In the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM) the term 'phylactery' describes an object that is worn by the practitioner as protection from the gods, daemons and other spirits. Unlike amulets and talismans, a phylactery is only worn during magical rituals and was not intended for daily use.[1] This form of ritual protection is very common in the PGM and it continued to be used into the later medieval and renaissance grimoires where they were called lamens; the most iconic of these is perhaps the Pentacle of Solomon from the Lesser Key of Solomon.[2]
As we discussed in the introduction to PGM IV 154-285: A Complete Magical System, the scribe of the letter describes a phylactery used to protect the practitioner while in the presence of the gods and spiritual energies of the rituals.
There is also the protective charm itself which you wear while performing, even while standing: onto a silver leaf inscribe this name of 100 letters with a bronze stylus, and wear it strung on a thong from the hide of an ass.
- PGM IV. 257-260
The "name of 100 letters" is given by the scribe earlier:
...AChChÔR AChChÔR AChAChACh PTOUMI ChAChChÔ ChARAChÔCh ChAPTOUMÊ ChÔRAChARAChÔCh APTOUMI MÊChÔChAPTOU ChARAChPTOU ChAChChÔ ChARAChÔ PTENAChÔChEU" (a hundred letters).
But you are not unaware, mighty king and leader of magicians, that this is the chief name of Typhon, at whom the ground, the depths of the sea, Hades, heaven, the sun, the moon, the visible chorus of stars, the whole universe all tremble, the name which, when it is uttered, forcibly brings gods and daimons to it...
-PGM IV. 239-247
I took some creative liberty in making my phylactery. For one, I chose to use a large silver medallion instead of a the fragile silver leaf to give it more weight and substance. I also engraved the 100-letter name within an Ouroboros. The use of an Ouroboros in protective amulets and charms is quite common in the PGM,[3] thus I felt this was an appropriate addition.
Regarding the name itself, the scribe made it a point to verify that his transcription contains "(a hundred letters)." Typhon, Hermes, and a syncretized Helios-IAO demiurge are the only deities in the papyri of the PGM explicitly associated with names of one hundred letters.[4] In the numerical-mysticism of the Pythagorean school, one hundred is a manifestation of Unity (1, 10, 100,etc.). Perhaps there is further symbolism to consider in that it is Unity expressed in three digits, given the importance placed on the number three in both Egyptian and Pythagorean thought and indeed in most magical traditions.[5] Of note is that from very early on Typhon was described as having 100 serpent (or drakon) heads, and among his epithets is hekatonkaranos ('hundred-headed').[6]
The scribe records the 100-letter name divided into fourteen distinct words. I suggest that there may be numerical significance to this as well. Fourteen is the number of nights between new and full moon. In other words, the amount of time it takes for light to fully encompass and to fully vanish from the surface of the moon. The importance of the moon in magical work is universal; in this specific papyrus it is apparent in the metal specified for the phylactery (silver) and the observation of the appropriate lunar phase for the initiation rite. [7]
The power that manifests as the waxing and waning moon represents the same force that carries the sun across the sky from sunrise to sunset; it is the power that guides life from birth to death and ensures the cyclic nature of the cosmos. By nature this is a chaotic force that brings darkness and destruction, it is a potent magical energy that the Graeco-Egyptian magicians identified with Typhon.[8]
Looking at the 100-letter name, only a few words can be made out that make any sense in Greek. These are χαρα (chara) and χωρα (chora), which mean 'delight' and 'country' respectively. These don't seem relevant within the context of the rite. Hebrew produces a few more meaningful matches with words such as Ach ('brother', 'brazer', or 'fire pot') and Chor ('hollow', 'hole', and root of 'noble'). Yet the matches are still unconvincing. The prevailing sounds of Ch, ChÔ, and ÔCh, likely indicate words of Egyptian origin.[9] As suggested by Betz and others, ChÔCh appear to be the Greek phonetic rendering of Egyptian kk and kkw, words that mean 'dark' and 'darkness'; particularly, a darkness at liminal times such as prior to birth or twilight.[10]
After the various Ch sounds, the next most common sound is PTOU that occurs five times in the 100-letter name and five more times in the other incantations of PGM IV 154-285. Outside of invocations involving Typhon, the only other instance of this sound is in the divine name NIPTOUMI employed in spells associate with Helios.[11] Ptou does not mean anything in Greek, aside from being the phonetic spelling of a spitting sound. This in itself may have some meaning in the context of the PGM as hissing, popping and spitting sounds are common techniques used as apotropaic devices to resonate with specific spiritual energies.
Of greater importance to our discussion is that ptou is the phonetic spelling of of the Egyptian word pA.dw , 'the mountain,' and also be pt.dw, 'sky mountain.'[12] Typhon, as with many deities associated with storms, was from the earliest times connected to mountains; he was compared to them in size, inhabited them, and even used them as weapons agains Zeus. By the 5th C BCE., Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound writes that Zeus entombed Typhon beneath Mt. Etna. Later retellings of the battle between the giants and the olympians, such as from the 2nd C. Bibliotheca, describe Typhon moving between the prominent mountains of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and North Africa prior to meeting his final fate at Etna.[13] Given the antiquity and persistence of these mythological accounts, the Graeco-Egyptian magicians would have undoubtably been aware of the connections between Typhon and the prominent mountains of the region.
