168 THE KEY OF MYSTERIES

Mut (mother), and Ptah (بتح) or Khonsu (حونسو). Generally we find a family of deities, father, mother, and son, such as of Osiris (Asari أسَري), Isis (Isi إسِي) and Horus (Hor حور). The myth related about these three is widely known but not instructive. The Egyptians believed that their deities possessed material bodies. A hymn addressed to Osiris says: 'Thy body is of bright and shining metal, thy head is of azure blue, and the brilliance of the turquoise encircleth thee.' This deity also probably represented the sun. Traces of an earlier belief in one God were preserved in the titles given to many of the gods, each of which was often spoken of as if he alone were god.' Yet it would not be correct to say that we actually find in the ancient religion of Egypt either monotheism or the scriptural doctrine of the Trinity. Nor is any thing similar found among the Lama-worshippers of Tibet.

It was also thought at one time that certain great philosophers of Greece and other countries had by deep thought arrived at belief in the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity. Among others, Plato was supposed to have made this discovery. Plato (أفلاطون) was one of the greatest of Greek philosophers,


1 And also in the use of the word God (Nuter) in the very ancient 'Precepts of Ptah-hotep' (نصائح بتح حتب).
DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY. 169

and he lived some 400 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his books we find much that is wise and good, but we do not discover there any clear knowledge of the Unity of God, still less is the doctrine of the Trinity contained in them. In the Timaeus (طِيمَيُوس) he states the theory that the Creator, whom he also calls the Maker and Father of this universe, formed the world out of matter which previously existed, giving it order and harmony, and making all things in it in accordance with a previously existing and unchangeable pattern.1 The world is alive, because in it there dwell reason and a soul, and Plato calls it a 'second god'. There is here much that is superior to the polytheism of the heathen; but it would hardly be correct to call Plato a monotheist, for he elsewhere admits the existence of the heathen gods, and does not even make it clear that he believed the Creator to possess personality. He seems to accept the popular belief of the heathen Greeks, that the gods worshipped by them were the children of heaven and earth; and he represents the Creator as addressing them as 'Gods of gods'. But it is probable that he did not himself believe in them. Nor does he regard the creator as ruling or caring


1 But this triad of God, Matter and Form (Θεος, υλη, ειδος), is not a Trinity of the divine Hypostases in the unity of the divine nature.