Having no record of the intellectual and scientific

Having no record of the intellectual and scientific heritage of the culture that
preceded it, the new civilization was obliged to begin again and retrace the entire
route that had been lost. But because of its geographical and climatic peculiarities,
Egypt had escaped this otherwise general rule:
But in this country the water does not fall from above on the fields either then or
at other times; its way is always to rise up over them from below. It is for these
reasons that the traditions preserved here are the oldest on record… Any great or
noble achievement or otherwise exceptional event that has come to pass, either
in your parts or here or in any place of which we have tidings, has been written
down for ages past in records that are preserved in our temples.
It was thus in Egypt that the Greek historians could find the best sources of
information. But this was not the only branch of knowledge that the priests of Egypt
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could teach to their foreign guests. Thus Thales of Miletus visited “Egypt to confer
with the priests and astronomers,” according to one of his biographers, and he
seems to have “learnt geometry from the Egyptian.” Geometry and astronomy are
the two disciplines most often mentioned by Greek writers in connection with the
priests of Egypt. To these, they sometimes added theology, when the priests
consented to reveal its mysteries to their guests, which was not often. The priests
did not always receive these inquisitive tourists with enthusiasm; they found them
often annoying and always indiscreet, too rigorously logical in their thinking and
sometimes not easily convinced, and more inclined to lend credence to the
deductions of reason than to the fantastic tales of a millennia-old tradition. Having
learned from previous experiences with the intellectual tendencies of these curious
Hellenes, the priests attempted to rid themselves of Pythagoras when, following the
advice of Thales, he came to them in search of scientific and religious revelations.
Porphyry (233-304 C.E.) records Pythagoras’ journey in these terms: Having been
received by Amasis (king of Egypt, 568-526 B.C.E.), he obtained from him letters
(of recommendation) to the priests of Heliopolis, who sent him to those of
Memphis, since they were older – which was, at heart, only a pretext. Then, for the
same reason, he was again sent from Memphis to the priests of Diospolis (i.e.
Thebes). The latter, fearing the king and not daring to find false excuses (to exclude
the newcomer from their sanctuary), thought they would rid themselves of him by
forcing him to undergo very bad treatment and to carry out very difficult orders
quite foreign to a Hellenic education. All that was calculated to drive him to despair
so that he would give up his mission. But since he zealously executed all that was
demanded of him, the priests ended by conceiving a great admiration for him,
treating him respectfully and even allowing him to sacrifice to their deities, which