Cnoüs

First Appearance and Context

Cnoüs is cited within the Hylaean hymn sung during an aut in the Mynster. In that rite, the music first depicts a state of disorder that "preceded Cnoüs," then converges to a single tone representing the Light dawning in Cnoüs’s mind. The hymn also names Hylaea as "our mother" who brings forth the Light of her father.

Within the Hylaean Way’s Rotunda, a central white‑marble sculpture (double life size) depicts Cnoüs beneath a riverside tree at the moment of his vision: he sprawls back against the roots, one hand raised as if to shield his eyes, the other gripping a stylus. A ruler, a compass, and a tablet graven with carefully constructed circles and polygons lie at his feet. Companion sculptures portray his daughters; an oculus cut as an isosceles triangle admits a beam of sunlight into the space.

Roles/Actions and Affiliations

• Legend holds that Cnoüs was a master stonemason, working at a king’s command to build a temple. While working out a difficult geometrical problem, he paused under a tree by a river and experienced the vision that later traditions treat as a turning point.
• Two accounts are attributed to his daughters: one presents a vision of a hidden, perfect realm and a turning away from idols; the other describes an upsight into pure theorical objects—exemplified by an isosceles triangle—and cautions against confusing drawn figures with the objects of theorics.
• Sources add that Cnoüs soon offended his king and was exiled, where he died; regardless of details, the divergence that followed is presented as a forking between the Deolaters and early theor‑followers sometimes called physiologers. A later center at Orithena is remembered for organizing inquiry into the theoric world said to have been glimpsed in his moment of insight. Early Physiologers—followers of Cnous—are described as voyaging by galley and sail across the Sea of Seas to the temple at Orithena; a southeastern harbor on Ecba that once served them is said to have been erased when the volcano’s south slope collapsed, burying the Temple of Orithena.
• In everyday mathic practice, Cnoüs is also named during the Invocation of Cartas before communal meals, acknowledging a lineage of ideas “from Cnoüs” onward that are said to nourish the mind.
• In current discourse among avout considering how to communicate with an unknown object in orbit, Cnoüs is invoked at the head of a lineage—“Cnoüs saw it; Hylaea understood it; Protas formalized it; Paphlagon thought about it”—framing him as the first to glimpse the Hylaean Theoric World.

Relationships

• Parent of Hylaea and Deat, often described (in the sculptural tradition) as fraternal twins. Their diverging teachings shape later communities and practices.

Descriptions/Characteristics

• Iconography: The Rotunda statue shows Cnoüs as aged but muscular, with long wavy hair and beard, posed mid‑upsight beneath a tree. Measuring tools and a scored tablet emphasize his craft and the geometric focus of the scene.
• Figurative associations: Among avout, phrases such as the Light of Cnous evoke awe and enlightenment connected with Cnoüs and sauntly bearing.
• Usage as epoch: In both liturgy and ordinary speech, Cnoüs’s name functions as a before/after marker—e.g., something might be said to have happened “before Cnoüs” or to have been true “since Cnoüs.”

Current Status/Location

Cnoüs functions as a mythic‑philosophical figure active in liturgy and teaching. A renowned ancient statue depicting his moment of insight is displayed in the Rotunda within the Hylaean Way.

Iconographies and Sæcular Perceptions

In reviews of Iconography, Cnoüs is cited in a pattern where outsiders cast avout as guardians of hidden secrets said to descend from him; this is presented as a recurring Sæcular stereotype rather than a claim about practice.