C. Bonner, Amulets Chiefly in the British Museum, Hesperia 20, 1951, 301-345, no. 57.
Obv. Person seated on a throne in the eastern fashion, head with semicircular nimbus to l., r. hand touching the topmost knob of a tall support of the throne. From l. approaches a procession of five figures, each of the last four resting a hand on the shoulder of the person before him. The man nearest the throne is taller than the others, has a semicircular nimbus, and rests both hands on a tall staff. From r. come three winged figures (jinns?); the first, who is tallest, holds a tall staff in both hands. The first and second figures have crescent like horns, and probably the third also, though a break in the surface leaves this doubtful.
Above this scene two parallel lines cross the surface from side to side, and over them three birds fly towards the center from r., two from l.
Under the main design two horizontal lines enclose several characters, some of which resemble Greek letters, and there were more in the exergue, which is badly damaged by a deep chip. There are also four over the men at l. of the throne. Three of them could be read as ΙΞΛ, the fourth is an equal armed cross potent. Among the birds at the top, over the throne, and behind the two processions, are small disks.
Rev. plain.
Carnelian. Transverse oval, 28 x 21.
The obviously oriental subject seems to be explained, by comparison with the preceding number, as Solomon enthroned receiving the homage of men and of the winged and horned jinns. Solomon's hoopoe may have suggested the flight of birds above.
It may be noted in passing that not only the Semitic demons of the waste (
se`irim and
shedim) were horned (Scheftelowitz in
ARW, 15 (1912), p. 460), but there is also some evidence that certain angels had horns. In his ascension to the seventh heaven Moses saw the angel Zagzagel, the Prince of the Torah and of Wisdom, wearing horns of glory (Ginzberg,
Legends of the Jews, II, p. 309). S. A. Cook,
Religion of Ancient Palestine in the Light of Archaeology (1930), refers to "the horns of Gabriel and other angels," citing the authority of Gaster; but the reference (p. 29, note 4) is wrong and I have not found the passage.