The Power of the Seven Vowels on a Magical Gem from Dinogetia

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Contents

Foreword .............................................................................................................. 9

Imagologica, Soteriologica & Orientalia

Death and the Afterlife. A Comparative PerspectiveElena Ene D-VASILESCU......................................................................... 15

“Good Luck in the Resurrection!”. Life after Death in Jewish EpigraphyTibor GRÜLL ............................................................................................ 27

Microregional Manifestation of a Private Cult. The Mithraic Community of Apulum

Szabó CSABA ............................................................................................ 43Egyptian, Greek, Roman Harpocrates – A Protecting and Saviour God

tefana CRISTEA ...................................................................................... 73The Power of the Seven Vowels on a Magical Gem from Dinogetia (Moesia Inferior)

Sorin NEMETI .......................................................................................... 87The Romanian Zgripsoroaic ‘Female Griffin’ and Other Representatives of the Netherworld

Adrian PORUCIUC .................................................................................. 95Seeing is Praying: Egyptian Spirituality in Images

Elena Ene D-VASILESCU....................................................................... 103Invoking Justice and Divine Wrath in this World and Afterwards in Roman Imperial Anatolia

Iulian MOGA, Alexandru DAJ ................................................................ 112Graeco-Egyptian Magical Gems Related to the Underworld

tefana CRISTEA .................................................................................... 131Ancient Goddess and Birth Symbolism

Eka AVALIANI ........................................................................................ 139Some Aspects of Philostratean Religiosity: Spiritual Sacrifice and Love to God

Alexey V. BELOUSOV ............................................................................ 163Poetic Imagery of Afterlife in Ancient Greece

tefania VOICU ...................................................................................... 177

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Angelica & Daemonica

Ancient Greek and Roman Ghost Stories. Some New ApproachesLevente NAGY ......................................................................................... 225

La fenomenologia del demonico nelle Papyri Graecae Magicae e la voce dei primi Padri della Chiesa

Ennio SANZI ........................................................................................... 245Rhesos Anthropodaimon. Aspects of Thracian Heroisation

Michaela JORDANOVA .......................................................................... 268The World of Angels: From Submission to Commandment, through a Biblical Perspective

Paul-Cezar HÂRL OANU ...................................................................... 279Nekydaimones

György NÉMETH .................................................................................... 293The Angels and the “Ethics” of Interval

Petru BEJAN ........................................................................................... 301The Soul of the Ascetic in the Fight against “the Evil Spirits”. Elements of Christian Ponerology for Avva Evagrius the Monk

Ioan TE U ............................................................................................... 307The Demons and Their Temptations. A Vision of the Romanian Philokalia

Liviu PETCU ........................................................................................... 323Anthropology and Angelology in the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom

Tikhon VASILYEV ................................................................................... 339Representation of Angels in Byzantine Art: Interpretation of Corporeality

Maria GRINBERG .................................................................................. 373Orthodox Angelology within the Greek Euchologion. A Theological and Philological Study

tefan Teofil GROSU .............................................................................. 385Diabolus in Ecclesia. Considerations over the “Opening of the Holy Book” Divination Practice in the Context of the Romanian Orthodox Church

Mircea P DURARU ............................................................................... 422Daimones in the Georgian Mythic-Ritual System

Nino ABAKELIA ..................................................................................... 445

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Thanatologica

Philosophical Thoughts and Meditations on Death and Immortality in the Works of Ancient and Contemporary Thinkers

Constantin MARIN .................................................................................. 461Competing Social and Cultural Identities in Funeral Spaces of Iasi City during the Medieval and Modern Eras

Bogdan-Petru MALEON ......................................................................... 476The Curse as Expression of Eschatological Fear in Medieval Moldavia

Petronela PODOVEI ............................................................................... 485The Funeral Ceremony, Indicator of Mentalities and Attitudes to Death in Romanian Society

