Obeliscus Pamphilius is a 1650 work by the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. It was published in Rome by Ludovico Grignani and dedicated to Pope Innocent X in his jubilee year. The subject of the work was Kircher's attempt to translate the hieroglyphs on the sides of an obelisk erected in the Piazza Navona. As the obelisk was incomplete when he began his work, Kircher filled the gaps with the hieroglyphs he believed would best fit the text. Later, the missing parts were found and brought together with the main body of the obelisk, and the hieroglyphs on those parts were, according to Kircher himself, exactly as he had predicted. Cardinal Capponi asked for the work to be written up, and this was the origin of the book. In fact Kircher's study had revealed that the same inscriptions were repeated on the different sides of the obelisk, so he was able to predict what would be found on parts he had not yet seen.
The obelisk of Domitian The obelisk was originally commissioned from Egypt by the emperor Domitian, probably for the Temple of Isis and Serapis. The emperor Maxentius later had the obelisk moved outside the city walls to his circus on the Via Appia. There it fell into ruin, where it was noticed by the Earl of Arundel who tried to acquire it which is partly what prompted Innocent X to have its broken parts brought to the Piazza Navona in front of his family's house, the Palazzo Pamphilj.. He commissioned Kircher to lead the relocation and interpretation of the monument, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini to design a fountain above which the obelisk was to be placed, known today as the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. At the time, nobody was aware of the connection between Domitian and the obelisk, and it was known as the 'Pamphilj obelisk' after the Pope's family name. It was only in 1827 that Champollion succeeded in translating the hieroglyphs, revealing that they included the names of Domitian, his father Vespasian and his brother Titus.
Significance of the obelisk For Kircher, obelisks and their hieroglyphic inscriptions were the source of hermetic wisdom that was older than, but continuous with Christian revelation. He believed that the Egyptians were the first to understand the underlying cosmic harmony of the universe, and that this was the basis of their religion and their philosophy. In making this argument Kircher drew on a long-established tradition of ancient texts from Herodotus, Plato, Diodorus, Plutarch and other authorities. Kircher was convinced that the lost truths contained within the hieroglyphs represented what was described in the words of St Paul in the First Epistle to the Corinthians—"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory" (Corinthians 1, 2:7). Kircher believed that by translating the obelisk he would be unlocking the hidden wisdom imparted from God to the patriarchs long ago.
Translation At the start of the project the obelisk was not intact; as well as the five major pieces there were numerous smaller pieces that were not immediately found. As part of his reconstruction, Kircher filled the missing gaps with the hieroglyphs he believed would best fit the text according to his understanding of their meaning. Later, the missing parts were found by archaeologists and brought together with the main body of the obelisk, and to everyone's amazement, the hieroglyphs on those parts were, according to Kircher himself, exactly as he had predicted. Cardinal Capponi, who was supervising the project, was so enthralled that he asked for it to be written up, and this was the origin of the work. In fact Kircher's study had revealed that the same inscriptions were repeated on the different sides of the obelisk, so he was able to predict what would be found on parts he had not yet seen. Kircher's approach to translation was to assume (incorrectly) that hieroglyphs were ideographs rather than representations of sound, and that they communicated ideas without grammar or syntax. Kircher's self-described method of translation was first to make an accurate copy of each individual hieroglyphs, then think about suitable actions for each figure, and finally conclude the mystical meaning contained in each one of them. We now know that images on the upper part of each side of the obelisk are iconic and do not have any textual meaning; the lower part contains a brief text about Domitian and Horus. On the south face of the obelisk the text reads "Horus, strong bull, beloved of Maat." This Kircher translated as:
'To the triform Divinity Hemptha - first Mind, motor of all things, second Mind, craftsman, pantamorphic Spirit - Triune Divinity, eternal, having no beginning or end, Origin of the secondary Gods, which, diffused out of the Monad as from a certain apex into the breadth of the mundane pyramid, confers its goodness first to the intellectual world of the Genies, who, under the Guardian Ruler of the Southern Choir and through swift, effective and resolute followers Genies who partake in no simple or material substance, communicate their participated virtue and power to the lower World... Kircher's erroneous translations were carved in granite and fixed to the sides of the obelisk's pedestal, above Bernini's fountain, where they still stand today.
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