Note 537 — Chapter X · THE SYSTEM OF THE PISTIS SOPHIA AND ITS RELATED TEXTS[459]
Reading edition
The basilisk with seven heads seems to be Death. See Gaster, “The Apocalypse of Abraham,” T.S.B.A. vol. IX. pt 1, p. 222, where this is said to be the “true shape” of death. Cf. Kohler, “Pre-Talmudic Haggadah,” J.Q.R., 1895, p. 590. Death, as we have seen in Chap. IX, p. 107, was in the ideas of Valentinus the creature of the Demiurge. For the dragon, see Whinfield, ubi cit.