Initiatory Wisdom

Plato himself admits in Timaeus and Phaedrus that the Egyptians preserved ancient wisdom and were masters of astronomy and writing.

According to Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, Book I), Plato spent years in Egypt studying with the priests at Heliopolis, Memphis, and Thebes.

His famous Allegory of the Cave resembles Egyptian initiatory teachings of moving from darkness (ignorance) into light (truth).

While Socrates never traveled to Egypt directly, his teachers (like Pythagoras’ successors and Anaxagoras) were heavily influenced by Egyptian thought.

Socrates frequently acknowledged that Greek wisdom was not original, but inherited. In Phaedrus, he praises the Egyptian god Thoth for the invention of writing.

Through Plato’s writings, Socrates’ philosophy reflects Egyptian themes of the immortality of the soul and the soul’s judgment after death.

Ancient biographers like amblichus and Porphyry record that Pythagoras studied in Egypt for 22 years, being initiated into the priestly schools of Memphis, Thebes, and Heliopolis.

Herodotus (Histories, Book II) also remarks that Greek philosophers took much from Egyptian learning in mathematics, geometry, and cosmology.

His famous doctrine of the transmigration of souls and emphasis on number as the essence of reality reflects Egyptian mystical numerology.