Thrice-Greatest Hermes

Thrice-Greatest Hermes
Studies in Hellenistic

Theosophy

and Gnosis
Being

Translation

of

the

Extant

Sermons

and

Fragments of the Trismegistic Literature, with

Prolegomena, Commentaries, and Notes

By

G. R.

Volume

III.

S.

Mead

Excerpts and Fragments

London

arid

The Theosophical

Benares

Publishing Society

1906

Contents
/.

Ex.

I.

EXCERPTS BY STOBMU&

...

Of Piety and True Philosophy

Commentary
Ex.

.14
.15

Of Truth

17

Commentary
Ex. IV. God,

23

Nature and the Gods

....

Commentary
Ex. V.

3
12

II. Of the Ineff ability of God

Commentary

Ex. III.

PAGE

24
25

Of Matter

26

Of Time

28

Ex. VI.
Ex. VII.

Of Bodies Everlasting and Bodies Perish-

able

30

Commentary

33

Ex. VIII.

Of Energy and Feeling

....

Commentary

43

Of the Decans and the Stars

Commentary

Ex. IX.

Ex. X. Concerning the

sity

and Fate

Commentary

34

...

45
54

Rule of Providence, Neces55

57

CONTENTS

VI

PAGE

Ex.

XL Of

Justice

58

Commentary

59

....
....

Of Providence and Fate

Ex. XII.
Ex. XIII.

Of the Whole Economy

Ex. XIV.

Of Soul,
Of Soul,

Ex. XV.

II

Of Soul,

Ex. XVII.

Ex. XVIII.

....

of Incarnation

III

Ex.

68

Of Soul, IV

75

77

Of Soul,

79

Of Soul, VI

80

Commentary

82

XX. The Power of Choice

84

Commentary

86

Ex. XXI.

Of

Isis

Ex. XXII.

Ex. XXIII.

Horus

to

Commentary

87
.

...

An Apophthegm
From "Aphrodite"

XXIV.

A Hymn

.87
.88
89

Commentary
Ex.

65

72

Commentary
Ex. XIX.

61

.63

The Embryonic Stages

Ex. XVI.

60

90

of the Gods

91

Commentary

92

Ex.

XXV. The Virgin of the World,

Ex.

XXVI. The Virgin of the World,

I.

II.

.93
.125

Commentary
Argument

134
146

Sources?

The Direct Voice and the Books

of

Hermes

.147

CONTENTS

Vll
PAGE

Kamephis and the Dark Mystery

Kneph-Kamephis
Hermes I. and Hermes II
The Black Eite
Black Land
The Pupil of the World's Eye
The Son of the Virgin
The Mystery of the Birth of Horus
"Ishon"
The Sixty Soul-Regions

.149

151

152

.155
158

.159

.162

160
165
168
169
171

Plutarch's Yogin-

The Plain of Truth

The Boundaries of the Numbers which

Pre-exist

173
175

in the Soul

The Mysterious " Cylinder "

The Eagle, Lion, Dragon and Dolphin

.180

Momus

182

The Mystic Geography

Ex.

of

Sacred Lands

XXVII. From the Sermon of

Isis to

.184

Horus

188

Commentary
Argument

....

The Habitat o|;Encarnate Souls

II.

ii.

iii.

204
206
207
209
210

REFERENCES AND FRAGMENTS IN

THE FATHERS
I.

i.

and Ordering
The Books of Isis and Horus
The Watery Sphere and Subtle Body

Title

JUSTIN MARTYR

The Most Ancient of Philosophers

The "Words of Amnion"
The Ineffability of God
Hermes and Asclepius Sons of God
Hermes the Word who brings Tidings from God
The Sons of God in Hellenistic Theology
.

An Unverifiable
II.

.215
215
216

.217
.217
.218
218

Quotation

ATHENAGORAS

....

220

CONTENTS

Vlll

III.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
PAGE

Many Hermeses and

i.

Aselepiuses

The Apotheosis of Hermes and Asclepius

The Books of Hermes
The General Catalogue of the Egyptian Priestly Library

ii.

iii.

i.

iii.

iv.

Hermes the Master of all Physics

Hermes the Writer of Scripture
Hermes the First Preacher of Reincarnation
Hermes on Metempsychosis
Frag.
V.

God

is

beyond

all

of

ii.

Thoyth-Hermes and

iv.

vi.
vii.
viii.

228

229

ARNOBIUS
230

LACTANTIUS
his

Books on the Gnosis

231

233

The Historical Origin of the Hermetic Tradition

Uranus, Cronus and Hermes, Adepts of the Perfect

233

....

Divine Providence
On Mortal and Immortal Sight

Man made

after the

Image

III.

of

God

Hermes the First Natural Philosopher

The Daimon-Chief

234
235

235
236
237
237

Devotion in God-Gnosis

Frag. IV.
ix.

226
227
227

CYPRIAN

Frag.
v.

221
222
222
225

Frag. II

Science
iii.

Hermes
VII.

i.

Understanding

VI.

The School

TERTULLIAN

IV.

ii.

The Cosmic Son

of

238

God
Frag.

239

CONTENTS

....

The Demiurge of God

The Name of God

x.
xi.

IX

Frag. VI.

240

241

The Holy Word about the Lord

xii.

PAGE

of All

Frag. VII.
His

xiii.

Own

Own

Father and

241

Mother

242
242
242
243
243

The Power and Greatness of the Word

The Fatherless and Motherless
Piety the Gnosis of God
The Only Way to Worship God
The Worthiest Sacrifice to God

xiv.

....

xv.

xvi.
xvii.
xviii.

Frag. VIII.

Man made

xix.

in the Image of

God

244

244
245

xx. Contemplation

The Dual Nature

xxi.

Man

of

Frag. IX.

xxii.

245

Wonder the Beginning of Philosophy

The Cosmic Eestoration
Frag. X.

xxiii.

Of Hermes and

xxiv.

A Eepetition

246

247

his Doctrine Concerning

God

247
248
248

xxv. Plato as Prophet follows Trismegistus

VIII.
i.-iii.

Three Quotations from the Old Latin Version

" Perfect

Sermon

IX.
i.

ii.

AUGUSTINE

Cyril's

Corpus

"

249

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
of

XV. Books

251

The Incorporeal Eye

Frag. XI.

iii.

of the

253

The Heavenly Word Proceeding Forth

Frag. XII..

254

Frag. XIII.

254

The Pyramid

CONTENTS
PAGIE

The Nature

of God's Intellectual

Frag.

The Word

Mind

of

He

All

XIV

255

XV

256

of the Creator

Frag.
iv.

Word

Mind
Frag. XVI..

is

Frag.

.257

XVII

258

Concerning Spirit

Frag. XVIII

The

v.

"

To Asclepius "
From " The Mind "
Osiris

vi.

of Cyril's

258

Corpus

.259
260

and Thrice-greatest Agathodaimon

XIX

261

XX

262

Frag.

XXI

262

Frag.

XXII

263

Frag.

"Let there be Earth!"

Frag.

The Generation

of the

Sun

"Let the Sun be!"

The Firmament

vii.

Frag. XXIII
viii.

From

ix.

x.

the "

To
The Sole Protection
The. Supreme Artist

Frag.
xi.

263

Asclepius "

An

XXIV

266

Unreferenced Quotation

Frag.
X.

Hermes speaks

An

264
265

Orphic

XXV

266

SUIDAS

of the Trinity

268
269

Hymn
XI.

ANONYMOUS

....

270

CONTENTS

XI

REFERENCES AND FRAGMENTS IN

TEE PHILOSOPHERS

III.

I.

ZOSIMUS
PAGE

On

the Anthr5pos-Doctrine

273
273
274

The Processions of Fate

" The Inner Door "
Against Magic

Frag.

Thoth the

The

First

XXVI.

275

....

276
277
278
279

Man

Libraries of the Ptolemies

Nikotheos

From the Books

Man the Mind

of the Chaldseans

Frag.

The

....

XXVII

......

Daimon

Counterfeit

His Advice to Theosebeia

II.

Abammon the
Hermes the

285
286
288
289
291

Those of the Hermaic Nature

The Books of Hermes
The Monad from the One
of the Trismegistic Literature

Bitys

Ostanes-Asclepius

From

the Hermaic Workings

The Cosmic Spheres

III.

The

.291
294
296
297
299

JULIAN THE EMPEROR

Disciples of

IV.

281
283

JAMBLICHUS

Teacher

Inspirer

The Tradition

280

Wisdom

303

FULGENTIUS THE MYTHOGRAPHER

Frag.

XXVIII

305

XU

CONTENTS

IV.

CONCLUSION
PAGE

An

Attempt

at Classifying the

Extant Literature

Asclepius

306
306
308
310

Ammon

311

Of Hermes
To Tat

To
To

Of Asclepius
Of Isis
From the Agathodaimon Literature
Of Judgments of Value
The Sons of God
Concerning Dates
The Blend of Traditions
Of Initiation

A Last Word
V.

INDEX

....

312
312
313
314
316
319
321
323
325

Excerpts by Stobseus

VOL.

III.

EXCEEPT

I.

OF PIETY AND [TRUE]

PHILOSOPHY
(Title

from Patrizzi

(p.

4);

preceded by

"Of

Thrice-

greatest Hermes."

Text:

of

Phys.,

Stobaeus,

Hermesfrom
190-194; W.

xxxv.

1,

under

heading:

"Of

the [Book] to Tat"; G. pp. 273-278; M.

i.

273-278. 1

i.

Menard, Livre

IV.,

Hermes

Son Tat,"

to his

JSTo. i.

of "

Fragments from the Books

pp. 225-230.)

Her. Both for the sake of love to man, and

piety 3 to God, I [now], my son, for the first
I.

time take pen in hand. 4

1

G.

Gaisford (T.), Joannis

1822), 4 vols.

Io.

Stobm Florilegium (Oxford,

Stob. Ec. Phys. et Ethic. Libri

Duo

(Oxford,

1850), 2 vols.

M.
vols.

Meineke

(A.), Joh. Stob. Flor. (Leipzig, 1855, 1856),

Joh. Stob. Ec. Phys.

W. = Wachsmuth
.

Ec. Phys.

H.
vol.,

et

Hense

et

Ethic. Lib.

Duo (Leipzig,

(O), Io. Stob. Anthologii Lib.

Duo

Priores

Ethic. (Berlin, 1884), 2 vols.

(0.), I. Stob.

Anth. Lib.

Tert. (Berlin,

1894), 1

incomplete.

2
I have numbered the paragraphs in
convenience of reference.

3 euo-ejSe/as,
4

1860), 2 vols.

it

might

r6de arvyypd(pw t

also be rendered

all

the excerpts for

by worship.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

For there can be no piety more righteous

than to know the things that

Him who made

thanks for these to

and to give

are,

them,

which

never cease to do.

I will

By

Tat.

2.

doing what,

may

naught be true down here,

Her. Be pious,

son

reach the height of

one live wisely

Who

pious

philosophy

[all]

then,

father,

is,

2
;

if
?

doth

without

philosophy the height of piety cannot be scaled.

But he who learns what are existent

things,

and how they have been ordered, and by whom,

and
all

whose

for

sake,

he

give thanks for

will

unto the Demiurge, as unto a good

nurse [most]

excellent,

never break his

Who

3.

trust.

And

is,

as he

who doth

he

be

learns,

will

will [get

Truth, and what

is

sire,

steward

giveth thanks,

and he who pious

where

he

it

pious

know both

to]

is.

more and more

will

pious grow.

For never, son, can an embodied soul that

has once leaped
the truly

aloft, so as to

Good and True,

get a hold upon

slip

back again into

the contrary.

For when the soul [once] knows the Author

of its Peace,

'tis filled

with wondrous love, 5 and

Or

give worship unto God,

In

its

Gf. G. H., xiii. (xiv.) 3,

Of P.

euo-eflei.

true sense of wisdom-loving.

S.

A.

ix. 1

Comment.

xii. 3.

4mrp67ccp m<rr$.

OF PIETY AND TRUE PHILOSOPHY

with forgetfulness x of every

and can no

ill,

more keep from the Good.

Let this

4.

to

which

nobly

[my]

be,

thou

if

son, the goal of piety

whither
This

should wing

it

for

life,

be ignorant of

will

its flight again.

the only [Way],

is

both

shalt

and happily depart from

live,

thy soul no longer

that

thou

attain,

my

son,

the

Path

[that leads] to Truth, [the Path] on which our

forebears,

did set their feet, and, setting

too,

them, did find the Good. 3

Solemn and smooth

to tread for soul while

For

5.

make

first it

this

Path, yet

still

in body.

hath to fight against

a great dissension, and

own

and

itself,

manage

victory should rest with the one

difficult

that the

part [of

its

self].

For that there

the two,

the

a contest of the one against

is

former trying to

flee,

the latter

dragging down.
1

Where

X'fjOri

(forgetfulness)

is

opposed to epos

(love),

that

is

to say, reminiscence, the secret of the fiddrjcis (mathesis) of the

Pythagoreans, the knowledge of the Author of our being or

of our "race" within,

Ex.
2

Of.

L,

T).

^vx^l /xaOoxxra

eavTrjs

rbv irpoirdropa

(cf.

iii. 6).

i.

H".,

x.

Lack,

the rational element (to \oytK.6v) and the

"two"

(xi.)

P. S. A., xi. 4

xxxvii. 3

11.

Cf. G.

The

K,

xi. (xii.) 21.

" one"

is

are the passional (to 6vfwc6p)

and desiderative

(to

itrtOvfjiTiTiKSy)

elements of the irrational nature (to &\oyov, or to ala-drjrbv as

below), the "heart "and the "appetite."
Cf. Ex. xvii. ; see also
" Orphic Psychology" in

my

Orpheus (London, 1896), pp. 273-275.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

And

and

there's great strife

battle [dire] of

these with one another. --the

one desiring to

escape, the others striving to detain.

The

6.

others

victory, moreover, of the one or of the

not resemblant.

is

For that the one doth hasten [upwards] to the

Good, the others

[downwards] to the bad.

settle

The one longs

to be freed

the others love

their slavery.
If

[now] the two be vanquished, they remain

deprived of their

but

own

and of their ruler 2

selves

the one be worsted,

if

'tis

harried

by the

two, and driven about, being tortured by the

down

life

This

here.

is,

[my]

upon the Thither

who

son, the one

4

leadeth thee

Path.

Thou must, [my]

body, before the end [of

out victor in the

thy

son, first leave behind

it

is

reached], and

of conflict,

life

come

and thus as

wend thy way towards home.

And now, [my] son, I will go through

victor
7.

things that are

by heads

stand the things that

remember what thy

All

things that

5
7

Lit. of the two.

K?o-

Cf.

that

Ex.

to the

is,

be

said,

is,

is

in

cf.

thou

motion

exempt from

the one.

fj

if

it.

Sc.

the one.

Sc.

the Path.

Good and True, or God.

ix. 12.

Or summarily

thou wilt under-

are [then]

not,

That

the

have heard.

ears

is

for

will

are,

alone the that which

16 below.

OF PIETY AND TRUE PHILOSOPHY

Every body

in a state of change

is

bodies are not dissolvable

[but]

all

some bodies [only]

are dissolvable.

Not every animal

is

mortal

not every animal,

immortal.

That which can be dissolved, can

destroyed

the permanent

What

doth become

destroyed

more destroyed, nor does

some other thing.
First

8.

man.

God

[is]

the eternal.

for ever, for ever also is

what once for

it

becomes,

all

is

never

[ever more] become

second the Cosmos

be

the unchangeable

[is]

the that which doth not change,

1

[also]

third [is]

The Cosmos, for man's sake and man, for God's.

its
The soul's irrational part 4 is mortal
;

rational part, immortal.

All

essence

immortal

[is]

all

essence, free

from change.
All that exists

[is]

twofold

naught of existing

things remains.

Not
all
1

x.

moved by

that doth exist.

Or

is

"

The Lord

4 Lit.
5 irap

soul

the soul moves

born.

irpSorov 6 dibs,

Cosmos

are

all

SeuTepov 6

itScr/ios,

rpirop 6

tkvBpooiros.

of the Eternity (iEon) is the first

Or
Gf.

God

dies.

P. S.A.

second

is

man's the third."

sensible part,

rb

ov,

rb

oX(xQt\t6v.

as opposed to

The meaning

obffia (essence).

of esc-istence, being the

into the state of becoming.

coming out

of

pure being

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

All that suffereth [is] sensible

9.

sensible,

doth

not

all that's

suffer.

All that feels pain, doth also have experience

a mortal

of pleasure,

life

not

experience pleasure, feeleth

all

that doth

[also] pain,

life

immortal.

Not every body's

subject to disease

all

bodies

subject to disease are subject [too] to dissolution.

10.

The

faculty's

The

mind's
in

God

in

the

reasoning

man.

reason's in the

mind

the mind's above

all suffering.

Nothing
free

is

all

all

in the bodiless

from what's untrue.

All that becomes,

not

in body's true

[is]

subject unto change;

that doth become, need be dissolved.

Naught['s] good upon the earth

bad

naught['s]

in heaven.

11.

God['s] good

[and]

man

[is]

bad.

Good [is] free-willed bad is against the will.

The gods do choose what things are good, as
;

good; ...

The good law of the mighty [One] 5

good law
1

is

the

good law's the law.

Or animal

perhaps this and the following interjection are

glosses.
2 5 \oyurix6s,

perhaps a mistake for \6yos, as Patrizzi has

it.

Or real.
4 But see
and cf. G. JET., x. (xi.) 12.
15 below
5 The text is faulty
as is also apparently that of the following
None of the conjectures yet put forward are satisfactory.
sentence.
;

OF PIETY AND TRUE PHILOSOPHY

Time's for the gods

Bad

is

the stuff that feeds the world

the thing that brings

1 2.

all

on the earth

Naught

man

heaven

All in the

the earth

the law for men.

is

time

is

to an end.
is

free

subject unto

from change

it.

in the heaven's a slave

naught on

is free.

Nothing can not be known in heaven

can be

known on

naught

earth.

The things on earth do not consort with things

in heaven. 2

All things in heaven are free from blame

all

on the earth are blameworthy.

The immortal

is

not mortal

the mortal, not

immortal.

That which
forth;

is

sown,

is

but that which

not invariably brought

brought forth, must

is

have invariably been sown.

13.

[there

[Now]
are]

for a

body that can be

two "times":

[the

and from

dissolved,

period]

from

its

sowing

its

death; but for an everlasting body, the time

till its

birth,

its

birth until

from birth alone. 3

Things

subject

unto

dissolution

wax and

wane.

The matter
1

Or time

that's dissolved,

doth undergo two

is divine, the law is man's.

have not adopted W.'s lengthy emendations.
3
This is the idea of sempitemity of things which have a
beginning but no end.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

10

contrary transformings

death

and birth

but

everlasting [matter], doth change either to

own

self,

The

or into things like to

birth

dissolution

of

man

[is]

its

itself.

the beginning of his

man's dissolution the beginning of

his birth.

That which departs, 1 [returns

turns] departs [again].

Of things

14.

some

in forms,

existent,

and some

Body['s] in forms

and what

re-

some are

in

bodies,

[are] in activities.

and form and energy in

body.

The deathless shares not

in the mortal [part]

the mortal shares in the immortal.

The mortal body doth not mount 4

deathless one

into

the

into

the deathless one descends

the mortal frame.

Activities do not ascend, but they descend.

The things on earth bestow no

15.

things in heaven

benefit

on

the things in heaven shower

every benefit on things on earth.

Of bodies

everlasting heaven

is

the container

of those corruptible, the earth.

Earth

[is] irrational

The things

in

the heaven

[is] rational.

heaven [are] under

it;

the

things on earth above the earth.

1

Or
Or

dies.

There

energies.

Lit. go.

Lit. comes.

is

a lacuna in the text.

OF PIETY AND TRUE PHILOSOPHY

Heavenf's] the

first

element

11

earth['s] the last

element.

Fore- knowledge

Ne-

Order;

God's

[is]

cessity^] handmaiden to Fore-knowledge.

Fortune['s]

the course of the disorderly,

3
the image of activity, untrue opinion.

What, [then]

God ?

is

The Good that naught

can change.

What, man
16.

wilt

The bad that can be changed. 4

rememberest these heads, 5 thou

If thou

remember

what

also

have already

set

forth for thee with greater wealth of words.

For these are summaries 6 of

those.

Avoid, however, converse with the

things]

these

not

that

many

[on

thou

would that

shouldst keep them selfishly unto thyself, but

rather that thou shouldst not seem

unto the multitude.

For that the

ridiculous

like's

acceptable unto the like

the unlike's never friend to the unlike.

Such words
give

them

as these

ear;

have very very few to

nay, probably, they

even have the few.

They have, moreover, some

1

Ex.

Or Providence.

not

will

Gf. P.

&

[strange

force]
;

and

faptirrov of the text.

Gf.

A. xxxix. 2
9

17 below

xi. 1.
3

rvxV'

Beading rp^rhv for the hopeless

Or

energy.

11 above.
5
7

Gf.

7 above.

6/. C. #., xiii. (xiv.)

13 and 22.

veptoxai

Gf. P. S.

A.

xxii. 1.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

12

peculiar unto themselves

evil all the

more

for

they provoke the

to bad.

many

Wherefore thou shouldst protect the

[from themselves], for they ignore the power of

what's been said.

Tat What meanest

17.

Her. This, [my] son

animal,

nay,

it

with

it.

Now

is

doth cohabit with

it,

because

all

man

is

it is

in love

in

all,-

it is

come and go

things

according to Fore-knowledge

worse than

in

animal should learn that Cosmos

if this

Fate ruling

that

proner unto bad [than unto good];

subject to genesis, and

is

All

father?

thou,

and by Necessity,

no long time

it

would grow

now, [and] thinking scorn of the

whole [universe] as being subject unto genesis,

and unto Fate referring

[all]

the causes of the

bad, would never cease from every evil deed.

Wherefore, care should be taken of them, in

order that being

become

less

[left] in

bad through

ignorance, they

fear of the

may

unknown.

COMMENTARY
Patrizzi thought so highly of this excerpt that he

chose

it

Book I. of his collection. He, however,

made the persons of the dialogue Asclepius
instead of Hermes and Tat an unaccountable

for

erroneously

and Tat,
1

Or Providence

cf.

15 above.

Lit.

than

itself.

OF PIETY AND TRUE PHILOSOPHY

13

mistake, in which he has been followed by all the editors

of StobaBus

except Wachsmuth.

In the introduction the

written to Tat,

treatise purports to be a letter

a new departure,

for it is " for the first

time " on the other hand the form of the treatise is

the usual one of oral instruction, of question and answer
;

( 2).

tions

we

Nevertheless in 16
7-15

given in

summaries of previous sermons.

But already in C. H., x. (xi.)

ment

or

epitome

learn that the defini-

intended

are

1,

rather a

(or

as

heads or

we have an abridgsummation) of the

General Sermons delivered to Tat, just as we have in

summing up and

C. H., xvi., " the

all

digest, as it were, of

the rest " of the Sermons of Asclepius to the King,

under the traditional title, "The Definitions of Asclepius."

The headings in our sermon, then, may probably have
been intended for the summary of the teaching of the
Expository Sermons to Tat (see in Cyril, Frag. xv.).

Some

of

our definitions, however, are strikingly similar

to those in G. H.,

x, (xi.),

by supposing that
the continuation

but this

The Key

"

may

" itself

be accounted for

was one of, or rather

the Expository Sermons. 1

of,

The warning to use great discretion in communicating

the instruction to the " many," because of the danger of
teaching the Gnosis to the morally unfit, seems to be an
appropriate ending to
fairly confident that

tractate of "
title,

The

however,

[?

is

the sermon;

we have

we may then be

in the above a complete

Expository] Sermons to Tat

"

the

the invention of Patrizzi, and not

original.
1

Of.

R. (p. 128),

Hermes."

who

calls

them

a " Collection of Sayings of

EXCEEPT

[OF
(I

II.

THE INEFFABILITY OF GOD]

have added the

title,

the excerpt not being found in

Patrizzi.

Text: Stob., Flor., lxxx.

"Of Hermes from

[lxxviii.]

9,

under the heading:

iii. 135; M. iii.

the [Book] to Tat"; G.

104, 105. 1

Menard, Livre IV., No. x. of "Fragments from the Books

Hermes to his Son Tat," p. 256.)

of

[Her.']

[of

To understand

Him]

God

is difficult,

to speak

impossible.

For that the Bodiless can never be expressed

in body, the Perfect never can be

by that which

is

imperfect,

for the Eternal to

The one

is

comprehended

and that

'tis

difficult

company with the ephemeral.

for ever, the other

doth pass

the

one is in [the clarity of] Truth, the other in the

shadow of appearance.
So far off from the stronger
1
Hense's text ends with xlii.
apparently never been published.

Or think

of.

14

17

[is]
the

the weaker,

second

part

has

OF THE INEFFABILITY OF GOD

the lesser from the greater

[is

15

so far], as [is] the

mortal [far] from the Divine.

It is the distance, then,

between the two that

dims the Vision of the Beautiful.

For

'tis

with eyes that bodies can be seen, with

tongue that things seen can be spoken of

That which hath no body, that

and

figureless,

out of matter,

and

is

is

but

unmanifest,

not made objective [to us]

cannot

be comprehended by our

sense.
I

have

it

in

my

mind,

Tat, I have

mind, that what cannot be spoken

of, is

it

in

my

God.

COMMENTAEY
Justin Martyr quotes these opening words of our
excerpt verbatim, assigning them to
Otto,

ii.

Hermes

{Cohort.,

38

122). 1

The substance of the second sentence is given twice

by Lactantius in Latin (Div. Institt., ii. 8 Ep. 4) in
the second passage the Church Father also quotes
verbatim the first sentence of our excerpt, and from his
introductory words we learn that they were the beginning
of a written sermon from Hermes to his son (Tat).
The first four sentences are also quoted in almost
identical words (there being two variants of reading
and two slight additions) by Cyril, Contra Julianum, i.
31 (Migne, col. 549 b), who, moreover, gives some
;

additional lines, beginning (Frag, xi.)

be an incorporeal eye,"
1

Which

see for

" If, then, there

etc.

Commentary under " Fragments."

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

16
If,

furthermore,

xv. (Cyril, ilid ty

this

sermon

is

i.

we

are right in supposing that Frag,

33)

is

from the same sermon, then

the "First Sermon of the Expository

[Sermons] to Tat," and the Stobaean heading, " From the

[Book] to Tat," will mean the collection of Expository

Sermons

(see

Comment, on Frag.

xv.).

EXCEKPT

III.

OF TEUTH
from Patrizzi

(Title

greatest

Hermes

(p.

46b), preceded

by

" Of Thrice-

to Tat,"

Text Stob., Flor., xi. 23, under heading " Of Hermes

from the [Sermons] to Tat"; G. i. 307-311; M. i. 248251 ; H. iii. 436-441.
:

Menard, Livre IV., No. ix. of "Fragments from the

Books of Hermes to his Son Tat," pp. 251-255.)
[Her.']

1.

Concerning Truth,

Tat,

it

not

is

man should dare to speak, for man's

an animal imperfect, composed out of imperfect
possible that

members, his tabernacle * patched together from

many

bodies strange [to him].

But what

that

is

Truth

possible
is

and

right, this

do

I say,

be found] in the eternal

[to

bodies only, [those things] of which the bodies

nothing
air

very

else,

air

incyvos.

VOL.

III.

Gf.

very

and

earth very earth and nothing

else,

true,

and nothing

water and naught

1

fire

themselves are

in

Ex.

vii.

fire

else,

and water very

else.

3 note, and also 5 below.

17

Or

real.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

18

Our frames, however,

For they have

these.

have
1

them]

of

all

and they

fire,

and

air

but

nor earth, nor water, nor

fire,

nor any [element that's] true.

And

if

our composition has not had Truth for

beginning,

its

[in

compound

also earth, they've water, too,

they are neither

air,

are a

how can

it

either see or speak the

Truth?
Nay,

that too]
2.

can only have a notion of

it
if

God

it,

[and

will.

All things, accordingly, that are on earth,

Tat, are not the Truth

they're copies [only]

of the True.

And
them]

these

are

not

things, but

all

the rest consist of falsity and error, Tat,

and shows of seeming

like

unto images.

Whenever the appearance doth

influx from above,

Truth

few [of

without

its

turns into a copy of the

it
2

receive the

energizing from above,

it

is

left false.

Just as the portrait also indicates the body

in the picture, but in itself
spite

not a body, in

appearance of the thing that's

the

of

is

seen.

having eyes

'Tis seen as

hears naught

The

but

it

sees naught,

all.

picture, too, has all the other things,

they are
1

at

false, tricking

Compare

Lact.,

D.

I., ii.

but

the sight of the beholders,

12.

That

is,

Truth's.

OF TRUTH

these thinking that they

what they see

see what's true, while

really false.

is

who do not

then,

All,

19

see what's false see

truth.

we thus do comprehend, or see, each

1
these just as it really is, we really com-

then,

If,

one of

prehend and

But

see.

