A Selection of Greco-Egyptian Myths

One of the most interesting aspects of Greco-Egyptian polytheism is the unique mythology that it developed during its thousand years of existence. Unfortunately, this is a topic that has received little attention up to now. Most mythology books only cover the Classical Greek or Egyptian tales, and tend to cut off at the point where they intersect. If they bother to allude to this tradition at all it is usually done so in a most cursory fashion, often drawing unfavorable comparisons with the more conventional versions. Although there are a great many books on religion in Hellenistic and Greco-Roman Egypt, few of them spend any time on the mythical lore produced during this time period. They are more concerned with the tangible manifestations of the religion – temples, festivals, rituals, statues, etc. – with abstract theology and philosophy, or with syncretic deities such as Serapis, Isis Myrionomos, Hermanubis or Hermes Trismegistos, none of whom ever had a highly developed mythology. This, however, is not true of all of the Greco-Egyptian deities. Indeed, some of them gained completely new stories during this time period or had their more familiar myths reinterpreted in exciting and novel ways. I would like to share a selection of some of our Greco-Egyptian myths. This is merely a selection, since one could fill a whole book with this interesting topic, but hopefully it’ll give you a taste for it, dear readers. Eventually I intend to devote a whole separate article on the Greco-Egyptian myths of Dionysos, which are quite complex, fascinating and present the god in a truly different light.

It is perhaps best to begin our account of Greco-Egyptian myths with the Typhonomachia. According to Hesiod, Zeus and his fellow gods first battled the Titans and then the Giants to win their place on Mount Olympos and retain their rule of the world below. However, Zeus’ kingship was then challenged by the horrible son of Gaia whose name was Typhon or Typhoeus. This is how Hesiod describes the monster:

“Typhoeus; the hands and arms of him are mighty, and have work in them, and the feet of the powerful god were tireless, and up from his shoulders there grew a hundred snake heads, those of a dreaded drakon, and the heads licked with dark tongues, and from the eyes on the inhuman heads fire glittered from under the eyelids: from all his heads fire flared from his eyes’ glancing; and inside each one of these horrible heads there were voices that threw out every sort of horrible sound, for sometimes it was speech such as the gods could understand, but at other times, the sound of a bellowing bull, proud-eyed and furious beyond holding, or again like a lion shameless in cruelty, or again it was like the barking of dogs, a wonder to listen to, or again he would whistle so the tall mountains re-echoed to it.” (Theogony 820)

Zeus fought a bitter and protracted battle against the monster, one that he almost did not win. They fought over land and sea, hurling flame and thunder, terrible winds and ocean waves at each other. The earth trembled, islands sank into the sea, and there was utter devastation everywhere. At one point Typhoeus managed to get the upper hand on Zeus: he tore out his sinews and locked them away in a cave so that the king of the gods could not fight. He would have met his defeat then, were it not for Pan and Hermes who tricked Typhoeus into revealing where they were kept, and stole them for their father. Zeus recovered and battled Typhoeus once more, finally defeating him with his dreadful bolts of lightning. Afterwards he tossed the island of Sicily atop him to keep him forever imprisoned. In some accounts it was Pan and Hermes who stayed with Zeus; in others Pan and Athene, but the poets agreed that the rest of the gods fled in terror before the wrath of Typhoeus.

Here are two accounts of this part of the myth.

The first is by Antoninus Liberalis (Metamorphoses 28):

“Not one of the gods could withstand him as he attacked. In panic they fled to Aigyptos, all except Athena and Zeus, who alone were left. Typhon hunted after them, on their track. When they fled they had changed themselves in anticipation into animal forms. Apollon became a hawk, Hermes an ibis, Ares became a fish, the lepidotus, Artemis a cat, Dionysos took the shape of a goat, Herakles a fawn, Hephaistos an ox, and Leto a shrew mouse. The rest of the gods each took on what transformations they could. When Zeus struck Typhon with a thunderbolt, Typhon, aflame hid himself and quenched the blaze in the sea. Zeus did not desist but piled the highest mountain, Aitna, on Typhon and set Hephaistos on the peak as a guard. Having set up his anvils, he works his red hot blooms on Typhon’s neck.”  

And here is the account of Hyginus (Astronomica 2.28):  

“Egyptian priests and some poets say that once when many gods had assembled in Egypt, suddenly Typhon, an exceedingly fierce monster and deadly enemy of the gods, came to that place. Terrified by him, they changed their shapes into other forms: Mercurius became an ibis, Apollo, the bird that is called Thracian, Diana, a cat. For this reason they say the Egyptians do not permit these creatures to be injured, because they are called representations of gods. At this same time, they say, Pan cast himself into the river, making the lower part of his body a fish, and the rest a goat, and thus escaped from Typhon.”  

