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Sunday 26 September 2010

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

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