EGYPT. Uncertain. Gnostic Tessera (Lead, 16x25 mm, 2.95 g, 12 h), circa 2nd to 4th centuries. IAΩ PH - ABPACAΞ Abrasax-Anubis standing front, head to left, holding sistrum in his right hand and caduceus in his left. Rev. MI/XAHΛ / ΓABP/IHΛ in four lines. A very interesting syncrestic Gnostic tessera. Flan bent and straigthened, otherwise, very fine.

For a longer note on the ancient demon Abrasax, whose worship rose to great prominence in Roman times through the teachings of the Christian Gnostic Basilides of Alexandria (circa 85-145), see Leu 3 (2018), 194. What makes the present Gnostic tessera or amulet especially interesting is the syncretism of the demon Abrasax, the Egyptian god Anubis, the Jewish archon Iao (Jahwe) and the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Such syncretism is typical for the gnosticism of the era and are perhaps most beautifully attested in the Apollonian invocation, a hymn in a Greek Magical Papyrus: 'O Lord Apollo, come with Paian / Give answers to my questions, lord. O master / Leave Mount Parnassos and the Delphic Pytho / Whene'er my priestly lips voice secret words, // First angel [of the god], great Zeus, Iao / And you, Michael, who rule heaven's realm, / I call, and you, archangel Gabriel. / Down from Olympos, Abrasax, delighting / In dawns, come gracious who view sunset from / The dawn' (PGM I.298-305)