Hyginus is probably correct in supposing that this myth served as an aition or foundation-legend by which the Greeks explained the curious (to their eyes) habit of the Egyptians for representing their gods in animal form. But it also shows that the Greeks could see enough similarities between their gods and those of their neighbors to assume a link between them.  

It is uncertain if that is what lies behind the interesting story that Herodotos (2.63) relates about Ares and Hera, which can be found nowhere else. If it is a case of loose syncretism, as some have speculated, it is uncertain what Egyptian deity may be lurking behind the name ‘Ares’ in the following account.

“At Papremis sacrifice is offered and rites performed just as elsewhere; but when the sun is setting, a few of the priests hover about the image, while most of them go and stand in the entrance to the temple with clubs of wood in their hands; others, more than a thousand men fulfilling vows, who also carry wooden clubs, stand in a mass opposite. The image of the god, in a little gilded wooden shrine, they carry away on the day before this to another sacred building. The few who are left with the image draw a four-wheeled wagon conveying the shrine and the image that is in the shrine; the others stand in the space before the doors and do not let them enter, while the vow-keepers, taking the side of the god, strike them, who defend themselves. A fierce fight with clubs breaks out there, and they are hit on their heads, and many, I expect, even die from their wounds; although the Egyptians said that nobody dies. The natives say that they made this assembly a custom from the following incident: the mother of Ares lived in this temple; Ares had been raised apart from her and came, when he grew up, wishing to visit his mother; but as her attendants kept him out and would not let him pass, never having seen him before, Ares brought men from another town, manhandled the attendants, and went in to his mother. From this, they say, this hitting for Ares became a custom in the festival.”

Herodotos (4.180) also relates a similarly curious story about the goddess Athene. In this instance, while he clearly equates her with the goddess Neith, as many later authors such as Plato, Pausanias, and Philostratus would do as well, the story that he recounts does not seem to belong to that goddess’ known myths.

“Next to the Makhlyes are the Auseans; these and the Makhlyes, separated by the Triton, live on the shores of Lake Tritonis. The Makhlyes wear their hair long behind, the Auseans in front. They celebrate a yearly festival of Athena, where their maidens are separated into two bands and fight each other with stones and sticks, thus, they say, honoring in the way of their ancestors that native goddess whom we call Athena. Maidens who die of their wounds are called false virgins. Before the girls are set fighting, the whole people choose the fairest maid, and arm her with a Korinthian helmet and Greek panoply, to be then mounted on a chariot and drawn all along the lake shore. With what armor they equipped their maidens before Greeks came to live near them, I cannot say; but I suppose the armor was Egyptian; for I maintain that the Greeks took their shield and helmet from Egypt. As for Athena, they say that she was daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis, and that, being for some reason angry at her father, she gave herself to Zeus, who made her his own daughter. Such is their tale. The intercourse of men and women there is promiscuous; they do not cohabit but have intercourse like cattle. When a woman’s child is well grown, the men assemble within three months and the child is adjudged to be that man’s whom it is most like.”

Here is the aition for the story as Pausanias (1.14.6; 2.21.6) recounts it:

“When I saw that the statue of Athena in Athens had blue eyes I found out that the legend about them is Libyan. For the Libyans have a saying that the Goddess is the daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis, and for this reason has blue eyes like Poseidon … A wild Libyan woman reached Lake Tritonis, and harried the neighbours until Perseus killed her; Athena was supposed to have helped him in this exploit, because the people who live around Lake Tritonis are sacred to her.” 

Dionysos was another god who had strong Egyptian roots, and not just because of his identification with Osiris. According to the author Phylarchus, who was quoted by Plutarch in his treatise On Isis and Osiris, Dionysos visited Egypt while on his campaign to conquer India. One of the deeds that he accomplished was bringing two bulls into Egypt, one named Osiris, the other Apis, and founding cults for them there.  
 
He also established the Ammoneion or oracular sanctuary of Ammon at Siwah after that god showed benefaction to him and his followers, as Hyginus (Fabulae 133) relates:  
 
“When Liber was hunting for water in Egypt, and hadn’t succeeded, a ram is said to have sprung suddenly from the ground, and with this as guide he found water. So he asked Jupiter to put the ram among the stars, and to this day it is called the equinoctial ram. Moreover, in the place where he found water he established a temple which is called the temple of Jupiter-Ammon.”  
 
