Horus Khem, the god of reproduction, the Holy Spirit ho- 
vering over his head in the form of the scarabeus ; of Kheper 
Ra, the cross of life, and the head of the god Thoth, the god of 
letters and of wisdom, all attest with how ingenious a subtlety the 
half-informed Alexandrians blended together the false and true, 
and showed how difficult it was to dissociate the personality of 
Horus from the character of the Creator himself; and doubtless 
this confusion of dogmas and persistency of heretical ideas was 
one of the chief obstacles with which the great Athanasius had 
to contend, and which precipitated the disunion between the 
Eastern and the Western churches (fig. 6).* 
In another gem, also of Gnostic origin, is an evident allusion 
to the Horus myth. This represents the Deity sitting upon 
what I presume is meant for the symbolical lotus, the emblem 
of the new birth. He holds his right hand to his mouth, and 
his head is surrounded with a radiated glory, thus ingeni- 
ously combining the characteristics of the radicle crown of 
Knuphis, the circular nimbus of the early Christians, and the 
general pose of the Egyptian Horus. The gem has been 
engraved by King (fig. 7).f 
Let me cite another example, also taken from King. J It is a 
description of an octagonal sard intaglio, which represents “ the 
Good Shepherd bearing upon his shoulders the lost lamb, as he 
seems to the uninitiated eye ; but, upon closer inspection, he 
becomes the double-headed Anubis, having one head human 
and the other a jackaTs, whilst his girdle assumes the form of a 
serpent rearing aloft its crested head. In his hand is a long 
hooked staff. This figure had, without doubt, two meanings; 
one obvious for the vulgar, the other mystic and recognizable 
by the initiated alone. It was perhaps the signet of some chief 
teacher or apostle among the Gnostics, and its impression one 
of the tokens serving for mutual recognition mentioned by 
Epiphanius.” It should also be added, that the tail of the 
sheep which is carried on the shoulders of the chief figure is 
ingeniously made to resemble the flabellum of Horus Khem 
(fig. 8) ; thus adding another point of contact in the Horus myth. 
Again, on the reverse of another Abraxas gem, in the same 
work, is “represented Horus seated on the lotus. On the 
bevelled edge of the stone is engraved C€M€C €IAAM, the 
eternal sun. An address, explained by Macrobius’s statement 
that Horus was but a name of the sun at a particular period 
of his course.” § The gem is engraved on green jasper, a 
* Wilde (Jacobi de) Sign a Antiqua, 1700. pi. 31, fig. 116. 
t King, Gnostics, pi. ix. fig. 3, and Text, p. 220. 
+ Ibid., pi. i. fig. 8, p. 201. § Ibid., pi. vii. fig. 4, p. 210. 