Gabriel ROMAN ..................................................................................... 494Death, Loss, and Trauma. The Challenges of Adjustment, Recovery, and Resilience

Maria Nicoleta TURLIUC....................................................................... 517On the Mortuary Rituals in Georgian Tradition

Nino ABAKELIA ..................................................................................... 538The Pagan “Heritage” of Romanian Cremationism

Marius ROTAR ........................................................................................ 545

Plates ................................................................................................................ 563

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The Power of the Seven Vowels on a Magical Gem from Dinogetia (Moesia Inferior)

Sorin NEMETI Babe -Bolyai University Cluj Napoca1

The gems depicting strange deities and theriomorphic figures surrounded by cryptic inscriptions are interpreted today as artefacts made and used by ancient magicians, according to the information contained in Greek magical papyri.

Despite this current interpretation, Romanian historiography regarded these series of magical gemstones as expressions of a complex system of religious ideas commonly called Gnosticism, i.e. the religions practiced by several groups of Christian heretics in the provinces of the Late Roman Empire. Therefore, these gems were over interpreted as old Christian artefacts and enlisted among items with Christian symbols, material proofs of the presence of Christian Gnostics (mainly Basilidians) in the Danubian provinces. Very often these gems were classified as Gnostic even before the decipherment or a proper interpretation of the Greek inscriptions they contained. This is precisely the case of a magical gem (Fig. I.1) with inscriptions discovered long time ago in Dionogetia (Garv n), which I will attempt to analyze in the present paper.

Description: Gemma abraxea; D = 2.3 x 1.9 cm; found during archaeological research in

the lower level of tower no. 5 of the fortress in Dinogetia2. Av./ The main side of the gem depicts the snake-legged giant with cock

head, facing right, holding a whip in his right hand and a shield in his left. Several inscriptions with Greek letters decorate the field, surrounding the figure. The drawing of the gem and the first attempt to read the inscription belongs to Gh. tefan, the first editor: above the snake-legged giant: EIQEMEN in the field, on the left: ABREAA on the shield: AEH ‚ IOUW ‚ IAW under the snake-legged giant: A ‚ EH ‚ IO ‚ UW ‚ UW BWN ‚ CONIAM.

Obv./ On the secondary side there is a six-row inscription in characteres. The gem was dated by Gh. tefan at the 3rd century AD and by I. Barnea at

the end of the 3rd-beginning of the 4th century AD. The gem is lost today, and it is only available for study grace to the drawing

published by Gh. tefan before the Second World War. From the beginning, the

1 Project CNCSIS–PN–II–RU–TE–3–0131–Digital Corpus for the virtual exploration of

the Antiquity. Art and text on Roman monuments from Dacia. 2 tefan, 1937-1940, 419-421, fig. 28; see also Popescu, 1976, 257-258, no. 241.

Angels, Demons and Representations of Afterlife

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gem was related with Gnostic heretics: “Di quanto è inciso non si può capire il senso, come, d’altra parte, per tutte le iscrizioni di questo genere. Si vede però che si tratta di un amuleto della categoria attribuita ai gnostici, nel quale si riuniscono un gran numero di elementi disparati”3. I encountered this Gnostic / old Christian interpretation throughout the Romanian historiography, according to the dominant trend 4 . Some contacts with other historical traditions undermined the Gnostic interpretation, but the echoes were rather feeble. For example, I. Barnea observed that Mirko Seper (in his Antikne geme-amuleti, Zagreb, 1941, p. 48-49) “préfère pour ces menus objets le nom de gemmes amulettes et ne les envisage pas comme un produit du gnosticisme mais comme une création influencée, d’une part, par la mythologie égyptienne et grecque, et d’autre part, par l’Apocalypse”. He nevertheless preserved the classification of the gem among artefacts with Christian significance: “La gemma abraxea de Dinogetia a pu appartenir à quelque soldat romain issu du milieu grecque chrétien de la Syrie ou de l’Egypte sans qu’on puisse préciser si c’était ou non un gnostique”5.

