WRITINGS OF THE EGYPTIANS

Egyptian Vignettes of the story of Atlantis

THOTH THE SCRIBE

This page has evolved somewhat since its inception. After spending a number of years analyzing the writings of the ancient Egyptians and their possible connections in regard to Atlantis, the picture forming from the data collected is gradually coming into focus. Since Plato gave an Egyptian origin to his Atlantis saga (via Solon and the priests at Sais), I think the following discussions may be relevant.

Scattered though they may be, an interesting picture emerges from the numerous references to Thoth in the earliest writings of the ancient Egyptians--and that picture fits the theory of an Atlantean origin for this intriguing character. Although late writings depict him as a god, the earliest texts depict him as a king (The Palermo Stone versus The Coffin Texts; Faulkner, 1974).

Thoth was born in a distant country to the west which was across a body of water. Its main city was by the sea (Plato's metropolis). The land possessed volcanos and the city had a low mountain or large hill in the center. This land is sometimes referred to as an Island of Fire. (Book of the Dead, Hymn of Rameses IV and Pyramid Texts) Thoth is known as "Lord of the horizon"; and like Poseidon, the earthshaker, Thoth is sometimes called "cleaver of the earth" (Papyrus of Ani, Chapter LXI).

In Chapter LXXXV of the Book of the Dead, Thoth rules the "Western Domain," and by the end of the New Kingdom he is called "Lord of the West" (Seth, 1912). He is said to be the inventor of writing, astronomy, mathematics and civilization in general (Budge, 1960). Thoth is often called the Scribe (Pyramid Texts; Book of the Dead, et al.); his Egyptian name, Tehuti, means "the measurer" (Budge, 1960).

A catastrophe occurred which darkened the sun and disturbed the gods, but Thoth led them across the sea to an eastern country [Egypt]. Thoth is depicted as the "controller of the Flood," (Leyden Papyrus) and the Theban Recension includes the Island of Fire in the Flood story. (Papyrus of Ani, Chap. CLXXV) Thoth thus appears to be ruler of an Island Kingdom in the West. The question therefore is: Was Thoth a migrant from Atlantis, and did he once rule there?

Nu, the Egyptian god of the Primeval Sea, is represented on the marble sarcophagus of Seti I as being up to his waist in water with arms upraised to carry the Solar Boat across the Sky. He is said to have held the royal occupants of this boat above the flood waters engulfing their mountainous island home in the West. Nu had been ordered to bring about this very flood by Atum in order to purify the world (Budge, 1960). Does this primeval flood scene depict the first migration from the Lands of the West to Egypt because of the sudden loss of Atlantis? And was Thoth originally one of these gods?

Secondly, I noticed that Manetho says that the Egyptian god-kings (which I believe to be identical with the ten kings who ruled Atlantis) reigned in a foreign land. The Egyptian hieroglyph set which is commonly translated "foreign land" is extremely interesting.

Set: can mean foreign land, mountainous
land, or the underworld (Inscription
of Anebni, 18th Dynasty)




Amentet: can mean either West, or
Land of the West (Funeral Stele of
Panehesi, 19th Dynasty)

Now the "Land of the West" would be a natural Egyptian name for Atlantis. They sometimes referred to the Atlantic Ocean as the "Western Ocean". Did Manetho translate "foreign land" from set, or even more probably from Amentet? In either case, we probably have ourselves a reference to Atlantis in the writings of Manetho. Both glyphs are often translated by Egyptologists as "underworld" (Budge, 1966).

That the glyph set also represented the "underworld," also fits, since this is the land where the sun shines after it has set (no pun intended) on the land of Egypt. It was believed in popular Egyptian mythology that the sun passed through the underworld on its way back to rise once more in the east.

Often the Egyptians appear to distinguish between Amentet (the opposite side of the world where the sun makes its return to the east) and Tuat (the realm of the dead, that of departed spirits), yet Egyptologists sometimes translate either glyph as "underworld". Amentet combines the glyph for "foreign land" (using set as a determinative for "land" or "place") alongside other glyphs meaning "west", i.e., "Land of the West". The "land" (set) determinative is entirely missing in Tuat, which may be of significance.

We therefore have a glyph representing a western, mountainous land, a land where the sun went after it had set on Egypt, and whose earliest rulers were probably called "Auliteans" or "Aleteans". To top it off the reign of these god-kings ended circa. 9850 B.C.

The Zodiac in the temple of Hathor at Denderah begins with the constellation Leo (red arrow) indicating a "mean date" of 9825 B.C. Could this signify a new cycle beginning immediately after a tremendous world-wide geological cataclysm?

After several years of studying the various ways that Amentet is used in the writings of the Egyptians (incorporating the glyph set as a determinative), and the various ways it is usually translated, I have come to the opinion that Amentet ("Land of the West") was the early Egyptian name for Atlantis; but with time and the fading of the memory of Atlantis, it became merely a term for the realm of departed spirits. The same happened in the case of Atala, the Western Island of the ancient Hindus.

