[1] For earlier discussion of Hellenistic influence on the Apocalypse see Boll, Franz, Aus der Offenbarung Johannis: Hellenistische Studien zum Weltbild der Apokalypse (Berlin: Teubner, 1914).Google ScholarBetz, Hans Dieter describes the problem in ‘On the Problem of the Religio-Historical Understanding of Apocalypticism’, JTC 6 (1969) 134–56.Google Scholar For a response to Betz, see Collins, Adela Yarbro, ‘The History-of-Religions Approach to Apocalypticism and the ‘Angel of the Waters’ (Rev 16:4–7)’, CBQ 39 (1977) 367–81.Google Scholar

[2] For a balanced approach to eastern influences on Jewish apocalyptic, see Collins, John J., ‘Jewish Apocalyptic Against Its Hellenistic Near Eastern Environment’, BASOR 220 (1975), 27–36.Google ScholarThe basic study on the Hellenization of early Judaism is Hengel, Martin, Judaism and Hellenism: Studies in Their Encounter in Palestine During the Early Hellenistic Period, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974).Google ScholarSee also Smith, Morton, ‘On the Wine God in Palestine (Gen. 18, Jn. 2, and Achilles Tatius’, Salo Wittmayer Barron Jubilee Volume (Jerusalem: American Academy of Jewish Research, 1975) 815–29;Google Scholaridem;, ‘Helios in Palestine’, Eretz-Israel 16 (1982) 199–214.Google Scholar This perspective, however, has not gone unchallenged, particularly by conservative Jewish scholars; cf. Flusser, D., ‘Paganism in Palestine’, The Jewish People in the First Century, vol. 2Google Scholar of Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976) 1065–1100;Google ScholarFeldman, Louis H., ‘Hengel's Judaism and Hellenism in Retrospect’, JBL 96 (1977) 371–82.Google Scholar

[3] See particularly Smith, Jonathan Z., ‘Native Cults in the Hellenistic Period’, HR 11 (1971) 236–49.Google ScholarThe international character of apocalypticism is emphasized in Hellholm, David, (ed.), Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East: Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Apocalypticism, Uppsala, August 12–17, 1979 (Tübingen: Mohr, 1983).Google ScholarSee also Smith, Jonathan Z., ‘Wisdom and Apocalyptic’, Map Is Not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions (Leiden: Brill, 1978) 67–87Google ScholarPubMed, and Eddy, Samuel K., The King is Dead: Studies in the Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism, 334–31 B.C. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961).Google Scholar

[4] Collins, Adela Yarbro, The Combat Myth in the Book of Revelation (Missoula: Scholars Press, 1976).Google Scholar

[5] Aune, D. E., ‘The Influence of Roman Imperial Court Ceremonial on the Apocalypse of John’, BR 18 (1983) 5–26.Google Scholar

[6] For more extensive arguments and documentation for the views expressed in this paragraph see Aune, D. E., ‘Magic in Early Christianity’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, ed. Temporini, H. and Haase, W., Part II, 23/2 (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1980) 1507–23.Google Scholar

[7] Frazer, J. G., The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, 3rd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1910) Part 1, Vol. 1, 224 f.Google Scholar

[8] For a survey of these sources, see Aune, ‘Magic in Early Christianity’, 1516 ff.

[9] Nock, A. D., ‘Greek Magical Papyri’, Essays on Religion and the Ancient World, ed. Stewart, Z. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972) 1, 187.Google Scholar

[10] E.g. PGM XVI (no. 3378); XX (P. Berol. inv. 7504 + P. Amh. ii, CoL II [A] + P. Oxy. inedit.); CXVII (P. Mon. Gr. inv. 216); CXXII (P. Berol, inv. 21243). Belonging to the first or second century A.D. are LVII (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, uncatalogued), LXXII (P. Oslo III, 75), LXXXV (P. Harris 56).

[11] Nilsson, M., ‘Die Religion in den Griechischen Zauberpapyri’, Opuscula Selecta (Lund: Gleerup, 1960), 3, 130–2 (on the hymns) 140 f. (on Apollo), 143–5 (on Hekate-Selene).Google Scholar

