1834.") the Coins and Relics of the Manikydla Tope. 453 



guished. Many of the coins, containing this form of the word, are 

 complete, and seem to have home no other letters. We might almost 

 be tempted to discover in this expression another cognomen of the 

 Sun or of Bacchus, IAO and IA, about which so much discussion ap- 

 pears in the works of the Fathers, on the Manichean heresy and the 

 doctrines of the magi, in the third century*. The Greek mode of writ- 

 ing the word, to be sure, is different, but the pronunciation will be 

 nearly alike, and as the word was of barbaric origin, (being taken from 

 the Hebrew Iaho or Jehovah,) some latitude of orthography might be 

 expected in places so distant. This is however but a vague hypothesis 

 to account for the presence of a name in connection with a figure, which 

 is known from its identity with the HMOC type of figure 8, to represent 

 that deity. A multitude of symbols and names, under which the sun 

 was worshipped or typified at the time that the Christian doctrines were 

 spreading, and the old religions as it were breaking up and amalga- 

 mating in new groupes, will be found enumerated in the learned work 

 of Beausobre. The engraved stones, amulets, and talismans ascribed 

 to the Gnostics and the followers of Basilides, &c. bear the names of 

 Iao, Adonai, Sabaoth, and Abraxas, all of which this author traces to 

 divers attributes of the sun. But it is impossible to pursue the subject 

 into the endless labyrinth of cabalistic mythology in which it is involv- 

 ed : — That the image on our coins represents the sun or his priest is 

 all I aim to prove. 



There are two other forms of the inscription on this series that 

 it is more difficult to explain : many of the coins with the ele- 

 phant obverse have very legibly the whole, or a part, of a word 

 ending in AQPO ; in some it is as clearly MA0PO. 



Now, although both these words may be merely ignorant corruptions 

 of the original form Mithra, it is as well to state that they are both 

 independently pure Zend words, and capable of interpretation, albeit 

 more or less strained and unnatural, as epithets or mythological attri- 

 butes of the sun, or as we may conjecture, through that resplendent 

 image, of Zoroaster the son and manifest effulgence of the deity. 



* " II faut convenir aussi qu'iao est un des noms que les Payens donnoient 

 au Soleil. J'ai rapporte" 1' oracle d'Apollon de Claros, dans lequel Pluton, Jupiter 

 le Soleil et Iao se partagent les saisons. Ces quatres divinit£s sont au fond la 

 Di£me : Eis Zeus, ets Adrjs, eis HAios, as Aiovvcros. C'est a dire "Jupiter, Pluton 

 le Soleil et Bacchus sont la mime chose. Celui que est nomine" Dionysus dans ce 

 dernier vers est le mfime qui est nouime" Iao dans l'oracle. Macrobius rapporte 

 un autre oracle d'Apollon, qui est concu en ces termes : <ppafa rbv iravruv virarov 

 Oebv 'ififxcv 'law ' je vous declare yw'Iao est le plus grand des dieux.' Macrobe 

 bien instruit de la Theologie Payenne, assure que Iao est le Soleil." — Histoire de 

 Manichee par De Beausobre, torn. ii. p. 60. 