[we comprehend, or

if

trary to that which

nor shall we

the earth

we

know aught
There

[_Tat.~]

3.

is,

is,

shall

see, things] con-

not comprehend,

true.

then, father, Truth e'en on

Not

[Her.~]

son, art thou at

inconsiderably,

fault.

Truth
can

is

in

no wise, Tat, upon the

earth, nor

be.

it

But some men

should
vision.

God

can, [I say,] have an idea of

it,

grant them the power of godly

Thus there

nothing true

is

on earth,

[so

know and say. All are appearances

and shows, I know and speak true [things].

much]

We

ought not, surely, though, to

call

the know-

ing and the speaking of true things the Truth

4.

[Jto.]

Why, how on

know and speak

of

nothing's true on earth

1

things

being

we

true,

to

yet

This presumably refers to the simple elements of things in

themselves.
2

earth ought

T^V

dtOTTTtK^jV

S6vHfA.IV.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

20

[Her.] This [much]

know aught
it

son

be,

that we

here.

do not

How

could

is

highest Good,

less,

down

that's true

For Truth

the most perfect virtue, the very

by matter undisturbed, uncircum-

by body,

scribed

true,

is

naked, [and]

evident, change-

august, unalterable Good.

But things down

they

are,

not

son, thou seest

here,

able

to

receive

what

Good,

this

corruptible, [and] passible, dissolvable, changeful,

and ever

altering, being

born from one another.

Things, then, that are not true even to their

own

selves,

For
in

all

what

how can they

that alters

it is,

is

[possibly] be true

untrue

but shows

it

itself to

does not stay

us by changing

into one another its appearances.

5.

[Tat.']

father

And

he not

is

As man,

that the True

is

he

is

not true,

that which has

itself alone,

and

its

son.

and does not stay

in itself stays as

in his

changes and he

own

it is.

alters,

from age to
too,

he's still in [one and] the [same] tent.

fail

Taking

Gf. 1 above.

ivddbe

things,

self.

from form to form, and that

Nay, many

For

composition

But man has been composed of many

He

true,

[Her.]

from

even man,

to recognize

age,

even while
2

their children,

with the preceding clause.

OF TRUTH

when

21

a brief space of time comes in between

and so again of children with their parents.

That,

which

then,

longer recognized,

changes so that

can that be

Is it not, rather, false,

the

[all]

varied shows of

But do thou have

thing

is

" is

" Man's

not true.

6.

Tat

coming and going, 1

its

in

[continual] changes

mind

in thy

that a true

that which stays and lasts for aye.

is

But " man

ance

it

true,

no

it's

not for ever

"

wherefore

And

an appearance.

it

is

appear-

extreme untruth.

[Tat] But these external bodies, 3

[jffer.]

change,

All that

is

father,

they change, are they not true

too, in that

unto genesis and

subject

is

verily not true

but in as much as

they are brought to being by the Forefather 4

them all], they have their matter true.

But even they have something false in that

[of

they change
its

own

for

naught that doth not stay with

self is true.

[ Tat.~\

True, father [mine]

then, that the

Sun

measure than the

alone,
rest

in

of

one to say,

that in greater

them he doth not

change but stayeth with himself,

[Her.~]

Is

is

Truth

[Nay, rather, but] because he,

Lit.

Neuter, that

and

becoming.
is,

the series of temporary appearances of the

true man.
3

The heavenly bodies presumably.

rov irpoirdropos

cf.

Ex.

i.

3.

;;

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

22

he only, hath entrusted unto him the making of

1
things in cosmos, ruling

all

whom

to

all

and worship pay

reverence give,

and making

all

unto his Truth, and recognise him as the Demiurge after the One and
\Tat.~]
is

the

What

first

[Her."]

father, should'st

then,

Truth

First.

thou say

The One and Only, Tat,

He who

is

not

of matter, or in body, the colourless, the figure-

the changeless [One],

less,

not,

who

ever

He who

doth alter

is.

But the untrue, son, doth perish. All things,

however, on the earth that perish, the Forethought of the True hath comprehended [them],

and doth and

For

will

encompass [them].

without

birth

corruption

corruption followeth on every

that

it

may be

be

cannot
in

birth,

order

born again.

For that things that are born, must of necessity

3
be born from things that are destroyed

and things that have been born, must of necessity

be [once again] destroyed, in
genesis of things existent

as the

that

see

First, [then],

Demiurge

may

order that the

not stop.

thou recognize him

birth-and-death

for

of [all]

existent things.
1

Gf.

Ex.

Or

That

vii. 2,

and

7 below.

Or

Lit. genesis.

perishing.

are corrupted, or perish.

is,

the

Sun

cf.

6 above.

OF TRUTH

23

Things that are born out of destruction,

8.

must of necessity be

then,

false,

in

that they

are

becoming now these things, now

'tis

impossible they should become the same.

But that which

possibly be true

is

not " same,"

we

for instance, if

how

For

can

it

Such things we should, then,

[my] son

those.

call

appearances,

give the

man

his

proper designation, [we ought to designate him]

a man's

appearance

[and

so] the child a child's

appearance, the youth a youth's appearance, the

man

a man's appearance, the old

man an

appear-

ance of the same.

For man

is

not a man, nor child a child, nor

youth a youth, nor grown up

man, nor aged man a

But

pre-existent things

a grown up

aged man.

[single]

as they change

man

they are untrue,

and things

But thus think of them,

both

existent.

son,

as even these

untruths being energies dependent from above

from Truth

And

itself.

this being so, I say

in-working,

untruth

is

Truth's

COMMENT
The excerpt seems complete
lay before Stobaeus as a single

sermon
1

Lit.

it is

in itself, but

sermon or

whether

impossible to say.

manhood's.

it

as a part of a

Or operation

evepyrj/xa.

EXCEEPT

IV.

NATURE AND THE GODS]

[GOD,

(Patrizzi(p. 51b) gives

no

title;

but simply the heading

"In Another [Book]."

Text: Stob., Phys., xxxv. 11, under the heading:

"Of

296; M. i. 206; W. i. 293.

Menard, Livre IV., No. iv. of "Fragments Divers,"

Hermes"; G.

pp. 295,

p.

274).

There

[Her.']

1.

scends being, 1

That

then,

is,

beyond

all

which

tran-

things existent, and

that really are.

all

For That-transcending-being

is

[that mystery]

because of which exists that being-ness

called universal,
really are,

common unto

which

is

intelligibles that

and to those beings which are thought

of according to the law of sameness.

Those which are contrary to these, according

law of otherness, are again themselves

to the

according to themselves. 3
Or the

pre-existent

ov(tl6ttis

rb

irpb ov i

or rb

irpo6v,

or essentiality.

This seems to refer to the seven spheres of difference or

otherness

(/caret

rb erepov)

moving symbolically

against, or " cross-

wise with," the all-embracing sphere of sameness

or

it

may mean

(icad'

kavr6)

that they have a sameness in the fact that their

motions enter into themselves "again."

24

AND THE GODS

GOD, NATCTRE

And Nature

an essence which the senses

is

can perceive, containing in

Between these

2.

25

itself all sensibles.

the intelligible

are

and

the sensible gods.

Things that pertain to the intelligence, share

in [the nature of] the

only

Gods that are

intelligible

while things pertaining to opinion, have

their part with those that are the sensible.

These latter are the images of the intelligences 3

the

Sun,

instance,

for

is

the

image

of

the

Demiurgic God above the Heaven.

For just

He

as

hath made the universe, so

doth Sun make the animals, and generate the

plants,

and regulate the breaths. 4

COMMENT
I

have supplied the

we compare our

If

title for

the sake of uniformity.

extract with Ex. vii, and especially

the last sentence of the former with the

first

sentence

and note that in Stobaeus the one

excerpt follows almost immediately on the other, we
shall be fairly well persuaded that they both come from
the same collection namely, the Sermons to Tat.
of 2 of the latter,

Presumably God and Nature.

vorjfiariKoi,

very

rare

form,

and may possibly mean

perceptible.
3

poqindrtav,

Or

spirits.

The

last clause,

"and

regulates," etc., is absent

from some MSS., and is, therefore, considered spurious by some

editors; but its unexpectedness is a strong guarantee of its
genuineness.

The

logical psychology
2,

xix. 3.

"spirits" are the pr ana's of

;

c/.

C. U., x. (xi.) 13,

Hindu

physio-

Comment., and Exs. xv.

EXCERPT V

MATTER]

[OF
have added the

(I

being the same as that of the

title, it

main section

of Stobseus, Patrizzi (p. 51) giving only the

simple heading " From the [Sermons] to Tat."

Text

Stobaeus,

Phys.,

xi.

Hermes from the [Sermons]

85; W. i. 131.
Menard, Livre

Books

of

Hermes

IV.,

No.

viii.

of

has been [before

Matter

mode

is

i.

84,

"Fragments from the

to his son Tat," p. 250.)

Her. Matter both has been born,

it

"Of

under the heading

Tat"; G. p. 121 ; M.

2,

to

it

came into existence]

the vase of genesis,

and

of energy of God, who's

and

son,
;

for

genesis, the

free

from

all

necessity of genesis, and pre-exists.

[Matter], accordingly,

by

its

reception of the

seed of genesis, did come [herself] to birth, and

[so]
1

The

became subject to change, and, being shaped,

Or

receptacle or field of genesis, or birth (ayyetov ycveo-eoos).

idea of a vessel or vase of birth was a familiar symbol with

ix^rayyitr^s (from the simile of pouring water

;
out of one vessel into another) being one of their synonyms for
metempsychosis.

the Pythagoreans

26

OF MATTER
took forms

27

for she, contriving the forms of her

[own] changing, presided over her own changing

self.

The unborn
lessness

2
;

its

state

of Matter, then,

genesis

is its

was form-

being brought into

activity.
1

of

ayevvr]<ria.

Compare this with the Christian Gnostic commentator

Document, quoted by Hippolytus (Philos.
and the comment of Hippolytus on him " Their first and

afioptpia.

the Naassene

v. 7),

Blessed Formless Essence (ao-xw^TKTTos

forms " (" Myth of Man,"

1).

ov<ria),

the cause of

all

EXCEEPT

VI.

OF TIME
(Title

Same

from Patrizzi

38b); followed by:

(p.

"To

the

Tat."

Text Stob., Phys., viii. 41, under heading "Of Hermes

from the [Sermons] to Tat " ; G. p. 93 ; M. i. 64.
Menard, Livre IV., No. v. of " Fragments from the Books
:

of

Hermes

1.

Now

for

to his

Son Tat,"

p. 241.)

to find out concerning the three times

they are neither by themselves, nor [yet] are

they at-oned

and [yet] again they are at-oned,

and by themselves

[as well].

For should'st thou think the present

the past,

it

is

without

can't be present unless it has

become

already past.

For from the past the present comes, and from

the present future goes.

But
let

we have

us argue
2.

is

if

to scrutinize

more

closely, thus

Past time doth pass into no longer being

That

is,

apparently, you cannot think of the present until

already past.

it

OF TIME
this,

29

and future [time] doth not

being present

nay, present even

exist, in its
is

not

not present,

in its continuing.

Time, then, which stands not [steady]

but which

is

on the turn, without a central point

which to stop,

at

how can

((Wtco?), 2 seeing even that

stand

(rn/ice),

be called instant

it
it

hath no power to

(ecrTcti/at) ?

Again, past joining present, and present [joining] future, they [thus] are one

without them
ness,

in their sameness,

for

they are not

and their one-

and their continuity.

Thus, [then], time's both continuous and discontinuous, though one and the same [time].
1

That

is,

apparently, " present."

The usual term in Greek for

lated it by "instant" in order
2

" present," but I

to

have here transkeep the word-play, which

would otherwise entirely vanish in translation.

3
That is, apparently, any one without the other two, or any
two without the other one.

EXCEEPT

VII.

OF BODIES EVERLASTING [AND

BODIES PERISHABLE]
(Title (first half)

Same

the

from Patrizzi

(p.

45b), followed

by "To

Tat."

under the curious heading

Ammon to Tat w
where "to Tat" is evidently a marginal correction for an
erroneous "to Ammon." G. pp. 292-294 ; M. i. 204, 205 ;
W. i. 290-292.
Menard, Livre IV., No. iii. of "Fragments from the
Books of Hermes to his Son Tat," PP- 238, 239.)
Text

" Of

1.

Stob., Phys., xxxv. 8,

Hermes From

the [Sermons] to

[Uer.] The Lord and Demiurge of

all

eternal

when He had made them once for

made them no more, nor doth He make them

bodies, Tat,
all,

[now].

Committing them unto themselves, and

co-

them with one another, He let them

go, in want of naught, as everlasting things.
If they have want of any, it will be want of
one another and not of any increase to their
number from without, in that they are immortal.
uniting

30

BODIES EVERLASTING AND BODIES PERISHABLE

For that

Him

by

it

31

needs must be that bodies made

should have their nature of this kind.

Our Demiurge, 1 however, who

already] in a body, 2 hath made us,
2.

is

[himself

he makes

for ever,

and

will [ever]

make, bodies corruptible

and under sway of death.

For 'twere not law that he should imitate the

Maker

of himself,

all

the more so as

im-

'tis

possible.

For that the latter did create from the

essence which

bodiless

is

from the bodying

the former

first

made

as

brought into existence [by his

Lord].
3.

It follows, then, according to right reason,

that while those bodies, since they are brought

into existence from incorporal essence, are free

from death, ours are corruptible and under sway

of death,
bodies,

in

as

that our matter

may

composed of

is

be seen from their being weak

and needing much

For how would

assistance.
it

continuity

should

nutriment

imported

be possible

last,

unless

[into

it]

it

our bodies'

had

from

some
similar

elements, and [so] renewed our bodies day

by

day?
For that we have a stream of earth, and water,
1

That is, the Demiurge of our bodies, which are not everlasting.
The Sun, perhaps cf. G. H. xvi. 18 and Ex., iii. 6 and iv.
2 and Lact., D. I., iv. 6.
4
3 a-wfxardxrews,
8c. the elements.
cf. Ex. viii. 5.
2

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

32

and

fire,

flowing into us, which

air,

our bodies, and keeps our tent

We

renovates

together.

weak to bear the motions [of our

enduring them not even for one single

are too

frames],

day.

For know, [my] son, that

with foreknowledge of
the

may

animal

greatest [calm

last a single day.

being good, and

our Maker,

Wherefore,

4.

our bodies did not

if

we should not

rest at night,

all

things, in order that

hath

given

sleep,

the

of the fatigue of motion,

and

last,

hath appointed equal time to each, or rather more,

for rest.

Ponder
sleep,

well,

the

the mightiest

son,

opposite to the soul's [energy], but

not inferior to

it.

For that just as the soul

bodies

energy of

is

motion's energy, so

cannot live without [the help of]

also

sleep.

For
the
1

'tis

the relaxation and the recreation of

limbs;

jointed
(tktjvos,

goreans

used by Plato

(Timseus

Platonists,

for the

(ap.

100

Locr.,

body

as

operates

also

it

within,

Clem. Alex., 703), and the Pythaa,

101,

c,

e),

and

the

the tabernacle of the soul.

especially the response of the Oracle at Delphi,

when

Later
See

consulted

concerning the state of the soul of Plotinus after death, as quoted

by Porphyry in

his Life of Plotinus

"

But now

since thou hast

struck thy tent, and left the tomb of thy angelic soul " (see my
" Lives of the Later Platonists " in The Theosophical Review (July,
1896), xviii. 372.

Of Ex.

iii.

and 5

and

12 and 15.
2

Added by Heeren

to complete the sense.

C. H., xiii.

(xiv.)

BODIES EVERLASTING AND BODIES PERISHABLE

33

converting into body the fresh supply of matter

that flows
[kind],

in,

the

apportioning to each

bones and marrow, the

the

its

proper

water to the blood, the earth to

fire to sight.

air to

nerves and veins,

Wherefore the body,

too, feels

keen delight in

sleep, for it is sleep that brings this [feeling of]

delight into activity.

COMMENT
Patrizzi's title is by no means descriptive of the
main contents of the excerpt, which is evidently from
the Sermons of Hermes to Tat, and from the same
collection of these from which Stobseus has taken the
previous two extracts, that is, presumably, the Ex-

pository Sermons.
1

VOL.

III.

Of. C.

H.

xvi. 7, note.

EXCEEPT

VIII.

OF ENERGY AND FEELING

(Title

from Patrizzi

44)

(p.

preceded by

"Of

Thrice-

greatest Hermes."

Text: Stob., Phys., xxxv.

6,

under the heading: "From

i.
198-203;

the [Sermons] to Tat"; G. pp. 284-291; M.

W.

i. 284-289.
Menard, Livre

IV.,

of

Hermes

Son Tat,"

1.

Tat

to his

No.

ii.

of

"Fragments from the Books

pp. 231-237.)

thou

Rightly hast

Now

father [mine].

things,

explained
give

me

these

further

teaching as to those.

For thou hast said somewhere 1 that science

and that

art

do constitute the rationale energy. 2

But now thou

say'st that the irrational lives,

through deprivation of the rational, are and are

called ir-rational.

According

to

this

reasoning,

[therefore],

it

follows of necessity that the irrational lives are

in some previous sermon.

That

Action or operation,

is

ivepyeiav

below.
3

Or animals.
34

ehai rov \oyiKou.

Gf.

11

OF ENERGY AND FEELING

without any share in science or in

35

art,

through

deprivation of the rational.

2.

Her.

Tat.

[It follows] of necessity,

How,

father,

then,

[my]

irrational [creatures] using [both]

and art?

the

son.

do we see some of
intelligence,

ants, for instance, storing their

food for winter, and in like fashion, [too,] the

creatures of the air building their nests, and the
four-footed
holes.

beasts

[each]

knowing

own

their

Her. These things they do,

son, neither

by

by art, but by [the force of] nature.

but none of
Science and art are teachable

science nor

these irrationals is taught a thing.

Things done by nature are [so] done by reason

of the general energy of things.

Things [done] by art and science are achieved

by those who know, [and] not by all.

Things done by all are brought into

activity

by nature.
3.

For instance,

all [are]

all

]ook up [to heaven]

not musicians, or [are]

all

but

archers, or

hunters, or the rest.

But some of them have learned one thing,

1
Kal ra aepia C& a ofioiws Ka\ias savrois crvvridevTa, ra Se rerpdnoda
Compare Matt. viii. 20 Luke
yvwpi(ovTa robs (pa>\eovs robs ISiovs.

58 (word for word) at a\(airKes <pa>Aeobs exovfftv Kal ra ireTeij/a

rov ovpavov KaTacx^arets " The foxes have holes and the birds of
the air nests." The first and third Evangelists here copy verbally

ix.

from their ". Logia " source.

2 Or energized.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

36

another thing],

[others
active

science

and

[in them].

In the same way,

thing, and others

some ants only did

if

not, thou would'st

stored their

by

they

if

against their will,

by
4.

science or

science,

and

without distinction are driven

all

their nature to [do] this,

or

this

have rightly

by [the light] of
food by means of art.

said they acted

But

art being

by

though

may

[it

be]

plain they do not do

'tis

it

art.

For Tat, these energies, though [in them-

selves] they are incorporal, are [found] in bodies,

and act through

bodies.

Tat, in that they are incorporal,

Wherefore,

thou sayest that they are immortal

without

as

far

activity,

but, in so

they cannot

bodies

manifest

say that they are ever in a body.

Things once called into being for some purpose,

or

some

cause, things that

come under Provi-

dence and Fate, can never stay inactive of their

proper energy.

For that which

[being]
5.

is

It

is,

shall ever be

[the very]

body and the

follows

from

for that this

life

of

it.

this reason, [then,] that

these are always bodies.

Wherefore

I say that "

bodying

"

itself is

an

eternal [exercise of] energy.

1

Or

(TtafAdraxriv,

energizing.

cf.

Ex.

vii.

cf.

Lit. energize.

also the ^i>xocris of

K. K.,

9.

OF ENERGY AND FEELING

If bodies are

dissolution

on

subject unto

earth, they're

yet must these [ever] be [on earth

and

to serve] as places

The

as organs for the energies.

and the

energies, however, [are] immortal,

immortal

making,

[that

eternally,

is

ever

if it

is,

is

not appearing

Some

all

them

of

body-

that]

is,

energy.

[The energies] accompany the

6.

37

soul,

though

at once.

energize the

man

the

moment

that he's born, united with the soul round

irrational [parts]

its

whereas the purer ones, with

change of age, co-operate with the

soul's rational

part.

But all these energies depend on

godly

From

bodies.

bodies they descend to mortal [frames],

these body-making [energies]

is [ever] active, either

each one of them

around the body or the

soul.

Yea, they are active with the soul

They

out a body.

The

are for ever in activity.

however,

soul,

body, for

it

with-

itself

is

not for ever in a mortal

can be without the body

whereas

the energies can never be without the bodies.

1

That

2 KOTct

is, if it

seventh year.

me

goes on continually.

futraPoAfr

ttjs

7]\ucias,

generally

Compare the apocryphal

me

supposed to be the

logos

"He who

seeks

from the age of seven years

quoted by the Christian Overwriter of the Naassene Document
from the Gospel according to Thomas (Hipp., Philos., v. 7 7 in
"Myth of Man").
shall find

55

in children

Or

divine,

the bodies

of the Gods, the heavenly bodies, or

the spiritual and immortal bodies of the soul.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

38
This

a sacred saying (logos), son

is

apart from soul cannot persist

What

Tat.

7.

[mine]

thou

dost

leaves body,

body

itself

But [even] the body

remains,

made

mean,

father

Her. Thus understand

it

being can. 1

its

Body-

is

it,

Tat

When

soul

remains.
so

abandoned, 2 as long as

in activity, being broken

up and

to disappear.

For body without [the exercise

could not experience these things.

of]

energy

This energy, accordingly, continues with the

body when the soul has gone.

This, therefore,

is

body and a mortal

the difference of an immortal

one,

that the immortal doth

consist of a one single matter, but this [body

does] not.

The

former's active,

and the

latter's passive.

For every thing that maketh active

stronger

and [every thing] that

is

made

is

the

active

the weaker.

is

The

stronger,

doth lead

free,

too,
;

the

being

in

authority and

[weaker] follows [as] a

slave.
8.

The

energies, then, energize not only bodies

that are ensouled, but also [bodies] unensouled,

1

"its

being"

(o-w/jLaTwo-is)
2

(robfia x w P^ s ^ V X^ S v Mvarai, rb 8e e?vot Btfvarai,

presumably refers to the abstract "bodying"

crvveardvai fiev

referred to above.

Lit. this body.

Sc. dissolution

and disappearance.

OF ENERGY AND FEELING

stocks,

stones,

making [them]

and

such things

all

to grow,

39

and to bear

both
and

fruits,

ripening [them], dissolving, melting, rotting and

crumbling [them], and setting up [in them]

all

which bodies without souls can

like activities

undergo.

For energy's 2 the name,

thing that's going on,

And many
becoming

that

is

Cosmos

things, but being borne

bears

it

existent

is

becoming.

needs must for ever be

things

nay, rather,

For never

son, for just the

all

things [must].

bereft of
3

any of existent

own

for aye in its

things,

[things]

that

never cease from being destroyed again.

9.

Know,

shall

then, that energy of every kind

ever free from death,

in

self,

no

matter what

it is,

is

or

what body.

And

of the energies,

some are of godly

bodies,

and some of those which are corruptible some

and some special. Some [are] of
;

[are] general,

genera, and

some

The godly

are of the parts of every genus.

ones, [accordingly], are those that

exercise their energies through everlasting bodies.

And

these are perfect [energies], in that [they

energize] through perfect bodies.

But

partial [energies are] those [that energize]

through each one of the [single] living things.

1

Naassene Document, 4, and

i
Reading
Or conceived.

Of.

2
Or activity.
13 below.
aZOts for uvtov, with Heeren.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

40

And

special [energies are those that energize]

through each one of existent things.

10. This argument, accordingly,

that

For though

needs must be that energies

it

should be in bodies,
in the Cosmos,

more than

and there

many

bodies

say that energies are

many

be

bodies.

For often in one body there

general ones I

not counting

come with

in the general ones that

mean

[found] one,

is

and a second and a third [activity],

By

son, deduces

things are full of energies.

all

it.

the purely corporal

ones, that exercise themselves through the sensa-

tions

and the motions

[of the body].

For that without these energies the body [of

an animal] can not
11.

The

souls of

class of energies,

themselves]
practices,

persist.

men, however, have a second

the

through

special ones [that exercise

arts,

and

and [purposed] doings.

sciences,

and

For that the feelings 3 follow on the energies

or rather are completions

Know,
and of

then,

of the energies.

son, the difference of energy

sensation.

[Thus] energy

is

sent

down from above

whereas

sensation, being in the

ing

existence from

its

Or
Or

it,

body and hav-

receives the

feelings.

hipyn^aTwv^

sensations.

Or

effects

cf.

energy

1 above,

airoT\<riJ.ara,

OF ENERGY AND FEELING

and

makes

embody

manifest,

it

41

though

as

did

it

it.

Wherefore

say sensations are both corporal

and mortal, and

doth the body

last as long as

[only].

Nay, rather,

its

sensations are born together

with the body, and they die with

it.

12. But the immortal bodies in themselves

have no sensation,
[one], as

[not

even

though they were composed out of

some essence of some

kind.

For that sensation doth

naught

good

immortal

an]

else

that's

entirely from

arise

than either from the bad or

added to the body, or that

else the

on the

is,

contrary, taken [from it] again.

But with

eternal bodies there

is

no adding to

nor taking from.

Wherefore, sensation doth not occur in them.
Tat.

13.

body

Is,

then,

sensation

felt

every

in

Her. In every body, son

and energies are

active in all [bodies, too].

Even

Tat.

[mine]

in bodies without souls,

father

Her. Even in them,

son.

There

are,

how-

ever, differences in the sensations.

The

feelings of the rationals occur with reason

those of irrationals are simply corporal

as for

the things that have no soul, they [also] have

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

42

sensations, but passive ones,

crease [only]

and decrease.

experience

of in-

Moreover, passion and sensation depend from

one [same] head, 2 and they are gathered up again

and

into the same,

Of

14.

lives

that, too,

by the

energies.

with souls there are two other

energies which go with the sensations and the

passions,

And
of

all

grief

and

joy.

without these, an ensouled

a

rational

not

could

one,

and most

life,

experience

sensation.

Wherefore,
passions,

rational lives

The

say that there are

[and]

forms

that

more [than the

forms

dominate

of

the

rest].

energies, then, are the active forces

[in

sensations], while the sensations are the indica-

tions of the energies.

Further, as these

15.

motion by the

in

soul; wherefore,

are corporal, they're set

irrational parts of [a man's]

say that both of them are

mischievous.

For that both joy, though

provides

it

sensation

[for the

joined

immediately becomes a cause of

1

Of.

moment]

with

many

pleasure,
ills

to

8 above, and note.

2 &irb fiias Kopvfirjs tfpTrivrat.

Compare this with Plato, Phcedo,

60 B, where Socrates speaks of the pleasant and the painful as
" two (bodies) hanging from one head " (&c pias Kopv<f>r}s ffwrmixcvw).

i.

Or

That is, the sensation

Sc. by contrast.

animals.
of pleasure

and pain.

OF ENERGY AND FEELING

tiim

who

feeleth it

while grief

[itself]

43
provides

greater pains and suffering.

[still]

both would

they

Wherefore,

seem

[most]

mischievous.

Tat Can,

16.

then, sensation be the

and body, father [mine] ?

Her. How dost thou mean,

same

in

soul

soul,

[my] son

it

cannot be that soul's incor-

and that sensation

sensation which

is

a body, father,

is

sometimes in a body and

sometimes not, [just as the soul]

Her.

If

in the

Tat Surely
poral,

sensation

we should put

should [then] represent

it

in a body, son,

it

as like the soul or

For that we say these

[like] the energies.

we

are

incorporals in bodies.

But

[as] sensation's neither

energy nor soul,

nor any other thing than body, according to

what has been said above,

it

cannot, therefore,

it

must be body.

be incorporal.

And

if it's

not incorporal,

For of existing things some must be bodies

and the

rest incorporal.

COMMENT
Again, as with the last excerpt, the earlier editions
of Stobaeus

have Asclepius and Tat as the persons

1

That

is,

soul

and

energies.

of

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

44

the dialogue instead of

them correctly.
The second sentence

Hermes and

Tat.

Wachsmuth

gives

us presumably to

G.

great interest, for

is of

H.

x.

use a figure, are his energies

(xi.),

The Key "

is

an Epitome

Tat, the statement

may

"

it refers

God's rays, to

the Cosmos's are natures

the arts and sciences are man's. "

"

22

Seeing, however, that

General Sermons to
have been made in one of

of the

also

these sermons.

In either case the existence

is

presupposed, and,

excerpt

is,

of these

therefore,

it

General Sermons

may

again, one of the Expository

be that our

Sermons

to Tat.

