Kneph

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Illustration from Pantheon Egyptien by Leon Jean Joseph Dubois, digitally enhanced by rawpixel-com 11.jpg

Kneph is a motif in ancient Egyptian religious art, variously a winged egg, a globe surrounded by one or more serpents, or Amun in the form of a serpent called Kematef. [1] Some Theosophical sources tried to syncretize this motif with the deity Khnum, along with Serapis and Pluto. [2] [3] Under the Greek theonym Chnuphis, this figure adopts a serpent-bodied, lion-headed ("leontoeidic") visage, being particularly common in magical artifacts in Late Antiquity. [4] It is by proxy frequently associated with the Gnostic Demiurge.

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References

  1. The Egyptian revival: ancient Egypt as the inspiration for design motifs in the west by James Stevens Curl, p.445, Psychology Press, 18 Nov 2005
  2. An essay on symbolic colours: in antiquity--the middle ages--and modern times, by Frédéric Portal (baron de), p. 53, J. Weale, 1845.
  3. The Secret Doctrine: Anthropogenesis by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, p. 26, Aryan theosophical press, 1888
  4. Lynn Thorndike (1958). A History of Magic and Experimental Science. Columbia University Press. pp. 317–318, 379. ISBN   0-231-08794-2.

Further reading