This recurrent and outdated interpretation is present also in today’s scholarly production from Romania. A recent attempt to read and interpret the text of the gem from Dinogetia follows the old path of ascribing it Gnostic and Christian significance.

Nicolae Gudea, starting from the drawing published in 1940, transliterated the inscription with mixed Greek and Latin letters (!?) and even risked the reading of some sequences, having in mind the Christian epigraphic texts6.

Above the snake-legged giant with cock head he read EITHGMEN, under the right hand ABRASAX (instead of the older reading ABREA), on the shield AEHIOYW, under the shield IAW; under the right foot of the snake-legged genius IOYW, in the lower part of the gem X BWO ONIAM (sic)7.

Nicolae Gudea was aware of the presence of the Greek vowels, which he interpreted as planets and musical notes from the Gnostic liturgy8, and attempted to read some sequences from the inscription.

Above the snake-legged genius he read EI(rene) THE(m)EMEN “which should be translated with Christ’s words: I’ll give to you my peace: eirene the

3 tefan, 1937-1940, 421. 4 Popescu, 1976, 257-258; Zugravu, 1997, 99, n. 251: “…o gemma abraxea... care, pe

baza reprezent rilor, pare s fi apar inut unui gnostic de origine egiptean sau sirian …”; Gudea, 2010, 17-25, 21: “gemele de acest tip apar in gnosticilor din erezia lui Basilides”.

5 Barnea, 1957, 279, n. 59. 6 Gudea, 2010, 17-25; Gudea, 2011, 445-453. 7 Gudea, 2010, 19. 8 Gudea, 2010, 20.


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emein didomai ymein”, and the inscriptions located under the snake-legged monster’s feet X BWTHO NI AM “could be read X(ristus) K(yrie) BWHTH(ei) NI(keta) AM(en), which means Lord / Jesus please help Niketas. Amen”9. I do not dare push the interpretation so far.

In my opinion the gem from Dinogetia is a magical artefact that uses the common images and formulae, like, for example, the image of the snake-legged giant with cockhead, the divine name Iaô (two occurrences), the isopsephic word of power Abrasax, and the series of the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet (two occurrences). It is worth reminding here that the gem is know today only through the old drawing published by Gh. tefan and it is very likely that some of the letters are not correctly identified and transcribed (this could be an explanation of the fact that the inscriptions remain undeciphered to this day). Considering all this, I will propose a new reading of the inscription and an interpretation that will try to explain all the elements of this magic gem.

Above the snake-legged giant with cock head there is a group of seven Greek letters: EIQEMEN The combination of these letters has no meaning, therefore I believe it possible that some of the letters were wrongly transcribed in the published drawing. Hence, a formula type `Eij QeÒj might have been originally inscribed on the gem.

In the field, on the left of the snake-legged genius, between its right hand and right snake-foot, the first editor read ABREAA where one could clearly see in the drawing the seven letters ABRASAZ as version for 'Abras£x

On the shield held by genius with its left hand, one can read a three-row inscription that associates the group of the seven Greek vowels with the name Iaô: AEH ‚ IOUW ‚ IAW

The group of the seven vowels appears once again in the left bottom area, in the same order, i.e. that of the Greek alphabet: A ‚ EH ‚ IO ‚ UW

In the lower part of the gem, there is a group of nine letters, disposed in two rows, read by editors, from left to right, as BWN ‚ HCONIAM a grouping without sense and signification. It is worth mentioning that the capital letters Q and E are depicted in a very similar way in the drawing of the gem (like an epsilon with rounded corners). If letter B is an erroneous transcription of F then seven from those nine letters forms a magical invocation perfectly matching the rest of the texts engraved on the gem: FWN(H)ENTA for t¦ Fwn enta (gr£mmata), an invocation addressed to the personified vowels10. Out of this formula remain the letters X (a Latin letter?) and M, located on the extremities of the invocation FWN(H)ENTA

9 Gudea, 2010, 19, 21. 10 On a gem from Yahmour (Syria) was read the invocation TAFWNAONTA for t¦

fwn£onta (the vowels) – Mouterde, 1930-1931, 71, n. 2.