It was either at this time or while he was stricken with madness by Hera and wandered through the east that Dionysos was received by Proteus, the king of Egypt. Proteus was a good king, as Apollodoros tells us, but an evil man had conspired against him. Dionysos punished the villain and restored Proteus to his throne because of his hospitable welcome at the mortal’s hands.  
 
Another Greek divinity was said to wander in Egypt, Io the beloved of Zeus. Here is how Hyginus, (Fabulae 145) tells the story:  
 
“Jupiter loved and embraced Io, and changed her to heifer form so that Juno would not recognize her. When Juno found out, she sent Argus, who had gleaming eyes all around to guard her. Mercurius, at Jove’s command, killed him. But Juno sent a fearful shape to plague her, and out of terror of it she was driven wildly and compelled to cast herself into the sea, which is called Ionian. Thence she swam to Scythia, and the Bosporus is named from that; thence she went to Egypt where she bore Epaphus. When Jove realized that for his sake she had borne such suffering, he restored her to her own form, and made her a goddess of the Egyptians.”  
 
This was, in all likelihood, just another instance of the Greeks creating an aition to account for Egyptian worship, in this case the worship of the goddess Isis, as we see in Kallimachos, who writes, “In the temple of Isis, daughter of Inakhos,” (Epigrams 58), making the equation explicit, but it qualifies since stories of this sort were never told of Isis by the Egyptians.  
 
Another case where the Greeks transformed native material so much that it ceased to resemble anything that we have from Egyptian sources is in the account of Hermes or Thoth gambling with the moon. Here is the story as Plutarch preserves it in On Isis and Osiris 12:  
 
“They say that Helios, when he became aware of Rhea’s intercourse with Kronos, invoked a curse upon her that she should not give birth to a child in any month or year; but Hermes, being enamored of the goddess, consorted with her. Later, playing at draughts with the moon, he won from her the seventieth part of each of her periods of illumination, and from all the winnings he composed five days, and intercalated them as an addition to the three hundred and sixty days. The Egyptians even now call these five days intercalated and celebrate them as the birthdays of the gods.”  
 
Nor was this the only instance where Egyptian material was given a unique Greek spin. As far back as Hesiod the Greeks were aware of the river Nile, whom they called Neilos and brought into connection with their own traditions by making him a son of Tethys and Okeanos (Theogony 337). According to Apollodoros (2.10), Neilos had a daughter called Memphis, in whose honor the city of Memphis was named, as well as Libya, after whom the country neighboring Egypt derived its name, and another daughter Anippe, whose son played a role in the legend recounted by Plutarch in his Greek & Roman Parallel Stories 38:  
 
“Bousiris, the son of Poseidon and Anippe, daughter of Neilos, with treacherous hospitality was wont to sacrifice such persons as passed his way, so says Agathon of Samos.”  
 
Neilos was honored in Greek temples, though unlike other river gods his statues were carved of dark stone as opposed to white, since he “flows down to the sea through Aithiopia,” as Pausanias (8.24.11) says. Neilos didn’t have a very well-developed mythology, although as we can see from Philostratus’ ( Imagines 1.5) account of a painting of the divinity, there may have been some elements present that we no longer possess:  
 
“About the Neilos the Pekheis (Pygmies) are sporting, children no taller than their name implies; and Neilos delights in them for many reason, but particularly because they herald his coming in great floods for the Aigyptioi. At any rate they draw near and come to him seemingly out of the water, infants dainty and smiling, and I think they are not without the gift of speech also. Some sit on his shoulders, some cling to his curling locks, some are asleep on his arms, and some romp on his breast. And he yields them flowers, some form his lap and some from his arms, that they may weave them into crowns and, sacred and fragrant themselves, may have a bed of flowers to sleep upon. And the children climb up one on another with sistra in their hands, instruments the sound of which is familiar to that River. Crocodiles, however, and hippopotami, which some artists associate with Neilos in their paintings, are now lying aloof in its deep eddies so as not to frighten the children. But that the River is Neilos is indicated, my boy, by symbols of agriculture and navigation, and for the following reason: At its flood Neilos makes Aigyptos open to boats; then, when it has been drunk up by the fields, it gives the people a fertile land to till; and in Aithiopia, where it takes its rise, a divinity is set over it as its steward, and he it is who sends forth its water at the right seasons. This divinity has been painted so as to seem heaven-high, and he plants his foot on the sources, his head bent forward like Poseidon. Toward him the River is looking, and it prays that its infants may be many.”  
 
