Alexander of Abonoteichus
Encyclopedia
Alexander of Abonoteichus (c.105 - c.170 CE), also called Alexander the Paphlagonian, or the false prophet
Alexander, was a Greek
mystic and oracle
, and the founder of the Glycon
cult that briefly achieved wide popularity in the Roman
world. The contemporary writer Lucian reports that he was an utter fraud - the god Glycon was supposedly constructed out of a glove puppet. The vivid narrative of his career given by Lucian
might be taken as fictitious but for the corroboration of certain coins of the emperors Lucius Verus
and Marcus Aurelius and of a statue of Alexander, said by Athenagoras
to have stood in the forum of Parium
.
Lucian describes him as having swindled many people and engaged, through his followers, in various forms of thuggery. The strength of Lucian's venom against Alexander is attributed to Alexander's hate of the Epicureans. Lucian admired the works of Epicurus
, a eulogy of which concludes the piece, and whether he was the master of fraud and deceit as portrayed by Lucian, he may not have been too different from other oracles of the age, when a great deal of dishonest exploitation occurred in some shrines.
. In Lucian, his partner in fraud is given as one Cocconas of Byzantium
. After a period of instruction in medicine by a doctor who also, according to Lucian, was an impostor, in about 150 CE he established an oracle of Aesculapius at his native town of Abonoteichus (femin.: Ἀβωνότειχος; later Ionopolis), on the Euxine, where he gained riches and great prestige by professing to heal the sick and reveal the future.
Sometime before 160 CE Alexander formed a cult around the worship of a new snake-god, Glycon, and headquartered it in Abonoteichos. Having circulated a prophecy that the son of Apollo
was to be born again, he contrived that there should be found in the foundations of the temple to Aesculapius, then in course of construction at Aboniteichos, an egg in which a small live snake
had been placed. In an age of superstition no people had so great a reputation for credulity as the Paphlagonians, and Alexander had little difficulty in convincing them of the second coming of the god under the name of Glycon. A large tame snake with a false human head, wound round Alexander's body as he sat in a shrine in the temple, gave "autophones", or oracles unasked. The numerous questions asked of the oracle were answered by Alexander in metrical predictions. In his most prosperous year he is said to have delivered nearly 80,000 replies, concerning bodily, mental, and social afflictions, for each of which he received a drachma and two oboli
.
Alexander did more than combine healing instructions with the oracle
, which was not uncommon at the time, but also instituted mysteries like those of Eleusis. Through the cult Alexander achieved a certain level of political influence - his daughter married the governor of the Roman province of Asia. He found believers from Pontus
to Rome
through pretended arts of soothsaying and magic and was revered and consulted as a prophet by many notable individuals of his age. During the plague of 166 a verse from the oracle was used as an amulet and was inscribed over the doors of houses as a protection, and an oracle was sent, at Marcus Aurelius' request, by Alexander to the Roman army on the Danube
during the war with the Marcomanni
, declaring that victory would follow on the throwing of two lions alive into the river. The result was a great disaster, and Alexander had recourse to the old quibble of the Delphic oracle to Croesus
for an explanation.
His main opponents were Epicureans and Christian
s. Lucian's account of Alexander represents the Christians—along with the Epicureans—as the special enemies and as the principal objects of his hate: Epicureans had too little religion or superstition to give in to a religious pretender; and the Christian faith was too deep-rooted to dream of any communion with Alexander.
Lucian's own close investigations into Alexander's methods of fraud led to a serious attempt on his life. The whole account gives a graphic description of the inner working of one among the many new oracles that were springing up at this period. Alexander had remarkable beauty and the striking personality of the successful charlatan, and must have been a man of considerable intellectual abilities and power of organization. His usual methods were those of the numerous oracle-mongers of the time, of which Lucian gives a detailed account: the opening of sealed inquiries by heated needles, a neat plan of forging broken seals, and the giving of vague or meaningless replies to difficult questions, coupled with a lucrative blackmailing of those whose inquiries were compromising.
Alexander died of gangrene
of the leg in his seventieth year.
and charlatan that played on the hopes of simple people. He was said to have "made predictions, discovered fugitive slaves, detected thieves and robbers, caused treasures to be dug up, healed the sick, and in some cases actually raised the dead". Sociologist Stephen A. Kent
, in a study of the text, compares Lucian's Alexander to the "malignant narcissist" in modern psychiatric theory, and suggests that the "behaviors" described by Lucian "have parallels with several modern cult leaders." Ian Freckelton has noted at least a surface similarity between Alexander and David Berg
, the leader of a contemporary religious group, the Children of God
.
