Note 249 — Chapter VIII · POST-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE OPHITES

So the Pistis Sophia speaks repeatedly of the “Little Iao the Good.” This should be the sphere of the Moon. In the hymn to Attis given in this chapter, see n. 6, p. 54 supra, Attis-Dionysos-Osiris is identified with “the holy horned moon of heaven.” and the name Iao may be connected with the Coptic ⲒⲞϨ ioh or “moon.” He may be called the πρῶτος δεσπότης θανάτου “first lord of death,” because Osiris, like Dionysos, was the first to return to life after being torn in pieces. The φέρων ἤδη τὴν ἰδίαν σύμβολον “bearing my own beard as a symbol” seems to refer to the attitude of the Egyptian dead, who is represented as holding his beard in his right hand when introduced into the presence of Osiris. See Budge, Book of the Dead, 1898 (translation volume), frontispiece, or Papyrus of Ani, ibi cit.