Introduction

The direct influence of Ancient Egyptian literature on Archaic Greece has never been fully acknowledged. Greek philosophy (in particular of the Classical Period) has -especially since the Renaissance- been understood as an excellent standard sprung out of the genius of the Greeks, the Greek miracle. Hellenocentrism was and still is a powerful view, underlining the intellectual superiority of the Greeks and hence of all cultures immediately linked with this Graeco-Roman heritage, such as (Alexandrian) Judaism, (Eastern) Christianity but also Islam (via Harran and the translators). Only recently, and thanks to the critical-historical approach, have scholars reconsidered Greek Antiquity, to discover the "other" side of the Greek spirit, with its popular Dionysian and elitist Orphic mysteries, mystical schools (Pythagoras), chorals, lyric poetric, drama, proze and tragedies.

Nietzsche, who noticed the recuperation of Late Hellenism by the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, simplistically divided the Greek spirit into two antagonistic tendencies : the Apollinic versus the Dionysian. For him, Apollo was a metaphor for the eternalizing ideas, for the mummification of life by concepts, good examples and a life "hereafter", "beyond" or "out there". Dionysius was the will to live in the present so fully & intensely as possible, experiencing the "edge" of life and making an ongoing choice for that selfsame life, without using a model that fixated existence in differentiating categories. A life here and now, immanent and this-life.

And what about Judaism ? The author(s) of the Torah avoided the confrontation with the historical fact that Moses, although a Jew, was educated as an Egyptian, and identified Pharaoh with the Crocodile, who wants all things for himself. However, the Jews of the Septuagint, the Second Temple and the Sacerdotal Dynasties were thoroughly Hellenized, and they translated "ALHYM" (Elohim) as "Theos", thereby confusing Divine bi-polarity (kept for the initiates). It is precisely this influence of Greek thought on Judaism which triggered the emergence of revolutionary sects (cf. Qumran), solitary desert hermits and spirito-social communities, seeking to restore the "original" identity of the Jewish nation, as it had been embodied under Solomon (and the first temple), and turned against the Great Sanhedrin of the temple of Jeruzalem.

Ancient Egyptian civilization was so grand, imposing and strong, that its impact on the Greeks was tremendous. In order to try to understand what happened when these two cultures met, we must first sketch the situation of both parties. This will allow us to make sound correspondences.

"Herodotus and other Greeks of the fifth century BC recognized that Egypt was different from other 'barbarian' countries. All people who did not speak Greek were considered barbarians, with features that the Greeks despised. They were either loathsome tyrants, devious magicians, or dull and effeminate pleasure-seeking individuals. But Egypt had more to offer ; like India, it was full of old and venerable wisdom."
Matthews & Roemer, 2003, pp.11-12.

What exactly did the Greeks incorporate when visiting Egypt ? They surely witnessed (at the earliest in ca. 570 BCE, when Naukratis became the channel through which all Greek trade was required to flow by law) the extremely wealthy Egyptian state at work and may have participated, in particular in the areas they were allowed to travel, in the popular festivals and feasts happening everywhere in Egypt (the Egyptians found good religious reasons to feast with an average of once every five days).

In his Timaeus (21-23), Plato (428/427 - 348/347 BCE) testified the Egyptian priests of Sais of Pharaoh Amasis (570 - 526 BCE) saw the Greeks as young souls, children who had received language only recently and who did not keep written records of any of their venerated (oral) traditions. In the same passage of the Timaeus, Plato acknowledges the Egyptians seem to speak in myth, "although there is truth in it." According to a story told by Diogenius Laertius (in his The Lives of the Philosophers, Book VIII), Plato bought a book from a Pythagorean called Philolaus when he visited Sicily for 40 Alexandrian Minae of silver. From it, he copied the contents of the Timaeus ... The Greeks, and this is the hypothesis we are set to prove, linearized major parts of the Ancient Egyptian proto-rational mindset. Alexandrian Hermetism was a Hellenistic blend of Egyptian traditions, Jewish lore and Greek, mostly Platonic, thought.

Later, the influence of Ptolemaic Alexandria on all spiritual traditions of the Mediterranean would become unmistaken. On this point, I agree with Bernal in his controversial Black Athena (1987).

"In the first place we find the survival of Egyptian religion both within Christianity and outside it in heretical sects like those of the Gnostics, and in the Hermetic tradition that was frankly pagan. Far more widespread than these direct continuations, however, was the general admiration for Ancient Egypt among the educated elites. Egypt, though subordinated to the Christian and biblical traditions on issues of religion and morality, was clearly placed as the source of all 'Gentile' or secular wisdom. Thus no one before 1600 seriously questioned either the belief that Greek civilization and philosophy derived from Egypt, or that the chief ways in which they had been transmitted were through Egyptian colonizations of Greece and later Greek study in Egypt."
Bernal, 1987, p.121, my italics.

Recently, Bernal has advocated a "Revised Ancient Model". According to this, the "glory that is Greece", the Greek Miracle, is the product of an extravagant mixture. The culture of Greece is somehow the outcome of repeated outside influence.

"Thus, I argue for the establishment of a 'Revised Ancient Model'. According to this, Greece has received repeated outside influence both from the east Mediterranean and from the Balkans. It is this extravagant mixture that has produced this attractive and fruitful culture and the glory that is Greece."
Bernal, in O'Connor & Reid, 2003, p.29.

Bernal apparently forgets that Greek recuperation is also an overtaking of ante-rationality by rationality, a leaving behind of the earlier stage of cognitive development (namely mythical, pre-rational and proto-rational thought). The Greeks had superior thought, and this "sui generis". Hence, Greek civilization cannot be seen as the outcome of an extravagant mixture. The mixture was there because the Greeks were curious and open. They linearized the grand cultures of their day, and Egypt had been the greatest and oldest culture.

"Most of the names of the gods may have arrived in Greece from Egypt, but by Herodotus' own day, as a result of receiving gods from other peoples (Poseidon from the Libyans, other gods from the Pelasgians and so on), the Greeks have clearly overtaken the Egyptians in their knowledge of the gods, if they have not indeed discovered all the gods worth discovering."
Harrison, in Matthews & Roemer, 2003, p.153.

On the one hand, Greek thinking successfully escaped from the contextual and practical limitations imposed by an ante-rational cognitive apparatus unable to work with an abstract concept, and hence unable to root its conceptual framework in the "zero-point", which serves as the beginning of the normation "here and now" of all possible coordinate-axis, which all run through it (cf. transcendental logic). The mental space liberated by abstraction, discursive operations and formal laws was "rational", and involved the symbolization of thought in formal structures (logic, grammar), coherent (if not consistent) semantics (linguistic & technical sciences) and efficient pragmatics (administration, politics, socio-economics, rhetorics). 

