Alexander of Abonotichus

ALEXANDER OF ABONOTICHUS. - Born at Abonoteichos, on the Black Sea, ca. 115 A.D., died around 175. A contemporary of Lucian of Samosata, with whom he had personal quarrels, A. belonged to that school of pseudo-thaumaturges who managed to win an extraordinary reputation throughout Asia Minor. According to Lucian, A. was trained while still a boy in the school of a physician native to Tyana, who was one of those who had profited from connections with Apollonius of Tyana (v.). After various adventures, having returned to his homeland, he succeeded around 150 in inaugurating, on the basis of the mystery religion, a new cult whose center was the god Glycon, born from an egg, in the form of a serpent with a human head. The mysteries he instituted lasted three days and closed with the hierogamy of A. and Selene, which echoed the myth of Endymion and the Moon: this, according to the interpretation of the astral theology of the time, symbolized the pious soul (Endymion) which, drawn by the Moon, ascends there to rest as at an intermediate station before passing on to another existence: a myth shadowing forth the otherworldly fate of the initiates and therefore frequently reproduced on sarcophagi. A. himself passed himself off as mediator of the god and of divine descent. Some time later he crossed over into Italy and inaugurated his mysteries with ceremonies and processions, preceded by solemn proclamations against the Epicureans and the Christians, who, prejudiced against superstitions, refused to believe his impostures. Lucian, who is the principal source for our knowledge of A., labels him a false prophet.