[12] The motifs of ‘τήν λίμνην τοū πυρός’ and ‘ο δευτερος θάνατος’ occur together in ancient Egyptian texts, e.g., Book of the Dead 175.1, 15, 20; cf. Budge, E. A. W., The Egyptian Book of the Dead (New York: Dover, 1967) 184, 186 f.Google Scholar The closest parallel in Jewish literature is Tg. Isa. 65.6 in which the fire of Gehenna and the second death are juxtaposed; however the text is relatively late and the concept of a lake of fire is not present. The motifs are rarely found separately in ancient literature, much less together. ‘The second death’ is mentioned four times in the Apocalypse (2. 11; 20. 6, 14; 21. 8), but not in the rest of the NT, second century Christian literature, or in pre-Christian Greek literature (but n.b. that the term δıσθανής. ‘twice dead’, is used to refer to Odysseus' visit to Hades, Odyssey 12. 22, the ‘twice’ referring to Odysseus' future death). The phrase occurs in Plutarch De facie 942F (he is very familiar with Egyptian myth and ritual; cf. Hani, J., La religion Égyptienne dans la pensée de Plutarque [Paris: Société d'Édition “Les Belles Lettres’, 1976])Google Scholar in a positive sense for the death of the soul on the moon (preceded by the death of the body on earth) which frees the νους to ascend to a blissful existence on the sun (cf. Soury, G., La démonologie de Plutarque (Paris: Société d'Édition ‘Les Belles Lettres’, 1942 196–203).Google Scholar In Lucian DMort. 7.2, Menippus, speaking to the soul of Tantalus in Hades, contests the notion of a second Hades or a second death (θάνατος έντ ευθεν). The source of this motif in the Hellenistic world, though the means of transmission are not known, is the Egyptian conception of the second death (Morenz, S., Egyptian Religion, trans. Keep, A. E. [Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1973] 254;Google ScholarBergman, J., ‘Introductory Remarks on Apocalypticism in Egypt’, Apocalyptic in the Mediterranean World and the Near East, ed. Hellholm, D. [Tübingen: Mohr, 1983], 57).Google Scholar‘To die the second death’ (mt m whm) is a phrase occurring frequently in the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead:Google ScholarFaulkner, R. O., The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, 3 vols. (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1973–1978) I, 88 (Spell 83) I, 134 (Spell 156) I, 267 (Spell 203) II, 69 (Spell 423) II, 76 (Spell 438) II, 88 (Spell 458) II, 308 (Spell 787);Google ScholarZandee, J., Death as an Enemy according to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions (Leiden, 1960) 186–8.Google Scholar It refers to the total destruction of the ba (‘soul’) after bodily death (Zandee, p. 14), a fate to be avoided at all costs. The Egyptian significance of second death and the lake of fire, i.e., complete and total destruction cannot be meant in the Apocalypse (cf. 14. 9–11; 20. 10). Rather, as in Philo De prem. et poen. 70 and Tg. Isa. 65. 6, eternal torment is signified. The Hebrew expression for second death is mwt ŝny, first occurring in the ninth century A.D. work Pirge de-Rabbi Eliezer 34, while the Aramaic mwt' tnyn' (‘second death’), occurs only in the targumim, from which six texts are discussed by McNamara, M., The New Testament and the Palestinian Targum (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1966) 118–24:Google Scholar Tg. Jer. 51. 39; 51. 57; Tg. Deut. 33. 6; Tg. Isa. 22. 14; 65. 6; 65. 15. McNamara, who does not discuss the parallels in Lucian or Egyptian literature, suggests that ‘the expression must have come from Judaism, unless it was coined by Christianity’ (p. 118). The motif of ‘the lake of fire’, which occurs six times in the Apocalypse (19. 20; 20. 10, 14 f. [three times]; 21. 8), has no close parallels in the OT, Jewish or Graeco-Roman literature, particularly in respect to the description of the place of eternal punishment as a λίμνη (‘lake’). Cf. ‘Flammensee’, Lexikon der Aegyptologie (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1977) 2, 259–60;Google ScholarKees, H., Totenglauben und Jenseitsvorstellungen der alten Aegypter (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1926) 294 f.Google Scholar The image of the lake of fire does occur in the Book of the Dead (17. 40–42; 24. 4; 175. 15, 20), where it is located in the underworld (cf. Zandee, 133–42). Fire in the underworld as a means of eternal punishment is first mentioned in Judaism in Isa. 66. 24 and frequently thereafter (1 Enoch 10. 6, 13; Matt 5. 22; 13. 42, 50), and it became natural to think of the underworld as the site for a river of fire (2 Enoch 10. 2), a tradition taken up in Christian underworld mythology (Apoc. Paul 31, 34, 36). The specific conception of a lake of fire, however, when mentioned in early Christian texts (cf. Apoc. Peter [Akhmimic] 23), depends on the Apocalypse of John.

