Alexander of Abonotichus

ALESSANDRO di ABONOTICO. — Born at Abonotico, on the Black Sea, around A.D. 115; died about 175. A contemporary of Luciano di Samosata, with whom he had personal disputes, A. belonged to that school of pseudo-thaumaturges who succeeded in gaining an extraordinary reputation throughout Asia Minor. According to Luciano, A. was trained as a boy in the school of a physician from Tiana, who was one of those who had benefited Apollonio di Tiana (v.). After various vicissitudes, having returned to his native city, around 150 he succeeded in inaugurating, on the basis of the religion of the mysteries, a new cult at whose center stood the god Glycon, born from an egg, in the form of a serpent with a human head. The mysteries instituted by him lasted three days and concluded with the hierogamy of A. and Selene, which echoed the myth of Endymion and the Moon: according to the interpretation of the astral theology of the time, this symbolized the pious soul (Endymion), which, attracted by the Moon, ascends there to rest as in an intermediate station before passing into another existence. It was a myth intimating the otherworldly fate of the initiates and therefore frequently reproduced on sarcophagi. A. himself claimed to be the mediator of the god and of divine progeny. Some time later he went to Italy and inaugurated his mysteries with ceremonies and processions, preceded by solemn proclamations against the Epicureans and Christians, who, prejudiced against superstitions, refused to believe his impostures. Luciano, who is the principal source for our knowledge of A., characterizes him as a false prophet.