Bonner, SMA – PDF, 199.

attention must be called to a curious passage (PGM XII, 229 f.), ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ Χράτηςsὁ πεφυκὼςsἐκ τοῦ οὐατίου. The text is slightly emended, but is almost certainly right.⁶⁶ οὐατίον seems to be w3t, “eye of Horus” or “eye of Re.” But is there anything in Egyptian mythology that will account for such an idea? Is the lotus, on which Harpocrates sits, imagined to be the eye of the sun, which has given birth to the infant god?

Μουι: see σερπωτ below.

The words ναβις (or νααβις) βιεννουθ are found, apparently, only on Chnoubis amulets, where several examples have been noted.⁶⁷ A plausible explanation derives this phrase from the Hebrew héberbetűk, “bound with incantations.”⁶⁸ The idea of binding a god to do the will of the operator is entirely natural in magic.

Ορωριουθ is almost always engraved on uterine amulets, usually on the reverse of the stone. I have seen it apart from the symbol of the uterus only in a somewhat doubtful example, where οροθορρει, on the reverse of a pantheos gem, seems to be a disguised ορορειοθ.⁶⁹ Delatte called attention to a stone in the Fouquet collection which bears the phrase μήτρας γυναικῶν κύριος Ορωριουθ Αυβαχ along with other demonic names, not elsewhere attested, that control the female organ.⁷⁰ The language marks these protectors as masculine, and one is reminded of the gem mentioned above (under “Ereschigal”) which shows Harpocrates seated on the conventional symbol of the womb with his hand on the key that controls it. More commonly both male and female deities stand over the symbol. The inscription Aktiophi Ereschigal Neboutosoualeth encircling the central design of this same stone points to Selene or Hecate-Selene. The traditional connection of moon deities with the functions of women is well known, and it is possible that Ororiouth is a secret name for Artemis-Selene-Hecate. Aphrodite also seems to have been drawn into this group, to judge by the inscription Ορωριφρασι (for Αρωριφρασι) Οροριουθ on a stone in the British Museum which is best interpreted as a birth amulet.⁷¹

Σαλβαναχαμβρη is a name that is inscribed on the reverse of several amulets with a cynocephalus ape as the obverse type;⁷² also with other designs, as Harpocrates riding a bird, Horus (or a priest), Osiris.⁷³ The last syllable of the word is probably Re, the sun; the remainder is uncertain. Possible interpretations are mentioned by Thompson.⁷⁴

⁶⁶ Cf. PGM V, 75 and 91, also emended.

⁶⁷ D. 86, 99, 100.

⁶⁸ See Kopp, Pal. Crit. IV, 158, and HTR 25, 365.

⁶⁹ B. M. 56159.

⁷⁰ Musée Belge, 18, 80.

⁷¹ D. 145.

⁷² B. M. 56512; D. 245 A, 247.

⁷³ Museo Borgiano, p. 443, 46; Raspe, 375; B. M. 56285.

⁷⁴ Bell, Nock, and Thompson, Magical Texts from a Bilingual Papyrus, p. 15. This name should probably be read instead of Σαλβαναχαωβρη in Wünsch, Antike Fluchtafeln, 4, 9 (Audollent, Defix. Tab., 242, 9), where it is given to τὸν χθόνιον, “who is lord of all that lives.” The adjective χθόνιος is strange, since the name Salbanachambre is given to solar deities; but χθόνιος would be appropriate for Osiris.

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