Because of the Greek miracle of abstraction, rationality and ante-rationality were distinguished, equating the latter with the "barbaric" (i.e. coming from "outside" Greece and its colonies) or seeking the inner meaning of Egyptian religion (i.e. the wise men who studied in Egypt and later the infiltration of Greeks in the administrative, scribal class). Although the inner sanctum of the temples of Ptah, Re and Amun must have remained closed (excepts perhaps for exceptional Greeks like Pythagoras), the Greeks adapted to and rapidly assimilated Egyptian culture and its environment.

"In addition to the tangible exchange of objects and good, from the time of Solon there appears to have been a certain kind of abstract intellectual contact. There survive a growing number of works written in Greek which demonstrate some measure of familiarity with Egypt and Egyptian thought or at least claim to have been influenced by them. The list of authors of such works is impressive : Solon, Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus, Euripides and Plato to name only the best known."
La'ada, in Matthews & Roemer, 2003, p.158.

On the other hand, the Greeks had no written traditions and so no extensive treasurehouse of ante-rational, efficient knowledge (no logs). They had no libraries like the Egyptians. In their Dark Age, literacy had dropped dramatically and only in Ionia and Athens could pieces of Mycenæan culture be detected. The old language (Linear B) was lost. At the beginning of the so-called Archaic Period (starting ca.700 BCE), the Greeks could not erect temples, had a new alphabet adapted from the Phoenicians, no literature and very likely an oral culture, containing legends, stories about the deities and grand, heroic deeds (such as recorded by Homer & Hesiod, ca.750 BCE).

When their abstracting, eager and young minds got in touch with the age old cultural activity of the Egyptians, the encounter was very fertile, enabling the Greeks to develop their own intellectual & technological skills, and move beyond the various examples of Egyptian ingenuity. They were able to deduce abstract "laws" (major), allowing for connections to be made beyond the borders of context and action (minor) and the application of the general to the particular (conclusion). Moreover, the rich cosmogonies of Egyptian myth, the transcendent qualities of Pharaoh, the moral depth of Egypt's sapiental discourses and the importance of verbalization in the Memphite and Hermopolitan schools were readapted and incorporated into Greek philosophy, as so many other connotations and themes, adapted by their Greek authors to their Helladic taste.

This complex interaction between Greeks and Egyptians before and under the Ptolemies, allowed Alexandria to become a major intellectual centre, home of native Egyptians, Greek priests & scientists, Jewish scholars, Essenes and Hermetics alike. It continued to be influential until the final curtain came down on it in 642 CE, when general Amr Ibn Al As conquered Egypt for Caliph Omar, the second of the Islam's Four Pillar Caliphs. And so nearly nine hundred years of Graeco-Roman suzerainty had come to an end.

This historical sketch of Ancient Greece presents us with a lot of dynamic players and is characterized by a lot of inner tensions and interactions with the environment (invasions, migrations, colonizations). Natural disasters, immigration, "Doric" invasions, Persian Wars, the Peloponnesian War and the Macedonian rule were primordial in the formation of the Greek mentality. This conflictual interpretation of the complexity of Greek culture explains the extraordinary cognitive reequilibrations which happened, before but especially after the Dark Age. This catastrophic evolution being the outer side of an inner, mental state of discontent. It also shows the importance of cosmopolitanism, individualism, anthropocentrism and adaptability in the formation of the Greek cultural form and its rationality.

Using another chronological order, five fundamental stages may be discerned

• Neolithic Age (7000 - 2600 BCE) : settlements of farmers in Crete and mainland Greece ; 

• Bronze Age (2600 - 1100 BCE) : the Bronze Age, starting with the arrival of peaceful immigrants on Crete, can be divided in two periods :
  
  Minoan : This culture was palace-based. Between ca. 2600 and 1600 BCE, no Greek influence was present on the island. The Minoans reached their zenith between ca. 1730 and 1500 (the "Pax Minoica"). Two scripts are attested : hieroglyphic (not yet deciphered) & Linear A. The latter is nearly always used for administrative purposes (the count of peoples & objects). The last phase of the Minoan neopalatial civilization was characterized by Mycenæan influence (i.e. after ca.1600 BCE).
  Mycenæan : Initiated ca. 1600 BCE, the culture of these Greek speaking people spread over mainland Greece and reached Crete. It was strongly influenced by Minoan protopalatial (ending with the destruction of ca. 1730 BCE) & neopalatial culture, but remained loyal to its own Greek character. Eventually they conquered Crete (ca. 1450 BCE) and caused the elaboration of Greek Linear B based on Cretan Linear A, which is not a Greek language as evidenced by the few tablets found in Linear A (for example, the word for "total" -often used in administrative texts- cannot be understood as the archaic matrix of a Greek word).  
  
  So Minoan and Mycenæan cultures interpenetraded : before 1600 BCE, Crete had directly influenced the formation of Early Helladic Greece but was itself non-Greek (Linear A) - after 1450 BCE, Mycenæan Greece took over Minoan culture on Crete and Greek Linear B was used by the Minoan treasury of Crete in the postpalatial.
  

• Dark Age (1100 - 750 BCE) : Dorian Greece, pushing Greek culture a step back ;

• Archaic Age (750 - 478 BCE) : Greek culture reemerges ;

• Classical Age (478 - 323 BCE) : the "polis" and the emergence of classical, conceptual rationalism.

What happened with literacy during the Dark Age ? Although it is likely the scattered Mycenæan refugees kept some of their linguistic traditions alive, so that some were still able to read and write Linear B, it is clear the cultural network which had existed beforehand had been destroyed by the Dorians and with it a unified cultural form in Greece based on a shared language. If these refugees wrote their literary texts (if any) down on tablets in Linear B in the same way as had happened on Crete, then the reason why none were found may be explained by the fact the clay of these tablets had been dried only and/or reused. It is more likely though their culture was oral.

During these obscure centuries, Greek culture, as a form shared by all the inhabitants of Greece, was nonexistent. The marauding barbarians, who had destroyed the fortified towns of the pre-Helladics, and had developed (thanks to Crete) into the grand Mycenæan culture, were themselves destroyed by horned plundering hords from the North, identified by some as belonging to the Doric branch of the Greek family ... 

The length of the Dark Age (300 years) must have thrown a devastating shadow on the survival of Mycenæan culture. Note that the name of this period refers to how little is known about it and also points to the remarkable contrast between Doric Greece and Mycenæan culture. Fact is the Dorians had no written language of their own and did not use Linear B. Isolation and loss of skills characterized the period. About the religious practices, Snodgrass (2000) says that :

"Such practices seldom leave a substantial material record, even in a well-documented period ; they are known to us largely from literary sources. We should not therefore doubt the possibility of their transmission through the dark age, simply because we cannot find proof of it in the material evidence."
Snodgrass, 2000, p.399.

