★ Basilides of Alexandria and the Figure of Abrasax ★

Byzantine Seal
*Basilides of Alexandria and the Figure of Abrasax*
EGYPT. Uncertain. Gnostic Tessera, ca.2nd-4th century AD.
IA, Abrasax depicted frontally, with a rooster’s head and serpentine legs, holding a whip in his right hand and a shield in his left.
ABPA/CAΞ, with a star-in-crescent above. Comparable examples include Elsen 124 (2015), 404 and Rauch MBS 8 (2004), 685. An exceptionally rare piece of immense historical significance.
The ancient figure of Abrasax (or Abraxas) gained widespread recognition during the Roman era, largely due to the teachings of the Christian Gnostic Basilides of Alexandria (circa 85-145 AD). Basilides regarded Abrasax as the ‘great archon’ and the foremost of the 365 Gnostic Aeons. While the origin of the name remains uncertain, one theory suggests a derivation from the Egyptian words abrak and sax, meaning "the honorable and sacred word." However, a striking numerological connection exists: in Greek isopsephy, the sum of the letters in ΑΒΡΑΣΑΞ equals 365, symbolizing the number of days in the solar year (Α = 1, Β = 2, Ρ = 100, Α = 1, Σ = 200, Α = 1, Ξ = 60 → 1+2+100+1+200+1+60 = 365).
Basilides and his followers proposed radical theological ideas, including the belief that Abrasax sent Christ to the world as a spirit, rather than in human form. These doctrines provoked strong opposition from early Church Fathers such as Hippolytus of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, and Eusebius of Caesarea, who sought to refute Basilidianism as heretical. Though Basilides’ teachings were largely confined to Egypt, where an active Gnostic sect thrived between the 2nd and 4th centuries, his influence may still be felt today—perhaps most intriguingly in the well-known incantation ‘abracadabra’, which some scholars argue stems from the name Abrasax itself.
3,04 g - 19,36 mm