Plato and Ancient Egypt: An Undercounted Nexus Between Two Intellectual Traditions

Abstract

Over the last few years, the contentious subject of Ancient Egyptian influence on Plato has received a boost with new scholarship pointing to the philosopher engaging with a sophisticated epistemology embedded in a pharaonic manual for scribal initiation. The research opens the way to new inquiries that can offer a more comprehensive portrait of the ways in which Plato may have grappled with Egyptian thought in the development of his unique system of ideas. In response, this paper proposes a substantive investigation into the possibility that the Athenian thinker engaged substantially with a wide range of pharaonic motifs and conceptual models. To do so, it begins by exploring the evidence for speculative thought and cosmological discourse in the Egyptian tradition, which exhibit resonance with key dimensions of Platonism. It then situates the question within the context of scholarly research, in the fields of Egyptology and Classics, into interactions between Plato and pharaonic thought. This is followed by an expansive discussion of the extent to which strong parallels between Egyptian theology and four overlapping areas of Platonism point to deliberate engagement with and adaptation of pharaonic motifs. Possible mechanisms of cultural transmission are then highlighted as well as areas for future interdisciplinary research.