False prophet
In religion, a false prophet is one who falsely claims the gift of prophecy, or who uses that gift for evil ends. Often, someone who is considered a "true prophet" by some people is simultaneously considered a "false prophet" by others....
Alexander, was a Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
mystic and oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
, and the founder of the Glycon
Glycon
Glycon was a snake god, according to the satirist Lucian, who provides the only literary reference to the deity. Lucian claimed Glycon was created in the mid-2nd century by the Greek prophet Alexander of Abonutichus...
cult that briefly achieved wide popularity in the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
world. The contemporary writer Lucian reports that he was an utter fraud - the god Glycon was supposedly constructed out of a glove puppet. The vivid narrative of his career given by Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
might be taken as fictitious but for the corroboration of certain coins of the emperors Lucius Verus
Lucius Verus
Lucius Verus , was Roman co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius, from 161 until his death.-Early life and career:Lucius Verus was the first born son to Avidia Plautia and Lucius Aelius Verus Caesar, the first adopted son and heir of Roman Emperor Hadrian . He was born and raised in Rome...
and Marcus Aurelius and of a statue of Alexander, said by Athenagoras
Athenagoras
Athenagoras has been the name of several notable Greek individuals:*Athenagoras of Ephesus, a tyrant of Ephesus around the 6th century BC*Athenagoras of Syracuse, statesman and military leader in Syracuse during the Sicilian Expedition, 415 BC to 413 BC...
to have stood in the forum of Parium
Parium
Parium was a Greek city of Adrasteia in Mysia on the Hellespont. It became a Roman Catholic titular see, suffragan of Cyzicus in the Roman province of Hellespontus.-History:...
.
Lucian describes him as having swindled many people and engaged, through his followers, in various forms of thuggery. The strength of Lucian's venom against Alexander is attributed to Alexander's hate of the Epicureans. Lucian admired the works of Epicurus
Epicurus
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works...
, a eulogy of which concludes the piece, and whether he was the master of fraud and deceit as portrayed by Lucian, he may not have been too different from other oracles of the age, when a great deal of dishonest exploitation occurred in some shrines.
Biography
Not much is known about the early life of Alexander. He apparently worked in travelling medicine shows around Greece and might have been a prophet of the goddess Soi or a follower of Apollonius of TyanaApollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. Little is certainly known about him...
. In Lucian, his partner in fraud is given as one Cocconas of Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
. After a period of instruction in medicine by a doctor who also, according to Lucian, was an impostor, in about 150 CE he established an oracle of Aesculapius at his native town of Abonoteichus (femin.: Ἀβωνότειχος; later Ionopolis), on the Euxine, where he gained riches and great prestige by professing to heal the sick and reveal the future.
Sometime before 160 CE Alexander formed a cult around the worship of a new snake-god, Glycon, and headquartered it in Abonoteichos. Having circulated a prophecy that the son of Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
was to be born again, he contrived that there should be found in the foundations of the temple to Aesculapius, then in course of construction at Aboniteichos, an egg in which a small live snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
had been placed. In an age of superstition no people had so great a reputation for credulity as the Paphlagonians, and Alexander had little difficulty in convincing them of the second coming of the god under the name of Glycon. A large tame snake with a false human head, wound round Alexander's body as he sat in a shrine in the temple, gave "autophones", or oracles unasked. The numerous questions asked of the oracle were answered by Alexander in metrical predictions. In his most prosperous year he is said to have delivered nearly 80,000 replies, concerning bodily, mental, and social afflictions, for each of which he received a drachma and two oboli
Obolus
The obol was an ancient silver coin. In Classical Athens, there were six obols to the drachma, lioterally "handful"; it could be excahnged for eight chalkoi...
.
Alexander did more than combine healing instructions with the oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
, which was not uncommon at the time, but also instituted mysteries like those of Eleusis. Through the cult Alexander achieved a certain level of political influence - his daughter married the governor of the Roman province of Asia. He found believers from Pontus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
through pretended arts of soothsaying and magic and was revered and consulted as a prophet by many notable individuals of his age. During the plague of 166 a verse from the oracle was used as an amulet and was inscribed over the doors of houses as a protection, and an oracle was sent, at Marcus Aurelius' request, by Alexander to the Roman army on the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
during the war with the Marcomanni
Marcomanni
The Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Buri, Suebi or Suevi.-Origin:Scholars believe their name derives possibly from Proto-Germanic forms of "march" and "men"....