In the memories of the few able to safeguard the original Mycenæan form, Mycenæ became legendary and heroic. In a sense, the Mycenæans represented the "mythical" past of the Ancient Greeks.

2.2 The invention of the "phoinikeïa" for both vowels & consonants.

"The impact of writing as opposed to oral culture is perhaps the most dramatic example of transformation wrought from the outside, through borrowing."
Burkert., 1992, p.7.

Before the reemergence of writing in Ancient Greece at the end of the Dark Age (ca. 750 BCE), linguists distinguish between pictographic (hieroglyphic) writing, Linear A and Linear B writing.

• hieroglyhic script : ca. 1900 (begin protopalatial) - 1730 BCE (destruction first palace) : probably a Cretan, non-Greek language ;

• Linear A : ca. 1900 - 1450 BCE (destruction second palace) : a Cretan picture-based language which does not represent Greek words (reached its zenith ca. 1650 BCE) - in the beginning it existed side by side with the hieroglyphic script ;

• Linear B : ca. 1450 - 1380 BCE (final destruction of Knossos) : a Cretan and Greek sound-based, syllabic language representing the archaic matrix of Greek words - recast of Linear A ; 

• Archaic Greek Alphabet :  ca. 800 BCE : advent of one spoken language in Greece - ca. 750 BCE : a Greek script derived from Phoenician and adapted to Greek needs.

Hieroglyphic script on seals - Crete (Lyttos)

A pictogram is the representation of a complete word (not individual letters of phonemes) directly by a picture of the object actually denoted. 

This hieroglyphic script developed ca. 1730 BCE into Linear A. It is called "hieroglyphic", because it resembles the signary of Old Egyptian. This typical "pictoral narrative" can also be found on the Predynastic Narmer Palette or the Label of Djer (Dynasty I - tomb of Hemaka). 

Possibly their inspiration indeed came from Egypt, as sporadic trade was initiated as early as the prepalatial period (during Egypt's Old Kingdom and its Old Egyptian literature), as evidenced in Cretan ivory & gold jewellery. 

If so, then the script had various pictograms which would have received a phonetic (consonantal) and/or an ideographic value (assisting in the determination of the meaning implied). Vowels would be absent and the artistic, contextual placing of the signs would have played an important role. 

Next to these formal considerations, there would have been the pragmatical fact that Egyptian hieroglyphs were "sacred" signs, only used to write down religious, funerary, literary & philosophical thoughts of monumental & lasting importance. The Minoans had no "cursive" form of hieroglyphic, mostly used for secular purposes (in Egypt, this "hieratic" developed alongside hieroglyphic, starting ca. 3000 BCE). 

Indeed, Linear B seems to have been an administrative & bureaucratic language. No linear B literature has (yet) been found ...

Linear A Tablet Co 907 - Crete (Knossos)

Linear A is mostly inscribed on stone. The shape of these signs suggests an earlier development, but nothing can be said for sure. 

Most inscriptions were found in the south of Crete. The script was primarily used -unlike the sacred Egyptian hieroglyphs- for administrative purposes. Linear A was in use when Egyptian had already entered its classical, so-called "Middle Egyptian" format. Linear A is not a Greek language. Although phonograms may occur, Linear A is (like the hieroglyphic script) picture-based. It also appeared in religious contexts.

Linear B Tablets 13 & 85 - Crete (Haghia Triada)

Linear B (derived from Linear A) is not picture-based (pictogram) but sound-based (phonogram). A series of 87 signs are used. The basic syllabary consists of 60 biliteral signs. With these the phonetic value of words are written down. The basic syllabary is the combination of 5 vowels with 12 consonants. Linear B adds 16 optional signs and 11 signs are not yet identified. The optional signs are used to allow one to identify words more precisely or to represent two basic signs. It is read from left to right. Linear B (also used in the last phase of the Minoan culture) was the script of the Mycenæns (ca. 1600 - 1100 BCE) and its language was Greek. Archaeological evidence showed that Linear B was not used a lot in mainland Greece. No private use of the language has been discovered. It was deciphered by Ventris in 1951. Apparently, Linear B was only used to keep records in Greek at Knossos and later at the palaces of Thebes, Mycenæ and Pylos.

"L'écriture semble avoir été employée exclusivement comme un outil bureaucratique, le moyen indispensable de conserver les comptes et documents administratifs, mais jamais dans une perspective historique et encore moins profane. (...) le contenu des tablettes en linéaire B consiste, presque sans exception, en listes d'individus, d'animaux, de produits agricoles et d'objects manufacturés."
Chadwick, 1994, p.191.

Phoenicia, its language & alphabet

Phoenician alphabet of Byblos - ca. 1050 BCE
with Aramaic & Hebrew derivations

In Antiquity, Phoenicia was the region corresponding to modern Lebanon, with adjoining parts of modern Syria and Israel. Its inhabitants, the Phoenicians, were notable merchants, traders, and colonizers of the Mediterranean in the 1st millennium BCE. Its chief cities were Sidon, Tyre, and Berot (modern Beirut).

It is not certain what the Phoenicians called themselves in their own language. It appears to have been "Kena'ani" (Akkadian : "Kinahna") or "Canaanites." In Hebrew the word "kena'ani" has the secondary meaning of "merchant," a term characterizing the Phoenicians well. The Phoenicians probably arrived in the area about 3000 BCE. Nothing is known of their original homeland, though some traditions place it in the region of the Persian Gulf.

At Byblos, commercial and religious connections with Egypt are attested from the IVth Dynasty. Extensive trade was certainly carried on by the 16th century, and the Egyptians soon established suzerainty over much of Phoenicia. The 14th century, however, was one of much political unrest, and Egypt eventually lost its hold over the area. Beginning in the 9th century, the independence of Phoenicia was increasingly threatened by the advance of Assyria, the kings of which several times exacted tribute and took control of parts or all of Phoenicia. In 538 BCE, Phoenicia passed under the rule of the Persians. The country was later taken by Alexander the Great and in 64 BCE was incorporated into the Roman province of Syria. Aradus, Sidon, and Tyre, however, retained self-government. The oldest form of government in the Phoenician cities seems to have been kingship limited by the power of the wealthy merchant families. Federation of the cities on a large scale never seems to have occurred.