[13] The Greek magical papyri, with some Coptic materials, are conveniently collected in Prersendanz, K., Papyri Graecae Magicae. Die Griechischen Zauberpapyri, 2 vols., 2nd ed., ed. Henrichs, A. (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1973–1974).Google ScholarMost of the Demotic magical papyri are available in transliterated Demotic with a facing English translation in Griffith, F. L. and Thompson, H., The Leyden Papyrus: An Egyptian Magical Book (New York: Dover, 1974;Google Scholar originally published in London, 1904). A translation of these and other related magical papyri is now available in Betz, H. D., ed. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1986);Google Scholar Betz includes 126 papyri, 45 more than in A. Henrichs' second edition of Preisendanz, though the oracle questions (LXXIII–LXXVI) and the Christian papyri are excluded. In this paper, all translations of these papyri, henceforth abbreviated as PGM (Papyri Graecae Magicae) or PDM (Papyri Demoticae Magicae) are taken from this translation unless otherwise noted. For a survey of Greco-Roman apocalypses see Attridge, H. W., ‘Greek and Latin Apocalypses’, Semeia 14 (1979) 159–86.Google Scholar And for an overview of ancient ascent literature with an extensive bibliography, see Segal, A. F., ‘Heavenly Ascent in Hellenistic Judaism, Early Christianity and Their Environment’, Aufstieg and Niedergang der römischen Welt, ed. Temporini, H. and Haase, W., Part II, 23/2 (Berlin and New York: De Gruyter, 1980) 1333–94.Google ScholarSee also Betz, H. D., ‘Fragments from a Catabasis Ritual in a Greek Magical Papyrus’, HR 19 (1980) 287–95 (with bibliographical references);Google ScholarSmith, M., ‘Ascent to the Heavens and the Beginning of Christianity’, Eranos 50 (1981) 403–29;Google ScholarBetz, H. D., ‘The Problem of Apocalyptic Genre in Greek and Hellenistic Literature: The Case of the Oracle of Trophonius’, Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East,, ed. Hellholm, D. (Tübingen: Mohr, 1983) 577–97.Google Scholar

[14] The most comprehensive study of Greco-Roman revelatory divination is that of Hopfner, T., Griechisch-aegyptischer Offenbarungszauber, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Haessel-Verlag, 1921–1924);Google Scholarcf. Hopfner's article ‘Mageia’, in Pauly-Wissowa, , Realencyclopaedie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, 14, 1 (1928) 301–93.Google Scholar

[15] For a more detailed discussion with references, see Aune, D. E., Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983) 44–7.Google Scholar

[16] Alexander, P., ‘3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch’, in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 1:Google ScholarApocalyptic Literature and Testaments, ed. Charlesworth, J. H. (Garden City: Doubleday, 1983) 235.Google Scholar

[17] Scholem, G., Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition (New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1965) 75–83;Google ScholarSmith, M., ‘Observations on Hekhalot Rabbati’, Biblical and Other Studies, ed. Altmann, A. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963) 142–60.Google Scholar This connection is made more apparent by the third or fourth century Jewish, C. E. magical handbook Sepher ha-Razim.Google Scholar

[18] A long prayer in preparation for revelation is narrated in 4 Ezra 3. 1–36 (cf. Dan 9. 3; 10. 2–3), and a seven-day period of fasting, mourning and prayer is mentioned in 4 Ezra 5. 20–23; 6. 31–59; 9. 23–37; 13. 50 f. A seven-day preparatory period is often mentioned in the magical papyri. Revelatory ritual with close ties to Hellenistic magical divination appears in Hermas Vis. 2.1.1; 2.2.1; 3.1.1–2.

[19] Betz, , ‘Apocalyptic Genre’, 581.Google Scholar

[20] For the Greek text a nd commentary, see Vieillefond, J. -R., Les ‘Cestes’ de Julius Africanus (Paris: Librairie Marcel Didier, 1970) 277–91.Google ScholarThe text is also discussed in Hopfner, , Offenbarungszauber, 2, 150–2.Google Scholar

[21] Wuensch, R., ‘Deisidaimoniaka’, ARW 12 (1909) 3. Wuensch, who discusses the text extensively on pp. 2–19, dates it to the first or second centuries A.D. (p. 17).Google Scholar

[22] The genitives τοū θάνατου and τοū ᾅδου could either be objective or possessive genitives (i.e., ‘the keys to Death and Hades’, or ‘the keys belonging to Death and Hades’). If they are regarded as objective genitives, Death and Hades must be understood spatially (as in Rev 20. 13 f.), but if they are construed as possessive genitives, Death and Hades must be understood as personifications (as in Rev 6. 8). The first possibility is preferable since Death is never (to my knowledge) described in ancient texts as possessing keys, and there are few if any ancient texts in which Hades is so described (Pausanias 5.20.3 describes a decorated table showing Ploutos holding a key, but the same text distinguishes him from Hades whom he has locked up). Furthermore, τοū Ἄδου is an abbreviation for τοū [οἴκου του] ἴδου Holtz, T., for other reasons, also supports understanding the phrase ‘of Death and Hades’ as an objective genitive in Die Christologie der Apokalypse des Johannes, 2. Aufl. (Berlin, 1971) 86–7.Google Scholar The possessive genitive has been taken to reflect the myth of the descensus ad inferos, since if the keys once belonged to the personified Death and Hades (only in Rev 6. 8), they must have been wrested away from them (Kroll, Josef, Gott und Hölle: Der Mythos vom Descensuskampfe [Leipzig and Berlin: Teubner, 1932] 10 f.).Google Scholar This view has wide support; cf. Bousset, W., Die Offenbarung Johannis (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 198Google Scholar, Jeremias, J., TDNT III, 746, and E. Lohse, Die Offenbarung des Johannes, 11. Aufl. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976) 21.Google Scholar

