Erik Hornung:Ancient Egypt Secret Wisdom God Mormon Rosicrucian Gnostic Freemason Roots Thoth
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"The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West" by Erik Hornung. NOTE: We have 75,000 books in our library, almost 10,000 different titles. Odds are we have other cop… Mehr…
"The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West" by Erik Hornung. NOTE: We have 75,000 books in our library, almost 10,000 different titles. Odds are we have other copies of this same title in varying conditions, some less expensive, some better condition. We might also have different editions as well (some paperback, some hardcover, oftentimes international editions). If you don?t see what you want, please contact us and ask. We?re happy to send you a summary of the differing conditions and prices we may have for the same title. DESCRIPTION: Hardcover with dustjacket. Publisher: Cornell University (2002). Pages: 240. Size: 9½ x 6¼ x ¾ inches, 1 pound. Summary: Alchemy, astrology, and other secret sciences have Egyptian roots, and films, popular fiction, and comic books frequently draw upon Egyptian themes. Rosicrucianism, Mormonism, and Afrocentrism all share Egyptian-derived elements. Modern-day esoteric endeavors find an endlessly renewable intellectual reservoir in ancient Egyptian culture, Erik Hornung believes, and are almost inconceivable without Egypt. Although such persistence assures Egyptosophical ideas an extraordinarily widespread impact, the field of Egyptology has largely overlooked this phenomenon. In "The Secret Lore of Egypt", Hornung traces the influence of the esoteric image of Egypt, especially as it is manifested by the god Thoth, on European intellectual history since antiquity and finds it reasserted even today in the United States. From Gnostic writings and Romantic poetry to Freemasonry and the Theosophist movement, Egyptian deities re-emerge in ever-surprising guises. Since ancient times, Egypt has been associated with esoteric practices and beliefs and regarded as the source of all secret knowledge?an association that, Hornung says, is only loosely connected with historical reality. CONDITION: NEW. New hardcover w/dustjacket. Cornell University (2002) 240 pages. Unblemished and pristine in every respect. Pages are clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 30 days! #9042a. PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTIONS AND IMAGES BELOW FOR DETAILED REVIEWS AND FOR PAGES OF PICTURES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK. PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW. PUBLISHER REVIEWS: REVIEW: Western culture regularly adopts and appropriates themes and motifs from ancient Egyptian art, religious practices, and literature. Hornung here looks at the history of one aspect of this process, the idea of ancient Egypt as the source of esoteric lore and traces the influence of the esoteric image of Egypt on European intellectual history from antiquity to the present, from Gnostic writings and Romantic poetry to Freemasonry and Mormonism, Egyptian deities, monuments, rituals, and ideas re-emerge in new guises. REVIEW: The study of Egypt as the fount of all wisdom and stronghold of hermetic lore, already strong in antiquity, Hornung (Egyptology, U. of Basel) calls Egyptosophy. Though it was soundly rebuffed by Egyptology, based on conventional science and history, he thinks its continuing impact on western culture. REVIEW: In this text, Hornung traces the influence of the esoteric image of Egypt on European intellectual history since antiquity and finds it reasserted even today in the United States. REVIEW: David Lorton, an Egyptologist, is the translator of many books, including Erik Hornung's books ?The Secret Lore of Egypt? and ?Akhenaten and the Religion of Light?, both from Cornell. TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. The Ancient Roots of the "Other" Egypt. 2. Foreign Wonderland on the Nile: The Greek Writers. 3. Power and Influence of the Stars. 4. Alchemy: The Art of Transformation. 5. Gnosis: Creation as Flaw. 6. Hermetism: Thoth as Hermes Trismegistus. 7. Egypt of the Magical Arts. 8. The Spread of Egyptian Cults: Isis and Osiris. 9. Medieval Traditions. 10. The Renaissance of Hermetism and Hieroglyphs. 11. Travels to Egypt: Wonder upon Wonder. 12. Triumphs of Erudition: Kircher, Spencer, and Cudworth. 13. "Reformation of the Whole Wide World": The Rosicrucians. 14. The Ideal of a Fraternity: The Freemasons. 15. Goethe and Romanticism: "Thinking Hieroglyphically". 16. Theosophy and Anthroposophy. 17. Pyramids, Sphinx, Mummies: A Curse on the Pharaohs. 18. Egypt a la Mode: Modern Egyptosophy and Afrocentrism. 