Below is a list of the Egyptian kings who ruled during the so-called "reign of the gods". The Turin Papyrus, the most complete list (which does include Thoth), is written in hieratic, so I had to look up the hieroglyphic forms in Budge's works on Egyptian Grammar. (The glyphs are my own drawings, but are reasonably accurate.)

There are numerous ways to present a given name in hieroglyphics, so I have occasionally given more than one (separated by commas). For certain names a determinative alone is given, as was commonly done among the Egyptians, while at other times the names are spelled out phonetically.

The god-kings (Auliteans) in Egyptian Hieroglyphics

I did not enclose names in the customary royal cartouche, since cartouches were not used until the end of the Third Dynasty. The 5th Dynasty Palermo Stone (circa. 2565-2420 B.C.), is inscribed on both sides with a list of kings from Pre-dynastic times down to the middle of the Fifth Dynasty: each name is enclosed in a sort of "box" formed by horizontal and vertical lines, rather than the later cartridge-shaped enclosure. This famous king-list "covers the period of the Old Kingdom back thousands of years into the predynastic period" (Winston, 1999-2003).

The Turin Papyrus lists every Egyptian king, including the gods, demigods, and all human Egyptian kings down to the time it was composed. It also includes a "reign of spirits," and two "mythical" groups of kings, before listing the "historical" ones (Gardiner, 1959). Whether "mythical" means non-existent or semi-historical is a matter of some debate among scholars. It is one of only three Egyptian documents which includes the "reign of the gods": The Palermo Stone, the Turin Papyrus and Manetho's Egyptian Chronicles.

Just as there were numerous Rameses in Egyptian history, there is more than one Horus in this list of early god-kings. And just like the several Rameses, these were separate rulers. (Later copyist may have made a scribal error, jumping inadvertently from the first Horus to the next--a common scribal error--since some of our copies of Manetho leave the last three kings off the list.)

Herodotus (450 B.C.) says that Osiris reigned 15,000 years before Amasis (500 B.C.), and that Horus was his son. "In these matters they say they cannot be mistaken, as they have always kept count of the years, and noted them in their registers." (History, Book II) The priests also told him that no god has been on earth since the end of the "reign of the gods". (Ibid.)

The Egyptologist Walter B. Emery identified the Predynastic kings with the Shemsu-Hor, the companions, or followers of the hawk-headed god Horus.” Emery further seemed to imply that the most distant ancestors of the Egyptians had been tall in stature with large craniums. Were they Cro-Magnons?

One of the kings appearing in so many ancient traditions in connection with Atlanteans (Sanchuniathon, Herodotus, Diodorus, etc.) is Cronos. He was often called the King and the bringer of civilization who ruled over a large "Saturnian continent" in the Cronian Sea (the Atlantic), during the Golden Age. Such traditions refer to an ancient time when a Golden Race of men were governed by Cronos, who in wisdom promoted peace and created a Golden Age for all mankind.

His father Ouranos is reputed to have had a large number of offspring from various wives, but only those who were born from Ouranos and Titaea were called Titans--there were twenty-two such offspring (Diodorus, Lib. Hist, III). The offspring of Cronos and his wife Rhea were known as Titans also. Of these two generations of Titans, no one knows how many were male and how many were female. (Those who claim there were only twelve Titans simply haven't done their homework.)

Cronos and the Titans eventually engaged the Olymbian gods (lead by Zeus, a Titan himself) in a ten year-long battle. Plato described the Atlanteans as also becoming warlike, advancing through western Europe (to the Grecian border) and western Africa (to the border of Egypt), before being stopped by the ancient Athenians. The defeat of the Atlanteans and the sinking of their homeland Atlantis happened in quick succession.

Upon losing the war, Cronos and the Titans were imprisoned beneath the Ocean in the far west. (For more info on these traditions, go to the Mythology page.) To find him listed in Manetho's king-list as one of the "Auritian" god-kings who ruled in the "foreign land" before Egyptian history began was truly intriguing. I wanted to find out how the Egyptians wrote his name.

Since the Egyptians have many ways to write a name (or any given word), there are several ways that the name Seb (Cronos) appears. Just as a picture of the ibis could be enough to represent Thoth in a text, likewise Seb could be represented by a goose, as on the Palermo Stone King-list. Below are two hieroglyphs, one representing King Seb, the other using Seb to represent the stars.

SEB (as King Cronos):


SEB (as the stars):

The equation of the Egyptian Seb with the Greek Cronos is not an arbitrary association. Expert Egyptologists and Assyriologists have known for over a hundred years that Seb (Egyptian), Repa (Coptic), Kaiwan (Akkadian), Chiun (Hebrew), Cronos (Greek), and Saturn (Latin) are all names of the same deity. (Budge, 1960; Tyndale, 1962, et al.) Sometimes Seb (Cronos) was associated with a particularly bright "star" in the heavens--known to us as the planet Saturn.

