멤피스 창세신화: 발화를 통한 창조행위의 비교종교학적 의미

Abstract

『멤피스 창세신화』는 고대로부터 전승된 이집트의 종교 문서 중 가장 심오한 내용을 담고 있는 것으로 평가 받고 있다. 그러나 『멤피스창세신화』는 이집트의 종교를 다룬 여러 문서를 통해 단편적으로만 소개된 것이 사실이다. 이집트로부터 전승된 창세신화 중 『헤르모폴리스 창세신화』는 창조이전의 상황에 초점을 두고 태초의 대양이 보유한 본질적인 속성을 설명한다. 그리고 이집트의 가장 기본적인 창세신화라 할 수 있는 『헬리오폴리스 창세신화』는 태초의 대양을 배경으로 창조주이자 원발자인 아툼이 자신의 몸을 발현하여 우주를 창조하는 창조과정을 기술하는데 여기서 아툼은 자위 혹은 체액 방출과 같은 물리적인 방법을 통해 우주의 구성요소를 이루는 신들과 다른 모든 대상을 창조한다. 한편, 앞서 언급한 두 창세신화보다 비교적 후대에 창작된 『멤피스 창세신화』는 기존창세신화에 제시된 구조를 변형하는 방법으로 멤피스의 주신 프타의 창조행위를 설명하는데 이 창세신화에 따르면 프타는 태초의 대양과 동일한 신격을 보유한 창조주로서 아툼에 선행하며 창조과정 역시 심장을 통한 창조적 인식과 혀로 대표되는 조음기관을 통한 창조적 발화가 핵심을 이룬다. 『멤피스 창세신화』의 가장 중요한 특징은 이원론적인 창조과정이다. 요컨대 창조주의 창조행위를 통해 현상계에 발현되는 모든 개별자에 대하여 그에 대응하는 신성한 말씀 혹은 성각문자가 동시에 창조되는데 따라서 창조행위를 통해 창조된 모든 개별자는 창조주가 원래 의도했던 창조적 인식의 형상, 즉 완벽한 이미지로서의 성각문자에 기인한다. 프타를 인식과 발화를 통해 모든 것을 창조한 창조주로 상정한 『멤피스 창세신화』는 향후 그리스 철학에 등장하는 신성한 데미우르고스와 헬레니즘의 영향을 받은 기독교의 말씀 = 로고스 개념에도 영향을 미쳤다. 『멤피스 창세신화』에 따르면 성각문자는 그리스 철학의 에이도스와 조응하며 따라서 고대 이집트인들이 가지고 있던 사물과 완벽한 기호 간의 관계는 그리스의 이원론 개념이 독자적인 신화를 통해 표현된 탁월한 지적 성취로 평가 받을 만하다.

There were a number of creation myths in ancient Egypt. The Hermopolitan Theology, which is one of those myths, focuses on the conditions before creation. Ancient Egyptians believed that the Primeval Ocean existed before creation, which was composed of four elements such as Wateriness, Infinity, Darkness and Lostness. According to the Heliopolitan Theology, which was the most dominant and widely accepted creation myth, the god Atum created the world through masturbation or the ejaculation of his body fluid and ruled the created world as the creator god/divine king. As such, the Heliopolitan Theology is not only the cosmogony that explains the creation of the world but also the cratogony that shows how the divine kingship was transferred from the divine domain to the human sphere. In comparison with the two aforementioned creation mythos, the Memphite Theology was composed in the later period and relates to the relationship between Ptah and Atum. In this creation myth, Ptah is the creator of all other deities and equated with the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. The Memphite Theology places Ptah on the top of the Heliopolitan Ennead in order to establish his primacy in the Egyptian pantheon. The so-called mythological reversal is based on the political intention of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty that sought to justify their rule by designating Memphis that was the capital of Old Kingdom as their new power base. However, the active intellectual movements witnessed during New Kingdom also contributed to the emergence of the new idea such as the Memphite Theology. The Memphite Theology describes Ptah as a creator god that uses the heart that is the seat of the Divine Perception (Sia) and the tongue that represents the Divine Annunciation (Hu). Then the creation myth moves on to Atum and his Ennead of the Heliopolitan Theology. In this regard, the Memphite Theology makes it clear that Atum`s seed and hand are in fact Ptah`s teeth and lips and that, unlike Atum who uses the physical means for the creation for world, Ptah uses teeth and lips to use the power of the creative speech. The creation myth stresses that the heart and the organs involved with the divine speech have the creative power and explains that what has been perceived by sensory organs are reported to the heart, which then generates knowledge with the information reported by them and delivers commands through the tongue. The next is the various aspects of the cosmos created by Ptah. It is also important to note that the Memphite Theology equates the creation of everything with the creation of hieroglyphs, which also means the divine speech. The hieroglyphic writing has a dual nature as they are images of things in the real world and representations of ideas at the same time. Therefore, the creation account signifies that everything that was created is itself a kind of hieroglyph of the creator`s original concept. Identifying Ptah as a creator god that made everything happen through perception and annunciation is a remarkable intellectual achievement that predates the notion of demiurge in Greek philosophy more than five hundred years earlier and this also influenced the concept of Word (Logos) in Christian philosophy. In particular, it is significant that Ptah created everything and every hieroglyphic signs at the same time. If hieroglyphic signs can refer to all of the concepts and things in the real world, the world can be divided into ideal images and its infinite copies and this reminds us of Plato`s dualism. According to the Memphite Theology, the hieroglyphic writing corresponds to eidos in Greek philosophy and thus the relationship between signs and things in ancient Egyptian world can be considered as another ancient version of the Greek dualism.