Alexander of Abonutichus

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Alexander of Abonutichus (d. c. 170 CE) was a Greek mystic and the founder of the Glycon cult that briefly achieved wide popularity in the Roman world. Lucian reports that he was an utter fraud - the god Glycon was supposedly constructed out of a glove puppet. He is sometimes known as the False Prophet Alexander.

Not much is known about the early life of Alexander. He apparently worked in travelling medicine shows around Greece and might have been a prophet of the goddess Soi or a follower of Apollonius of Tyana. In Lucian, his partner in fraud is given as one Cocconas of Byzantium.

Sometime before 160 CE Alexander formed a cult around the worship of a new snake-god, Glycon, and headquartered it in his hometown of Ionopolis. Scandal soon attached itself to his office at the head of the cult: Glycon was a fertility god, and Alexander reportedly had more mundane methods of causing pregnancy among his female followers. Through the cult Alexander achieved a certain level of political influence - his daughter married the governor of the Roman province of Asia.

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