Hauptwerke

During his time in Avignon Kircher had already begun to study the then undeciphered hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. He presents the sum of his linguistic and egyptological knowledge, already published in part in smaller works, in the three-volume OEDIPUS AEGYPTIACUS (Rome, 1652-1654). Using the documents and examples of Egyptian hieroglyphics available to him, he offers a comprehensive reconstruction of Egyptian theology, politics, culture and language. This is integrated into the historical framework of the late antique and early modern philosphia perennis and thus into the world-historical framework of the Old Testament. By identifying the central divinities of ancient Egypt with the gods of the Greek pantheon and placing them into the ranks of the Judaeo-Christian patriarchal genealogy, Kircher writes a cultural history of the known world of his day, which fits into the theoretical and historical system of his universal knowledge.