The Phoenicians were well known to their contemporaries as sea traders and colonizers, and by the 2nd millennium they had already extended their influence along the coast of the Levant by a series of settlements, including Joppa (Jaffa, modern Yafo), Dor, Acre, and Ugarit. Colonization of areas in North Africa (like Carthage), Anatolia, and Cyprus also occurred at an early date. Carthage became the chief maritime and commercial power in the western Mediterranean. Several smaller Phoenician settlements were planted as stepping stones along the route to Spain and its mineral wealth. Phoenician exports included cedar and pine wood, fine linen from Tyre, Byblos, and Berytos, cloths dyed with the famous Tyrian purple (made from the snail Murex), embroideries from Sidon, wine, metalwork and glass, glazed faience, salt, and dried fish. In addition, the Phoenicians conducted an important transit trade.

In the artistic products of Phoenicia, Egyptian motifs and ideas were mingled with those of Mesopotamia, the Aegean, and Syria. Though little survives of Phoenician sculpture, the round, relief sculpture is much more abundant. The earliest major work of Phoenician sculpture to survive was found at Byblos : the limestone sarcophagus of Ahiram, king of Byblos at the end of the 11th century. Ivory and wood carving became Phoenician specialties, and Phoenician goldsmiths' and metalsmiths' work was also well known. 

Although the Phoenicians used cuneiform (Mesopotamian writing), they also produced a script of their own. The Phoenician alphabetic script of 22 letters appeared at Byblos ca. 1050 BCE, but earlier stages are likely. The inscription on the sarcophagus of Ahiram (ca. 1000 BCE), shows a scripture which had already attained its classical form. This method of writing, later adopted by the Greeks, is the ancestor of the modern Roman alphabet. It was the Phoenicians' most remarkable and distinctive contribution to arts and civilization.

This writing system developed out of the North Semitic alphabet and was spread over the Mediterranean area by Phoenician traders. It is the ancestor of the Greek alphabet and, hence, of all Western alphabets. The Phoenician alphabet gradually developed from this North Semitic prototype and was in use until about the 1st century BCE in Phoenicia proper, when the language was already being superceded by Aramaic. Phoenician colonial scripts, variants of the mainland Phoenician alphabet, are classified as Cypro-Phoenician (10th - 2nd century BCE) and Sardinian (ca. 9th century BCE) varieties. A third variety of the colonial Phoenician script evolved into the Punic and neo-Punic alphabets of Carthage, which continued to be written until about the 3rd century CE. Punic was a monumental script and neo-Punic a cursive form. Punic was influenced throughout its history by the language of the Berbers and continued to be used by North African peasants until the 6th century CE.

The Phoenician alphabet in all its variants changed from its North Semitic ancestor only in external form. The shapes of the letters varied a little in mainland Phoenician and a good deal in Punic and neo-Punic. The alphabet remained, however, essentially a Semitic alphabet of 22 letters, written from right to left, with only consonants represented and phonetic values unchanged from the North Semitic script. Phoenician is very close to Hebrew and Moabite, with which it forms a Canaanite subgroup of the Northern Central Semitic languages.

Phoenician words are found in Greek and Latin classical literature as well as in Egyptian, Akkadian, and Hebrew writings. Phoenician and Hebrew scripts, both monumental and cursive, were closely akin and developed along parallel lines. Modern decipherment of Phoenician took place in the 18th century (Swinton, Barthélemy). Phoenician epigraphic material is far from impressive.

the Greek adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet

Archaic Greek Alphabets derived from Phoenician

Although the Greeks played no important role in the formation of their own alphabet, they added a crucial dimension : the five vowels. Indeed, Phoenician, like Aramaic and Hebrew, was essentially a Semitic alphabet. It consisted of 22 letters, written from right to left, with only consonants. Semitic languages remained written from right to left, while archaic Greek inscription had both directions before fixating the opposite direction (from left to right). Moreover, the order of the letters was also fundamentally Phoenician, and the Hebrew meaning given to the individual letters corresponded with the Greek name for the letter :

aleph / alpha (ox), beth / bèta (house), gimel / gamma (camel), daleth / delta (door), he / epsilon (window), vau / upsilon (nail), zain / zèta (sword), cheth / èta (fence), teth / thèta (serpent), yod / iota (hand), kaph / kappa (hollow hand), lamed / lambda (ox-goat), mem / mu (water), nun / nu (fish), sameth / xi (prop), ayin / omicron (eye), pe / pi (mouth), tzaddi (fish hook), qoph (back of hand), resh / rho (head), shin / sigma (tooth), tau / tau (cross-mark)

Seven Phoenician consonants (cf. "phoinikeia grammata", the "Phoenician letters") were unnecessary in Greek (identified by their Hebrew names) : "aleph", "he", "vau", "yod", "ayin", "tzaddi" & "qoph".

These unnecessary consonants were used to represent the vowels and two consonants, "tzaddi" and "qoph", were dropped. The "vau" was taken out of the Phoenician alphabetical order and added as "upsilon" at the end of the new Greek alphabet, together with four typical Greek sounds. 

• the "aleph" was used for "a" ;

• the "he" was used for "e" ;

• the "vaw" was used for "u" ;

• the "yod" was used for "i" ;

• the "ayin" was used for "o" ;

Finally, they added four Greek sounds :

• the "phi", for "ph" ;

• the "chi", for "ch" ;

• the "psi", for "ps" ;

• the "omega" for "oo".

This alphabetic system provided the Greeks ca. 750 BCE with 7 voweled sounds : "a", "e", "ee", "i", "o", "oo" and "u". The complete alphabet ensued : (a) alpha, (b) bèta, (g) gamma, (d) delta, (e) epsilon, (z) zèta, (è) èta, (th) thèta, (i or j) iota, (k) kappa, (l) lambda, (m) mu, (n) nu, (x) xi, (o) omicron, (p) pi, (r) rho, (s) sigma, (t) tau, (u) upsilon, (f or ph) phi, (ch) chi, (ps), psi and (oo) omega. 

In all Ancient Semitic languages vowels were omitted. Even in Ancient Egyptian, only the consonantal structure was recorded. Vowels are dynamical, and constitute the variety & adaptability of a script to concrete situations like gender, number and measurements. In Linear B, vowels (a and o) were used to define gender and were recorded. By adding vowels to their alphabet, the Archaic Greeks allowed the written language to reflect the spoken one, so that a text seemed a fixating copy of the concrete, living situation which triggered its composition (in Egypt, the difference between the spoken word and the "sacred" hieroglyphs was considerable). Thanks to vowels, the event could be exactely recorded, and made present "in abstracto" as text. Hence, Greek cultural forms could be transmitted with more precision, which triggered the formation of a "historical memory" based on records which reflected the past as it was (devoid of the ante-rational connotations & contexts necessary to decipher non-voweled texts). Literacy meant thus much more than access to the sacred (as in Egypt) : by writing down their language using a voweled alphabet, the Greeks were able to captivate & describe the living, concrete context in such a way that the text better represented the real or ideal thing.

