Somehow or other, both the historic and prophetic writings of the
Bible, or narratives from them, had reached Greece as well as other
distant lands. The Greeks had, at a very early period, embodied
in their myths even the personal characters as shown in those
writings. Let us, for example, without referring to their Zeus in
a particular manner, find in the Hermes or Mercury of the Greeks
the identity with Moses. What are the characteristics of both? If
Moses descended from the Mount with the commands of God, and was
emphatically God's messenger, so was Hermes the messenger from
Olympus: his chief office was that of messenger. If Moses is known
as the slayer of the Egyptian, so is Hermes, (and so is he more
frequently called in Homer,) Αργειφοντης, the slayer of Argus, the
overseer of a hundred eyes. Moses conducted through the wilderness
to the Jordan those who died and reached not the promised land; nor
did he pass the Jordan. So was Hermes the conductor of the dead,
delivering them over to Charon, (and here note the resemblance of
name with Aaron, the associate of Moses); nor was he to pass to the
Elysian fields.
Then the rod, the serpents,--the Caduceus of Hermes, with the
serpents twining round the rod. The appearance of Moses, and
the shining from his head, as it is commonly figured, is again
represented in the winged cap of Hermes. There are other minute
circumstances, especially some noted in the hymn of Hermes, ascribed
to Homer, which we forbear to enumerate, thinking the coincidences
already mentioned are sufficiently striking.
Then, again, the idea of the serpent of the Greek mythology, whence
did it come, and the slaying of it by the son of Zeus--and its very
name, the Python, the serpent of corruption? And in that sense it
has been carried down to this day as an emblem in Christian art.
But, to go back a moment, this departure of the Israelites from
Egypt, is there no notice of it in Homer? We think there is a hint
which indicates a knowledge of at least a part of that history--the
previous slavery, the being put to work, and the after-readiness of
the Egyptians to be "spoiled." Ulysses, giving a false account of
himself, if we remember rightly, to Eumæus, says he came from Egypt,
where he had been a merchant, that the king of that country seized
him and all his men, whom _he put to work_, but that at length he
found favour, and was allowed to depart with his people; adding that
he collected much property from the people of Egypt, "for all of
them gave."
"Πολλὰ αγειρα,
Χρηματ' Αἰγυπτίους ἄνδρας, διδοσαν γαρ ἄπαντες."
We do not mean to lay any great stress upon this quotation, and but
think at least that it shows a characteristic of the Egyptians as
narrated by Moses; and never having met with any allusion to it, nor
indeed to our parallel between Moses and Hermes, which it may seem
to support, we have thought it worthy this brief notice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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