, declaring that victory would follow on the throwing of two lions alive into the river. The result was a great disaster, and Alexander had recourse to the old quibble of the Delphic oracle to Croesus
Croesus
Croesus was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S...
for an explanation.
His main opponents were Epicureans and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s. Lucian's account of Alexander represents the Christians—along with the Epicureans—as the special enemies and as the principal objects of his hate: Epicureans had too little religion or superstition to give in to a religious pretender; and the Christian faith was too deep-rooted to dream of any communion with Alexander.
Lucian's own close investigations into Alexander's methods of fraud led to a serious attempt on his life. The whole account gives a graphic description of the inner working of one among the many new oracles that were springing up at this period. Alexander had remarkable beauty and the striking personality of the successful charlatan, and must have been a man of considerable intellectual abilities and power of organization. His usual methods were those of the numerous oracle-mongers of the time, of which Lucian gives a detailed account: the opening of sealed inquiries by heated needles, a neat plan of forging broken seals, and the giving of vague or meaningless replies to difficult questions, coupled with a lucrative blackmailing of those whose inquiries were compromising.
Alexander died of gangrene
Gangrene
Gangrene is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a considerable mass of body tissue dies . This may occur after an injury or infection, or in people suffering from any chronic health problem affecting blood circulation. The primary cause of gangrene is reduced blood...
of the leg in his seventieth year.
Modern Scholarship
Scholars have described Alexander as an oracle who perpetrated a hoax to deceive gullible citizens, or as a false prophetFalse prophet
In religion, a false prophet is one who falsely claims the gift of prophecy, or who uses that gift for evil ends. Often, someone who is considered a "true prophet" by some people is simultaneously considered a "false prophet" by others....
and charlatan that played on the hopes of simple people. He was said to have "made predictions, discovered fugitive slaves, detected thieves and robbers, caused treasures to be dug up, healed the sick, and in some cases actually raised the dead". Sociologist Stephen A. Kent
Stephen A. Kent
Stephen A. Kent, is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He researches new and alternative religions, and has published research on several such groups including the Children of God , the Church of Scientology, and newer faiths...
, in a study of the text, compares Lucian's Alexander to the "malignant narcissist" in modern psychiatric theory, and suggests that the "behaviors" described by Lucian "have parallels with several modern cult leaders." Ian Freckelton has noted at least a surface similarity between Alexander and David Berg
David Berg
David Brandt Berg , frequently known by the pseudonym Moses David, was the founder and leader of the New Religious Movement formerly called Children of God, now called "The Family International".-Early years :Berg was born to Hjalmer Emmanuel Berg and Rev...
, the leader of a contemporary religious group, the Children of God
Children of God
The Family International , formed as as the Children of God and later named Family of Love and the Family, is a new religious movement, started in 1968 in Huntington Beach, California, United States. It began in the late 1960s, with many of its early converts drawn from the hippie movement...
.
Sources
- Lendering, Jona, Glycon
Further reading
- Gillespie, Thomas W. "A Pattern of Prophetic Speech in First Corinthians," Journal of Biblical Literature, 97,1 (1978), 74–95.
- Jones, C. P. Culture and Society in Lucian (Cambridge, MA, 1986).
- Ancient Scientific Basis of the" Great Serpent" from Historical Evidence, RB Stothers - Isis, 2004.
- Martin, Dale B., "Tongues of Angels and Other Status Indicators," Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 59,3 (1991), 547–589.
- Sorensen, E. Possession and Еxorcism in the New Testament and Еarly Christianity (Tübingen, 2002), 186-189 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 2. Reihe, 157).
- Elm, D. "Die Inszenierung des Betruges und seiner Entlarvung. Divination und ihre Kritiker in Lukians Schrift „Alexander oder der Lügenprophet“," in D. Elm von der Osten, J. Rüpke und K. Waldner (Hrsg.), Texte als Medium und Reflexion von Religion im römischen Reich (Stuttgart, 2006), 141-157 (Potsdamer Altertumswissenschaftliche Beiträge, 14).