In my opinion, binding vowels fits well the linearizing and defining state of mind of the Greeks. In Mycenæan Linear B, the system was till syllabic, joining each vowel with a consonant. In Cretan Linear A, the pictogram ruled but phonetic value might have been present. But Linear B offered a clear advantage : it was sound-based and fixated the vowels, though not absolutely. With the adaptation of the Phoenician script at the beginning of the Archaic Age, the Greeks took a fundamental cognitive step forward and eliminated the exclusive consonantals, identifying each vowel with an alphabetic sign of its own !

The evolution of cognition may hence be linked with these various scripts as follows (for Ancient Egypt see : theology, verbal philosophy and magic) 

• hieroglyphic script : mythical mode : loose pictograms on Creta ;

• Linear A : mythical mode : pictoral system ;

• Linear B : pre-rational mode : syllabic system with relatively fixed vowels ;

• Archaic Greek : proto-rational mode : alphabetic system with fixed vowels.

The fixation of the vowels in an absolute, phonographic sense, allowed the Greeks to define a series of categories which had remained outside the scope of any other script of Antiquity. The vowels could be used to write down gender, verbal inflections and suffixes making the language fluid. Suddenly, about 750 BCE, the Greeks had a tool to define meaning with an unprecedented precision and clarity, adapted to the spoken tongue. 

This accomplishment must not have passed unnoticed when -under Pharaoh Psammetichus I- they arrived in Egypt. There was however no direct information available to the Greeks about Egypt as a whole, for -as a group- they were forced by law to remain in the western Delta, a situation which would change when Pharaoh Amasis ascended the throne of Egypt in 570 BCE.

2.3 Archaic Greek literature, religion & architecture.

at the treshold of archaic literature

At the beginning of recorded Greek literature stand two grand epic stories, the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer, and the works of Hesiod (White, 1964), like the Theogony.

Some features of the Homeric poems reach far into the Mycenæan age, perhaps to 1500 BCE, but the written works are traditionally ascribed to Homer. In their present form, they probably date to the 8th century (recorded ca. 750 BCE). It goes without saying that the elaborated compositional framework evidenced in these masterpieces proves the existence of an oral tradition.

"The likely conclusion is that the Homeric political system, like other Homeric pictures, is an artificial amalgam of widely separated historical stages. And yet there is natural and almost irresistible urge to look for a single period in which as many features as possible of the picture can be credibly and simultaneously set."
Snodgrass, 2000, p.389.

Implicit references to Homer and quotations from the poems date to the middle of the 7th century BCE. Archilochus, Alcman, Tyrtaeus, and Callinus in the 7th century and Sappho and others in the early 6th adapted Homeric phraseology and metre to their own purposes and rhythms. At the same time, scenes from the epics became popular in works of art. The pseudo-Homeric "Hymn to Apollo of Delos," probably of late 7th-century composition, claimed to be the work of "a blind man who dwells in rugged Chios", a reference to a tradition about Homer himself. 

The general belief that Homer was a native of Ionia (the central part of the western seaboard of Asia Minor) seems a reasonable conjecture, for the poems themselves are in predominantly Ionic dialect. Although Smyrna and Chios early began competing for the honour, and others joined in, no authenticated local memory survived anywhere of someone who, oral poet or not, must have been remarkable in his time ...

With Hesiod, the farmer-poet from Ascra, apparently of the eighth century BCE, described as a forerunner of the pre-Socratics, we encounter a lay poet taking upon himself the task of systematizing myth. He saw the world as a muddled, confusing, chaotic place where the only hope lay in the hands of the Pantheon, one's fellow men and natural factors around him. The barely controllable essence of the world springs to the fore. Brute necessity is more important than Homeric ideals, and the individual emerges out of the collective in a desperate mode. Grim might seems right here. Zeus however, has the gift of justice ("dike") and crime does not pay. Hesiod stands midway Homer and the Milesian philosophers.

There is no evidence to substantiate the existence of Greek literature in Linear B, although Indo-European poetry is attested as an art form in "measured lines with fixed poetic flourished, some of which appear in identical form in Vedic and Greek." (Burkert, 1985, p.17, my italics).

The use of leather, combined with a sea climate, makes it unlikely to ever discover original Mycenæan texts. The Linear B tablets found survived because of catastrophic fires which destroyed the buildings they were stored in (for the original were only sun-dried). It is likely that under the Mycenæans and the Dorians, the bulk of all Homeric and Hesiodic ideas were transmitted exclusively orally. Let us speculate, and assume Mycenæan poets at times wrote down a brief sketch of their works, assisting memory with small inscriptions in Linear B on leather and sun-dried clay, and assuring the continuity of the synopsis of their thought (combined with extensive oral training). A strong contra-argument has always been the absence of inscriptions on pottery (instead, geometrical forms were used). But this is apparently less significant in Greece in terms of scriptoral capacity than it was in Ancient Egypt, with its "magical" and "divine" interpretation of language and its eternalization.

"... the criterion of ceramic style as an indicator of major cultural changes is less satisfactory. We have found it misleading ..."
Snodgrass, 2000, p.393.

towards Archaic Greek religion

Minoan religion was associated with the miracle of nature, and our principal source of knowledge are artistic representations inspired by a deified natural world and depicting or facilitating religious cult. 

"They might be described as high-class hedonists with a strong religious sense ; and their religion, characteristically, seems to have been a gay open-air everyday faith, with holy spots on mountain-tops and in groves or by springs and well-houses, with fertility goddess and an Artemis-like Mistress of Beasts ..."
Green, 1973, p.34.

Three important features of the Minoan religious experience stand out : 

• the sacrality of the tree : the tree marks a sanctuary and is surrounded by a sacred enclosure. During processions, the anthropomorphic Great Goddess is enthroned beneath it. The same holds for pillars, columns and stones ; 

• the chthonic powers : sacrifice of the bull (symbol of the fecundity of nature, the male god of vegetation), bull-games, double axe and sacral horns point to the mastering of the chthonic powers of the mother goddess, who played a central role ;

• the epiphany of the deity from above in the sacred dance : it seems that mystical communion with the god (i.e. the direct experience of the Divine) was important and momentary scenes of epiphany show the deity besides the sacred tree, in front of shrines, next to a stepped altar or on a mountain peak.

Although obvious differences are present, Minoan and Egyptian religion are of the same family. Both are based on nature, the exhaltation of life and divine kingship. They share identical iconography : the bull as symbol of permanence, the sacrality of trees and elevated places, the ample use of colorful representations of fauna and flora and similar jewelry. On Crete, nature at times was a rumbling, bull-like underground which knocked down their best palaces. Hence, to find and keep the proper "equilibrium" was what was needed to allow the acrobat to jump over the back of the bull. In Egypt, were chaotic Nile-floods could cause famine and wreck social order, the image of the balance expressed a solidarity with nature, despite its darker, destructive sides.

