Bonner, SMA – PDF, 172.

significance. There is a long meaningless inscription round the stone outside the ouroboros.

The words πάντων δεσπότης are applied to God in several passages of the Septuagint, as Job 5, 8, κύριον δὲ τὸν πάντων δεσπότην ἐπικαλέσομαι, where κύριον translates èlohim.³⁶ The invocation in the Leiden papyrus V, 250, κύριε παντοκράτωρ ἅγιε καὶ δέσποτα πάντων, is clearly of Jewish origin. Attention may also be called to a painted inscription found at Samaria along with a statue of Kore: εἷς θεὸς ὁ πάντων δεσπότης, μεγάλη Κόρη ἡ ἀνείκητος.³⁷

Baudissin has shown that the use of κύριος to describe the relation of a god to his worshipers is Oriental, and that it is particularly common in Syria and Egypt.³⁸ Thus on the reverse of a bloodstone representing the Sun and the Moon in their chariots³⁹ we find the inscription Ιαω σαβαωθ αβρασαξ ὁ ὤν κύριε παραστάθητι.⁴⁰ κύριε is abbreviated by the initial with a stroke above it, which seems to have been an older method. The words ὁ ὤν, derived from the Septuagint version of Exodus 3, 14, have been discussed in Chapter II, “National Influences.” They strongly emphasize the Hebrew elements in an amulet which seems to identify the God of the Jews with the sun-god, in that type of solar monotheism which many monuments of the same period as the magical amulets display. A rock crystal in the Newell collection, one of a group of five similar stones that show the lion-headed god with whip and orb, adds to an invocation of “Fearless Zeth,” followed by magical words, the following petition: ἵλεως  (κύριε) τῇ ἐμῇ ψυχῇ καὶ τῷ ἐμῷ βίῳ.⁴¹ Isis, to whom the word κυρία is often applied, represented on a carnelian in the Metropolitan Museum standing before Sarapis-Hades; in the field are the words ἡ κυρία Εἶσις ἁγνή, “Pure is our lady Isis,” a religious acclamation like “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.”⁴² Still nearer to that famous phrase is μεγάλη Νέμεσις ἡ κυρία inscribed round a figure of Nemesis on a bloodstone in the Ashmolean Museum (F 98).

An investigation of recent years has shown that ἅγιος as a cult epithet belongs chiefly to divinities of Oriental origin,⁴³ a result which throws light upon an amulet in the Seyrig collection, a rectangular prism, two faces of which are occupied by figures of Hecate and Isis-Tyche, the latter very carelessly executed.⁴⁴ The other two long sides are inscribed Ζεῦ ἅγιε and ἀποστρε-

³⁶ Cf. also Wisdom 6, 7; 8, 3; Sirach 36, 1.

³⁷ Since the definitive publication has not yet appeared, this text is subject to correction; it was reported to me by Professor and Mrs. Kirsopp Lake. See Palestine Exploration Fund, Quarterly Statement, 1933, P. 71.

³⁸ W. W. Graf von Baudissin, Kyrios, II, 262, 270; Drexler, in Roscher, II, 1756 ff.

³⁹ B. M. 56147; King, Gnostics, Pl. J 1.

⁴⁰ The sun-god is addressed as κύριε in PGM I, 2.29, IV, 639, and elsewhere; see Drexler in Roscher, II, 1760.

⁴¹ D. 235.

⁴² Richter, Cat. Engraved Gems, 346, Pl. 77; previously published (though inadequately) by King, Gnostics, Pl. E 1, and p. 438.

⁴³ E. Williger, Hagios, p. 81 (RGVV XIX, 1).

⁴⁴ D. 360.

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