The Origin and Characteristics of the Image of the Aerial Spirits

Abstract

The parallels between the books of the Enoch cycle and the Coptic literature have not yet been fully investigated, and meanwhile they allow us to find out some data on the origin and meaning of the books of Enoch. For example, the Coptic Encomium to the Four Living Creatures from the Pierpont Morgan Library has a section which must be considered as a very close retelling of one episode from the 2nd (Slavonic) Book of Enoch. Subsequently, the image of four animals influenced the description of zoomorphic mythological characters, the so-called “leontocephals”, in the apocryphal literature. In the encomium there are a number of parallels with the 2nd Enoch, which allow to determine more precisely the date and features of this pseudepigraphon.