Note 584 — Chapter VI · PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: SIMON MAGUS

The difficulty in deducing both male and female divinities from a male or sexless Supreme being has led to some strange mythology. The Egyptians cut the knot in an effective if coarse way. “Thus from one god I became three gods,” says the Egyptian deity “the Lord of the Universe,” in his account of the Creation. See Budge, “Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu,” and Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, pp. xiii, xiv and 14, 15. Was the author of the Apophasis acquainted with this story? The Clementines make Simon’s associates Egyptians or rather Alexandrians. See Clem. Hom. Bk IV. c. 6.