OGEE

( Ogive , French.) An inflected curve; a curve formed of two segments of a circle, one struck from one side, and the other from the other side of the same right line. This curve occurs chiefly in mouldings, and is principally characteristic of the Decorated style; but it occurs in other styles also, and has several variations according to its place and date. The word is used in French as a generic term for pointed architecture. OPHITÆ (from ὄφις , a serpent ); also called Serpent in i ans . A ridiculous sort of heretics, who had for their leader a man called Euphrates. They entertained almost the same fantastic opinions that were holden by the other Egyptian Gnostics concerning the æons , the eternal matter , the creation of the world in opposition to the will of God , the rulers of the seven planets that presided over this world, the tyranny of Demiurge , and also concerning Christ united to the man Jesus , in order to destroy the empire of this usurper. But besides these, they maintained the following particular tenet (whence they received the name of Ophites ): “That the Serpent by which our first parents were deceived, was either Christ himself, or Sophia , [ Wisdom ,] concealed under the form of that animal;” and in consequence of this opinion they are said to have nourished a certain number of serpents, which they looked upon as sacred, and to which they offered a sort of worship, a subordinate kind of divine honours. There is some curious information about the Ophitæ in the lately discovered work of Hippolytus.