Note 373 — Chapter IX · POST-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: VALENTINUS

Hippolytus, loc. cit., says that this new aeon was called Ὅρος “Horus,” or “The Limit,” because he separates the Pleroma or Fulness from the Hysterema or Deficiency (i.e. that which lacks God), which is one of those puns which will be familiar to all Egyptologists (see Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, Eng. ed. p. 396, for other examples). He is also said to have been called Metocheus or the Partaker, because he shares in the Deficiency, doubtless as being partly outside the Pleroma. His name of Horus was probably suggested by that of the old Egyptian god whose figure must have been familiar to every Alexandrian. In the IInd century A.D., this last generally appears with hawk’s head and human body dressed in the cuirass and boots of a Roman gendarme or stationarius, which would be appropriate enough for a sentinel or guard.