Bonner, SMA – PDF, 243.

suffering from some abdominal disorder. Besides the central figure of the Ayvaz stone, there is a male person without attributes on each side, and Harpocrates in his boat below. At the top is the word abrasax, below, some unfamiliar and word or words. On the reverse side are a stag, two eagles symmetrically arranged, two jackal-headed demons, one holding a was scepter, the other a snake.

This series may be closed with a brief reference to B. M. 56166, of which an illustration is given by King.⁴⁴ On one side stands Anubis with scepter and situla, under his feet an object which I could not make out; King thought it was an open left hand, and it so appears on his drawing. On the opposite side is a mummy with indistinct head — its place is occupied by a blur of strokes with the graving tool. Preisendanz thinks that the figure is Osiris, here as the Headless God. But the head is not cleanly cut off, and it may be that the engraver was trying to indicate a head of the “standard” type — a short support with animal heads projecting horizontally from it. Under this figure is the uterine symbol.

Mention should be made of three amulets that apply representations of ordinary objects to a magical purpose. Mr. Seyrig's collection includes a small frog of green glass paste (D. 370), under which is the inscription φυλάξαι, “protect.” The animal, according to Budge, “seems to have been worshiped in primitive times as the symbol of generation, birth, and fertility in general.”⁴⁵ In the museum of the University of Michigan is a small right hand made of a dull greenish stone, probably serpentine.⁴⁶ The thumb is thrust between the index and middle fingers in the well-known apotropaic gesture of the fica. Three lines across the wrist at the base of the thumb represent the slight wrinkles produced as the hand bends inward. The wrist is perforated for a cord.

The third example is a hollow gold pendant, probably an eardrop, in Mr. Seyrig's collection (D. 372); there is a ring in the top for a hook or a fine chain. The outer side is a youthful face, originally well modeled, but now damaged by a pressure which has crushed the lower part of the nose and the mouth inwards. The curling hair is held by a diadem with triangular points, which do not stand up, but lie back on the hair, probably to avoid the risk of breaking off the small projections.

In place of the back of the head there is a clenched right hand, an apotropaic safeguard against the evil eye which would not be seen when the ornament was worn in its normal position. In this instance the thumb is not thrust between the fingers, but is against the index finger with the first joint of the thumb folded over the second joint of the index. There is other evidence that the closed hand is a recognized amulet, even though the thumb is not thrust under the index. Four hands of serpentine stone in the “Riposti-

⁴⁴ Gnostics, Pl. F 5; discussed by Delatte, BCH 38 (1914), 193; Preisendanz, Akephalos, p. 17.

⁴⁵ Budge, Gods, II, 378. The frog goddess Heqet was identified with Hathor and was originally the female counterpart of Khnemu (Chnum).

⁴⁶ D. 371.

<<previous     next>>