[23] To my knowledge the connection is made only by Moulton, J. H. and Milligan, G., The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament Illustrated from the Papyri and Other Non-Literary Sources (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980) 345 (s.v. kleis).Google ScholarKroll, J. comes close to making the connection (Gott und Hölle, 476–7).Google Scholar

[24] Hesiod, , Theog. 404–52;Google Scholarcf. West, M. L., Hesiod, Theogony: Edited with Prolegomena and Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966) 276–8.Google Scholar

[25] Theog. 412–15, 427;Google Scholar a view preserved in Orph. Hymni 1.2; cf. the references cited in Koops, M. A., Observationes in Hymnos Orphicos (Leiden: Brill, 1932) 3–4.Google Scholar

[26] The epithet Trivia (‘she of the three ways’) was used by Vergil (Aen. 6.35), and interpreted in the following way by Servius, Comm. in Verg. Aen. 4.511: ‘et cum super terras est, creditur esse Luna: cum in terris, Diana; cum sub terris, Proserpina’ (Thilo, G. C. and Hagen, H., Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmins commentarii [Leipzig: Teubner, 1881] 1, 557).Google Scholar Jo. Tzetzes identified the three forms of Hekate as Selene, Hekate and Artemis, though without identifying their spheres of influence; cf. Koster, W. J. W. (ed.), Scholia in Aristophanem, Pars IV: Jo. Tzetzae Commentarii in Aristophanem, Fasc. 1 (Groningen and Amsterdam: Bouma, 1960) 142 (In Plutum 594).Google Scholar Orphism emphasized the unity of Artemis, Persephone and Hekate (Lobeck, C. A., Aglaophamus sive de theologiae mysticae Graecorum causis [Königsberg: Borntraeger, 1829] 543 ff.) The depiction of Hekate as trimorphos and triprosopos is by no means unique to her. In the Mediterranean world Geryon, Typhon and Hermes are similarly depicted, and the phenomenon is also found in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and among several African peoples;Google Scholarcf. Kirfel, W., Die dreiköpftge Gottheit (Bonn: Ferd. Dümmlers Verlag, 1948).Google Scholar

[27] Rohde, E., Pergamon: Burgberg und Altar (Berlin: Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft, 1982) 84–5;Google ScholarLaumonier, E., Les cultes indigènes en Carie (Paris: E. De Boccard, 1958) 350.Google Scholar

[28] Unnik, W. C. van, Het godspredikaat “Het begin en het einde” bij Flavius Josephus en in de openbaring van Johannes, Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks, Deel 39, No. 1 (Amsterdam: B. V. Noord-Hollansche Uitgevers Maatschappij, 1976) 57–9.Google Scholar

[29] Ziegler, K., ‘Orphische Dichtung’, Der Kleine Pauly, 4, 357.Google Scholar

[30] Apuleius, Met. 11.5; in P. Oxy. 1380, 84 f. Isis is called ‘Artemis of three-fold nature’. Cf. Griffiths, J. G., Apuleius of Madauros. The Isis-Book (Metamorphoses, Book XI) (Leiden: Brill, 1975) 117–19, 152 f.Google Scholar

[31] Kraus, T., Hekate: Studien zu Wesen und Bild der Göttin in Kleinasien und Griechenland (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1960) 24–56Google Scholar focuses on ‘Die kleinasiatische Hekate’, and 166–8 contains a list of ‘Hekate-Zeugnisse aus Karien und Phrygien’. For numismatic evidence on Hekate's popularity in Asia Minor see Imhoof-Blumer, F., Kleinasiatische Münzen, 2 vols. (Hildesheim and New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 1974;Google Scholar originally published in 1901–2) I, 156 f., nos. 11, 12, 13. The goddess is represented as Artemis-Hekate on coins from Ephesus (I, p. 54, no. 42; p. 60, no. 66). This identification is found on a coin from Philadelphia minted under Domitian (I, p. 181, no. 6). For further numismatic evidence see Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Deutschland, Sammlung v. Aulock, 18 vols. (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1957–1968)Google Scholar, s.v. ‘Hekate’ in Franke, P. R., Leschhorn, W. and Stylow, A. U., Sammlung v. Aulock Index, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Deutschland (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1981).Google ScholarAlso important are the volumes in Head, B. V., A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum (Bologna: A. Forni-Editore, 1964)Google Scholar, particularly Vol. 14 (Ionia) 104; Vol. 18 (Caria, Cos, Rhodes) 22, 148–51, 154–9; Vol. 22 (Lydia) 28, 192, 254, 355. For other basic studies on Hekate see Heckenbach, ‘Hekate’, Pauly-Wissowa, , Realencyclopaedie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft 7 (1912) 2769–82;Google ScholarRoscher, W. H., ‘Hekate’, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (Leipzig: Teubner, 1886–1890) 1/2, 1885–1910;Google ScholarFarnell, L. R., The Cults of the Greek States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1896) II, 501–19, 549–57);Google Scholar‘Hekate’, Der Kleine Pauly, 2, 982–3.Google Scholar

