Bonner, SMA – PDF, 152.

god has been found in a position where Harpocrates is to be expected, that is, surrounded by the triads of adoring animals.²⁶

The same interpretation may be applied to a variation of this type, or at any rate to a majority of the objects comprised under it. Here the god wears a kilt reaching to the knees; the chest is bare or (rarely) covered by a cuirass, and the hand is not raised to the lips. Usually one hand holds some “attribute,” sometimes both are so employed. The following variations may be mentioned:²⁷

1. Right hand is raised (a solar gesture), left holds a tall scepter.

2. Left hand holds tall scepter, right holds ankh.

3. Sword in right, scepter with snake twining round it in left.

4. Radiate snake in right, ankh in left.

5. Lion-headed radiate serpent (Chnoubis type) in right, two ears of corn in left.

6. Right holds situla, left serpent (head chipped away).

7. Right holds cobra.

8. Right holds dagger, left caduceus.

The inscriptions on these stones vary, but Iao and Abrasax are common; one has the word φρην, doubtless for φρη, “the sun.” One of the designs just listed serves as the reverse for an obverse with the solar anguipede. On the whole, the solar character of this group, like the former, seems to be well established.

Here belongs a special group of five amulets which have been mentioned more than once before.²⁸ They are strikingly alike in several respects, and if not executed in one and the same workshop, which is not improbable, they certainly follow the same magical tradition even to a peculiar spelling. The similarities consist in the following points: all are thick rock crystals with convex surfaces, all are engraved with the figure of a lion-headed god carrying whip and orb, all have unintelligible inscriptions which are identical except for minute errors in copying, and which I have not seen on other stones or in magical papyri; and all prefix to the unintelligible part the address Ζεθ ἄφοβε, though in two of the specimens the φ has been carelessly omitted. The differences are in the dress of the god, the rays and nimbus round his head, and the treatment of the whip. Further, on two of the stones a personal petition has been added to the inscription after the voces magicae.

The finest of this group, in the Boston Museum, shows the lion-headed god in front view, the head, which is turned to the left, adorned with seven linear rays (D. 234). The figure is nude except for a chlamys fastened on the right shoulder and hanging down over the back as fix as the knees. The

²⁶ See p. 143 above, with D. 391; cf. also D. 102.

²⁷ The following stones illustrate these variants: B. M. 56127 (King, Gnostics, Pl. L 2); Chabouillet 2168 (Matter, Pl. I, F3); De Ridder 3455; Montfaucon, II, 2, Pl. 144, 2; Southesk N 52, Pl. 14; D. 231; B. M. 56482; D. 233.

²⁸ The stones are as follows: D. 234 – 235 – 236; Chabouillet 2171; B. M. 56502.

<<previous     next>>