[231]. See Matter, Histoire du Gnosticisme, Paris, 1843, Pl. III, and Giraud, op. cit. Pl. facing p. 238.
[232]. Origen, cont. Cels. Bk VI. c. 38. The fact is significant as showing that the Ophites considered the Son as contained within the Father.
[233]. ἐπιγεγραμμένον διάφραγμα πελεκοιειδεῖ σχήματι, Origen, op. et loc. cit. The πέλεκυς or double-bladed axe was the symbol of Zeus Labrandos of Caria, and is often met with on the coins of Asia Minor, while it seems to have played a prominent part in the worship of Minoan Crete and in Mycenae. See Arthur Evans, Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult, 1901, pp. 8-12. Ramsay, Cities, etc., I. c. 91, thinks that Savazos or Sabazios was called in Phrygia Lairbenos, which may be connected with the word Labrys said to be the name of the double axe. He found a god with this weapon worshipped together with Demeter or Cybele in the Milyan country, op. cit. pp. 263, 264, and he thinks the pair appear under the different names of Leto, Artemis, Cybele, and Demeter on the one hand, and Apollo, Lairbenos, Sabazios, Men, and Attis on the other throughout Asia Minor. He points out, however, that they were only the male and female aspects of a single divinity (op. cit. 93, 94). Is it possible that this is the explanation of the double axe as a divine symbol? The axe with one blade was the ordinary Egyptian word-sign for a god (see P.S.B.A. 1899, pp. 310, 311) and the double axe might easily mean a god with a double nature. If this idea were at all prevalent in Anatolia at the beginning of our era, it would explain Simon Magus’ mysterious allusion to the flaming sword of Genesis iii. 24, “which turns both ways to guard the Tree of Life,” and is somehow connected with the division of mankind into sexes. See Hippolytus, op. cit. Bk VI. c. 17, p. 260, Cruice. A very obscure Coptic text which its discoverer, M. de Mély, calls “Le Livre des Cyranides” (C. R. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions, Mai-Juin, 1904, p. 340) gives a hymn to the vine said to be sung in the Mysteries of Bacchus in which the “mystery of the axe” is mentioned.
[234]. Origen, op. et loc. cit. The names of the circles, etc., in the original are from above downwards: Ἀγάπη, Ζωή, Πρόνοια, Σοφίας, Γνῶσις, Σοφία, Φύσις, and Σύνεσις.
[235]. Gnosis does appear in the Naassene Psalm given in this Chapter, but only as the name of the “Holy Way.”
[236]. See n. 1, p. [58] supra.
[237]. In this it is following strictly the tradition of the Enochian literature. “And we ascended to the firmament, I and he, and there I saw Sammael and his hosts, and there was great fighting therein and the angels of Satan were envying one another.” Charles, Ascension of Isaiah, c. VII. v. 9, p. 48, and Editor’s notes for other references.
[238]. Origen, cont. Cels. Bk VI. c. 32. Horaios is probably connected with the root אור “light”; Astaphaios appears in the earliest texts as Astanpheus. which may be an anagram for στέφανος “crown.” Or it may be חשטפה “inundation” which would agree with Origen’s statement as to this being the principle of water, for which see p. [73] infra.
[239]. Op. cit. Bk VI. c. 31.
[240]. Unless we take the ten circles as including the three gates of Horaios, Ailoaios, and Astaphaios. In this case, Jaldabaoth and his first three sons would alone form the higher part of the planetary world. This is unlikely, but if it were so, there would be an additional reason for calling Jaldabaoth, as does Irenaeus, a “fourth number.” Theodore Bar Khôni, who wrote in the viiith century (see [Chapter XIII], infra), in his notice of the Ophites gives the number of these heavens as ten. See Pognon, Coupes de Khouabir, Paris, 1898, p. 213.