[32] Important public cults include the public festivals at the temple of Hekate at Lagina (Strabo 14.2.25), the annual mysteries of Hekate celebrated in Aegina (Pausanias 2.30.2; Origen, Contra Cels. 6.22), Hekate's role in the Samothracian mysteries (Adler, A., Suidae Lexicon (Leipzig: Teubner, 1928–1938) 4, 318, (s.v. Samothrake)Google Scholar, and her role in the myth connected with the Eleusinian mysteries (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 23–24, 51–9, 438; Cf. Richardson, N. J., The Homeric Hymn to Demeter [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974] 155–7, 293–5;Google ScholarMylonas, G. E., Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961] 192, 212). The Chaldaean Oracles may have functioned as a private cult with private mysteries of Hekate;Google Scholarcf. Nock, A. D., Conversion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933) 117.Google Scholar

[33] Kraus, , Hekate, 20;Google Scholarcf. Sittig, E., De Graecorum Nominalibus Theophoris (Halle: University of Halle, 1911) 61 f.;Google Scholar (Laumonier, , Les cultes) 344–425.Google Scholar

[34] Smith, K. F., ‘Hecate's Suppers’, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, 6, 565–67;Google ScholarAristophanes, , Plutus, 594–7;Google Scholarcf. Rutherford, W. G. (ed.), Scholia Aristophanica (London and New York: Macmillan, 1896–1905) 1, 63;Google Scholar Demosthenes, Or. 54.39; Plutarch, Quaest. conv. 7.6.3 (708 f.); Adler, , Suidae Lexicon, 2, 214 (s.v. Hekate). Lucian, Dial. mort. 1.3;Google ScholarCataplus 7; cf. Scholium in Luciani Vit. auct. 8, where it is said that the offerings were made on new moons, i.e., the first of each month (Rabe, H., ed., Scholia in Lucianum [Stuttgart: Teubner, 1971; originally published in 1906] 125).Google Scholar

[35] Laumonier, , Les cultes, 425.Google Scholar

[36] For lists of these semeia or parasema see PGM 4. 2334Google Scholar (bronze sandal, fillet, key, wand, iron wheel, black dog, thrice-locked door, burning hearth, shadow, depth, fire), PGM 7. 780–85:Google Scholar ox, vulture, bull, beetle, falcon, crab, dog, wolf, serpent, horse, asp, goat, baboon, cat, lion, leopard, fieldmouse, deer, multiform virgin, torch, lightning, garland, herald's wand, child, key), and PGM 70Google Scholar (virgin, bitch, serpent, wreath, key, herald's wand, golden sandal); cf. Betz, , ‘Catabasis Ritual’, 291, esp. n. 20Google Scholar. One reference in the Sepher ha-Razim mentions those who have learned to ‘pour (libations) to their [i.e. angelic] names and cite them by their signs at the period when (prayer) is heard (so as) to make a magical rite succeed’; Morgan, M. A. (trans.), Sepher ha-Razim: The Book of Mysteries (Chico, Scholars Press, 1983) 21.Google ScholarThis is similar to PGM 3. 536Google Scholar: ‘I have spoken your signs and symbols.’ This suggests that the recitation of symbols was a significant (if optional) part of a magical invocation, and one which lent itself to iconographic representation.

[37] Head, , Catalogue, 18, p. 22, no. 49:Google Scholar Hekate triformis with six hands holding torches, a key, a serpent and a dagger (other object unclear), with a dog at her feet.

[38] Orph. frag. 316 (Kern, O., Orphicorum Fragmenta [Berlin: Weidmann, 1922] 324);Google Scholar Orph. Hymni 1.7 (cf. Koops, , Observations, 7 f.).Google ScholarSee also Kohl, , ‘Kleidouchos’, Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, 11 (1921) 593–600;Google ScholarDexler, , ‘Kleidouchos’, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen and römischen Mythologie, 2, 1218;Google ScholarKoehler, W., ‘Die Schlüssel des Petrus: Versuch einer religionsgeschichtlichen Erklärung von Matth.16, 18.19’, ARW 8 (1905) 214–43, esp. 220–36.Google Scholar Coins of Hekate occasionally show her carrying a key (Head, B. V., Catalogue, 18, 22).Google Scholar On her association with the keys to Hades, see PGM 4.1403, 2293, 2335; VII.785.Google Scholar