The beginning of the Sermon has clearly been omitted

by Stobseus, and apparently the end also.

EXCEKPT

IX.

OF [THE DECANS AND] THE STARS

(Patrizzi (p. 38b) does not give the first third of the
text ( 1-5), and his title, " Of the Stars," is evidently incomplete; it is followed by "To the Same [i.e. Tat]."

Text Stob., Phys., xxi. 9, under the heading " Of Hermes

from the [Sermon] to Tat," pp. 184-190; M. i. 129-133;
:

W.

i. 189-194.
Menard, Livre IV., No. vi. of "Fragments from the
Books of Hermes to his Son Tat," pp. 242-247, under the
sub-heading, " Of the Decans and the Stars.")

Tat

1.

(Logoi

Since in thy former General Sermons

[father,]

),

thou didst promise

me an

explanation of the Six-and-thirty Decans, 2 explain, I prithee,

activity.

now

concerning them and their

Her. There's not the slightest wish in

not to do
1

4v

roh

and

and Ex. xviii. 1.

These are the "Horoscopes"

Origen, G.
3

Tat,

this should

Zfxirpoadsv yeviKois \6yois.

xiii. (xiv.) 1
2

so,

Gf.

me

prove the

G. H., x. (xi.)

and 7

Gels., viii.

58

of P. S. A., xix. 3.

R. 225, n.

Or energy.
45

1.

Gf. also

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

46

most

sermon

authoritative

chiefest of

We

them

So ponder on

all.

and

(logos)

the

it well.

have already spoken unto thee about the

Circle of the Animals, or the Life-giving one, 1 of

the Five Planets, and of

the Circle

Sun and Moon, and

of each one of these.

Thou hast done so,

Her. Thus would I have
2.

Tat.

Thrice-greatest one.

thee understand as

well about the Six-and-thirty Decans,

the former things to mind, in order

that

sermon on the

by

of

latter

may also be

calling

the

well understood

thee.

Tat.

have recalled them,

father,

[to

my

mind].

Her.

We

said,

which encompasses
Conceive

it,

[my]

son,

there

is

Body

all things.

then, as being in itself a kind of

figure of a sphere-like shape

so is the universe

conformed.
Tat.

thought of such a figure in

I've

mind, just as thou dost describe,

3.

Her.

Beneath

embracing] frame

the

Circle

my

father [mine].

of

this

[all-

are ranged the Six-and-thirty

Decans, between this Circle of the Universe and

one

that

the

of

Animals,

determining

boundaries of both these Circles, and, as

1

The

zodiac

the second
2

Or

irepl

member

sphere.

is

rod (wdiaKov kvk\ov ^ rod

probably a gloss

<i)o<f>6pov,

it

the
were,

of which

but see 8 below.

3

Or body.

OF THE DECANS AND THE STARS

47

holding that of the Animals aloft up in the

and

[so] defining

air,

it.

They 1 share the motion

Planetary

the

of

Spheres, and [yet] have equal powers with the

Whole, 2 crosswise

[main] motion of the

the

Seven.

They're

checked by nothing but the All-

encircling Body, for this

must be the

in the [whole grades of] motion,

own

final

itself

thing

by

its

self.

But they speed on the Seven other

because they

move with

than the [Circle] of the

Let

us,

then,

Circles,

a less rapid motion

All.

think of them as though of

Watchers stationed round [and watching] over

both the Seven themselves and
the All,

or rather over

all

o'er

the Circle of

things in the World,

2
is, the Decans.
Or Universe.
This refers to the astronomical system underlying the
Pythagoreo-Platonic tradition, as, for instance, set forth allegorically and symbolically by Plato in the famous passage in The
"The entire compound he (the Demiurge)
Timceus (36 b, c).
divided lengthways into two parts, which he joined to one another
1

That

and bent them into a circular

them with themselves and each other at the

at the centre like the letter X,

form, connecting

point opposite to their original meeting point

and, comprehending them in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he

made the one the outer and the other the inner circle. Now the
motion of the outer circle he called the motion of the same, and
the motion of the inner circle the motion of the other or diverse"
(Jowett's

Translation,

"crosswise,"
" inverse to."
4

8c.

iii.

454,

which in terms

the Decans.

of

455).

motion

The X symbolizes

may

the

be translated as
5

The Decans.

48

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

holding

together

order of
4.

things.

all

Thus do

Tat.

and keeping the good

all,

from what thou

have

my mind,

father, in

it,

say'st.

Her. Moreover, Tat, thou should'st have in

thy mind that they are also
necessities laid

on the other

from

free

the

Stars.

They are not checked and settled in their

nor are

course,

made

they [further]

own

to tread in their

they kept away from

and

hindered

steps again

nor are

[all of]

the Sun's light,

which things the other Stars endure.

But

above them

free,

inerrant

as

all,

though they were

Guards and Overseers of the w hole,

T

they night and day surround the universe.

5.

Tat.

Do
3

an influence

these, then, also, further exercise

upon us

[my]

Her. The greatest,

4

act in

as well,

them,

how should they

both on each one

[my]

Thus,

of

son,

fail

of us
all

For

son.

if

they

to act on us

and generally

those things that

happen generally, the bringing into action

from these
I say,
1

is

and ponder what

downfalls of kingdoms,

states' rebellions,

Referring, presumably, to the fixed stars and the planets.

Reading fab

Or

That

The

for vir\

referring to

is,

eclipses.
4

energy.

Or

energize.

the Seven Spheres.

rest of the

under the
7

as for example,

title

Or energy.

"

fragment

Of the

is

also

found in Patrizzi

(p.

38b),

Stars,"
8

Sc,

the Decans,

OF THE DECANS AND THE STARS

49

plagues [and] famines, tidal waves [and] quakings of the earth

no one of these,

place without their action.

Nay, further

bear this in mind.

still,

rule over them,

son, takes

and we

If

they

are in our turn beneath

the Seven, dost thou not think that some of

their activity extends to us as well,

[who

are]

assuredly their sons, or [come into existence] by

their

means
Tat.

6.

What,

[then,]

may be

the type

body that they have,

father [mine]

Her. The many

them daimones

are not

some

call

of

but they

special class of daimones, for they

have not some other kind of bodies made of

some

special kind of matter, nor are they

by means

of soul, as

we

are [simple] operations

[are

moved

moved], but they

of these Six-and-thirty

Gods.

Nay, further,

still,

their operations,

have in thy mind,

that

the seed of those

whom

Tat,

they cast in the earth

[men]

call

Tangs, some

playing the part of saviours, others being most

destructive.
1

Of. G.

#., xvi. 10.

The question concerning the spiritual and other spaces

"Of what type are they?" occurs with
great frequency in the Bruce and Askew Gnostic Codices.
3 Or energies.
2

rimos.

and

their inhabitants,

*6ri Kcil

its

tV yrjv

ffir^pfiarl^ovcriv ks KaXovari rdvas,

rhs

fihv <ra>T7}-

Neither Patrizzi nor Gaisford, nor

Meineke, nor Wachsmuth, nor Menard, has a word to say on this
piovs,

ras Be d\edpi(>TaTas.

most interesting passage.

VOL.

III.

would suggest in the

first

place that

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

50

Further the Stars

7.

heaven as well do in

in

their several [courses] bear

them 2 underworkers 3

and they 4 have ministers and warriors 5

And

they

in [everlasting] congress with

them 7

speed on their course in aether floating,

filling [all] its

They

full-

no space

space, so that there is

above empty of

stars.

are the cosmic engine of the universe,

having

own

their

too.

peculiar

action,

which

is

subordinate, however, to the action of the Thirtysix,

from

whom

the deaths of

and hosts of

throughout

the other lives

[all]

10

lands arise

with

souls,

[lesser] lives that spoil the fruit.

And under them 11

8.

[all]

is

what

is

called the

and that we should read " ots KaXovo-i TdVas, robs

and in the second that TdVas
is a shortened form of Tiravas or Titans.
Tavas (? from TaV) is
connected with ravads, " stretched out," from \Jrav, just as Tir&v

the text

is faulty,

fiky croorriplovs,

robs 5e dXedpioordrovs"

Tiraves thus

connected with nraivw,

is

signifying the Stretchers

may, however, also be connected with riras (rirris)

from TtVco, and so mean Avengers. Of. J. Laurent. Lydus, Be
Me7isibus, iv. 31 (W. 90, 24), as given in note to P. S. A., xxviii. 1.
1
The planetary spheres, presumably.

or Strivers.

It

8c.

vTro\LTovpyovs

the Decans.

Si

aVa

XeySfjLGi/ov.

ever, is of frequent occurrence in the

See,

for instance,

" Atque

Se/cai/ot

Pistis

The Decans.

o-TpaTidras

soldiers

of the Mithriac mysteries

(Bruxelles

The

^Ether's.

10

(Schwartze's

Trans.),

p.

10

apxoprwv eorumque Xeirovpyoi."

(F.), Textes et

Sophia

The term Xeirovpyoi, howAskew and Bruce Codices.

one of the most famous of the degrees

of the Soldier.
See Cumont

was that

Monuments Figures

1899),

i.

Star-spheres.

Or animals.

relatifs

aux Mysteres de Mithra

315, and especially 317, n.

7

1.

The Decans.

u The Decans.

OF THE DECANS AND THE STARS

Bear, 1

just in

Animals,

the middle of the Circle of the

composed of seven
s

another corresponding [Bear]

energy

Its

as

is

it

nowhere and nowhere

producing

above

Circle,

head.

its

setting

axle's,

but stopping [ever]

and turning round the

proper motion

its

and with

stars,

were an

rising,

in the self-same space,

same, giving

51

the Life-

to

and handing over

whole

this

universe from night to day, from day to night.

And

after this

to which

names

there

is

another choir of

we have not thought it proper

but they who will come after

imitation, will give

to give
us,

them names themselves.

Again, below the Moon, are other

9.

corruptible, deprived of energy,

gether for a

exhaled out of the earth

which

which hold

itself

into

in

stars,

while, in that they've

little

above the earth,

stars,

to-

been

the

air

ever are being broken

up, in that they have a nature like unto [that

of]

useless

lives

on

which come into

earth,

existence for no other purpose than to die,

such as the tribe of

and other things

1

The Great Bear.

circles
2

like

flies,

and

fleas,

and worms,

them.

Compare " Behold the Bear up

The

zodiac.

The

4 Lit.

energy.

Gf. 1 above.

6 Sc.
8

there that

round the Pole."

the Bear.

That

is,

apparently, invent

Gf.

them out

Little Bear.

P.

S. A., xii.

of their

xiv.

1.

own heads hap-

hazard.
9

Referring, presumably, to the

phenomena of

" shooting stars."


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

52

For these are

the world

useful, Tat, neither to

but,

us nor to

on the contrary, they trouble

and annoy, being nature's by-products, 1 which

owe

their birth to her extravagance. 2

Just in the same way, too, the stars exhaled

from earth do not attain the upper space.

They cannot do
from below

they are sent forth

so, since

and, owing to the greatness of their

weight, dragged

down by

their

own

matter, they

quickly are dispersed, and, breaking up,

fall

back

again on earth, affecting nothing but the mere

disturbance of the air about the earth.
10.

There

another

is

Tat, that of the

class,

so-called long-haired [stars],

appearing at their

proper times, and after a short time, becoming

once again invisible

they

neither rise nor set

nor are they broken up.

These are the

brilliant

messengers and heralds

of the general destinies of things

They occupy

that are to be.

the space below the Circle of the

Sun.

When,

some chance

then,

is

going to happen

to the world, [comets] appear, and, shining for

some days, again return behind

the Sun, and stay invisible,
1

icapaico\ov6'f)fjLaTa

the Circle of

some

showing in

sequellcB.

See the same idea in Plutarch,

De

Is. et Os., iv.

5,

concerning

lice.
3

The comets

airoTcAcorfAdruy.

rcov

KaKov^vwv

KO/JLerwy.
5

Lit. below.

OF THE DECANS AND THE STARS

53

the east, some in the north, some in the west, and

We

them Prophets. 1
the nature of the stars.
The stars,

others in the south.

Such

11.

however,

The

is

differ

call

from the star-groups. 2

stars are

they which

sail

in

heaven

the

on the contrary, are fixed in heaven's

star-groups,
4

frame, and they are borne along together with the

heaven,

Twelve out

He who knows
clearly of [what]

say

of which

we

God

is

and,

if

the Zodia. 5

some notion

these can form

becoming [thus] a seer

so,

call

one should dare

for himself, [so]

contemplate Him, and, contemplating Him, be

blessed.

Tat. Blessed,

12.

[mine],

he,

father

son, that

one in

is

who contemplateth Him.

Her. But

body

in truth,

impossible,

'tis

should have this good chance.

Moreover, he should train his soul beforehand,

here and now, that
space] where

may

it

it is

not miss

when

reacheth there, [the

possible for

its

it

to contemplate,

way.

But men who love

will never

it

their bodies,

such

men

contemplate the Vision of the Beautiful

and Good.
1

fuLvTis, seers

2 a(TTepS

or diviners.

forpoov dia<f>opav exovonv.

8e

planets, aerolites

and comets

The

acrTepes

are

the

the forpa are the sidera, signs of the

fixed stars or constellations.

3
5

Or float (alcapovfxcvoi), lit. are raised aloft.

The zodiac lit. the animal signs, or signs
;

Of.

Ex.

i.

6.

of lives.

Or body.

54

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

For what,

Beauty which

son, is that [fair]

hath no form nor any colour, nor any mass

Tat Can
from these

there be aught that's beautiful apart

Her. God only,

which

is still

[my] son

greater,

or rather that

the [proper] name of God.

COMMENTAEY
The

earlier editors of Stobaeus (apparently following

the mistake of Patrizzi) have Asclepius instead of Tat

as the second person of the dialogue, which is clearly
wrong according to the text itself (see the first sentence
given to Hermes, and 9 and 10). 2
The excerpt is from a sermon in the Collection to
Tat.

It belongs to the further explanation of things

referred to only generally in the General

therefore, again probably

is,

from one

Sermons

of the

it

Expository

Sermons, in which series already a sermon has been

given on the Zodiacal Twelve and on the Seven Spheres.

Seeing also that

it is

stated that this sermon

authoritative and the chiefest of

suppose that

it

came

at the

end

of

them

all,"

is

"

most

we must

one of the Books

of

the Expository Sermons.

We

seem

to

have the beginning of the sermon, but

not the end, for Stobaeus breaks

off in

an aimless and

provoking fashion in the midst of a subject.

For a list of the Egyptian names of the Decans, with

their Greek transcriptions and symbols, see Budge,
Gods of the Egyptians, ii. 304-308.
1

Or body.
Menard and Wachsmuth have

similar nature

cf.

Exx.

i.

and

viii.,

Tat.

and

For other changes of a

ii. (iii.), and xvii.

G. H.,

EXCEEPT

X.

[CONCERNING THERULE OF PROVIDENCE, NECESSITY AND FATE]

(Title in Patrizzi (p. 38), "
'

From
Text

Of Fate," simply

followed by

the [Sermons] to Tat."

Stob., Phys. 9 iv. 8,

his

Son"; G. pp.

1.

[Tat.~]

under heading

" Of

Hermes

to

62 ; M. i. 42, 43 ; W. i. 73, 74.

Menard, Livre IV., No. vii. of "Fragments from the
Books of Hermes to his Son Tat," pp. 248, 249.)

all

61,

Rightly,

now

father, hast

further, [pray,] recall

thou told

unto

my

me

mind

what are the things that Providence doth rule,

and what the things ruled by Necessity, and in
under Fate.

like fashion also [those]

\Her.~\ I said there

were in

Tat, three

us,

species of incorporals.

The
it

first's

thus

a thing the

colourless,

is

mind

alone can grasp

figureless,

massless,

ceeding out of the First Essence in

by the mind

And

alone.

itself,

pro-

sensed

there are also, [secondly,] in us, opposed

Or an

That

intelligible something.

is,

the intelligible essence.

55

Or

bodiless.


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

56

1
2
to this, configurings,

the receptacle.

of

But what has once been

Primal

which

this serves as

set in

motion by the

Essence for some [set] purpose of the

Reason (Logos), and that has been conceived 5

[by

it],

straightway doth change into another

form of motion
urgic Thought.
2.

And

this is the

image of the Demi-

there

is

[also] a third species of in-

which doth eventuate round bodies,

corporate,

space, time, [and] motion, figure, surface, 7 size,

[and] species.

Of these there are two [sets of] differences.

The first [lies] in the quality pertaining
specially unto themselves

the second [set

is]

of the body.

The

special qualities are figure, colour, species,

space, time, movement.

[The differences] peculiar to body are figure

1

Sc. of opposite

nature to the

first

incorporal, as negative to

positive, say.
2

arxmar6rriTs

that

than figures or shapes,

is,

the "somethings"

types,

some kind.
3 That is, plays the part

more

subtle or ideal

or prototypes, or paradigms of

of matter,

"womb,"

or "nurse" to

these.
4

Lit. intelligible.

Or Mind.

Heeren

(as also all

Or

received.

editors subsequent to

him)

thinks that something has here fallen out of the text, because he
finds no second incorporal specifically mentioned ; but the duality

and passive, creative and condo very well for the second.

of the demiurgic thought, active

ceptive, will
7

Or appearance.

CONCERNING THE RULE OF PROVIDENCE,

configured,

and colour coloured

form conformed, surface and

size.

ETC.

57

there's

also

The latter with the former have no part.

3. The Intelligible Essence, then, in company
with God, 2 has power
[power] to keep

the corporal nature

world.

is

its

that

own
it

self,

keeps

and

itself,

not under Necessity.

by God,

'tis left

by Providence,

its

another, in that

since Essence in itself

But when

o'er

it

takes unto itself

choice of
is,

its

it

being ruled

choosing

of

the

the irrational

All

is

moved to-wards some

reason.

Reason [comes] under Providence

[falls]

under Necessity

is

unreason

the things that happen

under Fate.

in the corporal [fall]

Such

the Sermon on the rule of Providence,

Necessity and Fate.

COMMENT
1

have taken the

title

from the concluding words,

which are evidently the end of the sermon.

thus seems to have reproduced the whole of

Stobaeus
this little

which should be read in connection with Exx.

xi., xii. and xiii.
0. H. xii. (xiii.) 6 (see Commentary),
seems to presuppose this sermon.
tractate,

The distinction seems to be between colour, form, etc., "in

and differentiated colours, forms, etc.
3
irpbs r$ 06$ yevofjLwri.
Or save, preserve.

itself,"
2
4

This sentence seems to be corrupt.

:;

EXCERPT

XI.

[OF JUSTICE]
(I

have added the

title,

the excerpt not being found in

Patrizzi.

Text

Phys.,

Stob.,

iii.

under the vague heading

52,

50 M. i. 33, 34; W. i. 62, 63.

Menard, Livre IV., No. iv. of " Fragments from the
Books of Hermes to his Son Tat," p. 240.)

"Of Hermes";

[my]

p.

For there hath been appointed,

[Her.']

1.

G.

son, a very

mighty Daimon turning in

the universe's midst, that sees

men do on

all

things that

the earth.

Just as Foreknowledge 1 and Necessity have

been

way
act

set o'er the

is

Order of the gods, in the same

Justice set o'er men, causing the same to

on them.

For they rule

o'er

the order of the things

existing as divine, which have no will, nor any

power, to

err.

For the Divine cannot be made

from which the incapacity to
1

Or Providence.

Gf,

58

to

wander

err accrues [to

Ex.

i.

15, note.

it].

OF JUSTICE

But Justice

is

men commit on

appointed to correct the errors

earth.

For, seeing that their race

2.

death,
errs],

and made out

and

to those

sway.

is

under sway of

of bad matter, [it naturally

failure is the natural thing, especially

who

the Divine.
'Tis

59

are without the

power of seeing

over these that Justice doth have special

They're subject both to Fate through the

activities of birth,

and unto Justice through the

mistakes [they make] in

life.

COMMENT
The
in the

title

and place

of this excerpt has been discussed

Commentary on

C.

H.

xii. (xiii.) 6.

It belongs

to the Tat-Sermons, and in the collection of Lactantius

probably stood prior to the Sermon of Hermes to Tat,

"

About the General Mind." 4

1
This recalls Philo's description of the Therapeuts, who
were "taught ever more and more to see," and strive for the
"intuition" or "sight of that which is," rrjs rod 6vtos 6eas
(Philo, D. V. a, 891 P., 473 M.).'
2 That is, through the natural accidents that attend
life in a

body.
3

That is, in their way of living eV r$

Compare with it Exx. x., xii., xiii.

friy.

EXCERPT

XII.

OF PROVIDENCE AND PATE

from Patrizzi

(Title

[Sermons] to

38)

(p.

followed by

"

From

the

Ammon."

Text: Stob., Phys., v. 20, under heading: "Of Hermes

from the [Sermons] to Ammon " ; G. p. 70 ; M. i. 48, 49

W.

82.

i.

Menard, Livre IV., No.

of

Hermes

All

to

Ammon,"

ii.

of "

Fragments

things are born by Nature and

there

is

Books

by

Fate,

Providence

And

of this

taneous powers,

is

the Self-perfect

Reason.

[Reason] there are two spon-

Necessity and

Fate.

Fate doth minister to Providence and to

Necessity

while unto Fate the Stars 2 do minister.

For Fate no one

himself from their

is

able to escape, nor keep

shrewd scrutiny. 4

For that the Stars are instruments of Fate

at its behest that they effect

is

and

not a [single] space bereft of Providence.

Now

And

of the

p. 258.)

all

nature and for men. 5

1

avror\^s \6yos,

That

Biv6r7jTos.

is,

complete in

itself.
3

the Seven Spheres.

5

With

this extract

60

Sc. of

compare Exx.

it

things for

the Stars.

x., xi., xiii.

EXCEKPT

XIII.

OF THE WHOLE ECONOMY

no

(Patrizzi (p. 38) gives

" To the

Same Amnion

Text: Stob., Phys.,

but only the heading

title,

Afifnova)."

under sub-heading: "Of the

"Of Hermes from the
(Apovv 1 )" G. p. 68; M. i. 47;

v.

16,

Whole Economy," followed by:

Ammon

[Sermons] to

W.

i.

79, 80.

Menard, Livre IV., No.

Hermes

Now

to

i.

of "

Fragments

of the

what supporteth the whole

Providence

all

what holdeth

about,

eircleth it

drives

Books

of

Ammon ").

is

it

[called]

World, 2

is

together and en;

what

is

Fate,

Necessity

on and drives them round, 3

bringing Necessity to bear on them (for that

its

nature

Necessity)

death

of

the

is
;

[it

20,

bringing into play of [this]

is]

cause

the

of

and

birth

life.

So, then, the

1

The only

place in

and xxxv.

4, 7, 8.

beneath the sway of

Cosmos

is

which

form occurs in Stobaeus

this

Or Cosmos.

Fate

fifLapfAtvri.

61

Or makes them
Or destruction.

cf.

to revolve

v.

;.

62

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

Providence

(for

but Providence

'tis

the

[itself]

For which cause,

extends

too, the

round [Heaven],

speed

meet with

to

first

itself to

Gods

Heaven.

revolve,

possessed

of

it)

and

tireless,

never-ceasing motion.

But Fate [extends

which cause,
Cosmos].

And

too,

Cosmos];

for

Necessity [encompasses

the

itself

in

Providence foreknows

but Fate's the

reason of the disposition of the Stars. 6

Such
which
1

is

things are ordered.

all

Lit.

the law that no one can

"first

has

Providence."

escape,

by

The

following

parentheses seem to be the gloss of a scribe

who was

words

in

puzzled by

Usener, however, would detect a lacuna after the

new excerpt after that, and
Wachsmuth agrees with him. This seems to me to be unnecessary

the sentence.

parentheses and the beginning of a

2
3

That
That

is,
is,

avrdv.

The

pure Providence unmixed with Necessity and Fate.

because of Providence, the law of heaven.

text is hopeless,

being simply

elfxaptxevq

8e,

dt6n

tea)

avdyKT}.
G

That

is,

the Seven Spheres.

Of.

Exx.

x., xi., xii.

EXCEEPT

XIV.

OF SOUL

[I.]

from Patrizzi (p. 40) ; preceded by " Of Thrieegreatest Hermes," and followed by " To the Same Amnion."
Text: Stob., Phys., xxxv. 9, under heading " Of Hermes
from the [Sermons] to Amnion"; G. pp. 282, 283; M. i.
(Title

196, 197;

of

W.

281, 282.

Menard, Livre IV., No. iii. of " Fragments

Hermes to Amnion," pp. 259, 260.)

The

1.

essence,

Soul

is

further

and even when

[in

in

of the

incorporal

itself]

body

it

Books

by no means

doth depart from the essentiality peculiar to

itself.

Its nature

for ever

is,

according to

moving, according to
not

self-motive [purely],

its

essence to be

thought [to bej

its

moved

in something,

nor towards something, nor [yet]

because

of

something.

For

it is

prior [to

them] in power, and prior

stands not in any need of consequents.

"In something," furthermore,

and time, and nature
[this]

means harmony, and form, and

"because of something,"
'tis

means

space,

" towards something,"-

[this]

because of body that there

and nature.
63

is

figure

means body,
time,

for

and space,

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

64

Now

these things are in connection with

all

each other by means of a congenital relationship.

For instance, now, the body must have

2.

space, for

it

would be past

body should

contriving that a

all

exist without a space.

and

It changes, too, in nature,

for

'tis

impossible

change to be apart from time, and from the

movement nature makes

possible for there to be

nor

is

further

it

composing of a body

apart from harmony.

It is

because of body, then, that space exists

for that

body,

it

by

reception of the changes of the

its

does not let a thing that's changing pass

away.
changing,

But,

it

thing to another, and

doth alternate from

is

one

deprived of being in a

permanent condition, but not of being body.

For body, qua body, remains body
special

moment

of

its state

does not remain.

The body, then, keeps changing

3.

And

so, space is incorporal,

natural motion
its

in its states.

and time, and

but each of these has naturally

own peculiar property.

The property of space is

receptivity

of time

and number; of nature [it is]

harmony ['tis] love of body, change.

interval

['tis]

motion

The

of

special

nature of the Soul, however,

essential thought.
1

but any

Or thinking according

to essence,

ko.t

ova-iav v6ri<ris.

is

EXCERPT XV.

[OF SOUL,
(Patrizzi (p. 40) runs this

II.]

on to the preceding without a

break.

Text Stob., Phys., xxxv. 7, under heading " Of Hermes

from the [Sermons] to Ammon " G. pp. 291, 292; M. i.
203, 204 ; W. i. 289, 290.
Menard, Livre IY., No. iv. of " Fragments of the Books
:

of

Hermes

to

Ammon,"

That which

1.

moved

moved according to
the motion that doth move

is

the operation of
the

pp. 261, 262.)

is

all.

For that the Nature of the

with

motion,

according to

one

its

all

supplies the

[motion being] the

all

[one]

Power, the other that according

to [its] Operation.

The former doth extend itself throughout the

whole of Cosmos, and holdeth it together from
within

the latter doth extend

and encompasseth

it

III.

all

65

Or energy.
5

it],

these

things.
2

Sc. Nature's.

VOL.

And

from without.

go everywhere together through

1

[around

itself


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

66

Now

the [Productive] Nature

of all things

supplies the things produced with [power of re-]

production, sowing the

[and] having

seeds of its

own

self,

becomings 2 by means of moving

its

matter.
2.

And

Matter being moved was heated and

did turn to Fire and Water,

the

one [being]

strong and active, and the other passive.

And

by Water was dried up by

Fire opposed

and did become Earth borne on Water.

it,

And when

it

was excessively dried up, 4 a

vapour rose from out the three,

Earth and Fire,

and became

The [Four] came

from

Water,

Air.

into congress, [then,] accord-

hot

ing to the reason of the Harmony, 5

cold, [and]

with

dry with moist.

And from

the union

of these [four]

is

spirit

born, and seed proportionate to the surrounding

Spirit.

This [spirit] falling in the

womb

does not

remain inactive in the seed, but being active

transforms

the

seed,

and

transformed, develops growth and

1

<t><xns

words

simply

it

being [thus]

[this]

size.

but as there is a play in the original on the

0uV, and <pvofi4vois, I have tried to retain it

<j>6<ris } <f>{fou(ra y

in translation by a series of allied words.

2
6

3 Sc. Fire.

yspecrets.

Or law

6 Lit.

play on

of

Harmony,

Kark rhv

4 TrGpilrjpaivo^hov.

rrjs ap/xovlas

" breathing with one breath,"

Trvevfia

(spirit).

Comment., and Exx.

xix. 3

For
;

e/c

"spirit,"

iv. 2.

\6yov.

rrjs o-vfjiirvoias
cf.

G.

fi".,

x.

word-

(xi.)

13,

op soul

And

as

it

grows in

copy of a model, and

And on

by means
an image

Now,

draws unto

size, it

3.

