Alexander of Abonoteichus

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Greek mystic and oracle (c. 105 - c. 170)

Religious FiguresLived 105 to 170 · aged 65

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Fame50.6

Momentum3.8

Languages17

Peak1850s

In century#129

Alexander of Abonoteichus, also called Alexander the Paphlagonian, was a Greek mystic and oracle, and the founder of the Glycon cult that briefly achieved wide popularity in the Roman world.

Also inDeutsch

Photos 1

Bronze coin of Antoninus Pius minted in Abonoteichos and showing the snake god Glycon with the legend “ΓΛVΚΩΝ ΑΒΩΝΟΤΕΙΧΕΙΤΩΝ” (29 mm, 16.89 g)

Religious Figures born in the 100s 6

Apollinaris of Ravenna53.7

Magnus of Trani48.1

About this person

Alexander of Abonoteichus, also called Alexander the Paphlagonian, was a Greek mystic and oracle, and the founder of the Glycon cult that briefly achieved wide popularity in the Roman world. The contemporary writer Lucian reports that he was an utter fraud - the god Glycon was supposedly made up of a live snake with an artificial head. The vivid narrative of his career given by Lucian might be taken as fictitious but for the corroboration of certain coins of the emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius and of a statue of Alexander, said by Athenagoras to have stood in the forum of Parium. There is further evidence from inscriptions.