Pharaoh Amenemhet I advised Crown
Prince Senwosret:
Harken to that which I say to you,
That you may be king of the earth,
That you may be ruler of the lands,
That you may increase good.
Harden yourself against all subordinates.
The people give heed to him who terrorizes
them;
Approach them not alone.
Fill not your heart with a brother,
Know not a friend,
Nor make for yourself intimates,
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Wherein there is no end.
When you sleep, guard for yourself your own
heart;
For a man has no people in the day of evil.
I gave to the beggar, I nourished the orphan;
I admitted the insignificant, as well as him who