The Lexikon (unto the aions unfinished)

Agon – struggle, competition

Aidos – shame, modesty

Akh – luminous body

Akhet – house; horizon

Akhu – the blessed dead; ancestors

Akousmata – oral teachings

Amenti – the west; ‘the Land of the Dead’

Anamnesis – recollection of past lives

Ananke – necessity

Angelos – divine messenger

Ankh – symbol of enduring life

Aparkhai – first-fruit offerings

Aporrheton – forbidden

Apotropaic – averting evil

Arkhe – first principle

Arete – virtue; excellence

Arrheton – unspeakable

Asebia – impiety

Autarkeia – self-sufficiency

AUS – ‘Ankh Udja Seneb’ meaning ‘life, prosperity and health’

Ba – part of the soul; the undying essence

Basilinna – queen

Basileos – king

Bebackcheumenos – inspired with mania by Dionysos

Ben-ben – the first land to rise from the primordial waters

Bios – life; conduct of living

Bomos – altar

Bothros – ritual trench for sacrifices to the khthonic gods

Boule – deliberation, a council

Deshret – ‘the Red Land’; the inhabitable wastes of the desert that surround the Nile valley

Dadoukhos – torchbearer

Daimon – lesser divinities; guardian spirits; personal holy genius

Deimata – terrifying events

Deipnon – feasts

Didaskalia – instruction

Djed – a pillar representing Osiris’ spine or phallus

Dromena – ritually actions

Duat – the realm of the dead

Dunamis – power

Eidolion – place where the image is housed

Eirene – peace

Em hotep – ‘in peace’

Entheos – possessed by a god

Epistates – supervisor

Epoptes – watcher; highest grade in the Eleusinian mysteries

Ethos – habit; the total of one’s actions or character

Eudaimonia – true happiness

Eulogeo – blessings

Euonomia – good order

Eusebia – piety and reverence for the gods

Gamos – wedding

Gnosis – knowing of matters pertaining to things of esoteric or spiritual nature

Hagneia – purity

Heb(u) – festival

Heka – magic; authoritative speech

Hekatomb – sacrifice of 100 cattle; any great sacrifice

Hellenion – a Greek temple set in a foreign land

Hellenismos – the religion and culture of the Greeks

Henu – honour gesture which accompanies worship

Herron – grave of a hero

Hesi – hymns

Hestia – hearth

Het – house

Hiera – holy things

Hiereia(i) – priestess

Hierophantes – he who reveals sacred things

Hieros – sacred

Hierus(eis) – priest

Hubris – overweening pride and an insult towards the gods

Hotep(u) – offerings; peace

Hu – utterance

Ib – heart-shaped amulet

Iru – ceremonies

Isfet – disorder, chaos; whatever is opposed to Ma’at

Ka – part of the soul; vital essence; the personality which must be fed after death in order to survive

Kakodaimon – evil spirit

Katabasis – descent into the underworld

Katharmos – rite of purification

Katharsis – purification

Kemet – ‘the Black Land’; Egypt, especially the rich, inhabitable area surrounding the Nile

Kerukas - herald

Khaibet – the shadow part of the soul

Khaire(te) – greetings

Khat – the physical body

Khesu – basic rites

Khthonioi – earth or underworld gods, as well as the spirits of the dead

Kiste – basket in which sacred things are kept

Kledon – a type of omen drawn from random things overheard

Koinon – common; club

Komos – a group of revellers devoted to Dionysos

Maa-kheru – ‘true of voice’; justified; deceased who has been judged favourably

Ma’at – order, truth; justice; harmony

Makaria – happiness

Mania – frenzy

Mantis – a seer, prophet

Mathein – to learn

Melamphoros – wearing black

Metampsychosis – transmigration of souls

Miasma – ritual pollution

Mimesis – imitation or representation

Mneme – memory

Mousikos – being cultured

Muein – to initiate

Muesis – initiation

Murionmos – of countless names

Musteria – mysteries

Mustagogos(oi) – guide of the initiates

Mustes(ai) – initiate

Mustikos – mystic

Mustipolos – celebrating mysteries

Muthos – a traditional story, usually about gods or heroes

Naos – temple

Nefer – beautiful

Nekhekh – the flail carried by the pharaoh

Nekhtet – victory

Nemesis – righteous

Netjer(u) – a god; divinity

Nisut – the king; pharaoh

Nomos – law, custom

Nous – mind, intelligence

Oikos – household, both the place and people belonging to it

Ololyge – ritual cry

Olympioi – the Olympian gods, either for dwelling on Mount Olympos or from lampo ‘the shining ones’

Omophagia – eating raw flesh

Orgia – rituals

Ouranian – heavenly

Ousia – essence

Paian – a hymn of praise for Apollon

Paideia – education

Paligenesia – rebirth

Paradosis – transmission, tradition

Paredros – divine consort

Pathos(e) – suffering; experience; appeal to the emotions

Patrios Nomos – ancestral custom

Per – mansion; temple

Phileo – tender affection

Philanthropia – love for humankind

Phthora – annilihilation

Phusis – nature

Pistis – faith

Pneuma – breath; spirit

Polis(eis) – city-state

Politeia – citizenship; civil activity

Pompe – procession

Praxis – action; practice

Prutaneis – priestly civic officials

Pros theon – ‘by the gods’

Ren – a name indicating one’s total being

Sa – protection

Sedjem – hearing

Sekhem – vital force

Sekhet Irau – ‘Field of Reeds’, abode of the dead

Sekhet Hetept – ‘Field of Offerings’

Sema – tomb

Senebty – ‘may you be healthy’

Shemsu – follower; devotee

Sia – perception

Sige – silence

Soma – body

Sophrosune – self-restraint; prudence; discretion

Soteria – salvation

Sponde(ai) – drink-offerings

Stoicheia – elements

Sumbolon – token

Summustes – fellow-initiate

Sumpatheia – simultaneous affection

Sunthema – password

Tawy – ‘the Two Lands’; the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt

Telein – to celebrate, to initiate

Telestes – initiation priest

Telete – ceremony; initiation

Temenos – sacred precinct

Thanatos – death

Thelema – will

Theoi – gods

Theologia – speaking about the gods

Theophoretos – possessed by a god

Theoros(oi) – sacred envoys; priests

Thiasos – religious association

Tholos – round house; headquarters of the prutanis

Thusia – sacrifice

Thumos – the seat of emotions within the soul

Time – honour or public acclaim

To Hen – the One

Udjat – the eye of Horus amulet

Wab(u) – purifications

Xenia – hospitality

Zoe – life principle