L.

KKOSY
T H E

F I E R Y

A E T H E R

I N

E G Y P T

The reverse of the Metternich-Stela 1 is decorated on its top with the image
of a so-called pantheistic deity with a main head of Bes. The god, standing on
a group of evil animals, has four wings and a bird's body protrudes from his
back. Above his Bes-head are those of various animals (Fig. 1). He is surrounded by a semicircle of flames or, to be more precise, by hieroglyphic signs for
fire and flame (Gardiner Q 7).
A similar composition is to be found on a small faience cippus reproduced
by Biasing.2 The importance of the flames is here emphasized by their place
011 the edge of the object. They again constitute a sort of luminous frame around
the protective god.
On the magical papyrus 47.218.156 of the Brooklyn Museum two composite pantheistic gods are depicted, 3 both of them amidst red flames. These
three instances suffice to indicate that this motif was of certain importance
in Late-Egyptian magic whose religious background is worth examining. All
of them belong to the same period. The Metternich-Stela was made under
Nectanebo I I (359 341), the small cippus may be dated to the 4th cent,
or the Ptolemaic period, the Brooklyn papyrus was probably written in the
4th or 3th cent. B. C.
At first sight they seem to express 110 more than the irresistible force of
the deity able to destroy all enemies of the protected person. Certainly, this
was one of the meanings as it is shown by the Brooklyn papyrus. If any
living person (or eye) beholds him (the god), they will die, and they will burst
into flame, and their hearts will burn away. 4 The idea has its parallels in magical literature. 5 It is sure, however, that the author of the papyrus did not picture to himself the way of the destruction in the usual realistic form, namely
1
W. GOLENISCHEFF: Die Metternichstele. Leipzig 1877. Taf. 3. FR. LEXA: La magie
dans l'gypte ancienne. Paris 1925. I I I . pl. 30.
2
W. v. BISSING: Die K u l t u r des alten gypten. Leipzig 1919. Abb. 55.
3
S. SAUNERON: Le p a p y r u s magique illustr de Brooklyn. New York 1970. Fig.
2 3, frontispiece.
4
5

V . 2 . SAUNERON p l . 5 .
SAUNERON 2 7 .
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L.KKOSY:THEFIERYAETHERINEGYPT

Fig. 1

by vomiting the fire by the god. This is represented by a row of dots coming
from the mouth of the gods, mostly as punishment in the netherworld. 6 In the
case of pantheistic deities it is, however a glowing atmosphere which is, in
a concrete sense, insupportable to anybody who comes into contact with it.
Moreover, as it is pronounced in the magical papyrus, its appearance itself is
unbearable to living men. It is a non-material substance enclosing the god,
the same as the fiery cover mentioned in a hymn to Amun in the Hibis temple.
He (Amun) surrounded his place with fire, he raised himself higher than all
the gods, very high !7
No doubt, the fiery atmosphere was conceived here as being on the top
of the heavenly regions, higher than the abode of the other gods. This concept
is in accordance with the cosmic symbolism of the picture on the MetternichStela, that is the two sacred eyes on both sides of the god. They are provided
respectively with an arm depicted in the gesture of adoring the pantheistic
god, who was obviously looked upon as the supreme being, the Pantocrator.
Sun and Moon, the right and the left eye, are paying hommage to him inside
the line of the flame-hieroglyphs which, corresponding to the statement of the
Brooklyn papyrus about the gigantic stature of the Pantheos, clearly indicates
t h a t the extension of the fiery nimbus around the god is beyond human capac6
E . g. A m d u a t 11th hour. E. HORNUNG: gyptische Unterweltsbcher. Ziirich
M n c h e n 1972. 174174.
7
N. DE G. DAVXES: T h e Temple of Hibis in El Khargeh Oasis. New York 1953.
PI. 32, line 4.