[39] In two prose curse tablets from Achaia the name (= Hekate) is spelled in the Attic form ‘Pherrephatte’; in Audollent, A., Defixionum tabellae quotquot innotuerunt tam in Graecis Orientis quam in totius occidentis partibus praeter Atticas (Paris: A. Fontemoing, 1904), citations are by text and line: 68A.2; 69A.9; 69B.2).Google Scholar

[40] Audollent, , Defixionum tabellae, 22.53 f.; 23. 12 ff.; 26. 39; 29. 36; 31. 36; 32. 39; 35. 36; 37. 36.Google Scholar

[41] Strabo 14. 2. 25; cf. Heckenbach, , ‘Hekate’, 2779;Google ScholarKraus, , Hekate, pp. 48–50 (with a partial list of the relevant inscriptions).Google Scholar This epithet is both ancient and not the exclusive province of priests or priestesses of Hekate. Among the Linear B tablets from Pylos the title Karawipora (= klawiphora), ‘key-bearing priestess’ is attested; Burkert, W., Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press) 45.Google Scholar

[42] Kraus, , Hekate, 49;Google ScholarRoscher, , ‘Hekate’, 1906.Google Scholar

[43] For Aiakos, see Apollodorus, , Bib. 3.12.6Google Scholar, where it is said that ‘he guards the keys to Hades’. Aiakos is also given the epithet κλεıūουχος (‘key holder’) on several inscriptions (Corpus Inscriptionem Graecarum, 3, 933, no. 6298;Google ScholarKaibel, G., Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta [Berlin: G. Reimer, 1878] 262 f., no. 646), an assignment which was a later addition to his role as a judge in Hades (Plato, Apol. 41a;Google ScholarGorg. 524a). For Aiakos' role as gatekeeper of Hades, with no mention of keys, see PGM 4.1462: ‘Aiakos gatekeeper of the eternal bars’;Google ScholarLucian, , Dial. mort. 6.1Google Scholar (here Aiakos gives Menippus a tour of Hades in 6.1–6); 13.3. Anubis is also described as ‘key-bearer’ in PGM 4.1465Google Scholar, and the one ‘who holds the keys of the gates of Hades’ (PGM IV.340 f., and two other very similarly worded papyrus texts (P. Koeln Inv. T. 1.10–11; Kairo SB.7542 = Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 8 [1937–8] 574) quoted and compared by Wortmann, D., ‘Neue magische Texte’, Bonner Jahrbücher, 168 [1968] 69).Google Scholar Another similar text (SEG 1717), is quoted with commentary by Horsely, G. H. R., New Documents Illustrating Early Christianity: A Review of the Greek Inscriptions and Papyri Published in 1976 (North Ryde: Macquarie University, 1981) 33–6.Google Scholar Anubis is shown holding a key on several magical gems (references in Wortmann, p. 70). Key-bearing is not a native attribute of Anubis but is attributable to Greek influence, cf. Morenz, Egyptian Religion, 249–50; for more detail see Morenz, S., ‘Anubis mit dem Schlüssel’, Religion und Geschichte des Alten Aegypten, ed. Blumenthal, E. and Herrmann, S. with Onasch, A. (Köln and Wien: Bohlau, 1975) 510–20.Google Scholar Plutos is described as possessing the keys to Hades in Pausanias 5.20.3 (cf. Koehler, ‘Die Schlüssel des Petrus’, 222 f.). A series of defixiones from Cypris name an otherwise unknown divinity Sisochor as one who has the power to ‘lead out of the gates of Hades’; Audollent, , Defixionum tabellae, 22.25 f.; 24.13 f.; 29.15 f.; 32.15; 33.18; 37.16 f.Google Scholar

[44] Nock, , ‘Greek Magical Papyri’, 185.Google Scholar In general see Hopfner, T., ‘Hekate - Selene - Artemis und Verwandte in den griech. Zauberpapyri’, Pisciculi: Studien zur Religion und Kultur des Alterturns. Festschrift F. J. Dodger, ed. Klauser, T. and Ruecher, A. (Münster: Aschendorff, 1939) 125–45.Google Scholar On Hekate's general role in magic see Hopfner, T., ‘Mageia’, Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, 14, cols. 304–5.Google Scholar

[45] The name ‘Apollo’ occurs ten times in PGM, while the name ‘Helios’ occurs fifty-three times; cf. Gundel, H. G., ‘Vom Weltbild in den griechischen Zauberpapyri: Probleme und Ergebnisse’, Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Papyrology, ed. Samuel, D. H., American Studies in Papyrology, 7 (Toronto: Hakkert, 1970) 185–6.Google Scholar

[46] PGM 3. 46;Google Scholar IV.2118, 2610, 2632, 2692, 2713, 2730, 2815, 2880, 2957; XXXVI.188 (bis); LXX.4, 23; XCIII.5; CXIV.1. The name Hermekate, a combination of Hekate and Hermes occurs in III.46 f.; cf. IV.2609 f.: ‘Hermes and Hekate together’ (author's translation). Selene (= Hekate) occurs sixteen times: PGM 1. 148;Google Scholar IV.845, 2525, 2545, 2622, 2640, 2664 f., 2711, 2785, 2821, 2985; VII. 669, 866, XIII.20, LII.4; LXII.9 f. Mene, ‘Moon’ (= Hekate) occurs four times (IV. 2264, 2278, 2609, 2815).