67

is

the model

modelled.
the form supported,

is

of which that which

is

womb had

since the spirit in the

causeth fermentation

[life]

never changes from

It

the

Harmony com-

[only], the

its

of rational

life.

and changeless

indivisible

is

not the

but that which

life,

posed the latter as the receptacle

by

represented

is

so represented.

motion that maintaineth

This

itself

it

changelessness.

ruleth the conception of the thing within

womb, by means

and bringeth

it

of numbers, delivereth

into the outer

it,

air.

not owing
The Soul 6 dwells very near to it 7
to some common property, but under the con;

straint of Fate

body.

for that it has

no love to be with

Wherefore,

[the

Harmony 9 ]

according unto

Fate doth furnish to the thing that's born

1

Or image

tV

TTjs BiayorjTtKvs fays,

of a figure,

Be Ppao-Tucfiv.

eX8o\ov

[its]

10

cx^aros.

Or

vehicle,

of the purposive rational

viroBoxhv.
life,

otherwise

Harmony.
6 Reading
5
Sc. the Harmony.
tyvxh for ^v%V7 The new-born babe.
8
Compare Plutarch, Frag., v. 9 (ed. Didot) "For you should
know the intercourse and the conjunction of the soul with body is

called the

contrary to nature."
9

It is not easy to disentangle the subjects of

clauses.
10

jS'c.

the thing's.

some

of the above

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

68

rational motion,

the

and the

intellectual essence of

life itself.

For that
spirit,

and

the

life.

[this

*]

set

doth insinuate

it

itself into

the

moving with the motion

of

COMMENTAEY
Patrizzi is evidently at fault in running this on to Ex.
xiv.

"

The subject again is not so much

Of Conception and Birth," but as the

without a break.

Of Soul

" as "

general exposition

falls in

very well with the nature of

the subjects treated in Exx. xiv. and xvi,

the same general

title,

though we

may

we may keep

be quite certain

it was not that of the original.

The exposition in 2 is reminiscent of an apocalyptic
style, and seems to be a Greek overworking of Egyptian
ideas; for though the details are different and the
precise meaning difficult to disentangle, the general
point of view may be compared with the embryonic

that

stages of incarnation given in the Pistis Sophia (pp.

344

fit).

The Embryonic Stages of Incarnation

"Then the Eulers summon the workmen of their
number of three hundred and sixty-five,
and hand over to them the soul and the counterfeit of
seons, to the

the spirit bound together, the one to the other, the

counterfeit of the spirit being outside the soul, and the
1

Sc.

CTt/cs,

the rational movement.

this may perhaps have some reference

of lives, or the zodiac.

to the circle

OF SOUL

compound

of

the power within the soul being inside

both, that they

And

"(345)

69

may

hold together.

commandment

the Eulers give

to

the

workmen, saying
This is the type which ye shall set
in the body of the matter of the world.
Set ye the
compound of the power which is in the soul within all
'

may

them, that they

of

hold together, for

it is their

support, and outside the soul place the counterfeit of

the spirit/
their

This

the order which they have given to

is

workmen, that they may

the antitypes in

set

bodies.

"

Following this plan the workmen of the Eulers

bring the power, the soul and the counterfeit of the

spirit,

and pour them

through the world

"

all

three into the world, passing

of the Eulers of the Midst.

The Eulers of the Midst also inspect the counterfeit

and also the destiny. The latter, whose

of the spirit

name is the destiny, leadeth on

him killed by the death which

man

until it

destined

is

for

hath
him.

This the Eulers of the Great Fate have bound to the

soul.

"

And

the

workmen

Sphere bind the soul

of the

with the power, with the counterfeit of the spirit and

with the destiny. And the whole is divided so as to

form two

woman
for

parts,

to

surround the

in the world, in

them

to be sent

one part to

whom

man and

also

the

the sign hath been set

unto them.

the man and the other

(346)
to the

And they give

woman in the

food of the world, either in the aery, or watery, or

etheric substance

"Now,

which they imbibe.

therefore,

when

the

workmen

of the

Eulers

have cast one part into the woman and the other into
the man in the manner which I have just related, even
though [the pair] be removed to a great distance from
one another, the workmen compel them secretly to be

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

70

Then the

united together in the union of the world.

counterfeit of the spirit which

unto the part [of

sacrificeth it

which hath been sent into the

body [of the man], and

itself]

world in the matter

male cometh

in the

is

of the

and casteth

womb of the woman,

And forthwith the

into the

it

a deposit of the seed of iniquity.

workmen

three hundred and sixty-five

of the Eulers

enter into her, to take up their abode in her.

workmen
"

of the

And

(347)

cometh

from

two parts are

all

workmen check

the

the nourishment

all

eateth or drinketh, and keep

woman

it

The

there together.

the blood that

that the

in the

womb

woman
of the

And after forty days, they work

for forty days.

the blood [that cometh] from the essence of

nourishment, and work

all

the

together carefully in the

it

woman's womb.
"

After forty days they spend another thirty days

in building its

man

members

in the likeness of the

each buildeth a member.

the decans

who

I will tell

thus build [the body]

body
you

of

when

of

explain the emanation of the pleroma.

" Afterwards,

when

body entirely with

they

summon

first

the counterfeit of the

into the body

of the

which they have builded,

spirit,

and
power within the

soul within those,

pound

workmen have completed the

members in seventy days,

the

all its

they place outside

finally

all,

summon the
summon the com-

next they

they

soul,

and the destiny

with them,

for it is not blended

but followeth after and accompanieth them."

(An elaborate account of the " sealing " of

members
"

of the

And when

conception

plasm

the

is full,

is

number

of the

the babe

the power being small in

and the counterfeit

of

the

then given.)

it,

is

months

born, the

of the child's

compound

the soul being small in

the spirit being small in

of
it,

it;

OF SOUL
whereas the destiny, being

71

vast, is

not mingled with the

body, according to the regulation of the three (350),

but followeth after the

feit of

the

spirit, until

soul, the

body and the counter-

the soul passeth from the body

according to the type of death whereby he shall die

according to what hath been decreed unto

Eulers of the Great Fate."

him by the

EXCEEPT

XVI.

[OF SOUL,
(I

have added the

heading

"

III.]

Patrizzi (p. 40b) having only the

title,

To the Same Ammon."

Text: Stob., Phys.,

"Of Hermes";

xli.

under the simple heading:

3,

G. pp. 323, 324;

M.

i.

227, 228;

W.

i.

320, 321.

Menard, Livre IV., No.

Hermes

of

to

Ammon,"

1.

The

it

should have body,

Soul

of

v.

"Fragments

of the

then, incorporal essence

is,

Books

pp. 263, 264.)

it

for if

would no longer have

the power of being self-maintained. 1

For every body needeth being;

also ordered life

it

needeth

as well.

For that for every thing that comes to

change also must succeed. 4

birth,

For that which doth become, 5 becomes in

for in becoming it hath increase.
1

Or

Ms

of saving
rrjs eV

size

itself.

rd&i

Keiju.evr)s,

lit.

distinguished from intellectual

or cosmic

life set, or

life),

that

is,

placed, in order (as

presumably, sensible

life.

Or has becoming,
Or is born.

or genesis

72

Or

follow.

OF SOUL

73

Again, for every thing that doth increase,

decrease succeedeth

and on increase destruction.

For, sharing in the form of

life,

it

lives

it

shares, also, in being through the Soul.

2.

But that which

another,

And by

and taking part

tellectual

It

living

through

rational

in intellectual

life.

supply this

in-

life.

called

is

now mean becoming

doth

Soul that

the

is

to

first itself.

[this] " being " I

in reason,
It

being

is

the cause of being

is

through

the

the

and

intellect,

and

life,

mortal

through the body.

Soul

is,

possessing

from

all

accordingly,
[in

power

the

itself]

it

if

no [living] essence to furnish

Nor, any more, would
rational [living] thing,

it

life?

be possible to say a

were there no ratiocina-

It is not to all [lives]

;

freedom

that there were

tive essence to furnish intellectual

tends

of

be possible to talk about

intellectual living thing,

3.

incorporal,

change.

For how would

an

thing

[it

that

life.

intellect

ex-

doth depend] on the relationship of

body's composition to the Harmony.

1

ettovs

fo>f/s,

that

is,

formal

life,

or life set in order.

body, or that which comes to birth.

3 (wop (subs.) according to Gaisford,
that is, an animal
prefer (<a6v (adj.), taking it with the following hoy why and
2

Sc.

Or animal.

but I

Qvt\r6v.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

74

For

if

the hot in the compost be in excess,

1

light

he's

heavy and

and fervid; but

if

the cold, he's

he's dull.

For Nature makes the composition

fit

the

Harmony.
There are three forms of the becoming,

and medium.

hot, the cold,

It

makes

the

it fit

according to the ruling Star

in the star-mixture.

And

Soul receiving

plies this
of]

it,*

as Fate decrees, sup-

work of Nature with [the proper kind

life.

Nature,

accordingly,

assimilates

harmony unto the mixture

unites

its

the

body's

of the Stars, and co-

complex mixtures with their Harmony,

so that they are in

mutual sympathy.

For that the end of the

Stars'

Harmony

is

to

give birth to sympathy according to their Fate.

1

Kovcpos (mas.),

the

subject

is,

therefore,

man, the rational

animal.
2

Sc.

Nature.

Sc.

the body-compost.

Or, presumably, planetary sphere.

EXCERPT

XVII.

[OF SOITL,
(Patrizzi (p. 41)

IV.]

runs this on to the preceding without a

break.

Text

Stob., Phys.,

" Of

that is,
229; W.

xli. 4,

Hermes "

Menard, Livre IV*, No.

Hermes

1.

Soul,

Same "

" Of the

324, 325

G. pp.

M.

i.

228,

of the

Book

321, 322.

i.

of

under heading

to

Ammon,"

Ammon,

vi.

then,

own end within itself in

way of life
;

itself

essence containing

is

to itself the

draws also unto

"Fragments

of

pp. 265, 266.)

beginning taking

[its]

by

allotted it

Fate,

it

a reason like to matter,

possessing "heart" and "appetite."

" Heart," too,

its

doth make

its

state accordant with the Soul's intelligence,

it,

is

matter

if it

becometh courage, and

[then,]

is

not led away

by cowardice.

And
make
power,
1

" appetite "

state accord

its
it

is

matter, too

if

with the Soul's rational

[then] becometh temperance, and

In a metaphorical

sense,

doth

it

Ovpbv

teal iiridv/nia

not

is

terms originally

belonging to a primitive stage of culture, and often translated

"anger and concupiscence"

"too much" and the " too
paralleled with the vovs
i.

5 and xviii.

positive and

little" of the

and

negative, denoting the

animal nature, and

ivivoia of the rational nature.

3.

75

to

Gf.

be
Ex.

76

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

moved by

pleasure,

reasoning

for

up the

fills

" appetite's" deficiency.

And when

2.

both [these]

are harmonized,

and equalized, and both are made subordinate to

the Soul's rational power, justice

For that their

born.

doth take

state of equilibrium

" heart's " excess,

away the

is

and equalizes the

deficiency of " appetite."

The source

of these, however,

ing essence of
self,

all

[working] in

thought,

its

own

round everything, with

its

reason

thinks about
3.

is

the penetrat-

by

its self

its

own reason

own

as its rule.

doth lead and guide as

as 'twere its counsellor

all things.

The reason

is

reason that doth think

its

It is the essence that

ruler

who

of the essence, then,

is

gnosis

of those reasonings which furnish the irrational

[part]

with reasoning's conjecturing, 7

thing as compared with reasoning

faint

[itself],

but

reasoning as compared with the irrational, as

echo unto voice, and moonlight to the sun.

And "heart" and

upon a

rational plan

"appetite" are harmonized

;

they pull the one against

the other, and [so] they learn to

own
1

selves a circular intent.

$c. virtues,
t)

courage and temperance.

that the essence

diavoTjTiK^ ovcia,

know

in their

is,

#c.

which

two

pervades, all things by means of thought.

4

iv

Or power,

6 Trepivor}TiK6s.

avTTjs irepwor}TiK(p \6ycp.

or ruling principle.
7

eUacrfiSu

virtues.

penetrates, or

didvoia.

EXCEEPT

XVIII.

[OF SOUL,
(Patrizzi (p. 41)

Text

Stob.,

V.]

runs this on to the last without a break.

" Of the
xli. 5,
under heading

Phys.,

Same "that is, " Of Hermes

230 W. i. 322-324.

"

G. pp. 325-327

M.

i.

229,

Menard, Livre IV., No.

of

1.

Hermes

to

Ammon,"

of

vii.

"Fragments

of the

Books

pp. 267, 268.)

[Now], every Soul

is

from death and

free

in perpetual motion.

For in the General Sermons 1 we have said

some motions

are

by means of the

activities,

others are owing to the bodies.

We

say, moreover, that the Soul's

out of a certain essence,

poral

itself,

Now

produced

not a matter,

just as its essence

incor-

is.

every thing that's born, must of necessity

be born from something.

All things,

moreover, in which

followeth on birth,

must

of necessity

kinds of motion with them

1

Gf. G.

Or

H., x. (xi.) 1

and 7

energies.

77

destruction

the

xiii. (xiv.) 1

have two

[motion] of
and Ex.

ix. 1.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

78

moved

the Soul, by which they're

and body's

by which they wax and wane.

Moreover, also, on the formers dissolution,

[motion],

the latter

dissolved.

is

This I define, [then,] as the motion of bodies

corruptible.

The

2.

in that perpetually it

[its]

is

in perpetual motion,

moves

itself,

free

so,

according to this reason, every Soul

from death, having

active of

for

motion the making

itself.

The kinds of Souls are three

human, [and] irrational.

Now
in

the divine

[is

which there

is

the

moved

in

it,

For

and makes

motion active [too] in other things.

And
is

Soul, however,

it is

For when
separates

it is

itself

divine, [and]

that] of its divine body,

making

and moves

set free

active

of

itself.

from mortal

lives, it

godlike

perpetual motion,

body, and as

moved

'tis

in

self,

with the same motion as the universe.

3.

heart.

the

[parts]

Of.

irrational,

has joined to

the

own

something of

appetite

latter also are immortal, in

The former

and waning.
2

it

also

in its

it

as

and

These
1

is

The human [kind] has

the godlike [body], but

well

itself.

from the irrational portions of

departs unto the

itself,

Ex.

xvii.

is

here the body

that they

the latter, the motion of waxing

OF SOUL

happen

79

be activities

also in themselves to

but

[they are] the activities of mortal bodies.

they are removed far from the

Wherefore,

godlike portion
godlike body

frame, they

but when this

when

of the Soul,

also cling to

it,

it is

in its

enters in a mortal

and by the presence

[of these elements] it keeps

on being a human

Soul.

But that of the

and

And

appetite.

of heart

irrationals consists

for

this

cause

these

lives

are also called irrational, through deprivation of

the reason of the Soul.

4.

You may

consider, too, as a fourth [kind]

that of the soulless, which from without

the

them moving.
But this should [really] be the moving of
itself within its godlike body, and the moving
of these [other] things as it were by the way.

bodies operates in them, and sets

COMMENT
The mention

of the

General Sermons

( 1) raises

question as to whether or no our extract

may

the

not be

from one of the Sermons to Tat, for in all other cases

these General Sermons are referred to in the Tatliterature.
The contents, however, are so similar to the
extracts from the Sermons to Ammon that we keep
this excerpt with them.
2

Sc.

The other kinds presumably operating

the divine part.

The

irrational parts.

in bodies

from within.

EXCEEPT XIX.

[OF SOUL, VI.]

(Patrizzi (p. 41b) runs this

on to the

without a

last

break.

Text

Stob.,

Same"that
229, 230

W.

Phys.,

i.

xli.

Hermes

to

Ammon,"

Soul, then,

1.

under heading
G.

is

viii.

an eternal intellectual essence,

1

the reason
2

it

itself]

the Harmony's intention. 4

makes,

thinks with

itself in

it

it

bideth in and by

It ruleth its

thought
1

of itself;

Lit. the physical

and

doth attract [unto

itself,

body Nature
the maker of

world.

own

reason, bearing in its

by the name
2

Sc.

a motion (called

it

vSrjfia.

up

[it,]

leaves behind the

the noetic

328; M. I

" Fragments of the Books

of

when

"Of the

pp. 269, 270.)

having for purpose

But when

327,

pp.

324, 325.

Menard, Livre IV., No.

of

6,

"Of Hermes";

is,

the reason.

own

of life)

ffvvvoovaa.
Znkvoiav.

body.

This might here be translated " the self-purposive," to pick

the word-play on

Or purpose^

p6r)fia

and

hi&voia.

vo^ucm.
80

81

OF SOUL

unto [that

like
life.

For that the thing peculiar to the Soul

2.

this],

[is

like

is

peculiarity.

There

what

to furnish other things with

own

its

cometh into

that which

of]

are, accordingly,

two

lives,

two motions

one, that according to the essence of the Soul

the other, that according to the nature of the body.

The former
more partial]

more

the

[life]

latter

general, [the

that

has no authority but

essence

other

[is]

is

is

according unto

own

its

the

self,

under necessity.

[is]

For every thing

moved,

that's

moveth

necessity of that which

is

under the

[it].

The motion that doth move, however,

is

in

close union with the love of the noetic essence.

For Soul must be incorporal,

essence

that

hath no share in any body Nature makes.

For were

it

reason nor intelligence.

For every body

when

it

would have neither

corporal, it

is

without intelligence; but

doth receive of essence,

it

doth obtain

the power of being a breathing animal.

3.

The

the body

spirit
;

[hath the power to contemplate]

the reason of the essence hath the

power to contemplate the

That

is,

Beautiful.

presumably, of the same nature as the motion of the

soul in incarnation or perhaps of the animal soul,

2 p6rj(Tiy.
3

Cf. G. if., x. (xi.) 13,

VOL.

III.

Comment.

and Exx. xv.

2, iv. 2.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

82

The

sensible

the

spirit

discern appearances.

various sense-organs

by means

we

is

that which can

It is distributed into the

x
;

a part of it becometh spirit

we

of which

we

of which

see,

hear, [a part]

[a part]

by means

by means of which

by means of which we

smell, [a part]

taste,

by means of which we touch.

This spirit, when it is led upwards by the

[a part]

understanding, discerns that which

but

if 'tis not, it

For
of

it is

of the body,

[impressions].

4.

The reason
is

of the

that which

is

and

3
;

itself.

that, too, receptible

essence,

on the other

possessed of judgment.*

The knowledge of things worthy

co-existent with the reason

is

sensible

only maketh pictures for

all

hand,

is

[to

be known]

[that which

is

co-

existent] with the spirit [is] opinion.

The

latter has its operation

ing world

the former, from

from the surround-

itself.

COMMENT
As Exx.

xvi.-xix. follow one another in Stobseus, it is

highly probable that they are

group

and as
Exx. xiv. and

of sermons,

to those of
1

Lit. organic senses

Lit. spirituous sight.

That

is,

cf.

all

taken from the same

their contents are so similar

xv.,

and these are stated by

G. H., x. (xi.) 17.

the sensible or phenomenal world.

rb <ppovovv.

83

OF SOUL
Stobaeus to be from the " Sermons to
fairly justified

in

grouping them

Ammon," we

all together.

are

How

to Ammon there may have been in the

by Stobaeus we have no means of knowthey may also perhaps have had no distinctive title

many Sermons
collection used

ing

but as Stobaeus usually leaves out the

titles in

quoting,

even when we know them from other sources, there

no

definite conclusion to be

drawn from

his silence.

is

EXCEKPT XX.

[THE POWER OF CHOICE]

(Patrizzi (p. 42) runs this

Text

Stob.,

Hermes"; G.

ffihica,

(ii.)

on to Ex. xix. without a break.

" Of
31, under heading

vii.

654, 655;

pp.

M.

W.

100, 101;

ii.

ii.

160, 161.

Menard, Livre IV., No.

i.

of

"Fragments Divers," pp. 271,

272.)

There
ception.

is,

and

per-

Opinion
ception

then, essence, reason, thought,

and sensation move

towards

per-

reason directs itself towards essence

thought

sends

own self.
And thought

is

itself

forth

through

its

interwoven with perception,

and entering into one another they become one

form,

which

Opinion

is

that of the Soul

and

Soul's perception

the

same

state.

falling short,
1

and

[itself].

move towards

sensation

the

but they do not remain in

Hence

is

there

excess,

difference with them.

*

v6i)(jLa.

84

dtdyoia.

and

THE POWER OP CHOICE

When
tion,

85

they are drawn away from the percep-

they deteriorate

but when they follow

and are obedient, they share

it

in the perceptive

reason through the sciences. 1

We

2.

have the power to choose

within

it is

our power to choose the better, and in like

[to choose] the worse, according to our will.

And

if

[our] choice clings to the evil things,

doth consort with the corporeal nature

it

way

for this cause Fate rules

[and]

him who makes

o'er

this choice.

Since, then, the intellectual essence

absolutely

embraces

free,
all

law unto

[namely]

in thought,
itself

and

and

it

sent

forth

it

first

in us

reason

that

it

self-identical,

account Fate does not reach

Thus furnishing

the

ever

on

is

that
is

this

4
it.

from the First God,

the perceptive reason, and the

whole reason which Nature hath appointed unto

them that come to birth.

With these the Soul
with their

fates,

though

consorting,

consorteth

[in herself] she

hath no

part [or lot] in their fates' nature.

1

Sto

rav

ijlo&hh&twv.

Reading ckovo-Icos for the meaningless aKovtrlws of the text.

3 Reading yorifxariK^ with
Patrizzi, instead of aw nanny
with G. W. prefers aff^aros (incorporal).
4

Sc,

as

the reason.

The Soul, or intellectual essence. The text is very obscure,

and Wachsmuth does not seem to have improved it. Cf. C. iff.,
6

xii. (xiii.) 8.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMtfS

86

(Patrizzi (p. 42) adds the following

it is

to

the preceding;

not found in Stobseus, and appears to be a scholium.

What

is

harmony

necessitated

by

the

of [all] the parts, in no

from that which

is

interwoven

way

differs

fated.

COMMENT
I

have supplied a temporary heading for the sake of

Our extract, however, seems to be taken

uniformity.

from a lengthy

Sermons

treatise,

and was probably one

to Tat.
1

Lit. interweaving.

of the

EXCEKPT

OF

TO HORUS

ISIS

(Title in Patrizzi (p. 45) is "

Text: Stob., Flor.,

xiii.

Hermes from the [Sermon]

M.

i.

265

H.

iii.

XXI.

50,
of

From

Isis."

under the heading: " Of

Isis to Horus " ; G. i. 328

467.

Schow gives another heading, which Gaisford (in a note)

" Of Hermes from
is from the Vienna codex, namely

thinks

the Intercession (or Supplication,

Menard,

Livre IV., No.

ii.

of

Il/occr/^cias) of Isis."

"Fragments Divers,"

p.

272.)

refutation, when

King, carries the

it is

recognized,

man who

is

the desire of things he did not

refuted

know

greatest

towards

before.

COMMENT
This fragment

is

clearly

not in the style of the

"Sermon of Isis to Hermes" (Ex.

it is far more closely reminiscent of 0. H., xvi.
and is, therefore, probably from the Sermon of

excerpt from the

xxvii.)

or

xvii.,

Asclepius to the King.

1
R. (p. 134, n. 3) says simply that the last word (" Horus") is
missing in the Vindobonensis, and finds no difficulty in recognizing a type of literature in which King (Amnion) is a pupil of

Isis.

87

EXCEEPT

XXII.

[AN APOPHTHEGM]
(Text

Hermes on being
replied:

W.,

asked,

The Demiurge

most wise and

i.

What

of wholes,

everlasting.

88

34, 5.)
is

God?
Mind

the

EXCERPT

XXIII.

FROM " APHRODITE "

(Title in Patrizzi (p. 45) is "The Likeness of Children,"
by " From Aphrodite."

followed

Text:

Phys.,

Stob.,

Hermes from

'

xxxvi.

Aphrodite

'

208 ; W. i. 295, 296.

Menard, Livre IV., No.

2,

under

iii.

"Of

heading:

G. pp. 297, 298; M.

i.

207,

"Fragments Divers,"

of

p. 273.)

How,

[then,] are offspring born like to

their parents?

own]

[their

species

[Aphrodite.']

When

Or how

are

they returned 1 to

set

will

forth

mass
1

reason.

generation stores up seed from the ripe

3
blood being sweated forth,

that

the

somehow
4

there's

it

comes to pass

exhaled from the whole

of limbs a certain essence, following the

aTroSteoTcu,

referring,

presumably, to the idea of

metem-

psychosis.
2

Or

ia<t>e$povfjLevov.

families.

following
Pcedagog.,
*

Lit.

the

vi. 48.

body.

But W. has

emendation

of

Qa<f>povfjLvov

Usener,

(turned into foam),

on Clem. AL

based

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

90

law of a divine

though the

activity, as

man

him-

were being born; the same thing also in

self

the woman's case apparently takes place.

When,

then,

what floweth from the man hath

the ascendancy, and keeps

intact,

the young

one's brought to light resembling its sire

trary wise, in the same

con-

way, [resembling]

its

dam.
Moreover,

any

if

there should

part, [then] the

be ascendancy of

resemblance [of the young]

will favour that [especial] part.

But sometimes

also for long generations the

offspring favoureth the husband's form, because

his

decan has the greater influence 1 at that

[particular]

moment when

the wife conceives.

COMMENT
This fragment belongs to a type of Hermetic literature

which it is the sole surviving specimen. It is in

form identical with the Isis and Horus type but what
of

the

been

name

of the questioner of

is difficult to say.
1

\6yov.

Aphrodite could have

EXCEEPT XXIV.

HYMN OF THE

[A

GODS]

under the simple heading " Of

65; M. i. 45 ; W. i. 77. The same verses
are read in the appendix to the Anthologia Palatina, p.
(Text

Stob., Phys., v. 14,

Hermes"; G.

p.

768, n. 40.)

Seven Stars far varied in their course revolved

upon the [wide] Olympian plain; with them
for ever will Eternity

by

shines

spin [fate]

2
:

Mene that

gloomy Kronos, [and]

night, [and]

sweet Helios, and Paphie who's carried in the

shrine,

courageous Ares, fair-winged Hermes,

and Zeus the primal source 4 from

whom

Nature

doth come.

Now
1

they themselves have had the race of

Or Mon.

But the Anthology reads " Kal ro?<rtv ail Kavovi&rai "
iEon is for ever regulated or measured
by the Seven which seems to have no sense unless it means that
the Seven are the instruments, whereby Eternity is divided into
2

ivivfoercu.

that

is

to say, Eternity or
;

time.
3

That

is,

Venus, the image of

in a small shrine in processions.

91

whom

was, presumably, carried


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

92

men

entrusted

there

is

to

their

care

so

us

that in

a Mene, Zeus, an Ares, Paphie, a Kronos,

Helios and Hermes.

Wherefore we are divided up [so

from the

setherial spirit,

draw

as] to

tears, laughter, anger,

birth, reason, sleep, desire.

Tears

Kronos, birth

are

Zeus,

reason

[is]

Hermes, courage Mars, and Mene

sleep, in sooth,

and Cytherea

[is]

for

'tis

desire,

and Helios

laughter

because of him that justly every mortal

thinking thing doth laugh and the immortal

world.

COMMENT
This

the only

is

known specimen

to the Trismegistic tradition.

ever,

under

tion,

" vvfcricpavris"

of verses attributed

Liddell and Scott, how-

do not question this attribu-

while Clement

of

Alexandria (Strom.,

[this is a reference

of

Wachsmuth s which

verify]) praises the "

Hymns

On

of

is

ascribed to

p.

633

I cannot

the Gods " of Hermes.

the contrary, in Anthol. Palat.

seventh verse

vi.

Theon

p.

442, n. 491, the

of Alexandria.

Meaning the one element or ether simply.

EXCERPT XXV.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

in

(Title

Patrizzi

(p.

27b),

[I.]

the Latin translation,

in

"Minerva Mundi." 2
Text

Stob., Phys.,

xli.

44,

under heading

Greatest Hermes' Sacred Book

"

From Thrice'

The Virgin of the World "

G. pp. 395-419 M. i. 281-298; W. i. 385-407.
Menard, Livre III., No. i. of " Fragments of the Sacred
Book entitled 'The Virgin of the World/" pp. 177-200.)
*

I.

So speaking
sweet

the

Isis

doth pour forth for Horus

draught

(the

first)

of

deathless-

1
Or "Apple of the Eye of the World" see Commentary.
Referred to as K. K., i.e. K6pr) K6ff}xov.
2 Curiously enough, though the page-headings throughout have

"Minerva Mundi," the heading of p. 28 still stands "Pupilla

Mundi" showing that Patrizzi himself was puzzled how to
translate the Greek, and had prohahly in the first place translated
it throughout "Pupilla Mundi," or "Apple of the Eye of the

World."

In his Introduction

(p.

