The evil eye. An account of this ancient and wide spread superstition

IX THE CALATHUS 303
bas-reliefs, and gems connected with the worship
of Serapis, who, though lord of the sun, cannot
be separated from I sis and other moon goddesses/^*^
On gem talismans the bust of Serapis is very
common, having the legend, either in full, EIC GEOC
CAPAniC, or abbreviated, E.0.C. " There is but one
God and he is Serapis." EIC ZHN GEOC. ''The
one living God." Who can fail to note here the
prototype of the Mahomedan " Allah il Allah " ?
Often the intention of the amulet is fully ex-
pressed, as NIKA CAPAniC TON 00ONON, "Baffle
the evil eye, O Serapis !"^^^ In the later Roman
fashion, the Almighty Jove most usually wears the
castle - like crown,^'^^ something like that of the
Ephesian Diana, again showing the direct link
between Osiris-Isis and Jtipiter-Diana. It is re-
markable that on the dome of the so-called Arian
Cyprus
—
The god is reputed to have answered a question of Nicocreon, King of
A god I am such as I show to thee :
The starry Heavens my head, my trunk the Sea,
Earth forms my feet, mine ears the Air suppHes,
The Sun's far-darting, briUiant rays, mine eyes.
" Hence it is apparent that the nature of Serapis and the Sun is one and in-
divisible. Isis, so universally worshipped, is either the Earth, or Nature, as
subjected to the Sun. " This is the true idea expressed plainly on the statues,
as well as in the word nudtimammia, before referred to as one of the names
of Diana, who was Isis herself.
*'•' Even here in England the worship of Serapis existed in Roman times.
In the Museum at York is a dedicatory tablet, found in ruins of Roman brickwork,
which clearly proves that a temple stood there. The inscription is
Deo Sancto I I
Leg. I
Serapi Templum a so|lo Fecit |C. L. Herony|mianus
I
Leg. vi. Vict.|. Perhaps the most curious fact about this monument
is one which nobody seems to have noted. On each side of the inscription is
repeated a sort of compound amulet, of which two caducei and a sun are plain
enough; but there is another object, called in the guide-books a "moonshaped
shield,'' but which close examination shows to be nothing more nor
less than the double phz.Wicfascinurn, the common amulet in Rome at the
time of the Serapis cult.
*''^ King, Gnostics, p. 70.
'^''^ This was called the calathtis, which really means a work-basket (see
King, Gnostics, p. 64). This head ornament is probably the second vase,
referred to by the Roman jeweller ; otherwise there are not due vast.