Bonner, SMA – PDF, 135.

magical designs, many of which have no easily imaginable connection with the cock-headed anguipede, while others are perhaps related, but only because they represent solar deities. I have noted more than twenty-five examples of the kind, and am sure that the number could be considerably increased.⁵⁸ These facts seem to confirm in a striking manner the opinion expressed by Ganschinietz, which is worth quoting:

“Iao war für den Magier nicht Gott sondern Name. Der Name war eine Dynamis; er bedeutete nichts für das religiöse Leben des Magiers, er schuf keine religiösen und ethischen Werte, er war Besitz und machte ihn reich; also ein äusserlicher, kein innerlicher Zuwachs, wie es doch jede Religion ist oder sein soll. ”⁵⁹

If, then, we put aside traditional prepossessions, we must agree that we know much less about the cock-headed god with snake legs than older investigators have assumed. The names Iao, Abrasax, which were supposed to belong to him are words of power often found associated with other types, and the most that can be affirmed about them is that they may belong to a syncretistic deity who includes among his manifestations the cock-headed god, and many others also. This deity seems to have solar attributes; and there is no reason to believe that the conception originated in Gnostic circles. The apparently non-Egyptian origin of the cock-headed type is in itself an argument against any Gnostic connection, for Gnosticism seems to have developed in Egypt. Persian influence in the formation of the type may be suspected because of the cock's head; but this influence probably came by way of Babylon and Palestine. The triune monstrosity of the type is of a kind that is foreign to Egypt, and is less likely to have arisen through a natural spontaneous syncretism than to have been imagined, or deliberately invented, by a single teacher or a compact school. of theosophists, whom some may prefer to call Hellenized magi or pagan “gnostics.” Of such a teacher, or school, however, nothing is known. If the cock-headed god is really a deliberate invention, it may be significant that pious acclamations and personal petitions are not often inscribed on amulets bearing his image, common as they are. The time-honored gods of Egypt may have seemed nearer to the people and more sympathetic to their needs. But too much importance should not be attached to this observation; a complete survey of all existing amulets, were such a survey possible, might modify or contradict it.

A remarkable gem in the Brummer collection deserves special attention as one of the few relics of Gnosticism to be found among the objects examined in this book (D. 188). The stone is an oval pendant of green jasper clouded with red. On the obverse a lion-headed god, clothed only in the Egyptian apron, stands to left, his right hand holding a tall staff, his left a situla. At the right edge, reading downward, is the name Ιαλδαβαωθ, at the left Ααριηλ;

⁵⁸ Among the published examples the following may be cited: King, Gnostics, Pl. C, 2, 3, G, 5, J, 1 ; Southesk N 10, 39, 59, 62; De Ridder, 3444, 3445, 3458; Petrie, Amulets, Pl. 21, 135 p, r; Pl. 22, 135 v, w; Museo Borgiano, p. 474, 20; 478, 43; Pieper, Mitt. des deutsch. Inst. in Kairo, 141, No. 9807, Pl. 22.

⁵⁹ Article “Iao” in PW IX, 715.

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