And a number of the Greek gods were brought into the sphere of the Egyptian divinities, especially in the euhemeristic account of Osiris and his campaigns given by Diodoros Sikeliotes and others. For instance, Plutarch (On Isis and Osiris 36) wrote:  
 
“There is another tale current among the Egyptians that Apophis, brother of Helios, made war upon Zeus, and that because Osiris espoused Zeus’s cause and helped him to overthrow his enemy, Zeus adopted Osiris as his son and gave him the name of Dionysos.”  
 
Regarding Hephaistos, the divinized first King of Egypt, Diodoros Sikeliotes (1.13) wrote:  
 
“Some of the priests, however, say that Hephaistos was their first king, since he was the discoverer of fire and received the rule because of this service to mankind; for once, when a tree on the mountains had been struck by lightning and the forest near by was ablaze, Hephaistos went up to it, for it was winter-time, and greatly enjoyed the heat; as the fire died down he kept adding fuel to it, and while keeping the fire going in this way he invited the rest of mankind to enjoy the advantage which came from it.”  
 
Diodoros (1.16) makes Hermes an advisor of Osiris on his conquests:  
 
“It was by Hermes, for instance, according to them, that the common language of mankind was first further articulated, and that many objects which were still nameless received an appellation, that the alphabet was invented, and that ordinances regarding the honours and offerings due to the gods were duly established; he was the first also to observe the orderly arrangement of the stars and the harmony of the musical sounds and their nature, to establish a wrestling school, and to give thought to the rhythmical movement of the human body and its proper development. He also made a lyre and gave it three strings, imitating the seasons of the year; for he adopted three tones, a high, a low, and a medium; the high from the summer, the low from the winter, and the medium from the spring. The Greeks also were taught by him how to expound (hermeneia) their thoughts, and it was for this reason that he was given the name Hermes. In a word, Osiris, taking him for his priestly scribe, communicated with him on every matter and used his counsel above that of all others. The olive tree also, they claim, was his discovery, not Athena’s, as Greeks say.”  
 
While the Mousai were originally dancing-girls in Diodoros’ (1.18) schema:  
 
“For Osiris was laughter-loving and fond of music and the dance; consequently he took with him a multitude of musicians, among whom were nine maidens who could sing and were trained in the other arts, these maidens being those who among the Greeks are called the Muses.”  
 
And according to Diodoros (1.18) Osiris brought along Pan as well:  
 
“He also took Pan along on his campaign, who is held in special honour by the Egyptians; for the inhabitants of the land have not only set up statues of him at every temple but have also named a city after him in the Thebaid, called by the natives Khemmo, which when translated means City of Pan.”  
 
Pan was connected to Egypt in a number of ways. According to Plutarch (On Isis and Osiris 14):  
 
“The first to learn of Osiris’ slaying by Seth and to bring to men’s knowledge an account of what had been done were the Pans and Satyrs who lived in the region around Khemmis, and so, even to this day, the sudden confusion and consternation of a crowd is called a panic.”  
 
Herodotos (2.46) related the following about Pan in Egypt:  
 
“This is why the Egyptians of whom I have spoken sacrifice no goats, male or female: the Mendesians reckon Pan among the eight gods who, they say, were before the twelve gods. Now in their painting and sculpture, the image of Pan is made with the head and the legs of a goat, as among the Greeks; not that he is thought to be in fact such, or unlike other gods; but why they represent him so, I have no wish to say. The Mendesians consider all goats sacred, the male even more than the female, and goatherds are held in special estimation: one he-goat is most sacred of all; when he dies, it is ordained that there should be great mourning in all the Mendesian district. In the Egyptian language Mendes is the name both for the he-goat and for Pan. In my lifetime a strange thing occurred in this district: a he-goat had intercourse openly with a woman. This came to be publicly known.”  
 
And in the Eastern Desert near Akhmin there were shrines dedicated to “Pan who goes into the mountains” and “Pan who is with the expeditions”, though no mythological account has come down to us to explain these epithets.  
 
Other stories were told about the Olympians on the banks of the Nile. Herodotos (2.42) recounts the following tale about Herakles’ visit to Egypt and the foundation of the cult of Zeus-Ammon:  
 
“The Thebans, and those who by the Theban example will not touch sheep, give the following reason for their ordinance: they say that Herakles wanted very much to see Zeus and that Zeus did not want to be seen by him, but that finally, when Herakles prayed, Zeus contrived to show himself displaying the head and wearing the fleece of a ram which he had flayed and beheaded. It is from this that the Egyptian images of Zeus have a ram’s head; and in this, the Egyptians are imitated by the Ammonians, who are colonists from Egypt and Ethiopia and speak a language compounded of the tongues of both countries. It was from this, I think, that the Ammonians got their name, too; for the Egyptians call Zeus ‘Amon’. The Thebans, then, consider rams sacred for this reason, and do not sacrifice them. But one day a year, at the festival of Zeus, they cut in pieces and flay a single ram and put the fleece on the image of Zeus, as in the story; then they bring an image of Herakles near it. Having done this, all that are at the temple mourn for the ram, and then bury it in a sacred coffin.”  
 