3),

however, Patrizzi writes

"

But there is extant also another [book of Hermes] with the title
of The Sacred Book/ which we found in Cyprus, in a monastery
called Enclistra, at the same time as the rest of the books, and
which John Stobseus has inserted in his Physical Eclogues
'

This would seem to suggest that

Sermon, and that its main title was

together with other fragments."

Patrizzi had seen the original
" The Sacred Book."
3

have numbered the paragraphs

93

for convenience of reference.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

94

ness 1 which souls have custom to receive from

Gods, and
(logos)

thus

her holiest

begins

discourse

Seeing that. Son Horus, Heaven, adorned with

many

a wreath [of starry crowns],

every nature of

nowhere

it

o'er

set

things beneath, and that

[all]

lacketh aught of anything which the

whole cosmos now doth hold,

it

is

in

every

way

needs must be that every nature which

underneath, should be co-ordered and

by those that

lie

above

for things

lies

full-filled

below cannot

of course give order to the ordering above.

needs must, therefore, be the less should

It

give

place

to

the

The

mysteries.

greater

ordinance of the sublimer things transcends the

lower

'neath

it is

both sure in every way and

no

mortal's

thought.

f alleth

Wherefore the

[mysteries] below did sigh, fearing the wondrous

beauty and the everlasting durance of the ones

above.

'Twas worth the gazing

and the pains to

see

Heaven's beauty, beauty that seemed like God,

God

who was

yet unknown,

and the

rich

majesty of Night, who weaves her web with

3
rapid light, though

it

of the other mysteries

be less than Sun's, and

4

in turn that

move

in

Heaven, with ordered motions and with periods

1

rb irp&TOV apPpocrias.

Sc.

The weft and warp

of stars.

Or contemplation, Qteoplas.
The planetary spheres.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

of times, with certain hidden influences

95
*

bestow-

ing order on the things below and co-increasing

them.
2.

Thus

succeeded

fear

fear,

and searching

search incessant, and for so long as the Creator

of the universals willed, did ignorance retain its

grip

on

manifest

But when He judged

all.

Him who He

Gods the Loves, and

He had

which

fit

to

breathed into the

poured the splendour 2

within His heart, into their minds,

in ever greater

and

still

greater measure

that

they might have the wish to seek, next

firstly

they might yearn to

win success as

to

He

is,

freely

it

find,

and

finally

But

well.

this,

have power

my

Horus,

wonder-worthy son, could never have been done

had that seed 3 been subject to death, for that

as

yet had no existence, but only with a soul that

could vibrate responsive to the

mysteries

of

Heaven.
3.

Such was all-knowing Hermes, who saw

things,

and seeing understood, and understanding

had the power both

explanation.

stone

all

to

disclose

and to give

For what he knew, he graved on

yet though he graved them onto stone

he hid them mostly, keeping sure silence though

in speech, that every
1

cLTrSpoiai,

the

of

or emanations.

pure

Egyptian

younger age of cosmic time

Cf.

R. 16, n. 4, for the conflation

doctrine with astrological

emanation

considerations.
2

Radiance or

light.

Sc. the race of the

Gods.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

96

might seek

for them.

And

thus, with charge

unto his kinsmen of the Gods to keep sure

watch, he mounted to the Stars.

To him succeeded

Tat,

who was

at once his

son and heir unto these knowledges

and not

long afterwards Asclepius-Imuth, according to

who is Hephaestus, 1 and

who were to make enquiry of the

the will of Ptah

rest

the

all

faithful

of heavenly contemplation, as Fore-

certitude

knowledge 2

willed,

Foreknowledge queen of

all.

Hermes, however, made explanation to sur-

4.

rounding [space], how that not even to his son

(because of the yet newness of his youth) had he

been able to hand on the Perfect Vision.

when

Sun did rise for me, and with all-seeing

gazed upon the hidden [mysteries] of

the

eyes I
that

But

New Dawn,
came

there

to

and contemplated them, slowly

me

but

it

was

sure

con-

viction that the sacred symbols of the cosmic

elements were hid away hard by the secrets of

Osiris.
5.

[Hermes], ere he returned to Heaven,

on them, and spake these words.

voked a

spell

(For

not meet,

'tis

in-

my

son, that I should leave

this proclamation ineffectual, but [rather] should

speak forth what words [our] Hermes uttered

1
'

For the restored text, see R. 122.

Or Providence, irpovoia.

3
The masculine is here used, the writer forgetting
moment that he had assumed the person of Isis.

for

the

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

when he hid
said

Thus then he

books away.)

his

97

"

who have been made by my

holy books,

immortal hands, by incorruption's magic

.

from

free

.*

decay

throughout

remain and incorrupt from time

seeable, unfindable,

every one

for

spells,

eternity

Become unwhose

foot

shall tread the plains of this [our] land, until

Heaven doth bring

old

whom

for you,

meet instruments

forth

the Creator shall call souls."

Thus spake he

and, laying spells

on them

by means of his own works, he shuts them safe

away in their own zones. And long enough the
2
time has been since they were hid away.

And

6.

my

Nature,

was barren,

son,

till

they who then were under orders to patrol the

Heaven, approaching to the God of

all,

their

King, reported on the lethargy of things.

The
was

time was come for cosmos to awake, and this

no one's task but His alone.

"

We

pray Thee, then," they

said, " direct

Thy

thought to things which now exist and to what

things the future needs."

When

7.

said

The

they spake thus, God smiled and

" Nature, arise

text

is

"

And from His word

Meineke's emendation

here again hopeless.

which makes
Hermes smear the books with some magical ointment is ingenious, but hardly satisfactory, though Wachsmuth adopts it.
(Adnot.yip. cxxx.) hs

This

VOL.

is

III.

(pap/xdicq)

purely conjectural

xp'uras etwcpaTip

the text

is

utterly corrupt.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

98

came

there

a marvel,

feminine,

possessed

Gods stood

perfect beauty, gazing at which the

And God

all-amazed.

name
be

the

of Nature, honoured

Fore-father,
her,

of

with

and bade her

prolific.

Then gazing

He

fixedly on the surrounding space,

spake these words as well

filled

with

all

things

" Let

Heaven be

Air,

and iEther

and

full,

God spake and it was so. And Nature

with herself communing knew she must not
disregard the Sire's command so with the help
of Toil she made a daughter fair, whom she did
call Invention.
And on her * God bestowed the
!

too "

gift of being,

and with His

them that had been

mysteries, and to

gift

He

set apart all

them with
Invention gave the power of
so-far

made,

filled

ruling them.
8.

But He, no longer

above should be
full

it

inert,

but thinking good to

fill

of breaths, so that its parts should not

remain immotive and

these

willing that the world

inert,

He

thus began on

with use of holy arts as proper for the

bringing forth of His

own

special work.

For taking breath from His own Breath and

blending this with knowing Fire, 3

them with

He mingled

certain other substances which have

Sc.

Invention.

Sc.

the breaths or

irvp voep6v

Later Platonists

spirits.

term in frequent use subsequently among the

cf. Porphyry, ap. Euseb., Prcep. Ev., XV. xi. 16

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

no power to know
either with other

He

of power,

thoroughly

1
and having made the two

99

one, with certain hidden

thus set

all

words

the mixture going

until out of the compost smiled a

substance, as

it

were, far subtler, purer

and

far,

more translucent than the things from which

came

was so

it

could detect

And

9.

set

unto

clear that

it

no one but the Artist

it.

since it neither

it (for it

thawed when

was made of

Fire),

was

fire

nor yet did

when it had once been properly produced

it was made of Breath), but kept its mixture's

freeze
(for

composition a certain special kind, peculiar to

itself,

of special type and special blend,

composition, you must know,

chosis, after the

name and from

1

Sc.

is

called

more auspicious meaning

the similarity of

its

Psy-

of the

behaviour 2 )

knowing and unknowing primal elements.

the

P.S.A^vi.
2
The text
the writer

God

(which

is

Cf.

very involved and obscure, and the meaning of

by no means

clear.

Psychosis

(\|/*$xw<ns)

means

either

animation (quickening) or " making cold " (cf. ^x^> and ^vx<* w )
the name Psychosis is thus apparently supposed by the writer to
have some connection with the term eij/vxe ("freeze," or grow
cold), which he has just employed in his description of the behaviour of the mixture. In its less auspicious sense fyvx* meant
" grow cold " ; in its more auspicious meaning it signified
" breathe." But even so it must be said that the further reason
(viz.,

similarity of behaviour) given for the choice of the

Psychosis

is

the exact opposite of what

of the soul-stuffs nature

we

and

is

term

stated in the description

this is all the

more puzzling when

Origen and his predecessors that the soul

($vxh) was so-called precisely because it had grown cold and
fallen away from the Divine heat and life.
With the term cf.
the o-afidTaxns of Exx. viii. 5, vii. 2.
recall the theory of

100

it

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

was from

He

this coagulate

enough in myriads,

fashioned souls

moulding with order and

with measure the efflorescent product of the

mixture for what

He

willed,

with skilled experi-

ence and fitting reason, so that they should not

be compelled to
10.

differ

any way one from another.

you must know, the

For,

that exhaled out of the

was not

movement God
For that

like to itself.

escence was greater,

fuller,

than was

its

to the first,

And

its

but greater

every

its

induced,

first

flor-

way more

pure,

second was far second

far

than was

its

third.

thus the total number of degrees reached up

to sixty.

law,

second

efflorescence

He

In spite of

ordered

it

this, in

that

all

laying

down the

should be eternal, as

though from out one essence, the forms of which

Himself alone could bring to their completion.
11.

and reservations
1

He

Moreover,

Gf. Plato,

in the height of

Tim., 41

number

appointed for them limits

"

He

upper Nature, 4

divided the whole mixture into

and assigned each soul to a

So also Philo, who speaks of the souls as " equal in number
M. 642, P. 586 (Ri. iii. 244).
to the stars"De Bom., i. 22
2
" They [the souls] were not, however, pure as
Gf. Plato, ibid.
before, but diluted to the second and third degrees.
souls equal in

to the stars,

star."

See 56 below.

Of the Nature Above

Above"

(tt)s

of the "Gnostics."

&m> Strews)

Gf. also

cf.

the "Jerusalem

Tim., 41 D:

"And

having

them as in a chariot, he
showed them the nature of the universe, and declared to them
the laws of destiny, according to which their first birth should be
one and the same for all, no one should suffer a disadvantage at
they were to be sown in the instruments of time
his hands
there [that

is,

among the

stars]

placed

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

that they might keep the cylinder

101
a- whirl in

proper order and economy and [thus] might

And so in that all-fairest

He summoned unto Him

please their Sire.

station of the iEther

the natures of

things that had as yet been

all

made, and spake these words

"0

ye

Souls,

of

fair

My solicitude, whom

Breath and

My own

children

Hands brought

My own

consecrate to

Mine own

have now with

to successful birth

and

world, give ear unto these

words of Mine as unto laws, and meddle not

with any other space but that which
for

you by

My

" For you,

for

ye keep steadfast, the Heaven,

have ordained

now they are

any way attempt

with virtue, shall stay as

you; but

if

ye

shall in

some innovation contrary to

you by

to

appointed

will.

if

with the star-order, and thrones

full-filled

is

My

My

decrees, I swear

most holy Breath, and by

mixture out of which

this

brought you into being,

and by these Hands of Mine which gave you

3
life, that I will speedily devise for you a bond
and punishments."
12.

And having

said these words, the God,

and to come forth the most religious of

nature was of two kinds, the superior

severally adapted to them,

animals; and as
race

human

would hereafter be

called man."

With

the last sentence, cf

also 12 below.
i

Gf.

P. 8. A., xix.

Gf.

Hermes-Prayer,

2
iii.

3,

and

note.

Gf.

31 below.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

102

who

my

is

Lord, mixed the remaining cognate

elements (Water and Earth

together, and, as

*)

on them certain occult words,

before, invoking

words of great power though not so potent as

the

first,

He

them moving

set

and

rapidly,

breathed into the mixture power of

life

and

taking the coagulate (which like the other floated

when

to the top),

it

had been well steeped and

had become consistent,

He

modelled out of

those of the [sacred] animals

like

it

possessing forms

unto mens.

The mixtures' residue He gave unto those

souls that had gone in advance and had been

summoned

to the lands of Gods, to regions near

the Stars, and to the [choir of] holy daimones.

He

said

"My

13.

fashion

My

things

art hath

ye children of

sons,
!

Nature,

Take ye the residue of what

made, and

let

each fashion something

which

shall

These

will I further give to

He

My

bear resemblance to his

own

nature.

you as models."

took and set in order fair and

fine,

agree-

ably to the motions of the souls, the world of

sacred animals, appending as

resembling

men

those which

and on these types

1

We have had

of

it

lives

previous mention of

were to those

came next

He

in order,

did bestow

fire, (aether)

and

air,

the

psychosis heing the quintessence.

2

These are presumably the types of

symbolized by the zodiac.

life in

the upper world,

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

the

103

and all-contriving pro-

all-devising powers

creative breath of all the things which were for

ever generally to be.

And He
the

withdrew, with promises to join unto

productions

visible

hands breath

of their

that cannot be seen, and essence of engendering

its

might give birth

like to each, so that they

And

to others like themselves.

no necessity to do aught
did at

than what they

first.

[And Horus asked

14.

else

these are under

What did the

And Isis said

:]

souls do, mother, then

Taking the blend of matter, Horus,

first
it,

son, they

looked at the Father's mixture and adored

and

tried to find out

whence

it

was composed

but this was not an easy thing for them to

know.

They then began

to fear lest they should fall

beneath the Father's wrath for trying to find out,

and so they

set to

work

to do

what they were

bid.

Thereon, out of the upper stuff which had

topmost layer superfluously

the race of birds

light,

its

they formed

while they were doing this

the mixture had become half-hardened, and by

this

time had

taken on a firm consistency

thereon they fashioned out the race of things

1

So Meineke

in

traditional " visible."

notes,

following

Cantor,

instead

of

the

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

104

which have four feet; [next they did fashion

forth] the race of fish

and needing

less light

a moist substance of a different kind to swim

and as the residue was of a cold and heavy

nature, from it the Souls devised the race of
in

creeping things.

They

15.

then,

my

son, as

though they had

done something grand, with over-busy daring

armed themselves, and acted contrary to the

commands they had received and forthwith they
;

began to overstep their proper limits and their

reservations,

same

place,

and would no longer stay in the

but were for ever moving, and

thought that being ever stationed in one place

was death.
That they would do

my

this thing, however,

son (as Hermes says when he speaks unto

me), had not escaped the

the

God and Lord

Eye

of universal

Him who is
things and He
of

searched out a punishment and bond, the which

they

now

in misery endure.

Thus was

that the Sovereign

it

resolved to fabricate with art the

in order that in

might be
16. "

spake

of all

frame,

the race of Souls throughout

it

chastised.

Then sending
'

King

human

Soul of

own Mind, 1 up
1

My

to

for

me/' Hermes says, "

He

and holy mind of

My

Soul,

what

point, the nature of the

Cf. Cyril, G. J.,

i.

15 (Frag. xvi.).

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

things beneath, shall

be seen in gloom

it

and be destitute

Me

hither to

Heaven/

said

now,

God

And when

"

My

and

looked

in

saith.

understood

And when He

He, "upon the Earth,

said

And

beneath."

all

Hermes

Gods

they came obedient to His com-

mand, "Look down,"

and

Bring

praise?

of

son, all of the

as

How

now been made remain

long shall what has up to

inactive

105

they forthwith both

the

Sovereign's

human

spake to them on

behalf, they [all] agreed to furnish

will.

kind's

who

those

were to be, with whatsoever thing they each

could best provide.
17.

Sun

said

"

Moon promised

I'll

shine unto

to pour light

my

full."

upon the

after-

the-sun course, and said she had already given

birth to Fear,

Memory

Cronus

for

and

also Sleep,

and

them. 1

announced

himself

already

sire

of

and Necessity.

Zeus said

may

Silence,

thing that would turn out to be

most useful
Justice

and

" So that the race which

is

to be

not for ever fight, already for them have I

made Fortune, and Hope, and

Peace/'

Ares declared he had become already

sire of

Struggle, Wrath, and Strife.

Nor yet did Aphrodite hesitate she also said

" I'll join to them Desire, my Lord, and Bliss,
;

Of. Plat.

Grit, 108.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

106

and Laughter

our kindred souls,

[too], so that

in working out their very grievous condemnation,

may

not exhaust their punishment unto the

full."

Full pleased were

all,

my

son, at Aphrodite's

words.

"And

my

for

part,"

said

Hermes, "I

will

make men's nature well endowed I will devote

to them Prudence and Wisdom, Persuasiveness
;

and Truth, and never

with

Invention,

mortal
life.

of

life

will I cease

but

ever

will

from congress
the

benefit

men born underneath my

types of

For that the types our Father and Creator

hath set apart for me, are types of wisdom and

and more than ever

intelligence,

what time the motion

[is

this

of the Stars set over

so]

them

doth have the natural power of each consonant

with

itself."

18.

And

God, the Master of the universe,

rejoiced on hearing this,

race of

" I,"

men

and ordered that the

should be.

Hermes

says, "

was seeking

which had to be employed, and

Monarch

for

His

aid.

for the stuff

calling

And He gave

on the

order to

the Souls to give the mixture's residue

taking

found

it I

it

and

utterly dried up.

" Thereon, in mixing

it,

used more water far

than was required to bring the matter back unto

1

Sc. " signs of

the zodiac," so-called.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

former

its

way

and weak and powerless,

might

it

moulded

it,

seeing mine

at

addition to

not, in

sagacity, be full of

" I

power as

and

it

own

was

did look on

it,

in order

natural

its

well.

fair

and

I rejoiced

work, and from below I

upon the Monarch

called

plasm was in every

state, so that the

relaxable,

that

107

and was

And He

to behold.

rejoiced,

and ordered that

the Souls should be enfleshed.

"

Then were they

first

plunged in deep gloom,

and, learning that they were condemned, began

to

wail.

was myself amazed at the

Souls'

utterances."

Now

19.

being

art

give good heed, son Horus, for thou

told

Kamephis, our

the

Mystic

forefather,

Spectacle

was

privileged

hear from Hermes, record- writer of

and

which

all

to

deeds,

from Kamephis, most ancient of [us]

when he did honour me with the Black

[Rite] that gives perfection
hear thou it now
all,

from

me

For when,

wondrous son of mighty fame,

they were about to be shut in their prisons, some

simply uttered wails and groans

self-same
liberty,

way

in

just the

as beasts that once have been at

when torn from

their accustomed haunts

they love so well, will be bad slaves, will fight

1

There

completed.

is

a lacuna in the text, which I have thus conjecturally

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

108

and make

their masters
serve, will

them.

and be in no agreement with

revolt,

nay more,

circumstance should

if

even do to death those that oppress

Others with louder outcry hissed like snakes

another one shrieked

shed

many

tears,

shrilly,

"

ere he spake

and, turning up and down

what things served him

20.

and

as eyes, he said

Heaven, thou source of our begetting,

Hands and holy Breath

iEther, Air,

ye most

our Monarch,
the Gods,

God

brilliant Stars, eyes of

Sun and Moon,

tireless light of

nurslings of our origin,

of

reft

from [you]

all

co-

we

suffer piteously.

"And

this the more, in

that from

spacious

realms of light, from out [thy] holy envelope

and wealthy dome, and from the blessed govern-

ment we shared with Gods, we shall be thus shut

down into these honourless and lowly quarters.
" What is the so unseemly thing we miser-

What [crime] deserves

How many sins await us
these punishments?
wretched ones? How many are the things we
ables

done?

have

have to do in

this our hopeless plight, necessities

to furnish for this watery frame that

dissolved
21.
1

is

so soon

" For that no longer shall our eyes behold

The reading

emended, so that

of this sentence
its

translation

is

has not yet been properly-

somewhat

conjectural.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

109

the souls of

God; when through such wateryspheres as these we see our own forefather Heaven
grown small and tiny, we shall dissolve in sighs,
nay, there'll be times we shall not see at all, 1

for sentence

hath been passed on us poor things

the gift of real sight hath not been given to us,

in that

it

hath not been permitted us to see with-

Windows they are, not eyes 2

" How wretchedly shall we endure to hear our
kindred breaths breathe in the air, when we no
longer shall be breathing with them
For
out the

light.

home, instead of this great world high in the

a heart's small mass awaits us.

Set

air,

Thou us

from bonds so base as these to which we

free

have sunk down, and end our grief

"

Lord, and Father, and our Maker,

if

so

it

be Thou hast thus quickly grown indifferent

unto the works of Thine own Hands, appoint for

us some limits

deem us worthy of some

words, though they be few, while yet we can see
!

Still

through the whole world-order bright on every

side

Thus

22.

speaking,

gained their request

Horus,
for

son,

that

the

the

Souls

Monarch

came, and sitting on the Throne of Truth made

answer to their prayers.

An Orphic verse has here crept into the, text from the margin.
runs "By light it is we see ; by eyes we naught behold."
Fragm. Monad., x., p. 504, Herm.
2
Gf. Plat., Men., 76 ; Seneca, Qucest. Nat, iv. 9.
1

It

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

110
"

Souls,

lords,

Me

all.

Know,

My unageing
free of sin,

all

you who are

of

ye shall dwell in the

of

under

set

long as ye keep you

rule, that as

some cause

if

be your

shall

they who are lords and marshals after

of

but

Love and Necessity

blame

for

fields of

Heaven

aught attach

itself

to you, ye shall dwell in the place that Destiny

condemned

allots,

"

be

If,

wombs.

to mortal

then, the things imputed to your charge

slight, leaving

the

bond of

subject to death, ye shall again

[father]
shall

frames

fleshly

embrace your

Heaven, and sigh no more; but

commit some greater

sins,

if

ye

and with the

end appointed of your frames be not advanced,

no longer

ye dwell in Heaven, nor even in

shall

the bodies of mankind, but shall continue after

that to wander round in lives irrational."
1

Gf.

Tim. 42 a

by necessity
2

Gf.

" When they should be implanted in bodies

and love."
sensation
they should have
:

Frag, xxiii.

3
"He who lived well during his appointed
Gf. Tim., 42 B
time was to return and dwell in his native star, and there he
would have a blessed and congenial existence. But if he failed
in attaining this, at the second birth, he would pass into a woman,
and if, when in that state of being, he did not desist from evil, he
would be continually changed into some brute who resembled
him in the evil nature which he had acquired, and would not
cease from his toils and transformations until he followed the
revolution of the * same and the like within him, and overcame
:

'

'

by the help of reason the turbulent and irrational mob of later

accretions, made up of fire and air and water and earth, and returned to the form of his first and better state." Notice the
omission of any reference to the inferior status of woman in the
Egyptian tradition.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

111

Thus speaking, Horus mine, He gave

23.

to

the gift of breath, and thus continued

all

"It

is

not without purpose or by chance

have laid down the law of your transformings 2

but as

[it will

be] for the worse

unseemly, so for the better,

if

ye shall

if

ye do aught
will

what's worthy of your birth.

" For

and no one

I,

else, will

Know,

and the Watcher.

then,

be the Witness
it is

for

what ye

have done heretofore, ye do endure this being

shut in bodies as a punishment.
"

The

difference in your rebirths, accordingly,

for you, shall

be as

and their

bodies,

have

[final]

said, a difference of

dissolution

[shall

be]

a benefit and a [return to] the fair happiness of

former days.
" But

if

ye think to do aught

of Me, your

mind

think the contrary [of what

punishment

the

unworthy

else

shall lose its sight so as to

for

benefit

is
;

true],

the

and take

change

to

better things for infamous despite.

"

But the more righteous of you, who stand

upon the threshold of the change to the diviner

state, shall

among men be

genuine philosophers,
lawgivers,

Lit.

and

"their spirits"

Reading

founders

real seers,

their bodies.
jueratfoAci*.

righteous kings, and

which

of

states,

and

and true herb-knowers,

apparently link the souls with

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

112

and prophets of the Gods most

excellent, skilful

musicians, skilled astronomers, and augurs wise,

consummate sacrificers, as many

worthy of things fair and good.

"Among

24.

winged

you

of

as are

[they shall be]

tribes

away their kind

nor feed on them nay more, when they are by,
no other weaker beast will be allowed by them to
suffer wrong, for what will be the eagles' nature
eagles, for these will neither scare
;

is

too just [to suffer

"Among

four-footed

of strength

lions,

life

measure

it].

practising

needs
the

things [they will be]

no

and of a kind which

exercises

they nor weary grow nor

"

And among

dragons, in

in

sleep,

of immortal
sleep.

in

mortal body
life

for

creeping things [they will be]

that this

animal

have great

will

strength and live for long, will do no harm, and

in a

way be

tamed

it will

its skin,

friends with

man, and

let itself

be

possess no poison and will cast

as is the nature of the Gods.

Manetho, cited in the Orthography of Chceroboscus (Cramer,

iElian, H. A., v. 39, who follows Apion ;
ii. 235, 32
R. 145, n. 3). But indeed this queer belief is a commonplace of
the Mediaeval Bestiaries, which all go back to their second
century Alexandrian prototype, the famous Physiologus, which
was doubtless in part based on Aristotle's History of Animals and
1

Cf.

Anecd. Ox.,

Pliny's Natural History.

2

ida-ei 5e koi

The reading is corrupt. But if we read

we have in the writer's ornate and somewhat

ynpdaav.

yrjpas for ynpdffav,

strained style eav yrjpas for the usual yrjpas e/c5iWv found in
Aristotle (J9T. V., 5. 7. 10 ; 8. 17. 11) for the changing of a serpent's

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

"

Among

dolphins

who

into

fall

swim [they will be]

take pity upon those

the things that

for dolphins will

113

and

the sea,

they are

if

breathing bear them to the land, while

dead they

if

still

they're

not ever even touch them, though

will

they will be the most voracious tribe that in the

water dwells."

Thus speaking God became imperishable

25.

Mind. 1

Thereon, son Horus, from the Earth

uprose a very Mighty Spirit which no mass of

body could
his

contain,

whose strength consisted in

And though

intellect.

he knew

the things on which he questioned

man was

with which
type, a

body

much and

fair

of

full

and

full well

the

body

clothed according to his

dignified, yet savage over-

fearimmediately he saw the

souls were entering the plasms, he cried out

"

What

Hermes, Writer of

are these called,

the Records of the Gods

And when
he said, "it

he answered "

Men

"

" Hermes,"

a daring work, this making man,

is

with eyes inquisitive, and talkative of tongue,

with power henceforth to hear things even which

skin.

The phrase "as

is

the nature of the Gods"

explained as referring to the parallel between

may then

the

be

anciently

supposed rejuvenescence of the serpent and the perpetual growing

young of the Gods.
1
" This when he'd said, the Shepherd mingled
Of. G. H., i. 27
" When the Creator had
with the powers." Of. Tim., 42 e
made all these ordinances He remained in His own accustomed
:

nature."

VOL.

III.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

114
are

no concern of

will use to its full his

who

dainty of smell,

his,

power of touch on every

thing.

"

Hast thou,

him

leave

his generator,

from

free

judged

who

care,

good to

it

in

the future

daringly will gaze upon the fairest mysteries

Wouldst thou leave him

which Nature hath?

without a

make

who

grief,

in the days to

come

his thoughts reach unto mysteries

will

beyond

the Earth?
26.

"

Men

will dig

up the

will find out their juices'

observe

the

roots of plants,

and

Men
Men

will

qualities.

nature of the stones.

dissect not only animals irrational, but

themselves,

dissect

they were made.

desiring

They

will

to

find

stretch

they'll

how

out

out their

daring hands e'en to the sea, and cutting

grown

forests

down

to lands beyond.

will ferry

[Men]

may

and

tread,

self-

one another

o'er

will seek out as well

the inner nature of the holy spaces

foot

will

will chase after

which no

them

into

the height, desiring to observe the nature of the

motion of the Heaven.

" These are yet moderate things [which they
will do].

For nothing more remains than Earth's

remotest realms

nay, in their daring they will

track out Night, the farthest Night of

27.

"

Naught have

all.

they, then, to stop

them

from receiving their initiation in the good of

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

freedom from

all

pain, and, unconstrained

terror's grievous goads,

life free

from

"Then

115

from living softly out a

all care.

will

they not gird on the armour of

an over-busy daring up to Heaven

Will they

not, then, reach out their souls freed

from

care unto the [primal] elements themselves

" Teach

by

them henceforth

all

to long to plan out

something, where they have as well to fear the

danger of

its ill-success,

in order that they

may

be tamed by the sharp tooth of pain in failure

of their hopes.

"Let the too busy nature of their souls be

balanced by desires, and fears, and griefs, and
empty hopes.

"Let

in

loves

quick succession sway their

souls, hopes, manifold desires, sometimes

and sometimes
their success

direr

unfulfilled, that the

may draw them

sweet bait of

into struggle

amid

ills.

