. The history of the devil and the idea of evil; from the earliest times to the present day . , having made a neck-lace of such stones and hung it round the patients neck, descend-ing low enough for the stones to touch themouth of the stomach, and they proved tobe of no less benefit thus than if they hadbeen engraved in the manner laid down byKing Nechepsos. (De Simp. Med., IX.) To us who have grown up underthe influence of Christian traditions,the idea of representing the Good Godunder the allegory of a serpent seemsstrange, but we must bear in mind thatother people and other ages had differ-
. The history of the devil and the idea of evil; from the earliest times to the present day . , having made a neck-lace of such stones and hung it round the patients neck, descend-ing low enough for the stones to touch themouth of the stomach, and they proved tobe of no less benefit thus than if they hadbeen engraved in the manner laid down byKing Nechepsos. (De Simp. Med., IX.) To us who have grown up underthe influence of Christian traditions,the idea of representing the Good Godunder the allegory of a serpent seemsstrange, but we must bear in mind thatother people and other ages had differ-ent ideas associated with the the people of the Orient the limb-less serpent was a s^mbol of niysterj-,and represented health and immortal-ity. Eusebius (I., 7) informs us: The serpent never dies naturally, but only when injured byviolence, whence the Phcenicians have named it the good genius(Agathodffimon). Similarly the Egyptians have called him Cnephand given him a hawks head on account of the special swiftness ofthat bird. Serapis, which is a Hellenised form of Osiris-Apis,. GREECE AND ITALY. 229 was a religion which in many respects resembled Chris-tianity. Their sacred symbol was the cross, as we knowthrough Christian authors, and Emperor Adrian (nomean authority in such matters) speaks of Serapis wor-shippers as Christians, saying that those who consecratedthemselves to Serapis called themselves bishops ofChrist. Even if a local blending of Christianity withthe Serapis cult in Egypt had not taken place we mustrecognise that the monkish institutions of the Serapeantemples were an exact prototype of the Christian monas-teries which originated in Egjpt and flourished there bet-ter than anywhere else. The Serapis cult was a reformation of the old Egyp-tian Osiris worship, introduced by Ptolemy So-ter for the purpose of adapting the old tradi-tions of Egypt to the Hellenic culture of Alex-andria. Akin in spirit but independent in its devel-opment, is the worship of
Size: 971px × 2575px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubje, booksubjectdemonology
