Mendes

The name "Mendes" originates from the Greek corruption of the Egyptian city name Pa-bi-neh-tat, meaning "the dwelling of Tat or Spirit." The Greeks likely transmuted this into "Bendes" and then "Mendes," referring to the local deity, which was then further associated with the goat imagery of Pan.

The name of the demon-goat, alleged by the Church of Rome to have been worshipped by the Templars and other ]\Iasons. But this goat wasi a myth created by the evil fancy of the odium thcologicum. There never was such a creature, nor was its worship known amoung Templars or their predecessors, the Gnostics. The god of Mendes, or the Greek Mendesius, a name given to Lower Egypt in pre-Christian days, was the ram-headed god Ammon, the living and lioly spirit of Ba. the life-giving sun ; and this led certain Greek authors into the error of affirming that the Egyptians called the "goat" (or the ra>H-headed god) himself Mendes. Ammon was for ages the chief deity of Egypt, the supreme god; Amoun-Ra the "hidden god", or Ame7i (the concealed) the Self -engendered who is "his own father and his own son". Esoterically, he was Pan, the god of nature or nature personified, and probably the cloven foot of Pan the goaf-footed, helped to produce the error of this god being a goat. As Amnion's shrine was at Pa-bi-neh-tat, "the dwelling of Tat or Spirit, Lord of Tat" (Bindedi in the Assyrian inscriptions), the Greeks first corrupted the name into Bendes and then 198 THEOSOPIIR'AL into Mnuhs from "MtMulcsius". Tlu' "error" sorvrd eoclt'siastical pur I>os(s tdo well to be inade away with, even when recognized.

The story of Mendes, as recounted by Blavatsky, is a fascinating case study in the transmission and transformation of religious symbolism. What began as the worship of a powerful, life-affirming deity in ancient Egypt, embodied by the ram-headed Ammon and later linked to the generative force of Pan, became, through the lens of later religious traditions, a symbol of demonic perversion. The odium theologicum, the theological hatred Blavatsky mentions, is a potent force in shaping collective consciousness, capable of twisting symbols of fertility and cosmic unity into emblems of evil.

The association with Pan, the god of the wild, shepherds, and rustic music, is particularly telling. Pan, with his goat-like legs and horns, embodied a primal, untamed aspect of nature, a force that could be both benevolent and terrifying. When this imagery was applied to the Egyptian deity, and then further demonized by those seeking to discredit esoteric traditions like the Templars or Gnostics, it illustrates a recurring pattern: the fear of the wild, the untamed, and the pagan leading to its vilification. This is a process Mircea Eliade explored in his work on the sacred and the profane, where the encroachment of the rational and the civilized often leads to the suppression and demonization of older, nature-based spiritualities. The "goat" of Mendes, therefore, becomes a projection of external anxieties and internal repressions, a phantom conjured from misunderstanding and malice.

The modern seeker can find in this myth a reminder of the dangers of simplistic dualism and the power of narrative to shape perception. It invites contemplation on how readily we categorize and condemn what we do not understand, or what challenges our established worldviews. The true "demon" in the story of Mendes might not be a creature of flesh and blood, but the very act of willful misinterpretation and the fear that fuels it.

RELATED_TERMS: Pan, Ammon, Goat, Symbolism, Demonology, Gnosticism, Templars, Mythology