The Symbolic Wisdom of the Egyptians

Not yet did Memphis An ancient capital of Egypt, used here as a metonym for the whole of Egyptian civilization. weave riv?er-grown original: "flumineas". This refers to the papyrus reeds harvested from the Nile to make early paper. books;
Not yet up?on the stones [did] only birds and wild beasts,
And carved creatures pre?served magic languages.

original: "Lucanus". Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39–65 AD) was a Roman poet. These lines are from his epic "Pharsalia" (Book III), where he describes a time before the invention of papyrus when knowledge was stored in the "magic" form of animal-like hieroglyphs.