In the second century AD, in a small town on the Black Sea coast, an oracular cult was born that within a few years attracted worshippers from all over the empire, including Roman senators. At its centre was a serpent called Glycon, presented as a new incarnation of the healing god Asclepius, and its prophet, Alexander of Abonoteichus. We know this story mainly thanks to an author who loathed it: Lucian of Samosata, who devoted to it a satirical work entitled Alexander or the False Prophet.
The source and its limits
Lucian writes with open hostility. He considers Alexander a charlatan and wants to expose his tricks, addressing an Epicurean friend. His account must therefore be read with caution: it is satire, not a neutral chronicle. Nevertheless, as we shall see, some elements find independent confirmation in coins and statues.
Preparing the cult
According to Lucian, Alexander prepared the ground with great skill. Together with a partner, he had bronze tablets buried in the temple of Apollo at Chalcedon announcing the imminent arrival of Asclepius and his father Apollo at Abonoteichus, in Paphlagonia. When the tablets were "discovered", the news spread rapidly.
Alexander then presented himself in his home town as an inspired prophet, with long hair, purple robes and a curved sword, declaring himself a descendant of Perseus and Asclepius.
The egg and the birth of the god
The decisive moment was the birth of the god. Alexander had hidden in the foundations of the new temple an emptied goose egg, inside which he had placed a newly hatched little snake, and had sealed it up again. Before the crowd, singing hymns, he went down into the trench, found the egg, broke it and showed the tiny serpent: Asclepius was reborn.
A few days later, people were admitted to see the god "grown up": a large tame serpent, which Alexander kept coiled around his body. The animal's real head was hidden under the prophet's arm; in its place a painted linen head could be seen, with almost human features, whose mouth opened and closed by means of horsehairs. The god was given the name Glycon.
The oracles and their tricks
The cult became an oracle in every sense. Lucian describes in detail the methods attributed to Alexander:
- worshippers handed in their questions written on sealed scrolls;
- the prophet secretly opened them with a heated needle, which softened the wax without breaking the seal, or by taking a cast of it;
- he read the question, wrote the answer, resealed the scroll and returned it intact;
- for the most important clients he offered "autophone" oracles, spoken directly by the serpent through a hidden tube that an accomplice used to speak from outside.
The price of each response was fixed, and the volume of consultations, according to Lucian, made Alexander extremely rich.
The mysteries of Glycon
Alexander also established mysteries, with torchlight processions lasting three days and sacred enactments of the birth of Apollo, of Asclepius and of Glycon. At the start of the ceremonies a herald pronounced a formula of exclusion: out with the Christians, out with the Epicureans. The two groups had in common their refusal to believe in this kind of wonder, and for that reason they were regarded as enemies of the cult.
Illustrious followers
The oracle's fame reached Rome. A senator, Rutilianus, became one of its most devoted followers, to the point of marrying Alexander's daughter, whom the prophet presented as born of his union with the Moon goddess. Lucian also relates that, during the wars of the emperor Marcus Aurelius against the peoples beyond the Danube, an oracle of Glycon prescribed throwing two lions into the river, with disastrous results.
Lucian himself, he says, went to Abonoteichus to put the prophet to the test, and their relations ended so badly that Alexander allegedly tried to have him drowned on the return voyage.
The material evidence
What makes this story particularly interesting is that the cult of Glycon is not just a literary invention:
| Evidence | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Coins of Abonoteichus | The serpent with a head of human-like features |
| Statue from Tomis, now Constanța | A large sculpture of Glycon found in the twentieth century |
| New name of the town | Abonoteichus became Ionopolis, as Alexander had requested |
The cult outlived its founder and remained active in the region for some time.
What it teaches us
The episode of Alexander shows the very strong need for direct contact with the divine that characterised the second century, an age in which new cults and oracles were springing up. It also shows the presence of critical voices, like Lucian's, urging people to distinguish between authentic religion and the exploitation of credulity.
In short
- In the second century Alexander of Abonoteichus founded an oracle around the serpent Glycon, a new form of Asclepius.
- The main source is Lucian's hostile satire, Alexander or the False Prophet.
- Lucian describes the egg with the little snake, the linen head and the tricks for opening sealed scrolls.
- The mysteries of Glycon explicitly excluded Christians and Epicureans.
- Coins and a statue found at Tomis confirm the real spread of the cult.