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In order to conclude the argument, the gem from Dinogetia is a magic gem that contains invocations of the powers of the magical gods (like Iaô) and of daemonic beings (such as the snake-legged giant with cock head or the vowels intended as a group of angels / archontes that are patrons of the planets and of the musical tones)11.

The gem from Dinogetia associates the figure of the snake-legged giant with cock head with the divine name Iaô and the formula Abrasax, a most popular association on magical gems (so popular that it was believed that the name of the snake-legged giant with cock head was Abrasax/Abraxas, or even Iaô). After an analysis of the occurrences on many magical stones researchers concluded that Abrasax is a word associated with several iconographic types, not just with the snake-legged giant, and, therefore, is not even a divine name, but rather a word of power, a very useful magical formula with isopsephic value12. Another expressed opinion is that the name of the snake-legged giant is Iaô, a name frequently written on the shield of the theriomorph character. The name Iaô is derived from the Jewish tetragrammaton YHWH and designates an important god for the magicians of the Roman era. An interesting explanation for the identification of the snake-legged giant with the god Iaô was proposed by M. Philonenko, who has argued that the tetragrammaton YHWH was transliterated by the group of Greek letters PIPI The reading of those letters in Egyptian has determined the adoption of the cock-headed aspect, because “chicken” is written in Demotic ppj, and in Coptic papoi13. A previous statistic made on gems with the image of the snake-legged giant and inscriptions has established the fact that this character is associated with the name Iaô in 70% of the cases (none of the inscribed gems contains just the formula abrasax, without Iaô)14.

Therefore, the item from Dinogetia is a common magical gem that associates the figure of the snake-legged giant with cock head with the divine name Iaô and the abrasax formula. In search for a more efficient magical act, the ancient magician added two rows of vowels in alphabetic order and, maybe, an express invocation for the personified Vowels (for the daemonic powers personified by the vowels).

The presence of the vowels on magical gems is known through many examples. Very often the vowels are associated with the snake-legged giant with cock head, with inscriptions containing formulas like 'I£w 'Abras£x15, but also

11 Bonner, 1950, 12, 186-187; Brashear, 1995, 3431; Deubner, 1910, 436. 12 Bonner, 1950, 134, n. 36. 13 Philonenko, 1979, 302-303. 14 Nemeti, 2002, 105-106; Nemeti, 2005, 301-302. 15 Delatte, Derchain, 1984, 361 (index), no. 16, 20, 23, 29, 31, 32, 34.


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with many others iconographies and magical logoi 16 . There are also very frequent cases when the vowels are engraved on the gems in alphabetic order17: frequently one can see different groups of vowels, or series of doubled or tripled vowels (ihihih iiii ahah www aaa etc.)18. In these particular cases, the ritual role assigned to the vowels is that of sounds, musical tones for singing and reciting the magical incantations.

Older studies analyzing the appearance of the series of vowels in Greek magical papyri and the ancient texts talking about the music of the spheres have arrived at the conclusion that the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet are correlated with the seven planets, hence with the tones under the tutelage of the seven planets in the music of the spheres, the seven notes of the musical scale, respectively with the cords of the heptacorde lyre.

