[1056]. En Nadîm in Kessler, op. cit. p. 392; Flügel, op. cit. pp. 89-90. This would agree perfectly with the system of the Pistis Sophia, where it is said that the “receivers of the Sun and Moon” give the particles of the light as it is won from matter to Melchizedek, the purifier, who purifies it before taking it into the Treasure-house (pp. 36, 37, Copt.). The idea that the Sun’s rays had a purifying effect shows shrewd observation of nature before his bactericidal power was discovered by science. So does the association of the Moon with water, which doubtless came from the phenomenon of the tides. Is the Column of Glory the Milky Way?
[1057]. The Ecpyrosis or final conflagration is always present in orthodox Mazdeism, where it inspires its Apocalypses, and is in effect the necessary conclusion to the drama which begins with the assault on the world of light by Ahriman. For references, see Söderblom, op. cit. chap. IV. From the Persians it probably passed to the Stoics and thus reached the Western world slightly in advance of Christianity. “The day when the Great Dragon shall be judged” is continually on the lips of the authors of the Pistis Sophia and the Μέρος τευχῶν Σωτῆρος, and the conception may therefore have reached Manes from two sources at once. The angels maintaining the world as mentioned in the text are of course the Splenditenens and Omophorus about to be described.
[1058]. Hegemonius, Acta, c. VIII. p. 12, Beeson. St Augustine (contra Faustum, Bk XX. c. 10) mentions the Wheel briefly and rather obscurely. It seems to have fallen out of the account of Bar Khôni. But see the Tun-huang treatise (Chavannes et Pelliot, op. cit. 1ère partie, pp. 515, n. 2, 516, 517, n. 3). There can be little doubt that it is to be referred to the Zodiac. The Aeons of the Light seem to be the five worlds who here play the part of the Parastatae in the Pistis Sophia.
[1059]. Hegemonius, Acta, c. VIII. pp. 11, 12, Beeson, mentions Omophorus, but not Splenditenens. Splenditenens is, however, well known to St Augustine, who describes him (contra Faustum, Bk XV. c. 7) as Splenditenentem magnum, sex vultus et ora ferentem, micantemque lumine, “Great Splenditenens, bearing six faces and mouths, and glittering with light.” So later (op. cit. Bk XX. c. 9) he says, Splenditenentem, reliquias eorumdem membrorum Dei vestri in manu habentem, et cetera omnia capta, oppressa, inquinata plangentem, et Atlantem maximum subter humeris suis cum eo ferentem, ne totum ille fatigatus abjiciat. “Splenditenens, who has in his hand the remains of these members of your God [i.e. the five elements or ‘sons’ of the First Man] and who mourns the capture and oppression and defilement of all the rest; and huge Atlas, who bears everything with him on his shoulders, lest he should be wearied and cast it away.” Bar Khôni (Pognon, pp. 188, 189) describes them both, and calls Splenditenens “the Ornament of Splendour,” while he makes the pair two of the five sons of the Living Spirit, as more clearly appears in the Tunhuang treatise (Chavannes et Pelliot, op. cit. p. 549, and notes 2 and 5). Where Manes found the figure of Splenditenens is not apparent, but the world-bearing angel is an old conception in Western Asia, as M. Cumont has shown in his before-quoted Cosmogonie Manichéenne, App. II. He appears prominently on the Mithraic monuments and was no doubt the original of the Greek Atlas.
[1060]. Alexander of Lycopolis, op. cit. c. III., says plainly that the Sun and Moon were formed out of that part of the light (here called δύναμις “power”), which, although it had been captured by the powers of matter, had not been contaminated, while that which had suffered some slight and moderate stain became the stars and sky. The Acta (Hegemonius, op. cit. c. VIII. p. 11, Beeson), as we have seen, says that the Living Spirit created the lights (φωστῆρες, luminaria), which are the remnants of the soul (i.e. the armour of the First Man) and caused the firmament to surround them. The author here evidently refers to the Sun and Moon only.
[1061]. The whole of this story, which is the reverse of edifying, is studied by M. Cumont, with the fullest references to the authorities, in his Cosmogonie Manichéenne before quoted, to which it forms Appendix I, under the heading “La Séduction des Archontes.” To this I must refer the reader, only remarking that, while I fully agree that the goddess in question is probably derived from the Mother of the Gods who under the name (inter alia) of Atargatis was worshipped throughout Asia Minor, I do not see that she had any connection with the “Virgin of Light” of the Pistis Sophia. This Virgin of Light did, indeed, pass into Manichaeism, but she had there a very different name and attributes from the Mother of the Gods. See p. [323], n. 4 infra.
[1062]. En Nadîm in Kessler, op. cit. p. 393; Flügel, op. cit. pp. 90, 91.
[1063]. Kessler, op. et pag. cit. n. 1, says it has dropped out of the text, which seems likely.
[1064]. Hegemonius, Acta, c. XII. pp. 19, 20, Beeson. The story is given verbatim later, p. [306] infra.
[1065]. The Mandaeans or Disciples of St John described on p. 305 seem a likely source, as they have many traditions about the protoplasts, some of which clearly go back to before the Christian Era. None of those mentioned by Brandt, Die Mandäische Religion, Leipzig, 1889, pp. 34-39, however, seem to be exactly similar to the story in the text.