Ptolemy’s Version of the Sophia Myth

According to Irenaeus, AH I.1.1‑I.8.5

THE PLEROMA (FULLNESS) OF 30 AEONS

I.1.1 The Deep (Bythos, m.) and Silence/Thought (Sige or Ennoia, f.)
Intellect (Nous, m.) (the only‑begotten) and Truth (Aletheia, f.)
Only Nous can know the first principle, Bythos; Sige restrained Bythos from communicating to the rest of the aeons (1.2.1).
Passion originated in them and spread down to Sophia (1.2.2).

Word (Logos, m.) and Life (Zoe, f.)

10 Aeons come forth from them (AH 1.1.2)
Human Being (Anthropos, m.) and Church (Ekklesia, f.)
12 Aeons come forth from them (AH 1.1.2)
The Last pair is Desired and Sophia

I.2.2 Sophia expressed the Passion to know the magnitude of Bythos, the incomprehensible
She is restrained and restored by the Boundary (Horos, m.)

1.2.4 Sophia herself remained inside the Pleroma, but her thinking and Passion were bounded apart, fenced off – as Achamoth (similar to the Hebrew term for Sophia, Chokmah).

1.2.5 The Anointed (Christ) and Holy Spirit are emitted to set the aeons in order and to teach them that the incomprehensible Bythos can be known only by the Only‑Begotten Intellect (Nous). Holy Spirit gives the aeons repose.

The entire fullness (Pleroma) of the aeons emit an emanation that is a perfect fruit, Jesus, also known as Savior, Anointed, Logos, and Entirety. The Entirety also emitted angels as bodyguards for him (I.2.6).

OUTSIDE THE PLEROMA (FULLNESS) (1.4.1‑1.7.4)

1.4 Achamoth and Her passions are given a formation by Christ
She perceives a fragrance of incorruptibility left in her by the anointed Christ and the Holy Spirit, but the Word leaves her. She rushes forth to search for the light that left her. Horos (Boundary) stops her.

1.4.1‑2 Achamoth’s Passions: grief, fear, uncertainty, ignorance.

Turning Back/Conversion – A condition of turning back toward the one who made her alive comes to be present in her. From her turning back, the entire soul (Psyche) of the cosmos and its craftsman/Demiurge come forth.
From her passions other things had their beginning:
From her tears: moist essences
From her laughter: luminous essences
From her grief and terror: bodily elements.

1.4.5 When Achamoth had gone through every passion and surfaced again, she turned to supplicate the Light that left her, i.e., the Anointed. He dispatched the intercessor, i.e., Jesus, the Savior, and the angels to her.
Jesus the Perfect Fruit endowed her with the power of the Fullness: he formed her as a concrete formation by gnosis and he effected a cure of her passions. He set them apart and transformed them from incorporeal passions into incorporeal matter. From her Passions ‑‑ bad essences. [1.5.1 and
1.5.4] Mixed essence tainted with passion, derived from the turning back.

1.5.1 Achamoth from joy became pregnant and gave birth to a spiritual offspring after the likeness of the angels with the Savior. Three Essences:
From her Passion = Hylikos (material) essence;
From her Turning Back: Psychikos essence;
From the Spirit, Pneumatikos (spiritual) essence.

1.5.1‑2 Achamoth forms the Demiurge from the Psychikos essence. He became the parent and god of things outside the Fullness. He separated two essences, created heavenly and earthly things; became the Demiurge of hylikos and psychikos things. He constructed the 7 heavens.
1.5.3 The Demiurge thought he made these things of his own accord but he made these things through Achamoth’s act of emission. He said through the prophets, “It is I who am god; apart from me there is no one.”

1.5.4 From the separated Passions of Achamoth, came all the essences and materials of the cosmos:
From fear, grief, uncertainty: material essence;
From fear and turning back, the Demiurge;
From fear, all the rest of things of psychikos essence;
From grief: the spiritual hosts of wickedness, demons, and the Devil.
From terror and despair: the elements comprising the cosmos.

1.5.5 When the Demiurge had crafted the cosmos, he made also the human being (anthropos) of dust by taking some of the invisible essence of matter. He breathed the psychikos anthropos (the material human is “after the image”; the psychikos human is “after the likeness,” called a spirit of life for it derives
from a spiritual emanation).

1.5.6 Achamoth’s offspring was spiritual, like their mother. This offspring was secretly deposited in the Demiurge so that it might be sown by him into the soul and the material body. By ineffable power and forethought the pneumatikos anthropos (spiritual human being) escaped the notice of the Demiurge
after it had been sown by Wisdom into the Demiurge’s breath. This seed they say is Ekklesia (the Church), an earthly representation corresponding to the spiritual Ekklesia. This latter they think is the anthropos (human being) that is within them.
From the Demiurge: Soul (psyche)
From the dust: the Body (soma)
From Matter: the Fleshly (sarkic) elements
From Achamoth: the Spiritual human being (Pneumatikos Anthropos)

1.6.1 – The Hylic (material) elements will perish; the Psychikos element will proceed in whatever direction it has an inclination toward; the spiritual was sent so that it might be formed by being coupled to the psychikos element and learning along with it.

The Savior took from Achamoth the spiritual element; from the Demiurge he put on the psychikos anointed (Christ); he became enveloped in a body that had psychikos essence and he did not take anything hylikos (material), for the material essence is not capable of receiving salvation.
The end is supposed to come when every spiritual element has been formed and perfected in gnosis.

1.7.1 When all the seed has grown to maturity, Achamoth will leave the place of the midpoint, enter the Pleroma, and receive as her bridegroom the Savior who derives from all the aeons, so that a pair is produced consisting of the Savior and Sophia Achamoth.
The Savior and Achamoth are the Bridegroom and the Bride, and the entire fullness is the Bridal Chamber. The Pneumatics (spiritual human beings) are supposed to put off their souls, become intellectual spirits, enter the Pleroma and become Brides of the Angels that are with the Savior.
Savior‑Achamoth
Pneumatics‑Angels
The Demiurge will move into the place of Sophia the Mother, in the midpoint, and the souls of the just will gain repose in the place of the midpoint, for nothing of Psyche (soul) goes into the Pleroma. After such things have happened, the fire that lurks within the cosmos will flare up, overcome all
matter, and enter into nonexistence.

1.7.4 The Demiurge was ignorant until the advent of the Savior. When the Savior came, the Demiurge learned everything from him and was delighted to defect to him. The Demiurge will bring about a providential arrangement of events in the world until the appropriate time because of his care for the
Church and his knowledge of the reward that awaits him, namely occupying the place of the Mother.

1.7.5 They postulate three species of human beings:

Pneumatikoi (Spirituals) – Seth – which will learn here and if worthy will be given as Brides to the Angels of the Savior
Psychikoi (those of Soul) – Abel – which will gain repose in the Midpoint, the place of the Mother
Choikoi (those of Dust) – Cain – which will proceed to corruption

They say there are good souls (psychai) that are capable of receiving the seed; wicked souls never receive the seed.