Among the ancient writers, Nicomachus from Gerasa is the one who best explains the relation between the sound of the heptacorde scale with the series of the so-called planets. He gives us the following equivalences: Saturn – hypate meson – mi, Iupiter – parhypate meson – fa, Marte – lichanos meson – sol, Sol – mèse – la, Venus – trite synemmenon – si bémol, Mercur – paranete synemmenon – ut and Luna – nete synemmenon – ré19. The correlation between the planets and the vowels / musical tones was made based on the different variants provided by five authors – Plutarchus, Porphyrius, Lydus, Achileus Tatius and an anonymous anecdoton published by Bekker. These five texts provide different orders of association (only two are identical, those of Achileus Tatius and of Bekker’s anecdoton). The order transmitted by Achileus Tatius and Bekker’s anecdoton is the reverse alphabetic order of the Greek vowels: Saturnus W , Iupiter U, Mars O, Sol I, Venus H, Mercurius E, Luna A. With the help of the information contained in papyrus W from Leiden where the planets are arranged after the principle of the movement of revolution (presumed distance from the Earth) (page 16, row 23, B. Saturnus, Iupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercurius, Luna; page 13, row 18, the correlation of the seven vowels with the planets) specialists established the fact that the system of Achileus Tatius / Bekker’s anecdoton is preferable 20 , attested also by the Gnostic Marcus, a scholia at the Dyonisus the Thracian and in Hyginus’s fables 21 . From all these ancient texts the reconstructed ancient system of

16 Delatte, Derchain, 1984, no. 44, 85, 90, 96, 135, 139, 143, 150, 151, 160, 167, 190,

199, 206, 214, 229, 287, 297, 304, 306, 310, 450, 485, 497, 498. 17 For example, Delatte, Derchain, 1984, no. 304. 18 Delatte, Derchain, 1984, no. 23 ; see also Faraone, Kotansky, 1988, 257, 261-262. 19 Ruelle, 1889, 41-42; Leclerque, 1924, 1281. 20 Ruelle, 1889, 42-43; Leclerque, 1924, 1280-1281. 21 Mastrocinque, 1998, 8.


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correlation between every vowel with a planet, a cord of heptacorde lyre, or a musical tone, is the following:

- Luna – nete synemmonon – ré Mercur – paranete synemmenon – ut (do)

- Venus – trite synemmenon – si bémol Sol – mèse – la Mars – lichanos meson – sol Iupiter – parhypate meson – fa Saturn – hypate meson – mi.

The arrangement of the two sequences of vowels in that planetary order on the gem from Dinogetia demonstrates that the magician did not intend to write vowels as magical sounds to be sung during the ritual, but simply as a series of vowels as planetary names. In that case, every vowel personifies a planetary archont, every vowel is a name for such a daemonic power. The names of the planetary archontes are known from a series of magical gems issued in Mithraic contexts. The names of those daemons are written on a gem from Florence: a lion, with a bee in his mouth, is depicted on the obverse and above him seven stars surrounded by Greek inscriptions can be seen. A name is written around each star and the entire series can be transcribed as: Shm a, Kanteà, Kenteà, Konteà, Kerideà, DarÚnkw, LukÚnx22. One can find a similar sequence in a demotic papyrus: Semea, Gantey, Gentey, Gontey, Gerintey, Ntarengo, Lekayks 23 or even on a tabella defixionis from Beisan (Scitopolis): shmea, kan[teu], kenteu, konteu, kerideu, dar[unk]w, luku[nx] .

A. Delatte provides the final reading and correct interpretation of vowels as names of the planetary archontes. The author took those names from a gem from Dorpat, another gem with Sol quadrigatus published by Capello, and papyrus 46 from British Museum 428. One can find some of these names isolated in magical literature (on tabellae defixionis, in the Greek magical papyri, on a gem from Salonae)25. A. Mastrocinque tried to systematize all available data and to correlate every one of these names with a planetary power. In his opinion, Shm a is an appellative for Sol, Kerideà is known from a magical papyrus in relation to Saturnus, DarÚnkw appear in three magical texts in relation to Toth (Hermes / Mercurius), Konteà has, on the gem from Salonae, the epithet of Zeus / Iupiter, LukÚnx is Mars and, probably, Kanteà is Luna and Kenteà – Venus26.