However, Herodotos was less convinced about the following story (2.45) concerning Herakles in Egypt:  
 
“And the Greeks say many other ill-considered things, too; among them, this is a silly story which they tell about Herakles: that when he came to Egypt, the Egyptians crowned him and led him out in a procession to sacrifice him to Zeus; and for a while (they say) he followed quietly, but when they started in on him at the altar, he resisted and killed them all. Now it seems to me that by this story the Greeks show themselves altogether ignorant of the character and customs of the Egyptians; for how should they sacrifice men when they are forbidden to sacrifice even beasts, except swine and bulls and bull-calves, if they are unblemished, and geese? And furthermore, as Herakles was alone, and, still, only a man, as they say, how is it natural that he should kill many myriads? In talking so much about this, may I keep the goodwill of gods and heroes!”  
 
It is from Herodotos (2.112), too, that we learn that Aphrodite had a temple in Egypt, and the curious legend attached to it:  
 
“On the Egyptian island of Pharos there is in the precinct of Proteus a temple called the temple of Aphrodite Xenia (of the Stranger); I guess this is a temple of Helene, daughter of Tyndareus, partly because I have heard the story of Helen’s abiding with Proteus, and partly because it bears the name of Aphrodite Xenia: for no other of Aphrodite’s temples is called by that name.”  
 
He goes on to tell (2.181) a miraculous story about how the goddess intervened on behalf of the wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amasis:  
 
“Amasis made friends and allies of the people of Kyrene. And he decided to marry from there ... so he married a certain Ladike but whenever Amasis lay with her, he became unable to have intercourse, though he managed with every other woman. So Ladike, when the king did not relent at all in accusing her of witchcraft although she denied it, vowed in her heart to Aphrodite that, if Amasis could have intercourse with her that night, since that would remedy the problem, she would send a statue to Kyrene to her. And after the prayer, immediately, Amasis did have intercourse with her. And whenever Amasis came to her thereafter, he had intercourse, and he was very fond of her after this. Ladike paid her vow to the goddess; she had an image made and sent it to Kyrene, where it stood safe until my time, facing outside the city.”  
 
He (2.54-55) also tells the legend about how the oracle of Dodona came out of Egypt:  
 
“The priests of Zeus of Thebes told me that two priestesses had been carried away from Thebes by Phoenicians; one, they said they had heard was taken away and sold in Libya, the other in Hellas; these women, they said, were the first founders of places of divination in the aforesaid countries. When I asked them how it was that they could speak with such certain knowledge, they said in reply that their people had sought diligently for these women, and had never been able to find them, but had learned later the story which they were telling me. That, then, I heard from the Theban priests; and what follows, the prophetesses of Dodona say: that two black doves had come flying from Thebes in Egypt, one to Libya and one to Dodona; the latter settled on an oak tree, and there uttered human speech, declaring that a place of divination from Zeus must be made there; the people of Dodona understood that the message was divine, and therefore established the oracular shrine. The dove which came to Libya told the Libyans (they say) to make an oracle of Ammon; this also is sacred to Zeus.”  
 
And Apollonios Rhodios in his Argonautika (2.498) tells a myth about the founding of Kyrene, a Greek island off of Africa which was frequently counted as part of the Ptolemaic possessions:  
 
“Folk say that once upon a time there was a shepherdess called Kyrene who used to graze her flocks in the water-meadows of Peneos. She was a virgin and she prized her maidenhood. But one day when she was tending her sheep down by the river, Apollon carried her off from Haimonia and set her down among the Nymphai of the land in distant Libya near the Myrtosian Mount. There she bore him a son called Aristaios, who is remembered now in the cornlands of Haimonia as the Hunter and the Shepherd. Kyrene herself was left in Libya by Apollon, who in token of his love made her a Nymphe and huntress with the gift of a long life. But he took his infant son away to be brought up by Kheiron in his cave.”  
 
In this selection I have limited myself to stories set before the time of the Ptolemies. There is a great abundance of tales that could be added to this, but this piece is overlong already.

© 2010 H. Jeremiah Lewis