ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the possibility of reading the Hieroglyphica in a context contemporary with its composition. Coptic, also known as Neo-Egyptian, is the last phase of the Egyptian language. It was in spoken use throughout Egypt from perhaps the 1st century BC until the end of the 10th century AD with pockets of learned Coptic use surviving into the 18th century. Egyptian writing is according to Porphyry, capable of three modes of expression. The first it shares with Greek: namely, the capacity to render the spoken language. The second is depictive, capable of signifying its meaning transparently, that is, without recourse to the medium of the spoken language. The third is allusive, susceptible of, or requiring interpretation. Plotinus thinks the Categories a work of metaphysics concerning realities, on which reading he offers substantial criticism of Aristotle in 'On the genera of being'.