22 Vermaseren, 1960, no. 2354. 23 Betz, 1986, 207, no. XIV.1.214. 24 Youtie, Bonner, 1937, 55, 66. 25 Delatte, 1914, 16-18. 26 Mastrocinque, 1998, 1-7.


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One must also note that the order used for invoking those planetary powers is different from the alphabetic order of the Greek vowels or the order of the revolutions movements: Sol, Luna, Venus, Iupiter, Saturnus, Mercurius, and Mars.

In conclusion, the correlation between planets, vowels, cords of the lyre / musical tones and planetary archontes is the following:

Luna Kanteà - nete synemmonon – ré Mercur DarÚnkw paranete synemmenon – ut (do) Venus Kenteà trite synemmenon – si bémol Sol Shm a mèse – la Mars LukÚnx lichanos meson – sol Iupiter Konteà parhypate meson – fa Saturn Kerideà hypate meson – mi.

As far as the gem from Dinogetia is concerned, in the light of all these ancient systems of correlations, we have to emphasize the fact that it is not a Gnostic / old Christian artefact, but a common magical gem where the central role is assigned to the snake-legged giant with cock head associated with the name Iaô and the formula Abrasax. The two series of vowels arranged in the alphabetic / planetary order and the supposed invocation t¦ fwn enta increase the magical effectiveness of the gem by invoking also the seven vowels / tones of the planets in the music of the spheres or the planetary archontes that tutelate the planets.

Bibliography Barnea, I. (1957), Quelques considérations sur les inscriptions chrétiennes de la Scythie

Mineure, in Dacia, N.S., 1, p. 265-288. Betz, H.D. (1986), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation, including the Demotic

Spells, Chicago-London. Bonner, C. (1950), Studies in Magical Amulets Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian, Ann Arbor. Brashear, W.M. (1995), The Greek Magical Papyri: An Introduction and Survey:

Annotated Bibliography (1928-1994), in ANRW, II, 18.5, p. 3380-3684. Delatte, A. (1914), Études sur la magie grecque, III, Amulettes mithriaques, in Musée

Belge, 18, p. 5-20. Delatte, A., Derchain, Ph. (1984), Les intailles magiques gréco-égyptiennes, Paris. Deubner, L. (1910), Charms and Amulets (Greek) in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics

(ERE), III, p. 433-439. Faraone, A., Kotansky, R. (1988), An Inscribed Gold Phylactery in Stamford,

Connecticut, in ZPE, 75, p. 257-266. Gudea, N. (2010), Note de archeologie cre tin , 8, Despre o gem gnostic de la Garv n

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Gudea, N. (2011), Note de archeologie cre tin . 7. Despre o gem gnostic de la Garv n / Dinogetia (Moesia Inferior), in Classica & Christiana, VI.2, p. 445-453.

Leclerque, H. (1924), Alphabet vocalique des gnostiques in DACL, I.1, c. 1268-1288. Mastrocinque, A. (1998), Studi sul mitraismo (il mitraismo e la magia), Roma. Mouterde, R. (1930-1931), Le glaive de Dardanos. Objets et inscriptions magiques de

Syrie, in Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph Beyrouth, 15, p. 51-137. Nemeti, S. (2002), Magia în Dacia roman (I), in RB, XVI, p. 103-112. Nemeti, S. (2005), Sincretismul religios în Dacia roman , Cluj-Napoca. Philonenko, M. (1979), L’anguipède alectorocéphale et le dieu Iaô, in CRAI, p. 297-304. Popescu, E. (1976), Inscrip iile grece ti i latine din secolele IV-XIII descoperite în

România, Bucure ti. Ruelle, Ch.-Em. (1889), Le chant des sept voyelles grecques d’après Démétrius et les

papyrus de Leyde, in Revue des Études Grecques, II, p. 38-44. tefan, Gh. (1937-1940), Dinogetia I. Risultati della prima campagna di scavi (1939), in

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The Power of the Seven Vowels on a Magical Gem from Dinogetia