" Let fever lay

losing heart they
28.

fulfilled,

Thou

its

heavy hand on them, that

may submit desire to discipline."

grievest, dost thou, Horus, son, to

hear thy mother put these things in words?

Art thou not struck with wonder, art thou not

terror-struck at

oppressed

When Momos
pleased, for

how poor man was

Hear what

is

sadder

grievously

still

said these things

Hermes was

what he said was said out of

affection

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

116
for

him

and so he did

speaking thus

"Momos,

all

that he recommended,

the Nature of the Breath Divine which

doth surround

The Master

[all

things] shall not become inert.

universe

of the

appointed

me

as

steward and as manager.

" Wherefore the overseer of His

be the keen-eyed Goddess of the

and

mysterious,

cannot

err,

devise

skilfully

will

command

all,

an

possessed of power

will

Adrasteia *

instrument,
sight that

of

and cannot be escaped, whereto

all

things on earth shall of necessity be subject,

from birth to

dissolution,

final

which binds together

strument shall rule

all

all that's

an

instrument
This in-

done.

other things on Earth as

well [as man]."

29.

These words, said Hermes, did

speak to

Momos, and forthwith the instrument was

set

a-going.

When

this

was done, and when the souls had

entered in the bodies, and [Hermes] had himself

been praised for what

was

done,

again

the

Monarch did convoke the Gods in session. The

Gods assembled, and once more did He make
proclamation, saying

"Ye

Gods,

all

ye who have been made of

chiefest Nature, free

from

all

decay,

who have

1
Nemesis, the karmic deity, " she from whom none can escape,
according to the generally accepted derivation of the name.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

117

received as your appointed lot for ever more to

whom

order out the mighty iEon, through

universal

things

never weary grow

will

all

sur-

rendering themselves in turn the one to other,

how

we be

long shall

rulers of this sovereignty

can ever know?

that none

How

things, shall they transcend the

long these

power of sight

Sun and Moon ?

of

" Let each of us bring forth according to his

Let us by our own energy wipe out

power.

this inert state of things

myth

let

chaos seem to be

incredible to future days.

mighty work

He

30.

and

spake

myself will

Set hand to

first

begin."

straightway in cosmic order

there began the differentiation of the up-to-then

And Heaven

black unity [of things].

forth above tricked out with

Earth,

still

a-tremble, as the

all his

shone

mysteries;

Sun shone

grew harder, and appeared with

forth

the

fair

adornments that bedeck her round on every

side.

all

For beautiful to God are even things which men

think mean, in that in truth they have been

made

to serve the laws of God.

And God
a- moving

as

much

rejoiced

and

when now He saw His works

filling full

His Hands, which held

as all surrounding space, with all that

Nature had produced, and squeezing tight the

handf uls mightily,

"

Take

[these],

He

said

holy Earth, take those,

all-

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

118

honoured one, who

31.

be the mother of

and henceforth lack thou naught

things,

Hands

art to

God spake, and opening His Hands, such

as God should have, He poured them all

into the composition of the world.

the beginnings were

for that the Souls as

enduring their

unknown

And

way;

in every

newly shut in

disgrace,

they in

began

prison, not

to

strive

emulation with the Gods in Heaven, in

command

of their high birth,

back, in that they had the

began to make them

themselves

among

set

in

in
full

and when held

same Creator, made

and using weaker men

revolt,

range

all

"

as

instruments,

upon each

other,

and

and make war

conflict,

themselves.

Thus strength did mightily prevail o'er weakness, so that the strong did burn and massacre
the weak, and from the holy places
cast the living
until

shrines,

down they

and the dead down from the holy

the

resolved to go to

Elements in their

God

their

Monarch

plain] about the savage state in which

distress
[to

men

comlived.

now being very great, the Elements

approached the God who made them, and
The

evil

formulated their complaint in some such words

as these
32. It

was moreover Fire who

He said
authority to speak.
"
Lord, Artificer of this

first

received

new World, thou

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

Name

among

mysterious

now revered by

"

ing

Thee;

peace

God ?
the savagery of

initiate

give laws to

with

fill

fair

to

right to leave the life of

it

Show now Thyself unto Thy World

1

up

the Gods, and

mankind, how long hast Thou,

all

Daimon, judged
mortals without

119

hopes

life

life

with

to right give oracles

things

all

consult-

and

let

men

the vengeance of the Gods, and none will

fear

sin.

" Should they receive due retribution for their

they will refrain henceforth from doing

sins,

wrong

they will respect their oaths, and no

one any more will ponder

" Let

them be taught

benefits received, that

do service in the

sacrilege.

to render thanks for

the Fire,

I,

sacrificial rites,

may

joyfully

that they

may

from the altar send sweet-smelling vapours forth.

"

For up to now

am

polluted,

the godless daring of these

burn up
1

They

flesh.

was brought

all

indecency
33.

And

"I

also,

forth

my

will

and by

but they adulterate with

undecaying

Air too said

Master,

am compelled to
let me be for what

men
not

Lord

state."

am made

turbid

by the

vapours which the bodies of the dead exhale,

and

am

health,

pestilential, and,

gaze

no longer

filled

down from above on

ought not to behold."

1

Sc. as supplicants

consulting an oracle.

with

things

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

120

Next
received
said

my

Water,

authority to

son

mighty

of

soul,

and spake and

speak,

"

wonderful Creator of

Father,

Daimon

and

self-born,

Nature's

through Thee doth conceive

this last,

command

all

all

things,

who
now at

Maker,

things,

the rivers' streams for ever to

be pure, for that the rivers and the seas or

wash the murderers' hands or

else receive the

murdered."
34.

After came Earth

taking up the

"

bitter

grief,

and

son of high renown, thus

tale,

she began to speak

in

sovereign Lord, Chief of the Heavenly

1
Ones, and Master of the Wheels, Thou Ruler of

us Elements,

Thee, from

Sire of

whom

is

things have the beginning

and of their

of their increase

whom

all

them who stand beside

decrease,

and into

they cease again and have the end that

their

due according to Necessity's decree,

greatly honoured One, the godless rout of

doth dance upon

"I hold
all

things

in
;

my

my

for

embrace as well the nature of

I,

as

not only bear them

Thou
all,

didst give

but

I receive

when they're killed. But now am

The world upon the Earth though

command,
them also

dishonoured.

filled

things [else] hath not a God.

1

Or

disks,

men

bosom.

presumably the world -wheels.

with

all

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

" For having

thing,

they
the

and from

fall

of
I,

fear they sin in every-

my heights,

by every

juices

Hence am

naught to

Lord,

And

evil art.

their

121

I'm

down

[dead]

soaking with
all

corrupt.

Lord, compelled to hold in

me those

With

of no worth.

carcases

all I

bear I would hold

God

as well.
"

Bestow on Earth,

if

not Thyself, for

could

not contain Thee, yet some holy Emanation

Make Thou

Thyself.

of

the Earth more honoured

than the rest of Elements

for it is right that

she should boast of gifts from Thee, in that she

giveth
35.

all."

Thus spake the Elements

filling all

and God,

full-

things with the sound of His [most]

holy Voice, spake thus

"Depart, ye Holy Ones, ye Children worthy

of a

mighty

Sire,

nor yet in any way attempt to

innovate, nor leave the whole of [this]

without your active

My World

service.

"For now another Efflux of My Nature is

among you, and he shall be a pious supervisor
of

all

deeds

judge

incorruptible of living

and monarch absolute of those beneath the

men

earth,

not only striking terror [into them] but taking

vengeance on them.

And by

his class of birth

the fate he hath deserved shall follow every man."

And

so the

Elements did cease from their com-

THRICE- GREATEST HERMES

122

upon the Masters

plaint,

their peace

and each of them continued

exercise of his authority

And Horus

36.

How

was

it,

God's Efflux

and in

thereon said

in the

his rule.
:

mother, then, that Earth received

And Isis said

I may not tell
is

and they held

order,

the story of [this] birth

for it

not permitted to describe the origin of thy

Horus, [son] of mighty power, lest

descent,

afterwards the way-of-birth of the immortal Gods

should be

God

known unto men,

the Monarch, the

except

Orderer and

universal

Architect, sent for a little while thy

Osiris,

and the mightiest Goddess

might help the world,

Tis they who

who caused
of men to

and

Gods

that they

needed them.

life.

'Tis

they

they

who hallowed

their ancestors

they who gave to

'Tis

and spots

men

laws,

shelter.

they who

know the

'Tis

cease.

for holy rites.

'Tis

sire

the savagery of mutual slaughtering

precincts to the

food,

of

mighty

Isis,

for all things

filled life full

so far that

will,

secrets of

separation

Hermes, learn to

my records all, and

them

of

says

and some they

will

make

will

keep

for themselves, while those that are best suited

for the benefit of mortal

on tablet and on
1

men, they

will

obelisk.

Of. C.

.,

xiii. (xiv.)

3 (Com.).

engrave

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

of law
fair

who were

they

'Tis

and

filled

'Tis

rule.

123

up courts
the world with justice and
the

to set

first

they who were the authors of

good pledges and of

faith,

and brought the

mighty witness of an oath into men's

they who taught

'Tis

who

those
'Tis

ceased to

men how

live, as

lives.

wrap up

to

they should

be.

they who searched into the cruelty of

death, and learned that though the spirit which

goes out longs to return into men's bodies, yet

it

ever

fail

to have the

if

power of getting back

again, then loss of life results.

Tis they who learned from Hermes that

rounding space was

filled

sur-

with daimons, and

graved on hidden stones [the hidden teaching].

'Tis

they alone who, taught by Hermes in

God's hidden codes, became the authors of the

arts,

and

practise,
'Tis

and

sciences,

and givers of

all

pursuits which

their laws.

they who, taught by Hermes that the

things below have been disposed by

in

men do

sympathy

God

to be

with things above, established on

the earth the sacred rites o'er which the mysteries

in

Heaven
'Tis

preside.

they who, knowing the destructibility of

[mortal] frames, devised the grade of prophets,

in all things perfected, in order that

who

stretched forth his hands

1

Sc.

mummification.

no prophet

unto the Gods,

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

124

should be in ignorance of anything, that magic

and philosophy should feed the

preserve the body

And

38.

when

it

having done

soul,

and medicine

suffered pain.

my

all this,

son, Osiris

and myself perceiving that the world was [now]

quite

full,

were thereupon demanded back by

who dwell in Heaven, but could not go

above till we had made appeal unto the Monarch,
those

that surrounding space might with this know-

ledge of the soul x be filled as well, and

selves succeed in
[to

Him].

we

our-

making our ascent acceptable

For that God doth in hymns

rejoice.

Horus

Ay, mother,

said.

On me

as

bestow the knowledge of this hymn, that

well

may

not remain in ignorance.

And

Isis said

Give

ea,r,

son

Oewpla, contemplative science, face to face

The Commentary

2
!

knowledge.

begins at the end of the following excerpt.

EXCEKPT XXVI.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

[II.]

(Patrizzi (p. 32b) runs this on to the last without a break.

Text: Stob., Phys., xli. 45, under heading: "In the
Same"; G. pp. 420-427; M. i. 299-304; W. i. 407-414.
Menard ; Livre III., No. ii. of " Fragment," etc. r as above,

pp. 201-208.)

Now

39.

if

know aught

soul,

And Horus
I

thou wouldst,

beside, ask on

said

mother of great honour,

would know how royal

And Isis said

son of mighty

souls are born

Son Horus, the distinction which

marks out the royal

souls

is

somewhat of

this

kind.

Four regions are there

fall

in the universe

which

beneath a law and leadership which cannot

be transgressed

Heaven,

and the iEther, and

the Air, and the most holy Earth.

Above

in

whom with
all;

and

Heaven, son, the Gods do dwell,

all

o'er

the rest doth rule the Architect of

in the iEther [dwell] the Stars, o'er

whom

the mighty Light- giver the Sun holds sway

125

but

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

126

whom

in the Air [live] only souls/ o'er

doth

and on the Earth [do dwell] men

rule the

Moon

and the

rest of living things, o'er

whom

he who

doth happen to be king holds sway.

The Gods engender,

40.

son, the kings it has

deserved, to rule [the race] that lives on Earth.

The

rulers are the emanations of the king,

whom
rest

the

the nearer to him

for that the Sun, in that

Moon

whom

the

to God,

far

is

Moon comes

of

more royal than the

is

'tis

nearer than

more vast and potent, to

second both in rank and

power.

The

king, then,

Gods, but

first

the Earth, he

of
is

the last of

is

men and
;

all

the other

so long as he

is

upon

divorced from his true godship,

but hath something that doth distinguish him

from men and which

The
is

soul which

is

is

like to

sent

from that space which

whence [the

God.

down

to dwell in him,

above those regions

is

souls] descend to other

men.

Down

from that space the souls are sent to rule for

those two reasons, son.
41.

They who have run a

noble, blameless race

throughout the cycle of their

lives,

and

are about

to be changed into Gods, [are born as kings,] in

order that

by

exercise of kingship they

may train

themselves to use the power the Gods enjoy;

while certain souls
1

MS.

who

are already Gods, but

A adds " of daimones."

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

127

have in some slight way infringed the rule of

life

which God inspired, are born as kings, in order

may

that they

not, in being clothed in bodies,

undergo the punishment of

of dignity as

loss

may

well as nature, and that they

they are enfleshed, have the same

not,

when

lot as other

men, but have when bound what they enjoyed

when

free.

42.

The

differences

which

however, in the

are,

shown by those who play the part

dispositions

of kings, are not determined

their souls, for these are all

by distinguishing
divine, but by the

constitution of the angels and the daimons

attend on them.

descending

for

such purposes do not come

without a guard and escort

knows how
e'en

to give to each

for Justice

what

though they be made

country ever

When,

who

For that such souls as these

is its

down

up above

due estate

from their

exiles

fair.

then,

my

the

son,

angels

and the

daimons who bring down the soul are of a warlike

kind,

it

has to keep firm hold of their

proclivities, forgetting its

all

own proper

deeds, but

the more remembering the doings of the other

host attached to

When

they are peaceful, then the soul as well

doth order

When
the right.

it.

its

own

they love

course in peace.
justice,

then

it

too defends

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

128

When they are music-lovers, then it also sings.

And when they are truth-lovers, then it also
doth philosophize.

For as

were out of necessity these souls keep

it

a firm hold of the proclivities of those that bring

them here

own

forgetting their

estate,

farther they depart from

memory

in

down

to man's

nature,

and the

for they are falling

the

the more they have

it,

disposition

of

those [powers]

which shut them [into bodies].

Well hast thou, mother,

43.

But noble

Horus.

thou hast not told

souls,

me

all

how

is

it

in the

For they have regions whence

case of souls.

and that which

there are states

one from other, so also

differ

they start

they are born,

yet.

As on the Earth, son Horus,

which

explained, said

starts

from a more

glorious place, hath nobler birth than one which

doth not

so.

For just as among men the

that
a ruling nature
so

thought more noble than the slave

is

which

is

superior in souls and of

what

of necessity subjects
son,

^
-V-

44.

free

(for

is inferior)

also,

.*

And how

&.

4fc

are

-^r
-K-

male

and

^d.

female

souls

produced ?
Souls, Horus, son, are of the self-same nature
1

of

A lacuna,

some

unfortunately, here occurs in the text, and must be

extent, for the

way

of

both

of these souls is not given.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

129

in themselves, in that they are from one

and the

same place where the Creator modelled them;

nor male nor female are they.

Sex

is

a thing

of bodies, not of souls.

That which brings

are

about that some of them

some more

stouter,

delicate,

"air" in which

[cosmic]

"Air"

it

the soul

for

which envelopes

it,

son, that

is,

things are made.

all

nothing but the body

is

an element which

of earth and water, air and

fire.

is

composed

As, then, the composition of the female ones

has more of wet and cold, but less of dry and

warm, accordingly the soul which

plasm of

this kind,

is

shut in a

becomes relaxed and

just as the contrary

delicate,

found to be in case of

is

males.

For in their case

and

less of cold

there's

and wet

more of dry and warm,

wherefore the souls in

bodies such as these are sturdy and more active.

And how do

45.

souls

become

intelligent,

mother mine?

And

Isis

answered

The organ

of the sight,

When

in wrappings.

the eye

then

is

soul.

is

dim

For

it

swathed

but when they're thin and

So

is it

light,

also for the

as well has envelopes incorporal

it,

just as
1

III.

son, is

these are dense and thick,

the sight most keen.

appropriate to
VOL.

my

Of.

it

is itself

incorporal.

45 below.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

130

These envelopes are "airs" which are in

When
is

these are light and thin and clear, then

the soul intelligent

when they
[the

us.

as

soul],

distance

bad

in

but, on

the contrary,

and thick and turbid, then

are dense

weather,

but only things which

not

at

about

its

sees
lie

feet.

46. And Horus said

What is the reason,

mother, that the

men

outside our holiest land are not so wise of

mind

as our compatriots

And

Isis said

The Earth

lies in

upon her back,

the middle of the universe

like to a

human

being, with eyes

turned up to heaven, and portioned out into as

many

regions as there are limbs in man.

She turns her eyes to Heaven as though to her

own

Sire,

that with his changes she

may

also

bring about her own.

She hath her head

right

set

to the

shoulder to south-east,

south-west

beneath

south of

left

all,

shoulder to

her feet below the Bear, right foot

under

its tail, left

its

head

her thighs

beneath those that succeed the Bear

her waist

beneath the middle [Stars].

47.

A sign of this is that men in the south, who

dwell upon her head, are fine about the head

and have good

hair.
1

Of.

P. 8. A., xxiv.

1.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

131

Those in the east are ready for a fight and

archer folk

for this pertains to the right hand.

Those in the west are steadier and for the most

part fight with the left hand, and what

by others with the

attribute to the

they for their part

right,

left.

Those underneath the Bear excel in

have especially good

they

backs.

all

them a

after

about the zone which

Greece,

feet

and

legs.

who come

Those

done

is

way,

little

our present Italy and

is

have well-made

thighs

and

Moreover,

all

these

[northern]

whiter than the rest bear whiter

parts

men upon

being
them.

But

since the holiest land of our forebears

lies in

the midst of Earth, and that the midst

of a man's

body serves

as the precinct of the

heart alone, and heart's the spot from which the

soul doth start, the
less

men

of

the other things which

not only have no

it

all

the rest possess,

but as a special thing are gifted with intelligence

beyond

all

men and

filled

with wisdom, in that

they are begotten and brought up above her

heart.
48. Further,

my

son,

the south

together from the atmosphere

1
Something has evidently
nowhere completed.

being the

mass themselves

receiver of the clouds which

1
.

fallen out here, as the sentence is

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

132

For instance,

it is

just because there

concentration of them in the south, that

said our river doth flow thence,

this

is

it

is

upon the break-

ing up of the frost there.

For whensoe'er a cloud 1 descends,

the air about

ward

it

into mist,

and sends

it

down-

it

and fog or mist

in a kind of fog;

impediment not only to the

turns

is

an

eyes, but also to

the mind.

Whereas the
that

'tis

east,

Horus, great in glory, in

thrown into confusion and made over-

hot by the continual risings of the sun, and in

like fashion too, the west, its opposite, in that it
suffers the

afford the
clear

same things through

men

born

observation.

in

its

descents,

them no conditions

And

for

Boreas with his con-

cordant cold, together with their bodies doth

congeal the minds of

men

Whereas the centre of

as well.
all

these being pure

and undisturbed, foreknows both for itself and

For, free from trouble, ever
all that are in it.
brings forth, adorns and educates, and

it

only

with such weapons wars [on men], and wins the

victory,

and with consummate

skill, like

a good

Reading ve<pe\n for verity. The text is very faulty.

These ideas of course spring from the conception of a fiat
earth and moving sun. The sun was thus thought to be nearer
the earth at its rising and setting, and consequently those at the
extremes of east and west were thought to be in danger of being
burnt up by its heat.
1

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

satrap,

bestows the fruit of

its

own

133

victory

upon

the vanquished.
49. This too expound,

For what cause

is

mother mine

lady,

when men

that

it

alive in long disease, their rational part

and

very reason

becomes disabled

And
Of

Isis

things,

friends with

with

air,

at

their

times

my

son,

some are made

and some with

fire,

and some with

two or three of

soul

answer made

living

very

their

keep

still

these,

earth,

water,

some

and some with

and some with

all.

And, on the contrary, again some are made

enemies of
earth,

and some of water, some of

fire,

and some of

and some of

three,

air,

and some of two of them,

and some of

all.

For instance, son, the locust and

fire

the eagle and the

hawk and

all

all flies flee

high-flying

birds flee water; fish, air and earth; the snake

avoids the open

air.

Whereas snakes and

creeping things love earth

[love] water

fire

Not that some

fire;

for

air,

of which they

and have

higher

still

their habitat near

it.

of the animals as well do not love

instance

salamanders, for they

it.

It is because

even

one or

historical allusion may perhaps be suspected in this

but I can find nothing appropriate to suggest.

Some
;

swimming things

while those that fly

have their homes in

term

all

winged things,

are the citizens

[love] the

all

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

134

another of the elements doth form their bodies

outer envelope.

Each

50.

body

is

soul, accordingly, while it is in its

weighted and constricted by these

Moreover

natural

it is

be pleased

also should

it

four.

with some of them and pained with others.

For

height of
nature,

its

e'en

struggles and
as it

doth not reach the

this cause, then, it

prosperity

still,

it

it

is

divine

by
it

though not such thoughts

thinks,

would think were

bound

as

while [wrapped up] in them,

it

set free

from being

are

swept with

in bodies.

Moreover
storm and
the soul

if

itself

[frames]

these

stress,

or of disease or fear, then

on the waves,

tossed

as

is

man 1

upon the deep with nothing steady under him.

COMMENTARY
ARGUMENT
1.

The

" Virgin of the

World

" is a sacred

sermon

of

initiation into the Hermes-lore, the first initiation, in

which the tradition

wisdom

of the

is

handed on by the
The

hierophant to the neophyte, by word of mouth.

instructor, or revealer,

Sophia, and

is

the representative of Isis-

speaks in her name, pouring forth for her

beloved son, the new-born Horus, the

1

For

&v9p(oiros

Meineke reads

But

I see

no necessity

draught of

ayOepiKos ("asphodel"),

pares Callimachus, H. in Del., 193

&s.

first

and com-

ira\ippoir) 4irwfix* Tal avdepiKos

for this strained " emendation."

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

immortality, which

mortal cup

him from

is

to purge

of forgetfulness

135

away the poison

of the

and ignorance, and so

raise

the " dead."

This pouring-forth explains that the divine economy

is

perfect order, mystery transcending mystery,

state of being,

and each

being, a

each
mystery to those below

that state.

This order no mortal intellect can ever grasp

in the far-off ages,

when

as yet there

nay,

were no men, but

only Gods, those essences that

know no

creation of the World-creator,

even these Gods, these

death, the first

mysteries to us, were in amazement at the glories of

Heaven with
Even these Gods

the greater mysteries which decked the

their unveiled transcendent beauty.

did not

know God

as yet.

The Gods were immortal, but unknowing; they

were intoxicated with Heaven's beauty, amazed, nay
2.

awestruck, at the splendour of the mysteries of Heaven.

Then came there

over all;

He

their hearts

With

forth another outpouring of the Father

poured the Splendour

and they began

this

to

representation

of

His Mind into

know. 1
is

blended a mythical

which suggests that all this was

an " earth " on which our humanity

historical tradition

brought about for

had not

as yet appeared, in far-off distant days

when

apparently our earth was not as now, ages ago, the

purest Golden

Age when

there were Gods, not men.

In

that race of Gods, those of them in whom the ray was

no low-burning spark, but a divine flame, were the
instructors in the heavenly wisdom.
3. Of these was Hermes, a race or " being " rather
1
The arising of the knowledge of God among the Gods, and
the gradual descent of this knowledge down to man, reminds us
somewhat of the method of the descent of the " Gospel " in the

system of Basilides.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

136

than an individual
of their

these

"

Sons

of Fire " left the record

wisdom engraved on "stone"

in symbol, in

charge of others of the same race but less knowing

and so they ascended to Heaven.

Those that succeeded them had not the flame so
bright within their hearts
they were of the same race,
but younger souls the Tat-race. Hermes could not
than themselves

4.

hand on the

direct

sight " (Oecopla),

and myth.

and

" perfect

knowledge to them, the

wisdom

so recorded the

in

symbol

the Asclepius-race joined them-

Still later

selves to the Tat-souls.

All

this,

however, took place

many many

ages ago,

long even before the days of the men-gods Osiris and

Isis; for the real

wisdom

of

Hermes was

so

ancient

that even Isis herself had had to search out the hidden

and that too by means of the inner sight, when

she herself had won the power to see, and the True Sun
had risen for her mind.
records,

5.

But the

strain

of

reconstructing the history of

this far-distant past, as he conceived it to

is

too

much

for the writer.

He knows

he

have been,
is

dealing

with "myths," with what Plutarch would have called

the " doings of the daimones " he knows that in reality
;

these primaeval " Books " of

physical existence,

if

Hermes have no longer any

indeed they ever had any;

knows that no matter what legends

ever the general priesthood

may

he

are told, or what-

believe about ancient

physical inscriptions of the primaeval Hermes,

all this

has passed away, and that the real wisdom of Hermes

is

engraved on the tablets

of

the aether, and not hidden

in the shrines of earth.

The

"

Books

" are

engraved in the "sacred symbols

of the cosmic elements, "

" secrets of Osiris "

and hidden away hard by the

the mysteries

light that speaks in

the heart.

of creative

fire,

The true Books

the
of

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

Hermes
pure

hidden away in their own

are

elements

of

the

unseen world

137
zones,

the

the

celestial

Egypt.
6.

This wisdom was held in safe keeping for the

" souls " of

men

knowledge.

it was a soul-gnosis, not a physical

Hereupon the writer begins the recital of
1

his tradition

of

the creation of the " souls

in their unfallen

the "Books of Hermes."

follows

which

state, all of

The

is

" of

men

derived from

soul-creation runs as

The Watchers 2 approach the Creator. The hour has

struck for a new Cosmic Dawn, for a new Day. The
time has come for Cosmos to awake after the Night. 3
The Creative Mind of the universe turns His attention,
His thought, to a new phase

of things, a

new world-

period.

God

smiled, and His laughter thrilled through

and with His Word, called forth into the light
the new dawn from out the primaeval darkness of the
new world-space. His first creation, transcendental or
intelligible Nature, stood before Him, in all the marvel
7.

space, 4

new

her

of

beauty, the primal pleroma, or potential

fullness, of the

new

universe or system, the ideal cosmos

many

our world, for there were

of

who marvelled

Straightway this Nature

herself
1

Or

others,

the

Gods

at the mystery.

and Toil and their

rather apocalypse

fell

from one into three,

fairest child Invention, to

see 15

"

As Hermes

says

when he

speaks unto me."

2

Gf.

the Egregores of The Booh of Enoch ; see Charles' Trans1893), Index, under "Watchers."

lation (Oxford
3

The new Manvantara following

a periodical Pralaya, to use

the terms of Indo-Aryan tradition.

4 The creation is figured in one Egyptian tradition as the

bursting forth of the Creator into seven peals of laughter,

sevenfold

"Ha!"

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

138

whom God
ideal

gave the
form alone.

The

gift of being,

was the bringing forth

then,

first creation,

potencies and types and ideas, to

gift of being;

was

it

themselves producing

whom God

of

gave the

the world "above/' the

as yet

primaeval Heaven, in ultimate perfection, thus constitut-

ing the unchanging boundaries of the

was

to

new universe

These things-that-are were

be.

filled

that

with

"mysteries," not "breaths" or "lives," for these were

not as yet.
8.

The next

stage

the breathing of the spiritual

is

(not the physical) breath of lives into the fairest blend

of the primal elements that condition the world-area.

This blend or soul-substance

is

called psychosis.

primal elements were not our mixed earth, water,

and

air,

but

"

knowing

Hermes elsewhere
the " flower of

fire "

calls

fire " of

it,

(perhaps "

fire

or intelligible

The
fire,

in itself," as

fire,

perchance

the so-called " Chaldaean Oracles

"

and unknowing air, if we may judge from the phrase

(7) " Let heaven be filled with all things full, and air
and aether [? = fire] too!" It is Heaven or the ideal
world that is so filled even earth-water was not yet
manifested, much less earth and water.
:

It seems, then, that these souls (souls corresponding

above with the subsequent man-stage below) were a

blend of the three
air,

triads, yet a

spirit,

knowing

also-

and unknowing

unity called psychosis.

They were moreover

differed according to some
9.

they were

fire,

all

essentially

fixed

apparently definite

perchance for every

star, as

equal,

but

numbering;
in number, one soul
law

of

with Plato, according to

the law of similarity of less and greater, of within and

without.
10.

These

souls, then,
1

Of.

were " sacred (or typical) men,"

the "florescence" of 10.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

139

a creation prior to that of the " sacred animals "

habitat was in

the aether "

11.

Upper Nature, the

the

celestial cosmos.