19. Outlook: Egypt as Hope and Alternative. PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS: REVIEW: The author of four previous Cornell University Press volumes on Egyptology, Hornung (Professor Emeritus, University of Basel) here focuses on "Egyptosophy." This concept is defined as "the study of an imaginary Egypt viewed as the profound source of all esoteric lore. This Egypt is a timeless idea bearing only a loose relationship to the historical reality." Hornung traces the influences of this imaginary Egypt on Western culture from the classical world, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to the present day. He argues that the god Thoth and various Egyptian sages known to the ancient Greeks coalesced into the legendary Hermes Trismegistus, the creator of the art of writing and civilization. Hornung views these mystical and magical "Egyptian" elements as a basis for Gnosticism as well as other secret and metaphysical societies, among them the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, and the Theosophists. The text presumes extensive knowledge of Western philosophy, art history, and religion; references are made to "the Madonna Platytera" and the "Gnostic Pistis Sophia," for example. Highly recommended for academics, Egyptologists, and those with a special interest in Ancient Egypt and Mythology in general. [Library Journal]. REVIEW: Erik Hornung has rare and perhaps unique advantages for tackling an important and overdue task, namely that of revalorizing the spiritual heritage of Egypt while at the same time describing fairly and rigorously the image of that country in the West...This book is written with vigor and in the author's typically enthusiastic, pellucid style. And how enlivening it is to be reminded that there are colleagues whose learning is broad enough to include familiarity with the Qabalah, the Tabula Smaragdina, and the philosophy of Herder. . . . Congratulations, then, to Professor Hornung for having produced a scholarly, original, and entertaining work, which covers a vast amount of ground with an astonishingly light touch. Those who know the subject of Egyptian survivals will be further enlightened by this volume. [Terence DuQuesne, Discussions in Egyptology]. REVIEW: The study of Egypt as the fount of all wisdom and stronghold of hermetic lore, already strong in antiquity, Hornung (Egyptology, University of Basel) calls Egyptosophy. Though it was soundly rebuffed by Egyptology, based on conventional science and history, he thinks its continuing impact on western culture deserves scholarly attention. He reviews the various occult traditions and their expression during various eras. The original was published by C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich, in 1999, and translated by David Lorton, who has also translated Hornung's earlier books for Cornell. [Book News]. REVIEW: This is an excellent survey for all esotericists and scholars interested in the role of Egypt in the development of western esoteric thought and practice. It is primarily a book about the history of the idea of "ancient esoteric Egypt" as distinct from the actual culture of pharaonic Egypt. Erik Hornung, who is professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and author of such works as "Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many and Akhenaten and the Religion of Light", demonstrates the requisite expertise to trace the esoteric idea of Egypt through the labyrinthian history of western European conceptual imagination. While previous works in the area, specifically Iversen's "The Myth of Egypt and Its Hieroglyphs in European Tradition" (1961) and Assman's "Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism" (1997), have addressed various attitudes toward Egypt around specific issues, Hornung's book is a survey of the history of "Egyptosophy" (his term) as conceptualized in various artistic, literary, and esoteric European traditions. The book is organized chronologically, around the theme of Egyptian wisdom and hermetic lore, ranging from ancient Egyptian roots to classic Greek culture, through chapters on astrology, alchemy, gnosticism, hermeticism, and magic to chapters on the Medieval and Renaissance attitudes toward Egypt, to 17-18th century esoteric movements and fascination with hieroglyphics, to the various Freemason and Rosicrucian recastings, to German Romanticism, Theosophy, and 19th-20th century attitudes, including a look at the problem of Afrocentrism. His goal is to describe "an imaginary Egypt viewed as a profound source of all esoteric lore" -- a Hermetic idea he sees as only tangential to the actual culture and religion of historical Egypt. Hornung does anchor the Hermetic prespective in the 12th Dynasty (circa 1800 B.C.), at the Temple of Thoth in Hermopolis, in the Book of Two Ways, as a true work of Egyptian wisdom on the afterlife. Thoth, the central figure of Egyptosophy, was a judge, a winged messenger god, scribe of the gods, and guardian of the Eye of Horus whose priests were authors of the famous sacred (esoteric) writings called the "Books of Thoth." By the Ptolemaic period, Thoth had become the primary Egyptian god of magic, incantations, and spells whose name must not b, Cornell University Press<
