387 
42. It were at this stage of the inquiry too long and too m 
modern a subject to trace the myth of the serpent, as the antago 
Fig. 120. The serpent of evil riding on a horse, emblematic of the terrible rapidity ol 
its progress. From a Gnostic coin. (Sharpe.) 
nistic powers of good and evil,* through the subtleties of the 
Gnostic commentators (figs. 121, 122, 123, 124), and the heresy 
Fig. 1 21 . The mystic serpent of the Gnostics, standing upon a wheel and holding a 
club. From a gem. (Montfaucon.) Compare the Chuktra and serpent of 
Buddist mythology. T 
Fig 122 The serpent Chnuphis, spelled Chmoymem, with the seven-rayed crown, 
emblematic of the seven mystic potentialities. On one side is his name, on the 
other an emblem of the Gnostic trinity, and beneath him the petition Abraxas, 
i.e., ‘‘hurt me not.” (?) (Montfaucon.) 
* Among the magical emblems of the Egyptians was an urseus on a wheel. 
The creature is called Akhi Sesef, u the Turner of Destruction, the 
Mistress of the Burning Wheel, who lives off [by devouring] impurity.”-- 
Birch, Magic Papyrus. 
f On the Egyptian coins of Hadrian, for example, where the two serpents 
and the heads respectively of Isis and Serapis represent the antagonistic 
powers, see Sharpe, History of Egypt , vol. ii. chap. 15. (Figs. 118, 119, 120.) 