[47] Audollent, , Defixionum tabellae, 22.35; 24.20; 26.24; 29.23; 30.28; 31.22; 32.23; 33.27; 35.22; 38.14; 41A.7, 11, 13; 71.4; 72.13 f.; 75a.4; 242.39.Google Scholar

[48] For a photograph, see Godwin, J., Mystery Religions in the Ancient World (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981) 23.Google Scholar

[49] For a survey of this motif see Lentzen-Deis, F., ‘Das Motiv der “Himmelsöffnung” in verschiedenen Gattungen der Umweltliteratur des Neuen Testaments’, Bib, 50 (1969) 301–27.Google Scholar Still indispensable is Weinreich, O., Türöffnung im Wunder- Prodigien- und Zauberglauben der Antike, des Judentums und Christentums, TBAW, 5 (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1929) 200–464.Google Scholar Also important is Waelkens, M., Die kleinasiatischen Türsteine (Mainz, 1986), with representations of doors on gravestones.Google Scholar

[50] In Men. 9, Lucian quotes this line of hexameter: ‘And nocturnal Hekate and dreadful Persephone’, which Bouquiaux-Simon, O. has shown to be a modification of Odyssey 11.47: [prayer] ‘To mighty Hades and dreadful Persephone’ (part of the preparatory ritual for Odysseus' entry into Hades), in ‘Lucien, citateur d'Homère’, L'Antiquité Classique, 29 (1960) 5–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

[51] ‘Catabasis Ritual’, 287–95.Google Scholar

[52] Epiphanies of Hekate: Lucian Philopatris 1; Philopseudes 14; Origen, Contra Celsum 1.9. Invocations for Hekate to appear: PGM IV.2714, 2786; Audollent, Defixionum tabellae, 38.14–15; Orph., Hymni 1.9.

[53] Cf. Betz, , ‘Apocalyptic Genre’, 531–48.Google Scholar

[54] Dieterich, A., Eine Mithrasliturgie, 3rd ed. (Darmstadt, 1966 [originally printed 1903]) 49.Google Scholar

[55] Scholium in Theocriti, Idyll. 2.12; Deubner, F., Scholia in Theocritum (Paris: Editore Ambrosio Firmin Didot, 1849) 19;Google ScholarHesychius, s.v. Angelos;Google Scholarcf. Pindar, , Paean 2.77–78;Google ScholarFarnell, , Cults, 2, 517 f.;Google Scholar Rosther, ‘Hekate’, col. 1891.

[56] Audollent, , Defixionum tabellae, 75a.2–3.Google Scholar

[57] Unnik, Van, Het godspredikaat, p. 66Google Scholar, observes that the formula ‘the beginning and end’ abbreviates the longer formula ‘the beginning and end of all things’. Some of the texts which contain the formula include Plato, Leg. 715E, Josephus, Ant. 8.280; Contra Ap. 2.190; Philo, De plant. 93.

[58] Hesiod, , Theog. 34;Google Scholar Theognis 1.3–4; cf. Unnik, Van, Het godspredikaat, 74–6.Google Scholar

[59] In general see Cabrol, F., ‘A O’, Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne et de Liturgie, ed. Cabrol, F. and Leclercq, H. (Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1924) 1, 1–25 (emphasizing the use of the formula in Christian art and inscriptions beginning with the third century);Google ScholarLohmeyer, E., ‘A und O’, Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, 1, 1–4;Google ScholarBoll, F., Sphaera: Neue griechische Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Sternbilden (Leipzig: Teubner, 1903) 469 ff.;Google ScholarReitzenstein, R., Poimandres: Studien zur griechisch-aegyptischen und frühchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig: Teubner, 1904) 156 ff.Google Scholar

[60] Sanhedrin, T. Jer.18a;Google Scholarcf. Lohmeyer, , ‘A und O’, col. 2.Google Scholar

[61] Holtz, , Christologie, 150.Google Scholar

[62] PGM IV.411, 528, 992, 993, 1224, 2351; V.363, 367; VII.476, 720; XIII.849–59 [bis], 931; XLIV (figure holding a staff with aleph written on the left and omega on the right); aleph omega are engraved on the back of a magical gem published by Wortmann, D., ‘Neue magische Gemmen’, Bonner Jahrbücher, 175 (1975) 74;Google ScholarAudollent, , Defixionum tabellae, 16, line 14 (p. 27);Google Scholar 252, line 13 (p. 348).