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THE FIERY AETHER IN EGYPT

ities. This fire, emanating from the divine, fills the most sacred places of the
universe, the heavens and the netherworld. In the sarcophagus-inscription of
the God's Wife Ankhnesneferibre (6th cent. B. C.) it is said of the deceased
who is equated with the Sun: (If) she is seen, a fire of millions cubit (height)
is on all of her ways.8 It emerges clearly from the wording that this fiery light
is different from the rays of the Sun. The same also applies to the pantheistic
deities; the numinous light surrounding them has a frightening, destructive
effect for evil beings. It should be noted, however, that the fire in the realm
of the dead has an ambivalent character, its destructive power being harmless
to the blessed.9 Depicted on an amulet it was an invincible charm against
any enemy.
The fiery aether has its antecedents in the earlier religion; these are
the fiery zones, rivers and lakes and flaming gates in the netherworld, The
fiery .aether represents a new stage in the development of these notions.
If we look for an analogy from the neighbouring religions, it is the aether
(aW'i'jo) which, first of all, presents itself. Aether is, from the oldest Greek
mythology, a not infrequently mentioned component of the cosmos; it is a
fiery zone above the air. 10 As the abode of the gods 11 it was sometimes
identified with heaven. Again, it had a high reputation in philosophy.
Aristoteles 12 made it the fifth element in addition to earth, water, air and fire.
For stoicism aether was a divine being or substance, occasionally considered
equal to Zeus or Athena. 13
In Late Antiquity another notion made its appearance, the empyreum
/t/unvgtov), a luminous fiery region itself, but originally clearly distinct from
aether, 14 being more elevated than that. Taken from the Chaldaean Oracles,
this term was used by the Neoplatonists and the Fathers of the Church.
In Greek civilization aether and empyreum, although not central problems, were, however, integral parts of the cosmos both from the religious
and philosophical points of view. In Egypt, on the other hand, religion was for
a long time dominated by the idea t h a t the cosmos was surrounded by water ;
the earth emerged from this primordial water which remained hidden under
the surface of the soil; life and death depended upon the flood, and the upper
sphere, too, was of a watery nature; the Sun-god made his diurnal course in
two barks. Egyptian doctrines held that at the end of time the world would
be destroyed by flood, the waves of Nun would cover everything again as
8
. E . SANDER-HANSEN: Die religisen Texte auf dem Sarg der Anchnesneferibre.
Kopenhagen 1937. 126, lines 409 410.
9
See entry Feuer in L (R. GRIESHAMMER).
10
See entry Aether in RAC I 150 ff. (J. H . WASZINK).
11

WASZINK

150.

12

De Caelo 209 70.

13

WASZINK

14

153.

G. MAURACH: Coelum empyreum. Wiesbaden 1968; FR. CUMONT: LUX p e r p e t u a .

Paris 1949. 400.
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L.KKOSY:THEFIERYAETHERINEGYPT

they had doue before the creation (BD 175). There is scant evidence in Egypt
for the belief of an end by fire, an ecpyrosis. 15
I t is in the period of late syncretism, when empvreum appears in an
Egyptian context. Iamblichus explains in De Mysteriis the profound symbolism of the god seated on a lotus-flower by stating that it means the god's
superiority over the mud, his separation from it. It indicates an intellectual
empyric reign.10 Here the term empvreum is applied to Egyptian solar symbolism. We must not fail to realize, nevertheless, that in case of aether and
empyreum there was no original Greek-Egyptian inter-influence, we are
dealing with parallel phenomena. It is unlikely that the Homeric and early
Greek concept of aether engaged the attention of the Egyptian priests.
One wonders, however, whether Iranian influence could have been operative in the Egyptian representations treated above. When the army of
Cambvses entered Egypt, the cult of fire was one of the most conspicuous
features in the Zoroastrian religion.17 The god of fire, Atar, was held to be
Ahura Mazda's son. 18 I t is shown in the aetiological legend concerning the
origins of the vase-shaped Canopus-Osiris t h a t the Egyptians regarded the
cult of fire as the most important characteristic of the Persian religion. It is
related in this how the water dripping from a porous vase extinguished fire,
the god of Chaldaeans (Persians), thus demonstrating the superiority of the
Egyptian vase-god and that of the water over the Persian fire. 19
As is well-known, some Egyptians, such as Udjahorresnet, immediately,
entered the service of Cambyses, 20 and after the first years of mutual hatred
under Darius I a more tolerant policy, and what is more, clear attempts to
please the Egyptian priesthood paved the way for more intensive cultural
relations. Persian motifs appeared in Egyptian art 21 and, on the other hand,
also Egypt contributed to Persian art very early on, even before the conquest. 22
According to Herodotus an Egyptian physician was living in the court of
Cyrus and Cambvses. 23 A tradition, probably not unfounded, has survived,
t h a t Darius himself was deeply interested in Egyptian religion.24

1 2;

15
H . O. LANGE: Der magische P a p y r u s H a r r i s . Kopenhagen 1927. 57, Col. V I I .
Urk. V I . 123.
16
VII. 2 (ed. . DES PLACES). Cf. Plut. De Isid 11.
17
G. WIDENGREN: Die Religionen Irans. S t u t t g a r t 1965, passim.
18

19

WLDENGEEN

19.

