Bonner, SMA – PDF, 180.

jasper in the Newell collection; there is no design, and the reverse bears the one word αβρασαξ.⁹⁸ σωματοφύλαξ, “bodyguard,” accompanies a figure of Anubis;⁹⁹ the word is used in the same sense in PGM VII, 579. The word φυλακτήριον, so common in magical papyri, is rarely found on gem amulets. A rock crystal in the Museo Borgiano is covered with an inscription consisting of magical words and vowels, with one intelligible sentence, φύλαξον τὸν δεῖνα τὸν φοροῦντα τὸ φυλακτήριον ττ..το (τοῦτο?) αφαρτη (l. ἀπάρτι).¹⁰⁰ On the other hand, the imperatives φύλασσε, φύλαξον, διαφύλασσε, one-word prayers, are so common as to need no illustration; the examples collected by Drexler suffice.¹⁰¹

Several other verbs are used in these brief prayers, such as παραστάθητι on a noteworthy stone in the British Museum,¹⁰² which has been mentioned before, and συμπαραστάθητι, which I would restore on another British Museum gem, σεργοις μου καὶ δός μοι χάριν (apparently for στέργοις με κτλ.);¹⁰³ round this the legend, as read by Walters, continues, ΤΟΠWCHΦVΝΠΑΡΔCΓΑΘΗΤΙΕ… This may be meant for τῷ Ιωσηφ (to be taken with μοι above); συνπαραστάθητιε…συμπαρίσταμαι is used in this sense, “assist,” in the lead tablet from the Fayűm published by Edgar,¹⁰⁴ and in the lines of Menander:

ἅπαντι δαίμων ἀνδρὶ συμπαρίσταται
εὐθὺς γενομένῳ, μυσταγωγὸς τοῦ βίου.¹⁰⁵

Βοήθει, “help,” came to be one of the commonest inscriptions on Christian rings, bracelets, and pendants of the late Roman and Byzantine periods. It is also to be found on pagan amulets, as, for example, under a design of Anubis and Isis-Tyche facing each other on a crudely engraved jasper in my possession (D. 24). Νέμεσι βοήθει with a figure of the goddess is strange, suggesting that the owner wore the stone in the hope of getting the aid of Nemesis against an oppressor. The stone is in the Seyrig collection.¹⁰⁶ Worthy of special note is the Palestinian bilingual plaque with the Greek inscription εἷς θεὸς βοήθι Μαρκιάνην, and on the back in Samaritan letters ēn kā El Jeshurun, “There is none like unto God, O Jeshurun,” or “unto the God of Jeshurun” (Deuteronomy 33, 26).¹⁰⁷

Ἐλέησον, because of its ancient liturgical use (κύριε ἐλέησον), would

⁹⁸ vD. 268.

⁹⁹ De Ridder 3475.

¹⁰⁰ Museo Borgiano, pp. 481 f., 9.

¹⁰¹ Woch. Klass. Phil., 1886, pp. 1240-143.

¹⁰² B. M. 56147; King, Gnostics, Pl. J 1, and p. 443 (where in place of the verb he reads a woman's name, Aparastathe!).

¹⁰³ B. M. Cat. Gems, 2702. It is possible that the genitive was used by analogy with that used with κήδομαι and other verbs of kindred meaning; but cf. κε βοήθη τοῦ φοροῦντος (Dalton, B. M. Cat. Fingerrings, 61). There are many instances of loose use of the cases with verbs in the late period.

¹⁰⁴ Bull. Soc. Arch. Alex., No. 21, 44.

¹⁰⁵ Fr. 550 K.

¹⁰⁶ D. 57.

¹⁰⁷ Published by E. J. Pilcher, Journ. Royal Asiat. Soc., 1920, p. 343; now No. 39 in the Seyrig collection (D. 276). For the accusative with βοηθεῖν cf. note 103.

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