[63] Stanford, W. B., ‘The Significance of the Alpha and Omega in Revelation I.8’, Hermathena, 98 (1964) 43–4.Google Scholar

[64] Ganschinietz, R., ‘Iao’, Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopaedie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, 9 (1914) 699–700;Google Scholarcf. the short discussion by Michl, J., ‘Engel V (Engelnamen)’, Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, 5, col. 216.Google Scholar

[65] See Skehan, P. W., ‘The Qumran Manuscripts and Textual Criticism’, Volume du Congrès, Strasbourg 1956, Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, 4 (Leiden: Brill, 1957) 157;Google ScholarStegemann, H., ‘Die Gottesbezeichnungen in den Qumrantexten’, Qumran, sa piété, sa théologie et son milieu, ed. Delcor, M. (Leuven: University Press, 1978) 205;Google ScholarRoberts, C. H., Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979) 30.Google Scholar

[66] PGM II.16; III.458, 573 ff., 582; IV.204 ff., 962 f., 1034 f., 1040 f., 1043 f., 1220 ff., 1560 ff.; VI.28 f.; VII.307 ff., XIII.779 f., 977 f.; 1020 f., 1047.

[67] Kenyon, F., Greek Papyri in the British Museum, 1 (London: British Museum, 1893) 63;Google ScholarBlau, L., Das altjüdische Zauberwesen (Strassburg i. E.: Karl J. Truebner, 1898) 130;Google Scholar Stanford, ‘Significance’, 43 f. Egyptian priests are describing as singing the seven vowels in Demetrius De elocutione 71 and Eusebius, Praep. 11.6.36 (519d), proposes that the seven (Greek) vowels contain the pronunciation of the secret name of God, spelled with four letters by the Jews.

[68] The philological evidence (with an extensive bibliography) is discussed by Kuhn, K. G., TDNT, 4, 467–70.Google Scholar For more recent discussion with further bibliography see Moule, C. F. D., ‘A Reconsideration of the Context of Maranatha’, NTS 6 (1959–1960) 307–30;CrossRefGoogle ScholarSchulz, S., ‘Maranatha und Kyrios Jesus’, ZNW 53 (1962) 125–44;CrossRefGoogle ScholarLangevin, P. É., Jésus seigneur et l'éschatologie: exégèse de textes prépauliniens (Bruges-Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1967) 168–298.Google Scholar

[69] Individual and communal laments in the Psalms and in the archaic holy war traditions call on God to ‘arise’ (, Pss 3. 8; 44. 27; 74. 22; Num 10. 35 ff.). In such contexts the divine response ‘I will arise’ occasionally occurs (Psa 12.6; Isa 33. 10).

[70] Deut 33. 2; Psa 96. 13; 98. 9; Isa 59. 19 f.; Hab 3. 3 f., 16; Zech 2. 14.

[71] Pax, E., Epiphaneia. Ein religionsgeschichtlicher Beitrag z. bibl. Theologie (München: Munchener Theologische Studien, 1955) 32 ff.;Google ScholarVersnel, H. S., ‘Ancient Prayer’, in Faith, Hope and Worship: Aspects of Religious Mentality in the Ancient World, ed. Versnel, H. S. (Leiden: Brill, 1981) 29 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

[72] Cf. Dieterich, , Mithrasliturgie, 213 ff., a collection of liturgical phrases;Google Scholarsee also Betz, , ‘Catabasis Ritual’, 287–95.Google Scholar

[73] Orph. Hymni praef. 43; 1.9; 9. 11; 11.4, 21; 12.14; 14.12; 14.12; 27.11; 33.8; 34.1; 35.7; 36.13; 40.8; etc. Nearly half the hymns conclude with such an invocation.

[74] ‘Come to me’ (δεῡρό μοı): PGM 1.163; II.2; III.129; 481, 564; IV.1171, 1605; VII.961, 962, 963, 964, 965; (έλθέ μοı): III.51; V.249; LXII.25.

[75] Hopfner, , Offenbarungszauber, 2, 40 ff.Google Scholar

[76] Athena in Iliad 1.207;Google ScholarApollo in Euripides, Orestes 1628;Google ScholarDionysius in Euripides, Bacchae 1Google Scholar; a ghost in Euripides, , Hecuba 1;Google ScholarPoseidon in Euripides, Troades 1;Google ScholarHermes in Euripides, Ion 5;Google Scholar a Syrian prophet in Origen, , Contra Celsum 7.9;Google Scholarcf. Weinreich, O., ‘De Dis Ignotis Quaestiones Selectae’, Ausgewählte Schriften (Amsterdam: B. R. Gruener, 1969) 1, 285 ff., with other examples.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

[77] Many of these are discussed in Aune, D. E., ‘The Social Matrix of the Apocalypse of John’, BR 26 (1981) 16–32.Google Scholar