The famous "Bull-leaping" fresco, East wing of the palace of Knossos - 15th century BCE

But in Egypt, the mystical approach in the daily ritual was restricted to Pharaoh, son of Re, and his representatives, although the Egyptian people had a strong religious sense and organized many yearly festivals and special days. Also : the Minoans apparently did not share Egypt's convictions regarding sacred script and the magic of words, both spoken and written. The hypothesis of a direct influence of Egypt on Crete should not be excluded. If so, this started as early as the Old Kingdom.

The Palace of Nestor at Pylos - tentative reconstruction by Higgings of the Throne Room

The contrast with Mycenæan religion, with its Indo-European "sky-god" and "father of the Olympians" should be clear. The Elysium, ruled over by the Cretan Rhadamanthus, the judge of the dead, was unlike the gloomy Hades. Here a happy Sunlit paradise, there the darkness of wandering shades. For the Mycenæans, the human was placed at the centre of the universe and military confronted with nature. The human was no longer part of nature, but endowed with the power to protect and fortify himself. The palaces also point to the difference : the Mycenæans built according to a rigid plan, based on rectangular units ("megaron"), whereas the Cretan palaces possessed a plastic layout (also true for the Egyptian temple). 

Plan of the Palace of Minos at Knossos - in its heart is a rectangular central court

The Mycenæan sense of linearity will become the outstanding feature of Archaic and Classical Greece. The "megaron" returned in the Dorian temple and contributed to the finished and complete sense of any major Greek building.

"Les dieux égyptiens ressemblent, de par leur nature et leurs manifestations en mutation constante, aux temples du pays, qui n'étaient jamais achevés, mais toujours 'en construction'. La forme axiale des temples en Égypte est clairement ordonnée, articulée, et pourtant n'exclut jamais la possibilité d'extension et de transformation continues. (...) En cela, l'Égypte diffère considérablement de la Grèce, où temples et dieux sont relativement finis et complets."
Hornung, 1986, p.235, my italics.

On Linear B tablets found at Knossos, the names of Zeus, Hera, Pæan, Enyalios & Poseidon appear. A rich and differentiated system of Mycenæan gods was worshipped by priests in a lifelong, official position. Sacrificial rituals are attested.

But although rooted in Minoan and Mycenæan elements, Archaic Greek religion is not to be equated with it. For example, nowhere at any time is the triad : altar, temple and cult-image, found in the Minoan-Mycenæan world.

At the end of the Dark Age, external elements caused the Greek cultural form (nearly extinct during the Dark Age) to rejuvenate and reemerge. These may be summarized as an "Oriental influence", in which Egypt played a prominent factor :

"Alongside the fragmentary, but undeniably effective Mycenaean-Minoan tradition, there are therefore repeated, noteworthy impulses from the East, or more precisely from the Hittite/North Syrian area, which must be registered, with Cyprus having a special importance as the meeting-place and centre for dissemination. Intensive contacts exist in the twelfth century and then again in the ninth/eighth centuries, when Greek traders establish settlements in Syria, until there is a true breakthrough of Eastern fashion about 700 with the Orientalizing Style ; then from 660 onwards, thanks to the role of Greek mercenaries in the twenty-sixth dynasty, Egypt sets the tone. But before the seventh century is over, the culture drift is reversed ; Greek art now comes into its own and for centuries is taken as a model by both East and West. In particular cases it is often difficult to decide in which phase of East-West relations a given element of religious culture has been taken over ; even the Homeric epic does not always provide clear clues. But the history of religion cannot disregard the fact that it was precisely during the dark age, the time of confusion and debilitation, that the gates to an Oriental influence were opened."
Burkert, 1992, p.52, my italics.

archaic architecture

Mycenæan palaces were fortified citadels. These feudal and local barons lived of commerce and plunder. Each ruled an area of up to ten miles' radius around a hilltop site. Their architecture was military and stern (cf. the "megaron"), although superficial resemblances with Minoan architecture are obvious.

The Citadel of Mycenæ - reconstruction by Higgings as it would have been in the 13th century BCE

The major structural improvement made by the Archaic Greeks was the outer colonnade, also called "peripteros", around the sacred space of the temple (the "cella"). In Egypt, columns were used in the hypostyle hall, which referred to the primordial marsh of creation or to the forests that had vanished along the Nile. Colonnade-temples as such did not occur. 

Originally, the "peripteros" was made out of wood, for the temple, in Minoan fashion, was conceived as a space surrounded by trees. The "cella" was the "open" space in the sacred, original "wood", eventually represented in a rigid, linear way. Because the rich donated money to replace the wood by stone, the wooden sanctuary eventually became a stone temple ... 

One of the oldest examples of a Greek temple or palace, was found on the island of Euboia :

Temple or Palace of Lefkandi - 9th/8th century BCE

"Even if the Greeks had wanted to build monumentally before they found themselves on the banks of the Nile they would have lacked the technical know-how for quarrying, transporting, and installing megalithic masonry. It is plausible that Egyptian technology served as a primary player in the re-emergence of monumental architecture in archaic Ionia. This is not to say that the Ionian Greeks simply copied Egyptian temples. Indeed, quite to the contrary, the evidence suggests that the Ionian Greeks created structures that were unique, and the evidence for this will be taken up later. For now, the main point is that the Egyptian techniques for monumental construction and the exemplars they had produced stimulated the Ionian Greeks. And that from Naucratis where they had a thriving colony, no more than a weekend's travel away, the Ionians had extraordinary access to a grateful Egypt."
Hahn, 2001, p.69.

Temple or Hera in Olympia shows the hesitations of the first archaic architects :
two colonnades in the cella instead of one in the middle (statica) and plump Dorian columns
the original wooden columns of the peripteros were slowly replaced by stone ones - ca. 600 BCE

The leap forward realized by the Greeks in their Dorian temples is evident in the linearization of the layout, as well as in the precise cardinal orientation of the edifice. However, it takes some time before these architects feel confident enough to erect slender buildings. In contrast with sculpture and painting, which are judged according to "eros" (mutual attraction) and "mimesis" (likeness), architecture is defined by abstract mathematical standards of symmetry and proportion. In the latter, the natural numbers (introduced by Pythagoras) played an essential part. Indeed, natural numbers (the set 1, 2, 3 ...) can be squared, raised to the third power, and placed in a series etc.

