Bonner, SMA – PDF, 183.

looks like a mixture of φρε, Egyptian p-rē, “the sun,” with Ba'al, Lord, and marmaraoth is usually interpreted as “lord of lords.” The reverse is entirely occupied by an inscription of more than ordinary interest. The editor does not transcribe it; my reading from the plate was supplemented and corrected by Mr. Seyrig, who closely examined the original.

ὁ γῆς κὲ θαλά|σσης δεσπότη|ς ὁ σίων τὴν οἰ|κουμένην ορτι|νευ ἐννεάμορ|φε κελενεφές, ἐθέρα τέμνων| παύσῃς πᾶσαν| νόσον κὲ ἐπι|βουλὴν παντός.

Read καί, σείων, κελαινεφές, αἰθέρα. The magical name Ortineus has not, so far as I know, been found elsewhere.

The inscription may be translated as follows: “Lord of land and sea, who shakest the world, Ortineus of nine forms, cloud-wrapped, cleaving the ether, put an end to every disease and to plotting by any man.” Here an address to a god in the solemn style of the magical logoi, incorporating a verse, probably from a hymn, ends with an ordinary petition in prose.

The shaker of the world seems to be the sun-god in a logos in PGM IV, 1324 (cf. 1281, 1291), ὁ σείσας καὶ σείων τὴν οἰ|κουμένην, and in PGM V, 442-443 the phrase ὁ σείσας τὴν οἰ|κουμένην is connected with Iao, who is often identified with the sun. The God of Nine Forms is also thought to be the sun-god,¹²⁰ though according to another view the name belongs to the Ennead of great gods who greet the sun.¹²¹ On neither theory is the epithet κελαινεφής very appropriate, but αἰθέρα τέμνων favors the sun. Euripides addressed the god ὦ τὸν ἀγήρατον πόλον αἰθέρος Ἥλιε τέμνων,¹²² and Diehl cites a similar verse from the Orphic Argonautica (303). Finally, the pantheos of the obverse is regularly associated with Horus, and may have been originally, according to an Egyptian notion, the aged sun-god, as Horus-Harpocrates is the young sun. The amulet is noteworthy as introducing an ordinary prayer for protection against illness and malice with snatches of liturgical language. A briefer liturgical reminiscence may be noted on a uterine amulet, first published by Du Molinet, inscribed τάσσον τὴν μήτραν τῆς δεῖνα εἰς τὸν ἴδιον τόπον ὁ τὸν κύκλον τοῦ ἡλίου.¹²³ After the last word supply ἐξαίρων (rather than ἐξαιρῶν) from PGM IV, 1326, ὁ. . .ἐξαίρων τὸν κύκλον τοῦ ἡλίου καὶ τῆς σελήνης. In another example the words καὶ σὺ ὁ ἔχων τὸ κρυπτὸν ὄνομα ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ἅγιε Ιαωθ are embedded in a long series of magical words, mostly familiar.¹²⁴

The longest and most perfect inscription of this group is that of an often discussed amulet belonging to the New York Historical Society, recently deposited in the Brooklyn Museum.¹²⁵ It is a red jasper (not agate) veined with black. The obverse shows a lion-headed god, crowned with disk and uraei,

¹²⁰ Hopfner, Archiv Orientalni 3 (1931), 142.

¹²¹ Dieterich, Abraxas, 33.

¹²² Epigr. 2, with which cf. Phoen. 1–3.

¹²³ Du Molinet, Le Cabinet de la Bibliothèque de Sainte Geneviève, Pl. 29, 2; Matter, Pl. II, C 4.

¹²⁴ Museo Borgiano, p. 452, 9.

¹²⁵ D. 283. It has been well discussed by Perdrizet, “Antiquités de Léontopolis,” pp. 359–361, with figure on p. 357. To this article I am indebted for several points in the paragraphs devoted to this gem. On page 359, n. 1, the author cites previous treatments of the object, among which Spiegelberg's interpretations of the Egyptian names (in Sammelbuch, 5620) deserve special mention.

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