They were appointed

to certain stations

the task of keeping the " wheel revolving/'

we

their

" all-fairest station of

and

that

is,

to
as

were to fashion forms for birth and

death, and so provide means of transmission for the lifecurrents ever circulating in the great sphere. This was
their appointed task, the law imposed on them, as
shall see, they

obedient children of the Great King, their

sire.

So

long as they kept their appointed stations they were to

live for ever in surroundings of bliss

and beauty, in

full

contemplation of the glories of the greater universe,

throned amid the

stars.

But

if

they disobeyed the law,

bonds and punishment await them.

12. We next come to a further creation of souls
subject somewhat difficult to follow.
These souls are
of an inferior grade to the preceding, for they are com-

posed of the primal water and earth, of

"

water in

itself

" earth in itself "

and
we must suppose, and not of the
compound elements we now call by these names. These
are the souls of certain "sacred

animals" or

lives,

which bear the same relationship to the souls which

"keep the wheel revolving" as animals do to man on
earth.
They are, however, not shaped like the animals
on earth, nor possess even typical animal forms, but bear
the forms of men, though they are not men.
13. Still was the divine "water-earth" substance
unexhausted, and so the residue was handed over to
" those souls that had gone in advance and had been

summoned
stations

to the land of Gods,"

that

is

to say, those

near the Gods, in highest aether, of which

mention has just been made.

These souls

are, of course,

the man-souls proper.

Out

of this residue these Builders

were to fashion


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

140

after the

animals,

certain types of

models the Creator gave them,

life,

below the

"man"

type proper,

ranged in due order corresponding to the

That

the souls."

is

were to be copied.

motions of

were various classes

the types of animals which

to say, there

Builders according to

of

"

The Builders were to fashion the

them the life.

forms, the Creator was to breathe into

Thus these Builders fashioned the etheric doubles

and reptiles, and not their
physical bodies, for as yet the earth was not solid.
14.

of birds, quadrupeds, fish

15.

And

so the Builder-souls accomplished their task,

and fashioned the primaeval copies of the celestial types

of animals.
Proud of their work, they grew restive at
the restraints placed upon them by the law of their
stations, and overstepped the limits decreed by the
Creator. 1

Whereupon the punishment is pronounced, and the

make the human frame, therein to

Creator resolves to

imprison the disobedient souls.

And
1

Gf.

here

we

learn incidentally that all of

the same idea as expressed

by

Basilides

(a/p.

this

Hipp., Philos.,

but in reversed order, when, speaking of the consummation of the world-process, and the final ascension of the "Sonship" with all its experience gained from union with matter, he
says of the remaining souls, which have not reached the dignity
of the Sonship, that the Great Ignorance shall come upon them
vii. 27),

for a space.
" Thus all the souls of this state of existence,

whose nature is
remain immortal in this state of existence alone, remain without knowledge of anything different from or better than this
state; nor shall there be any rumour or knowledge of things
to

superior in higher states, in order that the lower souls may not
pain by striving after impossible objects, just as though it

suffer

were

fish

longing to feed on the mountains with sheep, for such

a desire would end in their destruction. All things are indestructible if they remain in their proper condition, but subject to
destruction

if

limits "(^ F.

they desire to overleap and transgress their natural

F,

p. 270).

THE VIRGIN OP THE WORLD

141

psychogenesis which has gone before was the direct

Hermes

teaching of

to the

writer;

of

no physical

Hermes whose " Books"

are hidden in the zones (5), of the Hermes whom the
writer, as he would have us believe, came to know face

Hermes, however, but

of that

to face only after his inner vision

had gazed with

all-seeing eyes "

was opened, and he

upon the mysteries of

new dawn " (4).

16. For the new and mysterious

that

man-form,

all

fabrication of the

the seven obedient Gods, to

whom

the

man-souls are kin (17), are summoned by the chief of

them, Hermes himself, the beloved son and messenger
of the

Supreme,

" soul of

My Soul, and holy mind

of

My

own Mind." x
17. All of

the seven promise to bestow the best

they have on man.

18. The plasm out of which the man -form is to be
modelled is the residue of the mixture out of which the
But
Builders had already made the animal doubles.
the Builder of the man-frames was

who mixed
19.

the plasm with

Here the writer

still

vision,

himself,

inserts a further piece of infor-

mation concerning the source

longer as before what

Hermes

more water.

of his tradition.

Hermes himself

It is

reveals to

but what the writer was told at a certain

him

no
in

initia-

"Black Kite." This rite was presided

over by Kamephis, who is called the " earliest of all,"
or perhaps more correctly the " most primaeval of [us]
all."
Kamephis is thus conceived as the representative
of a more ancient wisdom than that of Isis, and yet
even he but hands on the tradition of Hermes. 2
20. The souls are "enfleshed," and utter loud
Apparently not all at first can speak
complaints.
articulately most of them can only groan, or scream,

tion called the

Gf. Cyril, 0.

Jul,

i.

35

Frag. xvi.

Of.

29 and

37.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

142
or hiss.

The leading

class of souls can,

however, so far

dominate the plasm as to speak articulately, and so one

of their number utters a desperate appeal to Heaven.
21. They have now lost their celestial state, and
Heaven is shut away from them no longer can they
They are shut down into a
see "without the light/'
" heart's small compass
Sun of their being has
the
"
become a light-spark only, hidden in the heart. This
;

is,

of course, the logos, the

inmost reality in man.

22. The souls pray for some amelioration of their

unhappy lot, and the conditions of the moral law are
expounded to them. They who do rightly shall, on their
body's dissolution, reascend to Heaven and be at rest
they who do ill, shall work out their redemption under
the law of metempsychosis, or change from body to

body, from prison to prison.

23. Details of this

metempsychosis are then given

with special reference to the incarnations of the

righteous,"

Such

"

more

who shall be kings, philosophers and prophets.

souls apparently, for

it is

not expressly so stated,

round the wheel of rebirth, when out

incarnation in a human body, have some sort of life

shall, in passing

of

with the souls of the leading types of animals, which

are given as eagles, lions, dragons, and dolphins.
if

we

Or,

are unjustified in this speculation, such souls shall

in their animal parts have intimate relation with the

noblest types of animal essence (24).

25.

There now comes upon the scene the mighty

Intellect of the Earth, a veritable Erdgeist, in the

form

Momus, who speaking out of affection for him (28),

urges Hermes to increase ills and trials upon the souls
of men, so that they shall not dare too much (25-27).
And thereon Hermes sets in motion the instrument or
of

engine of unerring fate and mechanical

(28, 29).

retribution

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

29.

Now

earth-life,

all

143

these things took place at the

when

all as

dawn of
now

yet was inert, as far as our

We

must then suppose that

on earth had not
yet been manifested that all was as yet in a far subtler
or more primitive state of existence, when earth was
still all " a-tremble," and had not yet hardened to its
present state of solidity
that is to say, that the manplasm was in an etheric state (30).
31. The earth gradually hardens.
Into the now more
solid earth, the Creator and His obedient sons, the Gods
who had not made revolt, poured forth the blessings of
nature. This is described by the beautiful symbol of
the hands of blessing, figured in Egypt as the sun-rays,
each terminating in a hand for giving light and life. 1
The imprisoned souls, the kinsmen of the Gods
solid earth is concerned.

as yet our present phase of existence

;

they are the leaders

obedient, continue their revolt;

mankind, of a mankind far weaker than themselves,

a humanity, apparently evolved normally from the
nature of things and as yet in its childhood. Instead
of teaching them the lessons of love and wisdom, the
Disobedient Ones use them for evil purposes, for war
and conflict, for oppression and savagery.
of

32.

Things go from bad to worse

the earth

is

befouled

man, until in despair the pure

elements complain to God. They pray that He will send
a holy emanation of Himself to set things right (32-34).
with the horrors

35.

of savage

Hereupon God sends forth the mystery

birth, a divine descent, or emanation,

Aryan Hindu
tion. 2

And

tradition

so Osiris

of a

new

an avatara, as the

would call it, a dual manifestaand Isis are born to help the

Of. Hermes-Prayer, iii. 3.

This is of special interest as showing how the Egyptian
tradition, in this pre-eminent above all others, did not limit the
2

manifestation to the male sex alone.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

144

men from

world, to recall

savagery, and restore the

moral order (35-37).

It was they who were taught directly by Hermes
(37) in all law

and science and wisdom. Their mission

"
world" is filled with a
knowledge of the Path of Eeturn. But before their
ascension into Heaven they have a petition to make to
meets with success, and the

the Father, that not only earth but also the surrounding

up to Heaven itself may be

spaces

Thus then they proceed

and Monarch

of

all

fit

hymn

the Sire

to copy.

text of the "Virgin

original

treatise is obviously

Hymn

to

in a praise-giving which, unfor-

tunately, Stobseus did not think

The

with a knowledge

filled

of the truth.

of

the

World"

broken only by the omission

of the

and Excerpt ii. follows otherwise immediately on Excerpt i. The subject is the
birth of royal souls, taken up from the instruction given
in K. K, 23, 24 above.
39. There are four chief spaces (i) Invisible Heaven,
inhabited by the Gods, with the Invisible Sun as lord of
(ii) iEther, inhabited by the Stars, of which for us
all
the Sun is leader; (iii) Air, in which dwell nonincarnate souls, ruled by the Moon, as watcher o'er the
paths of genesis; (iv) Earth, inhabited by men and
animals, and over men the immediate ruler is the Divine
of Osiris

and

Isis,

King
40.
of

of the time.

The king-soul

men 1

he

is,

is

the last of the

Gods but the

first

however, on earth a demigod only,

His soul, or ha,

for his true divinity is obscured.
comes from a soul-plane superior to that of the rest of
mankind.
The ascending souls of normally evolving humanity
are thought of, apparently, as describing ever widening
1

Of. C. J3., xviii.

ff.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

wheelings in and out of incarnation,

circles in their
rising, as

145

they increase in virtue and knowledge, at the

zenith of their ascent in the intermediate state, before

they turn to descend again into rebirth, ever nearer to

the limits of the sensible world and the frontiers of

Heaven.

But there is

41.

also another class of descending royal

who have only

souls,

and therefore

slightly transgressed,

descend only as far as this grade of humanity.

For the royal or ruling soul

42.

monarch

He may

peace.

may

his sovereignty

is

not only a warrior

be also shown in arts

The

poet, a truth-lover or philosopher.

these souls are not determined, as

lower grades,

of

of

be a righteous judge, a musician or

that

is,

is

activities of

the case with souls

those souls which have fallen

deeper into material existence,

by what Basilides would

called the " appendages " of the animal nature

have

they are determined by a fairer

an escort

taxis,

who accompany them

The description of their manner of

angels and daimones,

43.
ever,

is,

of

into birth.
birth,

how-

unfortunately, lost to us, owing either to the

hesitation of Stobaeus to

make

it public,

or to its being

cut out by some subsequent copyist.

44.

We are next told that sex is no essential character-

istic of

the soul.

It

body
which air, however,

this

is

an

" accident " of the body,

but

not the physical, but the "aery" body,

is

is

not a simple element, but already

differentiated into four sub-elements. 1

45.

also
1

Moreover the

sight, or intelligence, of the soul

depends upon the purity

The "spirituous"

of certain envelopes,

or "aery" body, or vehicle,

is

which

composed of

the sub-elements, but in it is a predominance of the sub-element

" air," just as in the physical there is a predominance of " earth."

Philoponus,

Procem. in Aristot. de

(London, 1896),

"The

Subtle

Anima

see

my

Body," pp. 276-281.

8. I. H., 15, 20.

VOL.

III.

10

Orpheus
Gf.

also


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

146

are called " airs,"

" airs "

apparently more subtle even

than the aery body (45 ). 1

46. Next follows a naive reason for the excellence of
Egypt and the wisdom of the Egyptians (46-48). Here
the writer seems to be no longer dependent directly on
the Trismegistic tradition, but is inserting and expanding

popular notions.
49.

The remaining

sections of the Excerpt are taken

up with speculations as to the cause

50), and Stobseus brings his extract

of delirium (49,

to a conclusion

apparently without allowing the writer to complete

his exposition.

Sources

The discussion

as to the

meaning

of the title,

which

has so far been invariably translated "The Virgin of

the World," will come more appropriately later on.

How much

of the original treatise has been handed

by Stobseus we have no external means of
deciding.
Our two Extracts, however, plainly stand
in immediate connection with each other, and the
original text is broken only by the unfortunate
omission of the Hymn of Osiris and Isis. The first

on

to us

Extract, moreover,

is

plainly not the beginning of the

opens with words referring to what

treatise, since it

has gone before; while the second Extract ends in a

very unsatisfactory manner in the middle of a subject.

What we have, however, gives us some very interesting

how

indications of

the writer regarded his sources,

whether written or oral, whether physical or psychic.

He of course would have us take his treatise as a
and indeed the subject is so worked
literary unity
;

up that
1

it is

Compare

very
this

G. H., x. (xi.) 13,

difficult to discover

what the

literary

with the prdna's of Indian theosophy

Comment.

see

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

147

may have

sources that lay before the writer

been, for

the story runs on straight enough in the same thought-

mould and literary form, in spite of the insertion of

somewhat contradictory statements concerning the
sources of information.

When, however, Eeitzenstein

(p.

136) expressly states

that the creation-story shows indubitable traces of two

older forms, and that this
as

we

ductions,
is

two

find

we

(or

more

is

not a matter of surprise,

precisely four) different intro-

are not able entirely to follow him.

It

true that these introductory statements are apparently

on further consideration they appear

at variance, but

to be not really self -contradictory.

The Direct Voice and the Books of Hermes

The main representation is that the teacher of Isis
Hermes, who saw the world-creation, that is, the
creation of our earth-system, and the soul-making, with
is

his

own

sight (2).

spiritual

knowledge in two ways

of

Hermes

Master

(4, 5)

(15).

or

Isis

has obtained her

either from the sacred

by the

Books

direct spiritual voice of the

The intention here

is

plainly to claim the

authority of direct revelation, for even the Books are

not physical.

They have disappeared,

if

indeed they

ever were physical, and can only be recovered from the

tablets of unseen nature, by ascending to the zones (5)
where they are hidden and these zones are plainly the
same as the soul-spaces mentioned in S. L IT., 8.
At the same time there is mention of another tradition,
;

which, though in later details purporting to be historic

and physical, in

its

beginnings

is

involved in purely

mythological and psychic considerations.

When

the

and most ancient Hermes ascended to Heaven,

he left his Books in the charge of the Gods, his kinsmen,
first

148

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

in the zones,

and not on earth

(3).

On

earth there

succeeded to this wisdom a younger race, beloved of

Hermes, and personified as his son Tat. These were

young to understand the true science
face to face.
They were apparently regarded as the
Tat (Thoth) priesthood of our humanity, who were
subsequently joined by wisdom-lovers of another line
souls as yet too

of tradition, the

Imuth (Asclepius) brotherhood, who

had their doctrine originally from Ptah. 1 This seems

to hint at some ancient union of two traditions or
schools of mystic science, perhaps from the Memphitic
and Thebaic priesthoods respectively. 2
What, however, is clear is that the writer professes
to set forth a higher and more direct teaching than
either the received tradition of the Isiac mystery-cult
or of the Tat-Asclepius school.

person of

This he does in the

Isis as the face to face disciple of

the most

ancient Hermes,3 thus showing us that in the Hermescircles of the Theoretics, or those

sight,

though the

Isis

who had

the direct

mystery-teaching was considered

a tradition of the wisdom,

it

was nevertheless held

be entirely subordinate to the illumination

to

of the direct

sight.
1

Of.

Diog. Laert., Procem., i.

"

The Egyptians say that Hephaestus

(Ptah) was the son of Neilus (the Nile), and that he was the
originator of philosophy, of that philosophy whose leaders are
priests

and prophets"

that

is

to say, a mystic philosophy of

revelation.

Thus Suidas (s.v. "Ptah") says that Ptah was the Hephaestus
Memphite priesthood, and tells us that there was a proverbial
saying current among them " Ptah hath spoken unto thee." This
" As Hermes says when he speaks
reminds us of our text
2

of the

unto me."
3

The type

of Isis as utterer of "sacred sermons," describing

herself as daughter or disciple of

demonstrably to Ptolemaic times.

Hermes,

is old,

R. 136, n. 4

and goes back

137, n.

1.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

149

Kamephis and the Dark Mystery

In apparent contradiction
following statement:

"Now

to all this

we have

the

give good heed, son Horus,

thou art being told the mystic spectacle which

Kamephis, our forefather, was privileged to hear from
Hermes, the record-writer of all deeds, and I from
Kamephis when he did honour me with the Black

for

[Eite] that gives perfection" (19). 1

Here Eeitzenstein (p. 137) professes to discover the

of two absolutely distinct traditions of
(i) Kamephis, a later god and pupil of Hermes, and
but
(ii) Kamephis, an older god and teacher of Isis
conflation

in this I cannot follow him.

It all

depends on the

meaning assigned to the words 7rapa rov Travrwv 7rpoyevearrepov, which Eeitzenstein regards as signifying
" the most ancient of all [gods]," but which I translate
as " the most ancient of [us] all."
I

take

general

it

mean simply

to

Isis-tradition,

was stated

that,

the founder

according to the
of

its

mysteries

Kamephis, but that the Isis-Hermes

circles claimed that this Kamephis, though truly the
most ancient figure in the Isis tradition proper, was
nevertheless in his turn the pupil of the still more
ancient Hermes.
The grade of Kamephis was presumably represented
to be

the mystery-cult by the arch-hierophant who

presided at the degree called the " Dark Mystery " or

in

"

Black Eite."

It

was a

rite

performed only for those

1
ottot* i/xe Kal t$ Te\ei(j} fi4\avi irl/uLTjcrev.
This has hitherto been
always supposed by the philological mind simply to refer to the

mysteries of ink or writing, and that too 'without any humorous

but in all portentous solemnity. We must imagine, then,

presumably, that it refers to the schooldays of Isis, when she
was first taught the Egyptian equivalents for pothooks and
hangers.
This absurdity is repeated even by Meineke.
intent,

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

150

who were judged worthy

of it (erinncrev) after

long

probation in lower degrees, something of a far more

sacred character, apparently, than the instruction in
the mysteries enacted in the light.

would suggest,

therefore, that

we have here

reference to the most esoteric institution of the Isiac

more

tradition, the

consider later on;

connect

is

it

enough

for

the

moment

to

with certain objects or shows that were

it

apparently

which we will

precise nature of

made

to appear in the dark.

As Clement

Alexandria says in his famous commonplace book,

of

called the Stromateis

" It is

1
:

not without reason that in the mysteries of

the Greeks, lustrations hold the

first place,

analogous

among the Barbarians [that is, non-Greeks].

After these come the lesser mysteries, which have
to ablutions

some foundation of instruction and of preliminary

preparation for what is to follow and then the great
mysteries, in which nothing remains to be learned of
the universe, but only to contemplate and comprehend
nature [herself] and the things [which are mystically
shown to the initiated]." 2
;

The more

correct title of this

work should be " Gnostic

True Philosophy," as
been well remarked by Hort
in his Ante-Nicene Father, p. 87 (London, 1895).
2
Sopater (Dist. Qucest., p. 123, ed. Walz)
Op. cit., v. 11.
speaks of these as " figures " (crx^uaTa), the same expression which
Proclus (In Plat. Rep., p. 380) employs in speaking of the
appearances which the Gods assume in their manifestations

Jottings

Clement

Plato

(or

the

Notes) according to

states himself

(Phmdr., p.

and

as has

250) calls

them "blessed

beatific visions" (evtiainova (pda-^ara)

apparitions,"

or

the author of the Epinomis

most beautiful to see in the

986) describes them as " what is

world"; these are the "mystic sights" or "wonders" (/j.v<rriKa
6edfiara) of Dion Chrysostom (Orat., xii., p. 387, ed. Eeiske)
the "holy appearances" (ayia (pavrdo-fiara) and "sacred shows"

(p.

(lepk

p.

deiKvvfieva) of

722,

and De

Plutarch (Wyttenbach, Fragm.,

Profect.

Virtut. Sent., p.

vi.

1,

81, ed. Keiske)

t.
;

v.,

the

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

151

Kneph-Kamephis
But who was Kamephis

the

theology of

the

in

According to Eeitzenstein, Kamephis or

Egyptians?

Kmephis, that is Kmeph, is equated by Egyptologists

with Kneph, who, according to Plutarch, 1 was worshipped
in the Thebaid as the ingenerable and immortal God.
Kneph, however, as Sethe has shown,2 is one of the
aliases of Ammon, who is the " bull [or husband] of his

who has created himself." Kneph

3
is, moreover, the Good Daimon, as Philo of Byblus says.
He is the Sun-god and Heaven-god Ammon.
mother," the " creator

" If

he open his eyes, he

primaeval

land

and

if

filleth all

he close them

Here we have Kneph- Ammon

with light in his

all is dark."

as the giver of light in

darkness, and the opener of the eyes.

Moreover, Porphyry 6
regarded

Kneph

represented

him

as
in

us that the Egyptians

tells

the

demiurge

or

creator,

the form of a man,

and

with skin

a blue-black tint, girt with a girdle, and holding

of

" ineffable apparitions" (&ppr)ra (pda-fiara) of Aristides (Orat., xix.

Dindorf) ; the "divine apparitions" {Qeia (pda-fiara) of
Himerius (Eclog., xxxii., p. 304, ed. Wernsdorf), those sublime

p. 416, ed.

memory

which was said to accompany the souls of

the righteous into the after-life, and when they returned to birth.
Cf. Lenormant (F.) on "The Eleusinian Mysteries" in The
sights the

of

Contemporary Review (Sept. 1880),

who, however, thinks

p. 416,

that these famous philosophers and writers bankrupted their

adjectives merely for the mechanical figures

and stage-devices

lower degrees. See my "Notes on the Eleusinian

Mysteries" in The Theosophical Review (April, May, June, 1898),
the

of

vol. xxii., p. 156.

1

De

Berl phil. Wochenschr. (1896),

R. 133, n. 2.

Is. et Os., xxi.

p.

irpoToySpq)

Epeius, ap. Eusebius, Prcep. Ev.,

Ap. Euseb.,

cf.

the

Prcep.,

1528

irpoyej/e<rTpov irdvruv

iii.

i.

R. 137,
above.

10, p.

11, 45, p. 115.

41 d.

n. 3.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

152

a sceptre, and wearing a crown of regal wings.

This

symbolism, says Porphyry, signified that he was the

representative

of

Logos

the

Eeason,

or

discover, hidden, 1 not manifest

it

is

to

difficult

he who gives

and also life 3 he is the King. The winged

crown upon his head, he adds, signifies that he moves
light

or energizes intellectually.

Kamephis, then, stands in the

Isis-tradition for the

representative of Agathodaimon, the Logos-creator.

He

and has had

handed on to him by Hermes, or at any rate he
instructed in the Logos-wisdom by Hermes.

is,

however, a later holder of this

Hermes
In

I.

it

office,

and Hermes

is

II.

this connection it is instructive to refer to the

account which Syncellus 4

tells

us he took from the

statement of Manetho.

Manetho, says Syncellus, states in his Books, that he

based his replies concerning the dynasties of Egypt to

King Ptolemy on the monuments.

"[These monuments], he [Manetho] tells us, were
engraved in the sacred language, and in the characters
of the sacred writing,

by Thoth the First Hermes

after

the Flood they were translated from the sacred language

into the then

common

tongue, but

hieroglyphic characters, and stored

the

Good Daimon's

son, the

written] in

[still

away

by

in books,

Second Hermes, the father

of Tat, in the inner shrines of the temples of Egypt."

1

Gf.

the epithet " utterly hidden" found in the "

Words

Ammon,"

(Logoi)

referred to by Justin Martyr, Cohort., xxxviii.,

the note thereon in " Fragments from the Fathers."
of

2
3

the
4

and

Typified by the dark-coloured body.

(wottoiSs

typified, presumably, by the

woman) and

the

staff (the

Chron., xl. (ed. Dind.,

i.

symbol

72).

girdle (the

of the man).

symbol

of

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

153

Here we have a tradition, going back as far as

Manetho, which I have shown, in Chapter V. of the
"Prolegomena" on "Manetho, High Priest of Egypt,"
cannot be so lightly disposed of as has been previously
supposed,

dealing expressly with the Books

This tradition,

it

is

true, differs

of Hermes.
from the account

given in our Sermon (3-5), where the writer says

nothing expressly

of a flood,

to believe that the

most ancient records

but evidently wishes us

of

Hermes were

magically hidden in the zones of the unseen world, and

that the flood,

there was one, was a flood or lapse of

if

time that had utterly removed these records from the

For him they no longer existed physically.

earth.

Manetho's account deals with another view

of the

His tradition appears to be as follows. The

oldest records were on stone monuments which had
survived some great flood in Egypt. These records

matter.

belonged to the period of the First Hermes, the Good

Daimon par

excellence,

earliest antediluvian

they were

flood

the priesthood, therefore, of the

Egyptian

translated

After the

civilization.

from

the

most

archaic

language into ancient Egyptian, and preserved in book-

form by the Second Hermes, the priesthood, presumably,

most ancient civilization after the flood, who

of the

were in time succeeded by the Tat priesthood.

That this tradition is elsewhere contradicted by the
Isis-tradition proper, which in a somewhat similar
genealogy places Isis at the very beginning prior even

Hermes

to

I.,

need not detain

us, since

would naturally claim the priority

regarded as
the

its

own

special founders,

moment concerned only with

each tradition

of those

whom

it

and we are for

the claims of the

Hermes-school.
1

Be

Varro,

xviii. 3, 8

Gente Pop. Rom., ap.

R. 139, n.

3.

Augustine,

Be Ow.

Bei,

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

154

The main point

of interest is that there

was a

tradi-

which explained the past on the hypothesis of

the oldest
periods of culture succeeding one another,
being supposed to have been the wisest and highest;
the most archaic hieroglyphic language, which perhaps
tion

the priests

Manetho's day could no longer fully

of

understand, 1 was supposed to have been the tongue of

the civilization before the Flood of

even be that the remains

of this

Hermes

I.

It

may

tongue were preserved

only in the magical invocations, as a thing most sacred,

the " language of the gods."

The point

of view,

however, of the circle to which

our writer belonged, was that the records of this most

ancient civilization were no longer to be read even in
the oldest inscriptions; they could only be recovered

by

Into close relation with

spiritual sight.

must, I think, bring the statement made

Osiris

and

this,

we

in 37, that

though they themselves had learned

Isis,

the secrets of the records of Hermes, nevertheless

all

kept part

of

them

secret,

and engraved on stone only

of "

such as were adapted for the intelligence

mortal

men."

The Kamephis
stands for

of the Isis-tradition, then,

Kneph

as

Agathodaimon, that

but not for our Hermes

I.,

for

is

apparently

for

Hermes,

he has no physical

with regard to ancient archaic texts which are

is able to translate them with
greater accuracy than the priests of Manetho's day ; but this one
may be allowed to question, unless the ancient texts are capable
1

still

It is said that

extant,

modern Egyptology

solely of a physical interpretation.

The Hermes, presumably, who was fabled to be the son of

Heaven Ocean, the Great
Green, the Soul of Cosmos, and whom, we are told, the Egyptians
2

the Nile, not the physical Nile, but the

would never speak

that hid the Books of

so the son of Nile

presumably, only within the

be in one sense the Flood
depths or zones ; but equally

of publicly, but,

This Nile

circles of initiation.

Hermes in

may

be the

may
its

first

Hermes

after the Flood.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

contact with the Isis- tradition, but for

was taught by Hermes

155

Hermes

II.

who

I.

The Black Kite

But what is the precise meaning of the " black rite "
at which Kamephis presides ?
I have already suggested
the environment in which the general meaning may be
sought, though I have not been able to produce any
objective evidence of a precise nature.
(pp.

139

ff.),

Keitzenstein

however, thinks he has discovered that

His view is as follows

to the meaning, according to him, is to be
found in the following line from a Magic Papyrus x
"I invoke thee, Lady Isis, with whom the G-ood
Daimon doth unite, 2 He who is Lord eV tw reXelw
evidence.

The key

fji&Xavi"

Keitzenstein thinks that the

for

Chnum, and works out

(p.

Good Daimon here stands

140) a learned hypothesis

that the " black " refers to a certain territory of black

between Syene and Takompso, the Dedocaschcenus,

famed for its pottery, which was originally
in the possession of the Isis priesthood, but was subseearth,

especially

quently transferred to the priesthood of

King Doer.

Eeitzenstein

would

thus,

Chnum by
presumably,

translate the latter half of the sentence as " the

Daimon who
and so make

Lord in the perfect black [country],"

Chnum, though indeed he seems

is
it

Good

refer to

himself to feel the inadequacy of this explanation to

cover the word

me

"

But this seems to

meaning out of both our
the Magic Papyrus, and to introduce

perfect "

(p.

144).

to take all the dignified

text and that of

1

Wessley, Denkschr.

