THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

shall destroy itself [........] Then the firmaments [shall slide] down to the Depth
(NOYN). (NHC VI, 4 46.25-47.6) 42
The word for “time” above, is from the Greek χρóνοs and it is to be noted that
Chronos was an underworld deity worshipped in Alexandria in association with Aion.
The notion of the aeon having its powers numbered suggests this connection. The
Trimorphic Protennoia contains an interesting passage in which the female speaker
defines the temporal nature of the lower aeon that humankind finds itself within:
And I shall tell them of the coming end of the Aeon, and I shall edify them
(concerning) the beginning of the Aeon to come, the one which does not possess
change (but) which will alter our countenance through itself, that we become
pure. Within these Aeons, from which I revealed myself in the Thought of the
resemblance of my(f) maleness, I preserve those who are worthy within the
Thought of my unchanging Aeon. For I shall tell you a Mystery of this Aeon in
particular, and I shall inform you of the Energies within it. The Birth calls [to
the Birth:] hour begets hour, [day creates] day, month creates month, Time
turns, following Time. This particular Aeon was accomplished in this manner,
and it was numbered, (being found) small, for it was a finger that omitted a
finger, and a (chain) link which is added to by means of a link. When the Great
Powers understood that the time of fulfillment was manifest as in the labour
pains of the pregnant woman (which) brought (her to) the entrance of the door,
in this way the Destruction approached. All together the Elements trembled and
the foundations of the Underworld and the ceilings of Chaos shook and a great
fire glowed in their midst and the rocks and the earth shook like reeds blown in
the wind. (42.18-43.12) 43
The god Aion of Alexandria , ostensibly born of the “Virgin” Kore,
manifested the birth of Horus/Harpocrates from Isis, or Re from Neith. The central
figure of Isis is more clearly seen here (thanks to Plutarch and Apuleius) as “firstborn
of the ages” and “queen of time”. 44
Chronos and Aion were apparently worshipped
separately in Alexandria and elsewhere, and the demiurgic attributes of Chronos are
apparent in his syncretistic association with the underworld. 45
Aion, on the other
hand, has been connected with the Heh-gods 46
and certainly, the following inscription
from a pedestal in Eleusis, depicts a strong sense of dt-eternity:
42
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. XI, 318, 320.
43
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. XXVIII, 416, 418.
44
Raffaele Pettazzoni, “Aion – (Kronos) Chronos in Egypt,” in Essays on the History of
Religion, ed. H.J. Rose (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967), 174.
45
Pettazzoni, “Aion – (Kronos) Chronos in Egypt,”179. This association occured through
identification of Anubis with Cerberus with Chronos (through the triceps of Sarapis).
46
Henri Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Ägypter (1891; reprint, Leipzig: Leipzig
Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1969), 132-40; also Richard
Reitzenstein in Gött. Nachr. 1904, 317.