Typhon's 100-letter name does produce a certain coherency when examined in the context of what we know of the ancient Egyptian language. Aside from the words kk, kkw ('dark', 'darkness') and pA.dw ('the mountain'), the other words we can extract with some frequency are Ax ('spirit'), ka (life-force, will, 'soul'), ra ('sun', or Sun God), and mi ('come!', an imperative statement). Together they permit one to speculate that the name may have in fact been an invocation to raise the spirit of Typhon from the depths of the mountains.
As a full disclaimer, I want to be clear that I am not stating that these are the direct translations of the nominae magicae. These are merely suggestions based on sounds that correlate with certain Egyptian words, and there can be many ways to look at the same word. For example the start of the 100-letter name, αχχωρ could be Ax-wr (aspirated 'ah') or axx-wr (spoken 'ah'). Each of these has a different meaning, Ax-wr could mean 'Great spirit', while axx-wr literally translates to consume-great, or perhaps 'great consumer' (incidentally, an appropriate epithet for Typhon). There are vast possibilities, and lets be honest, this is all speculative; nonetheless, the synchronicity between the potential Egyptian words and the symbolism of Typhon is highly suggestive and does merit further study.
| Nomina Magicae | Egyptian [14] [15] [16] [17] |
| αχχωρ |
Ax-wr or axx-wr Ax – ‘spirit’, as a verb ‘become a spirit’, ‘shinning one’ axx – ‘evaporate,’ ‘consume’ wr – ‘great’, ‘great one’ |
| αχχωρ |
same as above |
| αχαχαχ |
Ax-Ax-Ax Ax – See above Ax-Ax – ‘stars’, ‘starry night’ |
| πτουμι |
pA.dw-mi pA.dw – ‘the mountain’ mi – ‘come!’ (imperative) |
| χαχχω |
ka-kkw ka – ‘soul’, lifeforce kkw – ‘dark’, ‘darkness’ |
| χαραχωχ |
ka-ra-kk ka – ‘soul’, lifeforce ra – ‘sun’, Sun God kk – ‘dark’ |
| χαπτουμη |
ka-pA.dw-mi ka – ‘soul’, lifeforce pA.dw – ‘the mountain” mi – ‘come!’ (imperative) |
| χωραχαραχωχ |
kkw-ra-ka-ra-kk kkw/kk – ‘dark’, ‘darkness’ ra – ‘sun’, Sun God ka – ‘soul’, lifeforce |
| απτουμι |
a-p∋.dw-mi pA.dw – ‘the mountain” mi – ‘come!’ (imperative) |
| μηχωχαπτου |
mi-kk-p∋.dw mi – ‘come!’ (imperative) kk – ‘dark’, ‘darkness’ pA.dw – ‘the mountain” |
| χαραχπτου |
ka-ra-kk-p∋.dw ka – ‘soul’, lifeforce ra – ‘sun’, Sun God kk – ‘dark’, ‘darkness’ pA.dw – ‘the mountain” |
| χαχχω |
ka-kkw ka – ‘soul’, lifeforce kkw – ‘dark’, ‘darkness’ |
| χαραχω |
ka-ra-kkw ka – ‘soul’, lifeforce ra – ‘sun’, Sun God kkw – ‘dark’, ‘darkness’ |
| πτεναχωχευ | ?? |
Notes
Stephen Skinner. Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic. (Singapore: Golden Hoard Press, 2014). pp. 163-167.
Skinner. pp 79 – 87. Also, see PGM I. 42-195, PGM XII. 201 – 269, PGM XII. 270-350 and PGM XXXVI. 178-187.
For Typhon see PGM IV. 154-285 and PGM IV. 1331-1389. For Helios-IAO see PGM IV. 1167-1226, and for Hermes see PGM V. 459-489.
Richard H. Wilkinson. Meaning in Many: The Symbolism of Numbers (Thames and Hudson, 1994).
See http://www.theoi.com/Gigante/Typhoeus.html and references therein.
Stephen Edred Flowers (ed). Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Magical Papyrus of Abaris. (York Beach, ME: Weiser Books, 1995). pp. 94.
Skinner. pp. 46.
Hans Dieter Betz (ed). The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation: Including the Demotic Spells (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992). pp. 333. (BAINChÔÔÔCh reference in appendix) See also notes 14, 15, 16.
PGM IV. 2145 – 2240, PGM VII. 1017-26, PGM XXXVI. 211-30, and PGM I. 232-47.
Martin Bernal (ed). Black Athena: Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization; Volume III: The Linguistic Evidence. (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2006). pp. 497.
See http://www.theoi.com/Gigante/Typhoeus.html and references therein.
Raymond O. Faulkner. A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian. (Griffight Institute, 1962).
Online Resources: http://hieroglyphs.net/0301/cgi/pager.pl?p=16 and Ancient Egyptian Dictionary[pdf]
Antonio Loprieno. Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction. (UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Additional pronunciation notes: http://www.friesian.com/egypt.htm
Originally published January 27, 2015 in Reflections from the Black Stone