With various simples clothes the fatten’d soil.”[334]
Again, it is said of the Pharian or Egyptian race:—
“From Pæon sprung, their patron god imparts
To all the Pharian race his healing arts.”[335]
Such statements as those just made would seem to render it more than probable that not a little of Grecian medicine was of Egyptian origin. Pliny, indeed, says that it was claimed that the study of medicine was begun in Egypt.[336] Blakie, however, ventures to affirm that “the knowledge of medicine came to the Greeks originally from Thessaly, one of the earliest seats of Hellenic civilization, as is evident from the pedigree of Coronis.”[337] At any rate, it is certain that, for some time before and after the beginning of the Christian era, Alexandria was a great medical centre. There it was that Herophilus and Erasistratus lived and imperishably distinguished themselves two centuries or so B.C.
But I must return to Hermes, from whom I have been wandering, perhaps, too far and too long. Although I am not disposed to give the medical position to him that some have questionably done, I deem it wise to say a few words especially about him. Lenormant believes that he was originally the angel of Baal, Malâk-Baal, who, like him, assimilated with the Agathodæmon.[338] It is generally believed that he came to Egypt from Phœnicia.[339] He was usually represented[340] with the head of, not a hawk, but an ibis, a heart-shaped bird with the plumage white, except the pinions and tail, which are black, and with long legs and beak, the latter crooked. This bird was the symbol of him made use of in writing. Both it[341] and a species[342] black in color are well described by Herodotus. Mummified specimens of it are to be seen in an excellent state of preservation in museums, as, for instance, in that of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
I may observe in this connection that an Ibis Society would be the same as a Hermes Society. Neither title is very suitable for a medical one. I have heard of an Ibex Society; but, of course, the ibis and the ibex are entirely different creatures.
Horus himself, whose “face is in the shape of the divine hawk,”[343] and who, in some respects, resembles Apollo, was believed to possess medical power.[344] Murray even says, “Horus was reputed to have been deeply versed in the practice of medicine, and, accordingly, was compared with Æsculapius.”[345]
Chonsu, or Chonsu-nefer-hotep,[346] the son of Amun and Mut, the third of the great Theban triad, was regarded as a healing divinity. Says Tiele: “He was resorted to for the cure of all diseases, or for the exorcism of all the evil spirits who inflict them.”[347] He resembled Thoth somewhat.