First Temple of Hera in Poseidonia, Paestum, called "basilica" - ca. 540 - 530 BCE

These symmetries introduced a play of proportion and "natural number" symbolism, which has been defined as the classical standard of beauty. And although each temple is indeed a representation in stone of a particular mathematical equilibrium or "logos" (word), they may be placed together with no real consideration for the overall architectonic balance between them, as we see in Poseidonia, with its two Hera temples erected bluntly next to each other :

Foreground : first Temple of Hera in Poseidonia, Paestum, called "basilica" - ca. 540 - 530 BCE
Background : Great Temple of Hera - ca. 460 - 440 BCE (contemporary of the Parthenon)

For the Greek architects, symmetry was a system of proportions, which regulated coherence, reciprocity and balance. These defined harmony. Proportions could be expressed numerically in "natural" numbers. The influence of Pythagorism on Greek architecture was therefore decisive. 

3. Memphite thought and the birth of Greek philosophy.

Greek philosophy & science has been acclaimed as the most original contribution of the Greeks to the intellectual tradition of the world. 

"What does change as soon as philosophy appears on the scene is perspective and verbalization, the kind of questions asked. Previously religion had been defined by forms of behaviour and by institutions ; now it becomes a matter of the theories and thoughts of individual men who express themselves in writing, in the form of books addressed to a nascent reading public. These are texts of a sort that did not exist before in either form or content : the new is incommensurable with the old. Philosophy indeed begins with the prose book."
Burkert, 1985, p.305, my italics.

It is clear the Greek philosophical mentality was unique, but it did not come forth "ex nihilo", but was the result of the network of forces that triggered the so-called "Greek Renaissance", which was based on traditional Minoan & Mycenæan elements, but made explicit by a series of "new" concepts derived from Mesopotamia, Iran and, last but not least, Egypt : 

• "ta onta" : language refers to an object (correspondence & realism) - when understood in its most general (universal, abstract, linear) form as "being", it takes the plural "the beings" or "that what is", "things that are" ;

• "arche" : this being has a beginning in time and space and when this is known, the essence of the entity can be ascertained ;

• "phusis" : moreover, after its initiation as a "thing" by the "arche", there is a process of becoming which can not be influenced by human beings ; 

• "kosmos" : the totality of what exists is not a random amalgam, but has intrinsic order, organization, lawfulness and determination ;

• "aletheia" : besides being expressed through ritual acts in the domain of justice ("dike"), truth qualifies as a particular type of speech, pronounced under particular circumstances, by a figure invested with particular functions ;

• "sophoi" or "sophistai" : men who came forward with books about these matters, but who had as yet no name for themselves and their work and designated as "wise". These men "understood" and "perceived" ("nous") certain truths and commanded intelligence and eloquence.

These "new" concepts were fully developed in Ancient Egyptian literature at the time when they first emerged in Greece to animate the Greek Renaissance and its philosophy :

• creation as the totality of existing things is attested in the Memphis Theology as well as in the Hymn to the Aten :  
  
  "Thus Ptah was satisfied after he had made all things and all divine words. He gave birth to the gods, he made the towns, he established the nomes, he placed the gods in their  shrines, he settled their offerings, he established their shrines, he made their bodies according to their wishes. Thus the gods entered into their bodies of every kind of wood, of every kind of stone, of every kind of clay, in every kind of thing that grows upon him in which they came to be. Thus all the gods and their ka's were gathered to him, content and united with the Lord of the Two Lands." (Memphis Theology, Lines 59 -61) ;
  
  

• all things viewed as rooted in the "arche" is the Greek equivalent of the Egyptian idea that all deities and creation itself emerge out of the singular Atum, who creates himself "in the first time" and defies the preexisting "ultimate cause", namely the primordial ocean ("Nun") ;

• the "physis" of the process of becoming is the equivalent of Atum simultaneously creating Shu and Tefnut (unfolding into an Ennead) and therewith the whole of creation (0 > 1 = 2 ... 9 = ALL) ;

• the Enneadic structure of the pantheon and the interconnectedness between the Two Lands as well as their harmonization and unification by Pharaoh, is suggestive of the pyramidal order of a society ruled by a divine king who is the unique son of the creator (Ennead + Pharaoh = the decad, completion) ;

• the importance of Maat (in Greece also personified by a female deity called "Themis" who -as in Egypt- was a daughter of the supreme god of the sky, Zeus) is both cosmical (Pharaoh sustaining creation by offering truth & justice to his father) and social (the accomplished discourse discussed by Ptahhotep) : "He who lessens falsehood, fosters truth." (The Eloquent Peasant, Sixth Petition, Middle Kingdom) ;

• the wise of Egypt are able to live "in" truth & justice and are also exceptional individuals, with particular verbal qualities, understood in a "logoic" sense as well as reflecting a particular social position in society (as Ptahhotep and the other sapiental authors, known by name, confirm).

3.1 The origin of Greek philosophy : Thales, Anaximander & Anaximenes.

archetypal, Afrocentric, communicational

Regarding the historical origins of Greek philosophy, three hypothesis have been put forward :

• the Aryan model (Lefkowitz, 1996 & 1997) : denies the influence of Ancient tradition on Archaic Greece and proposes a purely white, European Greek archetype, rooted in the Indo-European experience. This model is Hellenocentric and Europacentric and in conflict with what is known about the historical interaction between cultures. Its core of truth is the idea that a "Greek mentality" existed and with it the particular linearity which allowed Greek rationality to see the light ; 

• the Afrocentric model (James, 1954) : denies the Greeks their own cultural originality and proposes a "stolen legacy". This model is in conflict with the fact that the Greeks developed a rational system based on open dialogue, abstract thought & syllogistic logic (absent in Ancient Egypt and the cultures of the Middle East). Its core of truth is the acknowledgment that qua practical experience (the "minor" of the syllogism), the Greeks were "a young people" who had few or no written traditions of their own and who indeed allowed themselves to be influenced by the, in comparison, grand and old Egyptian civilization ;

• the communicational (diffusionist) hypothesis : tries to understand the emergence of a new cultural form in terms of the open interaction between peoples and the formative, cognitive effects of communication and apprenticeship arising between them. The pre-Socratics have, as a group, been significantly influenced by Egyptians and Mesopotamians, but Greece subsequently influenced these ancient cultures, namely by linearizing and rationalizing their traditions. Between all cultures a constant flow of information is present which allows for creative interaction and exchange. Isolation is rare and contraproductive in terms of cultural development. Economical, demographical, political, social & theological variables are constantly at work. In this model, the weight of all major players should always been taken into consideration (as well as the versatility of new cultures, such as that of Archaic Greece). It is clear that in Mediterranean Antiquity, the long history of Egyptian civilization (entering history ca. 3000 BCE) represented the ultimate accomplishment of human civilization. Hence, for curious Greeks, there was a lot to learn in Egypt ...