Just a single star could be used to represent Seb (vide supra king-list). In this respect, it is interesting that the Bible only mentions this Seb-Cronos (Chiun-Rephan) in two places: Amos 5:26 and Acts 7:43. In both the figure of a star plays a prominent part (i.e., the "star of your god"). It is gratifying to see this "star" in the Egyptian glyphs as well. Concerning the reference to the star-god Rephan in the Bible, scholars believe it to be "a deliberate substitution of Repa, a name of Seb, the Egyptian god of the planet Saturn." (Tyndale, 1962)

On much shakier ground is a claim by Dr. Paul Schliemann, grandson of the famous Heinrich Schliemann, that among other relics relating to Atlantis he discovered an Egyptian papyrus in the Hermitage at Leningrad which said: "Pharoah Sent sent out an expedition to the west in search of Atlantis from whence 3350 years before the Egyptians arrived carrying with themselves all the wisdom of their native land. The expedition returned after five years with the report that they had found neither people nor objects which could give them a clue to the vanished land." (Schliemann, 1912)

This papyrus has never been seen by anyone else, so it remains in limbo. Had Schliemann used the term "Land of the West" instead of "Atlantis" it would be a little more believable. However, I did find that there actually was a pharoah with the unlikely name Sent. Pharoah Sent, or Senta, was the fifth king of the IInd Dynasty who ruled approximately 4000 B.C. (Budge, 1960)

A measure of support for Dr. Schliemann's "discovery" comes in the form of a hieroglyphic text inscribed on the Great Ebony Label found in 1901 by Sir Flinders Petrie in the "tomb" (actually a cenotaph) of King Aha Menes at Abydos (Petrie, 1902). Upon translation it told how this great king and admiral, in his old age, had embarked on a voyage of exploration with his fleet into the "Western Ocean":

"King Menes, the Ruler of Mizraim, the Land of the Two Crowns, the perished dead one in the West of the Horus race . . . The Commander-in-Chief of Ships made the complete course to the end of the Sunset Land. Sailing in ships, he completed the inspection of the Western Land. He built there a holding in Urani Land. At the Lake of the Peak, fate pierced him by a Hornet (or Wasp) . . . This drilled tablet set up of hanging wood is dedicated to his memory." --Trans. by R. Cedric Leonard. (Compare with Petrie, 1923)

Notice that the place-name given in the inscription for this Far Western Land is Urani, which some authorities associate with Erin, the old name for Ireland. But it also calls to mind Uranos, the father of King Cronos, illustrating a possible connection between Ireland and the once great empire of Atlantis. Since the "tomb" at Abydos is empty, it is assumed that Aha Menes was buried in this Western Land.

Finally, I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the Egyptian glyph for "temple" and an actual stone-walled building among the underwater ruins of the Bahamas. Near Andros island (on a shallow underwater shelf) is a rectangular ruin made of stone. Its walls are approximately three feet thick. Some investigators have dismissed it as the remains of a pen for storing conch shells. To them let me say (read my lips), you don't build storage pens for such items out of stone, using perfectly rectangular complex patterns, with walls three feet thick! Compare the following: one from Egypt and the other from the Bahama Islands.

The Egyptian glyph for "temple" (right):


Ruined temple near Andros island (left):

Various researchers, including myself, have noticed the striking similarity between the floor-plan of the ruin near Andros island in the Bahamas and the Mayan "Temple of the Turtles" located at Uxmal, Yucatan. So now we have Egypt, the Bahamas, and Mesoamerica. Interesting.....

Bible, King James translation (1611), and Revised Standard Version (1952).
Budge, E. A. Wallis, (translator) "The Book of the Dead," University Books, New York, 1960.
Budge, E. A. Wallis, "Egyptian Language," Routledge & Kagan Paul Ltd., London, 1966.
Champollion, Francois (translator), Turin Papyrus, 1300 B.C.
Diodorus Siculus, "Library of History" (C. H. Oldfather's translation), 8 B.C.
Faulkner, Raymond O., (translator) "Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts," Oxford, 1974.
Gardiner, Alan H., "Royal Canon of Turin," Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1959.
Herodotus, "History": Eurterpe' (Rawlinson's translation), 450 B.C.
Hesiod, "Works and Days," 750 B.C. (Also Rzach's translation.), Teubner, Leipzig, 1913.
Manetho, "The Old Egyptian Chronicle," 250 B.C. (from the text of Dindorf: compared with Eusebius)
Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders, "Royal Tombs I and II," London, 1901.
Petrie, Sir William Matthew Flinders, "History of Egypt," Methuen, London, 1923.
Sanchuniathon, "History of the Phoenicians," 1100 B.C. (from Eusebius' Praep. Evang. 1. c. 10.)
Schliemann, Paul, "How I Discovered Atlantis, the Source of All Civilization," The New York
American (weekly), New York, 1912.
Sethe, K., Zur altagyptischen Sage vom Sonnenauge, das in der Fremde war, Untersuchungen
zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Aegyptens, 1912.
Tyndale House Publ., The Bible Dictionary, "Rephan" article, Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England, 1962.
Winston, Alan, "The Palermo Stone," ONLINE, InterCity Oz, Inc., 1999-2003.