Sunday tends to be a pretty low readership day, and this has been a pretty slow week in the world of fringe history. On the plus side, it’s given me some time to do some additional reading, this time of the History of Egypt by Murtada ibn al-‘Afif (Murtadi ibn Gaphiphus), the first Arabic compilation of folklore about Egypt to have been translated into French, and then English. I have had the French edition for a while, but I recently found the seventeenth century English translation, and I am preparing it for a reprint. In the book, written in the thirteenth century, we find pretty much all of the same stories we find in every other Arabic book on pyramids and the Flood, oftentimes word for word identical to the Akhbar al-zaman. However, Murtada offers an interesting bit of testimony that so far as I know wasn’t addressed in Kevin van Bladel’s Arabic Hermes regarding the work of Abu Ma‘shar in developing the myth of the antediluvian origins of the Egyptian pyramids:
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The one remaining detail of the Arabic pyramid legends whose source is unclear is that of Philemon (Arabic: Aclimun, Filimon, etc.), the mythical chief priest of Egypt who was deeply involved in preparations for the Flood. His story is confusing, and the efforts of the various Arabic historians to massage it into something intelligible perhaps provide a key to unlocking the mystery. The legend itself is too long to give in the original (I’ve made translations here and here), and it is a bit problematic because it exists in several versions, each more complex than the last. The name of Philemon, and the tendency to describe pharaohs with particularly non-Arabic and only vaguely Egyptian names, suggests that the underlying story is Greek. (M. A. Murray did a comparison and seems to have proved that the Arabic list of pharaohs derives from a bad copy of Manetho from a lost Greek chronology, likely that of Annianus or Panodorus.)
Scott Wolter Says Only People with "Proper Character" and "Ethics" Can Review His Research Documents7/10/2015 If you’ve been following the discussion on Scott Wolter’s blog the past few days, you will have seen some interesting disagreement between Wolter and some of the posters who have offered up comments. Among the more interesting was the question of whether Wolter planned to make available his research reports and documentation for the investigations he has conducted. Wolter replied that such reports were already available “with footnotes,” and then added this regarding the Kensington Rune Stone:
Over the last few weeks, I’ve explored how medieval legends that the pyramids date back before Noah’s Flood stem, in part, from a ninth century work by the Persian astrology Abu Ma‘shar, who in turn was repeating what he learned about the antediluvian activities of Hermes Trismegistus from the fourth century Christian chronicler Annianus. Now that I’ve solved most of the issues with the development of the Arab pyramid myth, there are a few sidelights left to clean up, notably the question of the Classical and Judeo-Christian antecedents for specific parts of the story of Hermes Trismegistus. Some are fairly easy to sort out, others a little more confusing. But overall, it is clear just from a few Greek sources that all of the material later appearing in the medieval pyramid legends was available in some form to the Christian Greek chronographers who mixed and matched freely in creating the story before the Arabs took it and developed it into ever more baroque incarnations.
I am at a bit of a loss as to how fringe historians choose which legends to accept and which to reject. In reading about the Giza pyramids, I came across the popular fringe claim that before the Arabs removed their casing stones in the 1300s, a water mark was visible showing where the Great Flood had touched their sides. Here’s one from creationist Martin Gray: “In support of this ancient flood scenario, mysterious legends and records tell of watermarks that were clearly visible on the limestone casing stones of the Great Pyramid before those stones were removed by the Arabs. These watermarks were halfway up the sides of the pyramid, or about 400 feet above the present level of the Nile River.” Gray is not the first or only creationist or fringe figure to make the same argument that the pyramids testify to the reality of the Flood—it occurs in at least a dozen creationist, lost civilization, and ancient astronaut books I’ve reviewed.
Mystery Solved: The Key Text That Explains the Origins of Hermes and the Medieval Pyramid Myths7/7/2015 I finally have the last piece of the puzzle that explains how the Arab pyramid myth developed from pagan antecedents, and it seems to be a piece that wasn’t known to earlier investigators of the legend like A. Fodor. The final puzzle piece was referenced in Kevin van Bladel’s Arabic Hermes (2009), where he used it for a slightly different purpose in establishing the sources of ninth century astrologer Abu Ma‘shar’s account of Hermes, the first and most important source for the Arabic pyramid myths. (He is more concerned with the biography of Hermes than Hermes’ actions.) But with just a tiny shift in focus it also explains a lot about how Enoch’s Pillars of Wisdom became associated with Hermes Trismegistus and the pyramids.
Last night Scott Roberts and John Ward had Timothy Wyllie as a guest on their Intrepid internet radio show. I did not listen to this because I have better things to do late on a Sunday night, but I was interested enough to look up who this Timothy Wyllie is, primarily because of his stated subject matter: He claims to be an expert in the ongoing activities of the Enochian Watchers! And dolphins. But mostly Watchers.
As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m currently reading Kevin Van Bladel’s book The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science (Oxford, 2009) in order to better understand the development of Hermeticism and its impact on the occult tradition, the same tradition that eventually yields modern fringe history. Hermes Trismegistus is, for example, one of the heroes of Helena Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine, and an embodiment of universal knowledge. The ancient tradition involves the figure of Hermes Trismegistus (the Thrice Great), a syncretic composite of the Egyptian god Thoth (the “greatest and greatest of great gods,” hence “thrice great”), mixed with elements of the cult of the architect Imhotep, a great deal of Hellenistic philosophy, and perhaps some Gnosticism. He’s an especially confounding figure because so many different things were said of him, and so little original literature remains by which to judge him, as most of what survives is that subset thought useful by alchemists.
Editor's note: I'm taking today off for the Independence Day holiday. A version of the following post originally ran on July 4, 2014.
It’s the Fourth of July, and if you’re in the United States, you know that this is the day that America celebrates its independence from the United Kingdom. You also probably have heard that “The U.S. is the greatest, best country God has ever given man on the face of the earth,” as Fox News host Sean Hannity famously put it in 2008. Not to be outdone by conservatives, fringe historians have also adopted American exceptionalism and routinely argue that what is today the United States has always been at the center of a global—nay, universal—agenda by Altanteans, aliens, and Freemasons to control the universe, sort of like the way the villains on Doctor Who have the whole universe to work with but usually seem to end up trying to conquer the U.K. If you are in Australia, it’s time to get ready for the Ancient Astronauts: Australian Tour 2015. According to an article in Australia’s Newcastle Herald, Erich von Däniken and David Childress have teamed up to give lectures this month at four locations in Australia, by arrangement with Australian fringe magazine Nexus. The journalist even expressed astonishment that von Däniken was still alive, saying that he had assumed he died years ago! This is one of the more bizarre pairings on the fringe history circuit, and one made possible entirely by Ancient Aliens, which the Herald reporter correctly credits for reviving the ancient astronaut theory from the dustbin of history. You might remember that before Ancient Aliens Childress would say things like “Däniken’s explanation didn’t quite make sense to me” and, only a couple of years before the show started, “these giant ruins aren’t built by extraterrestrials. I say they were built by humans.” Now he’s on tour with the very man he used to write books arguing against. Would you mind keeping them for a while, Australia? We’ve had rather enough of them over here.
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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