77 
material in which many of the Horus amulets are wrought, 
having reference to the doctrine of the new birth or the second 
mortal vegetation in the land of the Ker neter. 
Note again, another representing Horus in his usual attitude, 
with the flabellum, seated upon the lotus. On the right and left 
of him, indicating his Christian identification, are the well- 
known symbolical letters ALO, the Alpha and Omega of the 
Revelations. These letters have been wrongly read by King,* 
as forming the sacred name IA10, which they do not in this 
instance, as the I is wanting. 
Another Gnostic gem which I shall next describe is 
perhaps less obviously Christian, f but the style of art leaves 
its character little open to question ; it represents a scarabeus 
with a human head surrounded by a starry glory, and with 
two human heads in lieu of the fore legs, the whole being 
inclosed by the serpent Chonubis forming a circle by holding 
his tail in his mouth (fig. 9). The human-headed scarabeus, 
though rare, is not singular among the Egyptian scarabei ; 
there were two such in the Hay collection, and I think 
that there are several others in the British Museum. The 
artistic details, however, deserve notice : the face is turned 
completely round, and the heads are spread out in an attitude 
of benediction, while at the same time the back of the beetle’s 
body alone is figured ; the whole drawing sadly lacks conven- 
tionality, and, regarding the design from its various aspects, I 
cannot but decide that it is intended to represent our Lord, as 
Horus Kheper, the good scarabeus, more especially as that very 
phrase was used by St. Ambrose some two centuries later, when 
he described Jesus as the good scarabeus who rolled up before 
him the hitherto unshapen mud of our bodies, — a simile directly 
taken from the Egyptian myth of Horus, and illustrated by 
this gem, although, as far as the ball of the scarabeus or the sun’s 
disk is concerned, the simile was by the Western bishop of 
Milan by no means accurately appplied.J 
Some considerable interest was manifested a few years ago in 
the explanation of the rude sgraffiti which was discovered on 
the walls of the cell of a slave in the palace of Mount Palatine at 
Rome, representing an ass-headed man in an attitude of cruci- 
fixion ; beside him stood a worshipper, in front of whom was 
roughly scribbled the sentence: AAEZAMENOC CEBETE 
TON 0EON, or, Alexamenos w’orships (this) god;§ a satire 
which recalled at once the accusation brought by Apion 
* King, Gnostics, pi. xl. fig. 1, p. 224. 
t Montfaucon, Antiquitcs, vol. ii. pi. 154. 
j Sharpe, Egyptian Mythology, p. iii. § King, Gnostics, p. 90. 