Let us focus on the third hypothesis :

SENDER & MESSAGE

The Egyptians produced monumental funerary and other works of art, which were intimately bound by the "divine words" inscribed on them. In fact, the "neter medu" ("nTr mdw"), the "words of the god" or any book or inscription in hieroglyphs ("sacred glyphs") were deemed more important than the pieces which eternalized them. Moreover, every large temple had its library, containing hundreds if not thousands of papyri, records of the practical information & procedures (coded in the concrete concepts of proto-rationality) pertaining to the various sciences studied and applied by the members of these high places of Egyptian intellectual activity. The Egyptians were constanty sending out messages and every Greek who was intelligent enough to be interested in written traditions must have been overtaken by all these various, pictoral symbol-sources. The coining of the world "hieroglyphs" is suggestive of the fact that the use of a special pictoral "sacred script" (Middle Egyptian) impressed the Greeks. Indeed, they realized that the Egyptians also used cursive hieroglyphs, hieratic and demotic. Egyptian beauty was far more scriptoral than was the case in Mesopotamian art. This outstanding linguistic nature of the Egyptian symbol-source should be taken into consideration.

RECEIVER & ENVIRONMENT

That the Greeks were curious people is evident. But as receivers, they were ca.670 BCE in a special position, for their urge to learn was that of an emergent Greek nation which had lost touch with its roots during the Dark Age and which was left with Homeric poetical dreams, which were nothing more than an amalgam of the Minoan and Mycenæan experience intermingled with the grimness of the Dorians. No genuine track-record was present. Before 800 BCE, the Greeks spoke various dialects and they could no longer read and write ! So the Dorian catastrophe preceding the Greek Renaissance, involved a major cultural crisis, which culminated in the Greeks seeking out "new" models and "good" examples. Note that the reception of Egyptian civilization was also a recognition and a rememberance. For when the travellers returned home, they spoke of Egyptian kings, monuments, rituals and festivals rooted in a religion of nature which strongly resembled Minoan Crete. Were there traces of the Minoan experience left in the Greek data-base which made them approve Egyptian thought ? Did history repeat itself (Mycenæan Greeks influenced by Minoan Crete, Archaic Greeks influenced by Egypt) ? It is clear the Greeks became fruitful Egyptian info-sources, as Alexandrian Hermetism proves.

" ... it is inaccurate to refer to the relationship between Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece as one of cultural theft. Probably the best description of the relationship is as 'approbation'. The Ancient Greeks as a whole were only partially guilthy of the more severe charge of plagiarism, as they often cited their Egyptian and Oriental antecedents. It was the classicists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries who completed the denial of the earlier sources, giving all the credit to the European Greeks."
Bernal, 2001, p.393, my italics.

So, although the negative insight that there is not one single origin of Greek philosophy holds, we may discern the following formative components which induced the "Greek Miracle" :

• the past Minoan factor : this non-Greek, Linear A civilization strongly influenced the Greek mainland and the Greeks arriving there between ca. 1900 & 2100 BCE - the differences between Minoan and Indo-European mythology are considerable, whereas, at some point, early Minoan Crete was influenced by Egypt ;

• the past Mycenæan factor : this Greek civilization was first influenced by Crete and would eventually conquer the island and recast Linear A (no vowels) into Linear B (syllabic). Although there are no direct sources available, evidence suggests the presence of an original Greek pantheon (with a focus on the sky god) and an organized society. Traces of the typical "philosophical" questions posed by the Ionians have not been found, but the stern, linear and fortified constructions of these Greeks, as well as their grim shadowy funerary expectations, are suggestive of the discontent and martial mental attitudes of the Classical Greeks (thought as crisis & catastrophe), which contrast with both Cretan myth and Egyptian thought ;
  
  "The finished literary masterpieces of the Iliad and Odyssey, like the curiously sophisticated and analytical mentality behind the contemporary Late Geometrical paintings, show the magnitude of the renaissance that now enveloped Greece."
  Snodgrass, 2000, p.436.
  
  

• Third Intermediate Period Egyptians : although the "age of empire" (the New Kingdom) was over, Egypt stood, ca.1075 BCE, in comparison with other nations, still at such a high point of cultural development, that its decline took another millenium, during which time Egypt continued to be outstanding and inspiring (most of the Egyptian temples we can visit today were erected under Greek, Ptolemaic rule). The marvel of its temples and the erudition of its priests very probably astonished the Greeks, who quickly "approved" these realizations to readapt them to their own linear mentality ; 

• other Mediterranean cultural formations : the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Hittites, Jews etc. also influenced the Greek travellers, but my reading of the evidence present today shows that the affiliation qua philosophical intent was not as marked as the Egyptian influence. 

Although commerce (the invention of "money"), the voweled alphabet, astronomy & the astral religions of the Middle East served as additional ingredients, the focus on the mental (the heart of truth & justice), the verbal (great speech, generative command, creative command), the ceremonial (the magic of the just deed), the scriptoral (the magic of words) and the dialogal (accomplished discourse) witnessed in Egyptian thought, was truly unique (both qua persistence in time as qua internal structure and balance). Egyptian thought came close to the philosophical intent of wanting to understand creation and the place of humanity therein and had developed theological (cf. Hymns to Amon), naturalistic (cf. Great Hymn to the Aten), sapiental (cf. Maxims of Ptahhotep) and quasi phenomenological (cf. Cannibal Hymn) answers, albeit in an ante-rational mode of thought. 

Over the millenia, the practical results of this proto-rational thinking had been preserved on monuments and in the various libraries, to be studied by Pharaoh and his representatives when a major task was initiated (like erecting a new temple) or an unforseen problem rose (so as to seek out what their predecessors did). When the first Greeks arrived, and given the Egyptian conservative love of writing, we can only speculate about the number of papyri that were carefully stored away in all the major and minor libraries of Egypt. We have extant lists of books found in the "House of Life" of major temples. They reveal categories and a system of classification.

Egyptian thought was, ex hypothesi, the decisive (but not the only) catalyst enabling Greek philosophy to emerge in Ionia ca. 600 BCE. It played a crucial part in the Greek Renaissance giving way to Classical Greece and its philosophy.

If asked which characteristics of Egyptian thought played a proment role in the constitution of Greek philosophy, following points spring to the fore :

• the words of god and the love of writing : it should be emphasized, that in Ancient Egypt, both spoken and written words were very important : hieroglyphs were "divine words", endowed with magical properties, "set apart" and distinguished from everyday language and writing (in hieratic and later demotic). Pharaoh Unis (ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE) decorated his tomb with hieroglyphs to assure his ascension and subsequent arrival in heaven. Even if the offerings to his Ka would end, the hieroglyphs -hidden in the total obscurity of the tomb- contained enough "inner" power ("sekhem") to assure Wenis' felicity ad perpetuam ... Egyptian rituals were a unity of gestures and words. The latter were vibrations which opened the secret gates of the Netherworld, offer