ogdoad
(ˈɒgdəʊæd)
Also 7 ogdoade.
[ad. late L. ogdoas, ogdoad-em, a. Gr. ὀγδοάς, ὀγδοάδα, f. stem of ὀκτώ eight, ὄγδοος eighth.]
a. The number eight. b. A group, set, or series of eight; spec. in Gnosticism, a group of eight divine beings or æons; also, the heavenly region.
| 1621 Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 258 Their Ogdoades, Duo⁓decads, Triacontads, Pleromaes, Bythos, Siges, and all the æones, blasphemous speculations. 1660 Stanley Hist. Philos. ix. (1701) 383/2 The Ogdoad, they said was the first Cube, and the only number evenly even under ten. 1803 G. S. Faber Cabiri I. 195 note, The arkite ogdoad, or the eight Cabiric gods of Egypt. 1833 Cruse Eusebius v. xix. 203 Irenaeus also wrote the treatise on the Ogdoad, or the number eight. 1882–3 Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 879 Mind, Word, Intelligence, Wisdom, Power, Justice, Peace,—which with the Father, constitute the great Ogdoad, the type of the lower spheres. 1889 Farrar Lives Fathers I. iii. 112 note, All things sprang from ‘depth’ (‘Bythos’, the unutterable) and silence (‘Sige’), the immediate parents of ‘Mind’ and ‘Truth’, the ‘Word’ and ‘Life’, ‘Man’, and the ‘Church’. These formed the Ogdoad and represent the Supreme Being absolutely and relatively. |