Rufinus, Hist, eccles. X I . 26; TH. HOPFNER: Fontes . . . Bonnae 1922 , 629.
G. FOSENER: L a premire domination perse a n Egypte. Le Caire 1936. 1 ff.
21
J . D. COONEY: J A R C E 4 (1965) 39. I n s p i t e of the controversies (cl. CH. PICARD:
B I F A O 30 (1931) 201 ff.) the Persian influence in t h e tomb of Petosiris (G. LEFEBVRE:
L e t o m b e a u de Petosiris. Le Caire 1923 24) seems t o be clear.
22
See the winged genius with Egyptian hemhem-crown in Pasargadae. R. GHIRSHMAN: Iran. London 1954. pi. 15a.
23
I I I . 1.
24
Diodorus I . 95. Darius' statue with quadrilingual inscription from Susa: T .
N . SAVELJEVA in: T u t a n k h a m o n i jevo vremja. Moscow 1976. 165 ff; J . YOYOTTE: J A
20

2 6 0 (1972) 253 ff.

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THE FIERY AETHER IN EGYPT

It is not our concern here to treat Egyptian-Persian relations in detail;

what is most important is the monumental testimony of Darius' goodwill,
the temple of Hibis. This temple with its sanctuary decorated in a remarkably
unusual way is a highly important source for the study of Late-Egyptian
religion. The hymn quoted above was put in the mouth of Darius. A direct
introduction of Persian religious elements is, of course, not to be expected in
an Egyptian temple, even if free, as Hibis, to some extent from the fetters
of the conventions of the Nile Valley. Some traces of a mentality slightly
dissimilar to the usual Egyptian concepts are, however, clearly distinguishable
here. One of them is the endeavour to reintegrate Seth to the honoured members of the Egyptian Pantheon by providing him with a falcon's head.25 Since
Seth was at this time the hated god of the fore ig nei-s, this was a manifest act
of concession towards the rule of the Persian empire.
The voluntary and involuntary communications with Persian culture
and religion in the Achaemenid period left their imprint on the later development of Egyptian religion. Plutarch, who tried to give a summary of the
essence of Egyptian beliefs, has stressed quite properly the similarity of the
dualistic ideas26 in both religions. The hostile principles Horomazs (Ahura
Mazda) and Areimanios (Angra Mainyu) have their counterparts in Osiris
and Typhon (Seth). Just as Horomazs had his origin in the purest light, 27
so was the complex nature of Osiris enriched with strong solar features 28 from
the New Kingdom 011, although he never could get rid of his primary underworldly character. It was in the Late Period, when Seth became unambigously
a damned god,29 and antipathy for the Persians pushed to extremes the general
hostility against him. The two antagonistic cosmic powers became gradually
a key-problem also for Egypt, and 110 doubt, this process was promoted by the
Persian occupation.
A strange Mithriac monument, from Oxyrhynchus, is preserved in the
Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria. 30 On this lion-headed winged god with
goat's legs long debated whether originally Zrvan-Ain the fierv elements
are dominant, though a vase is also placed beside him. Around his head there
is a nimbus with sun-rays, flames are shooting up from an altar, and the figure
of the jumping lion between two of his wings the constellation Leo in the
zodiac is a symbol of the scorching heat of the high summer. Although the
relief belongs to the Roman period, it is still relevant to our subject matter
by showing, on the one hand, an iconographic relationship to the Bes-headed
25

26

D A V I E S : op.

cit.

pl.

4243.

De Isid 46 ff.
27
Ibidem 47.
28
See e.g. E . HORNUNG: Der Eine und die Vielen. D a r m s t a d t 1971. 85.
29
H. TE. VELDE: Seth, God of Confusion. Leiden 1967. 139 ff.
30
E. BRECCIA: U n Cronos Mitriaco ad Oxyrhynehos. Mlanges Maspero. I I fasc
2. ( L e C a i r e 193537) 257 f f .
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gods surrounded by fire, and on the other, the persistant appeal of Persian ideas
in the syncretistic religion of a multinational Egypt.
Also a Jewish impact may be taken into consideration. We may refer
e.g. to Esechiel's vision 31 as well as to the fiery throne of God and the fiery
river in Daniel's apocalyptic dream.32 They are preceded by some passages in
earlier books of the Old Testament describing the manifestation of God in
fire. 33 It is, nevertheless, unlikely that Egyptian priests were familiar with
details of the Jewish sacred books before the Septuaginta translation.
To conclude: we do not propose a direct foreign origin of the fiery aether,
in Egypt, which had certainly its roots in the earlier solar cult and funerary beliefs. We have, moreover, plenty of evidence for fiery daemons. There
is no basis to suggest early Greek or Jewish influence in this case. The
most likely alternative seems to be that the relations with Persian ideology
contributed to the creation of a favourable atmosphere to the growing popularity of the concept of the fiery aether in Egypt.

31
32
33

1. 414.
7, 910.
E.g.

E x . 3 , 2 3 ; 2 4 , 1 7 . C f . M A U R A C H : op. cit.

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69 f.