Kneph

Kneph is a motif in ancient Egyptian religious art, variously a winged egg, a globe surrounded by one or more serpents, or Amun in the form of a serpent called Kematef.[2] Some Theosophical sources tried to syncretize this motif with the deity Khnum, along with Serapis and Pluto.[3][4] Under the Greek theonym Chnuphis, this figure adopts a serpent-bodied, lion-headed ("leontoeidic") visage, being particularly common in magical artifacts in Late Antiquity.[5] It is by proxy frequently associated with the Gnostic Demiurge.

A lion-faced Chnuphis figure found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon's L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures,[1] often associated with Yaldabaoth.

References

1. Bernard de Montfaucon (1722). L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures. II. p. 362.
2. The Egyptian revival: ancient Egypt as the inspiration for design motifs in the west by James Stevens Curl, p.445, Psychology Press, 18 Nov 2005
3. An essay on symbolic colours: in antiquity--the middle ages--and modern times, by Frédéric Portal (baron de), p. 53, J. Weale, 1845.
4. The Secret Doctrine: Anthropogenesis by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, p. 26, Aryan theosophical press, 1888
5. Lynn Thorndike (1958). A History of Magic and Experimental Science. Columbia University Press. pp. 317–318, 379. ISBN 0-231-08794-2.

Further reading

• Klotz, David (2012). Caesar in the City of Amun: Egyptian Temple Construction and Theology in Roman Thebes. Brepols. ISBN 978-2-503-54515-8.