So

R.,

no support

though
;

d. k.

this is a

Akad. (1893), p. 37, 1. 500.

meaning to which the lexicons give

the verb generally meaning " to defer " or " assent to."

156

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
which are plainly out

local geographical considerations

of

keeping with the context.

more natural to make the Agathodaimon

Papyrus refer to Osiris; for indeed it is
one of his most frequent designations. Moreover, it
is precisely Osiris who is pre-eminently connected with
the so-called "under world," the unseen world, the
It is far

of

"

the

mysterious

He

dark."

remains on earth

it is

is
lord there, while Isis
he who would most fitly give

instructions 6n such matters,

and indeed one

of the

mystery-sayings was precisely, "Osiris

ancient

is

dark God." 1

"He who
thus

mean

soul, purified

dark side
Isis,

is

Lord in the perfecting black," might

that Osiris, the masculine potency

of

of the

and perfected the man on the mysterious

things, and completed the work which

the feminine potency

the soul, had begun

of

on him.
That, in the highest mystery-circles, this was some
stage of union of the
himself,

may

made by

man with

the higher part of

be deduced from the interesting citations

Eeitzenstein (pp. 142-144) from the later

Alchemical Hermes-literature;

it

clearly refers to the

mystic "sacred marriage," 3 the intimate union of the

soul with the logos, or divine ray.
Much could be
written on this subject, but it will be sufficient to

append two passages of more than ordinary interest.

The Jewish over-writer of the Naassene Document
contends that the chief mystery of the Gnosis was
but the consummation of the instruction given in the
various
1

am
2

mystery-institutions

Compare

of

the

The

nations.

mystery ritual in The Acts of John

thy God, not that of the betrayer" (F. F. F., p. 434).
As the Gnostic Marcus would have called it.

On

also the

this iep6s ydpos or ydfxos irvevfiar^Sy see

Aglaophamus (Konigsberg, 1829), 608, 649, 651.

Lobeck

"I

(C. A.),

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

157

Lesser Mysteries, he tells us, commenting on the text

Pagan

the

of

commentator, pertained

"fleshly

to

generation," whereas the Greater dealt with the

birth, or second birth,

And

genesis.

new

with regeneration, and not with

speaking of a certain mystery, he says

"For this is the Gate of Heaven, and this is the

House of God, where the Good God * dwells alone, into
which [House] no impure [man] shall come; but it
kept under watch for the spiritual alone where

is

when they come they must

cast

away

their garments,

and all become bridegrooms obtaining their true manhood through the Virginal Spirit. For such a man is
the Virgin big with child, conceiving and bearing a
Son, not psychic, not fleshly, but a blessed
JEons."

Mon

of

In the marvellous mystery-ritual

of the

new-found

fragments of The Acts of John, lately discovered in a

fourteenth century MS. in Vienna, disguised in hymn
form, and hiding an almost inexhaustible mine of very
early

tradition,

the

marriage"

"sacred

is

plainly

suggested as one of the keys to part of the ritual.

Compare,
their

for

instance,

with

the "casting

away

of

garments," in the above-quoted passage of the

Naassene writer, the following:

" [The Disciple.] I would flee.
[The Master.] I would [have thee]

[The Assistants.]

Amen

[The

would be robed.

Disciple.] I

[The

And I would
Assistants
Amen

[The

Disciple.] I

[The Master.]

(ed.

stay.

robe [thee].

.]

would be at-oned.

That is, the Agathodaimon.

That is, the "Birth of Horus." Hippolytus, Philos., v. 8
Dunk, and Schneid, pp. 164, 166, 11. 86-94). see " Myth of

Man

in the Mysteries," 28.

the later Christian over- writer.

The

last clause is

the gloss of

"

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

158

[The Master.]

And I would
Amen 1

at-one.

[The Assistants.]

Black Land.
But

to return to the " mysterious black."

us

tells

"

Moreover, they [the Egyptians]

Plutarch

call

Egypt,

inasmuch as its soil is particularly black, as though

it were the black of the eye, Chemia, and compare it
with the heart,"

for,

he adds,

it is

hot and moist, and

set in the southern part of the inhabitable world, in

way

the same

man. 8
was called

as the heart in the left side of a

Egypt, the "sacred land" par excellence,

Chemia or Chem (Hem), Black-land, because
nature of

dark loamy

its

soil;

it

of

the

was, moreover, in

symbolic phraseology the black of the eye, that

is,

the

and planets being

regarded as the eyes of the gods. 4 Egypt, then, was the
eye and heart of the Earth the Heavenly Nile poured
its light-flood of wisdom through this dark of the eye,
or made the land throb like a heart with the celestial
pupil of the earth-eye, the

stars

life-currents.

Nor

is

the above quotation an unsupported statement

an ancient text from Edfu, 5 we

the Black), which is so called after

of Plutarch's, for in

read

"

Egypt

(lit.

the eye of Osiris, for

Ammon-Kneph,

signifying

blue-black,
1

The text

it is

is

to be

his pupil."

too, as

we have

his

seen, is black, or

hidden

and

mysterious

found in James (M.

R.), Apocrypha Anecdota

and Studies F. F. F., pp.

(Cambridge,

ii.

1897),

in

Texts

432, 433.
2

Be

Gf. this

Is. et 0s.,

xxxiii.

with K. K., 47, where Egypt

is

said to occupy the

position of the heart of the earth.

"Ye brilliant stars, eyes of the gods."

Gf. K. K., 20
Cited by Ebers, "Die Korperteile in Altagyptischen," Abh.
h. bayr. Ahad. (1897), p. Ill, where other references are given.
4

d.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

and

character;
called

in

above-quoted passage he

the

"he who holds himself hidden

"he who

159
is

in his eye," or

veils himself in his pupil."

This pupil, then, concludes Eeitzenstein

the "mysterious black."
this peculiar phrase?

(p.

Is this, then, the

If

so,

with seeing, the spiritual

it

145),

origin

is

of

would be connected

sight, the true Epopteia.

The Pupil of the World's Eye

But

Isis, also, is

the black earth, and, therefore, the

pupil of the eye of Osiris, and, therefore, also of the

Chnum

or

Ammon

Eye"

the

identified

herself

Isis, therefore,

Kopfj koot/ulov.

with Osiris at Syene.

the "Pupil of the World's

is
1

Eeitzenstein would, therefore, have

it

that the original

type of our treatise looks back to a tradition which

makes the mystery-goddess

the mysterious

of

Isis the disciple

Chnum

or

Kamephis, as Agathodaimon
ably, that the

in his turn of
tradition,

when

making
Hermes

of this
is

Ammon,

or

and spouse

Kneph

or

and, therefore, presum-

Kamephis the

disciple

a later development of

the

the Hermes-communities gained ascend-

ancy in certain circles of the Isis-tradition.

This is very probable but dare we, with Eeitzenstein,
;

cast aside the " traditional " translation of Koprj

koo-jjlov,

as "Virgin of the World," and prefix to our treatise

as title the

new

World"?

It

version, "

The Pupil

of the

certainly sounds strange

as

Eye
a

of the

title to

unaccustomed ears, and differs widely from any other

But what
titles of the Hermetic sermons known to us.
does the "Virgin of the World" mean in connection
with our treatise ?
Isis as the Virgin Mother is a
1

Compare

Man" chapter

Naassene document, 8, in the " Myth of

Prolegomena, where Isis is called " the seven-

also the
of the

robed and black-mantled goddess."

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

160

familiar idea to students of Egyptology

eioxw,

^e

x
;

she

Kar

is

" World-Virgin."

The Son of the Virgin

And

here

it will

be of interest to turn to a curious

statement of Epiphanius 2

it is

missing in

all

editions

Father prior to that of Dindorf (Leipzig, 1859),

which was based on the very early (tenth century)

of this

Codex Marcianus 125, all previous editions being printed

from a severely censured and bowdlerized fourteenth
century MS.

Epiphanius
Christ

stating that the true birthday of the

is

the Feast of Epiphany, "at a distance of

is

days from

thirteen

the

increase

of

the light

[i.e.

must have been that this

should be a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and of His twelve disciples, who make up the thirteen
days of the increase of the Light." The Feast of the
Epiphany was a great day in Egypt, connected with
the " Birth of the iEon," a phase of the " Birth of

December 25]

for it needs

For Epiphanius thus continues:

Horus."

"How many

other things in the past and present

support and bear witness to this proposition, I

the birth of Christ
cults,

who

filled

on

this

them, in

same night

festation to Light], so that

error
1

may

"
Gf.

not

Isis,

seek

mean

Indeed, the leaders of the idol-

with wiles to deceive the

believe in

festival

the

many
of

idol- worshippers

places keep highest

Epiphany

= the

Mani-

they whose hopes are in

truth.

For

instance,

at

the Queen of Heaven, whose most ancient and

was the Virgin Mother." Marsham Adams (F.),

The Book of the Master, or the Egyptian Doctrine of the Light bom of
the Virgin Mother (London, 1898), p. 63.
distinctive title

Hcer.,

And

li.

22.

pre-eminently, therefore, for Epiphanius, the Egyptians.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

Alexandria, in the Koreion, 1 as
temple, that

it is

called

161

an immense

say the Precinct of the Virgin

is to

they have kept all-night

chanting to their

idol,

vigil

when

after

with songs and music,

the vigil

is

over, at cock-

crow, they descend with lights into an underground

and carry up a wooden image lying naked on a

with the seal of a cross made in gold on its
forehead, and on either hand two similar seals, and on
either knee two others, all five seals being similarly

crypt,
litter,

And they carry round the image itself,

circumambulating seven times the innermost temple,

made

in gold.

accompaniment

to the

of pipes, tabors

with merry-making they carry

And

ground.

mystery,

they

if

they are asked the meaning of

answer: 'To-day at this hour

Maiden (Kore), that

He

and hymns, and

down again under-

it

this

the

the Virgin, gave birth to the

is,

further adds that at Petra, in Arabia, where,

among

other places, this mystery was also performed,

the Son of the Virgin

called

is

by a name meaning

the "Alone-begotten of the Lord."

Here, then, at Alexandria, in every probability the

very environment of our

treatise,

mystery-rite, solemnized in the

who

we have

Temple

gives birth to a Son, the iEon.

not be rash in assuming,

signifies

a famous

of the Virgin,

This,

we

shall

not only the birth

new year, but also still more profound mysteries,

when we remember the words of the Naassene Document quoted above: "For such a man is the Virgin,
of the

big with child, conceiving and bearing a Son,

psychic, not fleshly [nor,
1

That

is,

the

Temple

we may

of Kore.

of Persephone, as Dindorf

(iii.

This can hardly be the Temple

729) suggests, but rather the Temple

of Isis.
Qf.

D. J.

VOL.

III.

L., pp.

407

not

add, temporal], but

ff.

11

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

162

a blessed iEon of

Mons"

that

an Eternity

is,

of

an immortal God.

Eternities,

We should also notice the crowing of the cock,

which plays so important a part in the crucifixionstory in the Gospels, 1 and above all things the stigmata
on the image, the symbols of a cosmic and human
mystery.

The Mystery of the Birth of Horus

In our own
is

treatise the

mysterious Birth of Horus

also referred to (35, 36) as follows.

Isis

has handed on the tradition of the Coming of

Divine emanation, the descent of the efflux

Osiris, the

of the Supreme,

and Horus asks

"

How

then, that Earth received God's efflux

may

well refer to the

"Dark

was

"

it,

mother,

where Earth
synonym

Earth," a

of

Isis herself.

And

answers: "I

Isis

[this] birth

origin

of

may

not

tell

the story of

for it is not permitted to describe the

this

descent,

Horus, [son]

of

mighty

power, lest afterward the way of birth of the immortal

Gods should be known unto men."

Here I think we have a clear reference
mysterious
that

"

is to say, of

how

the most royal of

all

lordship over himself.

man becomes

souls,

(xiv.)

is

when

Man is
The womb

he says:
is

Horusand
Hermes

"Wisdom

C.

yet this

R.

xiii.

that understands

the matter and the

born] and the True

is

a god, becomes

gains the kingdom, or

suggested to Tat by

in silence [such

which

the

This mystery was not yet to

be revealed to the neophyte

Birth

to

Birth of Horus," the birth of the gods,

womb from

Good the

out

Seed."

the mysterious Silence, the matter

is

Though some have conjectured that the "cock" was the

popular name for the Temple- watchman who called the hours.
1

Wisdom,

THE VIRGIN OP THE WORLD

163

the

Good, the

But
is

seed

is

Osiris.

in our treatise

this high state

us,

the

herself,

Isis

Agathodaimon,

Isis,

Horus has not yet reached

as the introductory

pouring forth for him "the

immortality "

only,

"

which souls

receive from gods"; he

is

first

have

to

words tell
draught of

custom

to

being raised to the under-

standing of a daimon, but not as yet to that of a god.

All of
parcel

this,

the

of

Diodorus

moreover, seems to have been part and

Isis

mystery-tradition proper, for as

Hecatseus, informs

25), following

(i.

us, it

was Isis who "discovered the philtre of immortality,

by means of which, when her son Horus, who had
been plotted against by the Titans, and found dead
(vcKpov) beneath the water, not only raised him to
life (awo-Trjcrai) by giving him life (\}svxw), but also
made him sharer in immortality."
Here we have evidence to show that in the mysterymyth Horus was regarded as the human soul, and
that there were two interpretations of the mystery.
It referred not only to the "rising from the dead"
in another body, or return to

ment, but also to a

consciousness

memory

of

still

life

in another enflesh-

higher mystery, whereby the

was restored to the

The soul had been cast by the

immortality

of the soul.

Titans, or the opposing powers of the subtle universe,

into the deep waters of the Great Sea, the

Ocean

of

Generation, or Celestial Nile, for as the mysterious

informant

of

Cleombrotus told him,1 these stories

of

Titans concerned daimons or souls proper, not bodies. 2

See below, where the story is given from Plutarch's Moralia.
Compare The Book of the Dead, lxxviii. 31, 32 ; Budge's
"I shall come forth
into
Trans. (London, 1901), ii. 255
the House of Isis, the divine lady. I shall behold sacred things
which are hidden, and I shall be led on to the secret and holy
things, even as they have granted unto me to see the birth of
1

164

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

From

this

death in the sea of matter,

the

Isis,

Mother Soul, brings Horus repeatedly back to life,

and finally bestows on him the knowledge of immortality, and so raises him from the "dead." 1
This birth of the " true

and

for

is

man

man "

within, the logos,

was

the chief of all mysteries.

In the
The Popular Theurgic Hermes-Cult," we

Chapter on "
have already, in elucidation of the sacramental formula,
" Thou art I and I am thou," quoted the agmphon from

Man and the

and lovers of the Aupanishad
Hindu-Aryan theosophy need hardly be

the Gospel of Eve concerning the Great

Little

Man

or Dwarf,

literature of

the Great God. Horus hath made me to be a spiritual body

through his soul, [and I see what is therein]." Compare the last
sentence with G. H., i. 7, and xi. (xii.) 6, where the pupil "sees"

by means

of the soul of his Master.

This passage, I believe, affords us an objective point of

departure for the reconsideration of C. W. Leadbeatefs statement,
in his Christian Creed (London, 1898), p. 45, that " Pontius
Pilate" is a pseudo-historical gloss for irSvros trix-nrSs, the "dense
sea" of "matter," into which the soul is plunged.
See for a
discussion of this hypothesis D. T. L., pp. 423 ff.
In connection with this a colleague has supplied me with an
exceedingly interesting note from Texts and Studies, iv. 2, Coptic
Apocryphal Gospels, p. 177, Frag. 4. The Sahidic text is found in
Rendiconti delta B. Accademia dei Lincei, vol. iii., sem. 2, pp.
381-384 (Frammenti Oopti, Nota Yla), by Ignazio Guidi (1887).
The legend runs that the Devil taking " the form of a fisherman,"
goes fishing, and

the

who

is

met by Jesus

Mount with His

disciples.

catcheth fish here, he

is

as

He was

the Master.

catch fish in the waters, the wonder

fish therein."

They then have a

unfortunately breaks

coming down from

that " he
It is not a wonder to

The Devil announces

off before

is

trial

in this desert, to catch

of skill,

the result

is told.

but the MS.

It is in this

Fragment that the following remarkable sentence occurs

"

Now

was saying these things before the authorities of Tiberius,

the king, Herod, could not refrain from setting Pilate at naught,
saying, 'Thou art a Galilcean foreign Egyptian Pontus?"
The
" Thou art a Pontus
literal translation from the Coptic runs
as Pilate

Galilaean foreign Egyptian."

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

reminded

of "

the

man/

165

thumb," within,

of the size of a

in the ether of the heart. 1

"

Ishon "

But what is of more immediate interest is that the

same idea is to some extent found in the Old Covenant
documents, especially in the Prophetical and Wisdom
literature, which latter was strongly influenced by
Hellenistic ideas.
Ishon, which literally

means

"little

man "

or " dwarf,"

in A.V. generally translated " apple of the eye."

is

Thus we read
weeping

"

in a purely literal sense, referring to

Let not the apple

of

thine eye cease " (Lam.

18).

ii.

was, however, a

It

intelligence

or

common

persuasion,

soul itself, not merely the

that

the

reflection

of the image of another person, resided in the eye, and

was made manifest chiefly by the eye.
Thus the " apple of the eye " was used as a synonym
for a man's most precious possession, the treasure-house

as

it

were

of the light of a

man.

Compare, for instance, Kathopanishad, Sec. ii., Pt. ii., iv. 11, 12
" The Man, of the size of a thumb, resides in the midst, within
in the self, of the past and the future the lord from him a man
hath no desire to hide. This verily is That.
" The Man, of the size of a thumb, like flame free from smoke,
1

and of future the lord, the same is to-day, to-morrow the

same will he be. This verily is That." Mead and Chatto-

of past

padhyaya's Trans. (London, 1896), i. 68, 69.

Here "to-day" and "to-morrow" are said by some to refer
to different incarnations the " Man " (purusha) being the potential
Self, destined finally to become, or grow into the stature of, the
Great Self (Maha-purusha).
2
See the article, " Theosophic Light on Bible Shadows," in The
;

Theosophical Review (Nov. 1904), xxxv. 230, 231.

3
The minute image of a person reflected in the pupil of the
eye of another may to some extent account for the popular belief
underlying this identification.

"

166

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

And

we

so

"He [Yahweh]

read:

kept him [Israel]

as the apple of his eye " (Ps. xvii. 8)

where ishon is
in the Hebrew further glossed as the " daughter of the

eye "

and again

"

Thus

saith the

Lord

of

Hosts

He

that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye

(Zech. ii. 8).

The

" apple of the eye " (ishon) was, then,

of great value,

we read

in the Wisdom-literature that the

man who

of the

" his

lamp

" in the apple of his

this connects

is,

that he shall thus extinguish the

same Wisdom-teaching.

(Ps.

Ii.

man] thou

[of

or perhaps spiritual nature,

eye there will be darkness

shalt

make me

collection,

"

In the hidden

striking passages are to be found in

where the true

faithful to the

with the

"

Law

Israelite is

(Torah),

and

to

the Proverbs-

warned to remain
have no commerce

strange woman," the " harlot "

" false doctrines " of

"Keep my law

that

is,

the

the Gentiles. 2
as the apple of

thine eye" (Prov.

says the writer, speaking in the

name

of

Yahweh,

he has seen the young and foolish being led astray

by the

"

strange woman."

"

He went

the

house, in the twilight, in the evening;

(ishon)
1

and

know wisdom "

to

that pre-eminently Wisdom-chapter in

for

6).

But the most

vii. 2),

"

with a passage in the Psalms which shows

traces of the
*

that

is

shall be put out in obscure (ishon) darkness "

of his intelligence,

part

punishment

curses his father and mother

20) that

(Prov. xx.

lamp

something
something very precious, and, therefore,

and dark night " (Prov.

The same

idea which

vii. 9).

we found above

way

in

That

to her

the black
is

to say,

in connection with

Amnion.
2
To go " a- whoring " after strange gods and strange doctrines
was the graphic figure invariably employed by Hebrew orthodoxy
" to commit fornication " not unfrequently echoes the same idea in

the

New

Testament.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

167

lamp was put out; there was dark night in his eye,
man of his, which should be his true lightspark understanding the wisdom of Yahweh.
his

in that little

we have

Here, I think,

additional evidence, that the

the eye was the seat of the

idea, that the pupil of

man, was widespread in HellenBut even so, can we translate Koprj

It is
the " Apple of the World-Eye " ?

spiritual intelligence in
circles. 1

istic

as

KoarjuLov

true that Isis

the instrument or organ of conveying

is

the hidden wisdom to Horus, and that

Hermes

or the Logos

who

is

it is

the true light

eventually

itself,

which

shines through her, the pupil of Egypt's eye, 2 out of

that mysterious darkness, in which she found

when she

self,

Kamephis;

but

is

this

sufficient

On
the

new

and

title,

version?

the whole I

new

for

justification

rejecting the traditional translation of the

adopting a

her-

received illumination at the hands of

rendering

am
may

inclined to think, that though

at first sight appear

strained, nevertheless in proportion as

somewhat

we become more

remember the thoughtwe may venture so to translate

the "Apple or Pupil of the Eye of

familiarized with the idea and

environment
Isis,

it.

then, is

On

Osiris."

of the time,

earth the "mysterious black"

is

Egypt

study on the subject, see Monseur (E.), "L'Ame

and Feb. 1905), who
discusses the significance in primitive religion of the reflected
image to be seen in the pupil of the eye. This " little man " of
1

For the

latest

Pupilline," Rev. de VHist. des Belig. (Jan.

the eye was taken to be

2

Cf.,

much

its soul,

for the idea in the

of the fire as

mind

and

to control all its functions.

of the ancients,

"So

light,

they

Tim. 45 B

would not burn, but gave a gentle

formed into a substance akin to the light of every-day life and

the pure fire which is within us and related thereto they made to
flow through the eyes in a stream smooth and dense, compressing
the whole eye, and especially the centre part, so that it kept out
everything of a coarser nature, and allowed to pass only this pure
;

element."

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

168

wisdom-land.

herself, the

Isis is

the mysterious wisdom

for she is that

even more than this,

wisdom but now truly illumined by the

direct sight, the

new dawn

of Egypt, but in our treatise she is

of

which she speaks

of the Trismegistic discipline

(4).

To a Greek, however, the word Koprj would combine

and not distinguish the two meanings of the title over
which we have been labouring but even as logos meant
both " word " and " reason," so Jcore would mean both
" virgin " and " pupil of the eye
but as it is
"
impossible to translate it in English by one word, we
;

have followed the traditional rendering.

The Sixty Soul-Regions

We now turn to a few of the most important points

which require more detailed treatment than the space
of a footnote can accommodate.
There are, of course,
many

other points that could be elaborated, but

if

that

were done, the present work would run into volumes.

The number of degrees into which the soul-stuff
(psychosis) is divided, is given as three, and as sixty
If this statement stood by itself we should have
(10).
been somewhat considerably puzzled to have known

what

to

make

of

it,

even when we remembered the

is par excellence the number

and that he who can unriddle the enigma

mystic statement that 60

of the soul,

will

know

its

nature.

Fortunately, however,
xxvii.),

we

find

if

we

turn to

S.

H., 6 (Ex.

that according to this tradition the

soul-regions also were divided into 60 spaces, presumably

corresponding to the types of souls.

They were

4 main divisions and 60 special spaces,

with no overlapping (7). These spaces were also called
in

zones, firmaments or layers.

We are

further told (6) that the lowest division, that

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

169

the one nearest to the earth, consists of 4 spaces;

is

the second, of 8

And
main

the third, of 16

further

still

(7),

and the fourth,

This introduces an

divisions 12 intervallic ones.

element

of 32.

that there were besides the 4

of uncertainty, for, as far as I

am

aware,

we

have no objective information which can enable us to

determine how the intervallic divisions were located in
the

mind

of

the writer

scheme has suggested

speculation

itself to

is

rash, but a

me, and I append

it

with

all reservation.

First of all

we have 4 main

divisions

or planes,

separated from one another by 3 determinations of some

whole ordering pertains to the Air proper,

and perhaps the 4 states of Air were regarded as
earthy, watery, aery, and fiery Air.
The 3 determinations may perhaps have been regarded as corresponding to the three main grades or florescences of the
soul-stuff,
which were apparently of a superior
sort, for the

substance.

4 may further have been reby three intervallic determinations

so that we should have 3 such intervals in the lowest
division, subdividing it into 4 spaces of 1 space each
3 in the second, subdividing it into 4 spaces of 2 spaces
each
3 in the third, subdividing it into 4 spaces of 4

Each

division of the

garded as divided

off

spaces each; and 3 in the fourth, subdividing

4 spaces of 8 spaces
would thus be 12.

each.

The sum

it

into

of these intervals

Plutarch's Yogin
In this connection, however, I cannot refrain from
appending a pleasant story told by Plutarch. 1
1

Be

Defectu

Bernardakis

Oraculorum, xxi., xxii. (421a-422c), ed. G. N.

See my paper,
97-101.
iii.
1891),

(Leipzig,

"Plutarch's Yogi," in The Theosophical Review (Dec. 1891),

295-297.

ix.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

170

The speaker

man and man

is

of

Cleombrotus, a Lacedaemonian gentle-

means,

who was

a great traveller, and

a greedy collector of information of all sorts to form

He had spent
been a voyage
beyond the Eed Sea. On his travels Cleombrotus had
heard of a philosopher-recluse, who lived in complete
the basis of a philosophical religion.

much time

in Egypt,

and had

also

when he was

seen by
was that a
certain divine inspiration came upon him, and he came
forth and " prophesied " to the nobles and royal scribes

retirement, except once a year

" the folk

round the Eed Sea

who used

to flock to hear him.

"

then

With

it

great difficulty,

and only after the expenditure of much money,

Cleombrotus discovered the hermitage of this recluse,
and was granted a courteous reception.
Our old philosopher was the handsomest man Cleombrotus had ever met, deeply versed in the knowledge
of plants, and a great linguist.
With Cleombrotus,
however, he spoke Doric, and almost in verse, and " as
he spake perfume filled the place from the sweetness of
his breath."

His knowledge

the various mystery - cults was

of

profound, and his

intimate

unseen world remarkable

acquaintance

he explained

with

many

the

things to

Cleombrotus, and especially the nature of the daimones,

and the important part they played as

factors in

any

satisfactory interpretation of ancient mythology, seeing

that most of the great myths referred to the doings of

the daimones and not of mortals.

Cleombrotus, however, has told his story merely as

an introduction to the quotation

tion let

fall

plurality of worlds
1

In

runs

of a scrap of informa-

by the old philosopher concerning the

l
;

thus, then, he continues

this referring to the passage in the

"

Timmus, (55 c

Now, he who, duly reflecting on all

this,

d),

which

enquires whether

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

"The Plain

He

"

told

me

Truth"

of

number

that the

171

worlds was neither

of

but that there were 183 of

them, arranged in the figure of a triangle of which each
side contained 60, and of the remaining 3 one set at

infinite,

nor one, nor

And

each angle.

five,

those on the sides touch each other,

And

revolving steadily as in a choral dance.

the triangle

of

Common Hearth

the

is

the area

of all,

and

is

Plain of Truth/ in which the logoi and

and paradigms of all things which have been, and
which shall be, lie immovable; and the iEon [or
Eternity] being round them [sc. the ideas], time flows
down upon the worlds like a stream. And the sight
and contemplation (6eav) of these things is possible for

called the

'

the souls of

men only

ideas

once in ten thousand years, should

they have lived a virtuous

our initiations here below
true vision and

And

life.

is

the highest of

only the dream of that

delivered

and the discourses [sc.

in the mystic rites] have been carefully

devised to

awaken the memory

initiation

of the

sublime things

above, or else are to no purpose."

the worlds are to be regarded as indefinite or definite in number,
will be of opinion that

the notion of

their

indefiniteness

is

and ignorant mind. He, however, who raises the question whether they are to be truly
regarded as one or five, takes up a more reasonable position"
characteristic of a sadly indefinite

(Jowett's Trans., 3rd ed.,

1

Gf. 8.

initiate

H., 3

"

iii.

Now

475, 476).

though
and that my

as I chance myself to be as

into the nature that transcendeth death,

have crossed the Plain of Truth " and K. K., 22 " The
Monarch came, and sitting on the Throne of Truth made answer
to their prayers."
The locus classicus is, of course, Plato, Phcedrus,

feet

248
2

b.

Of.

K. K., 37

" Tis they who, taught

5

things below have been disposed by

God

to

by Hermes that the

be in sympathy with

things above, established on the earth the sacred rites o'er which

the mysteries in heaven preside."

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

172

This statement I

am

to regard as

inclined

one

of

the most distinct pronouncements on the nature of the

higher mysteries which has been preserved to us from

and the locus classicus and point of departure

any really fruitful discussion of the true nature of
the philosophic mysteries, and yet I have never seen it

antiquity,
for

referred to in this connection.

Our old philosopher was well acquainted with the

Egyptian mystery- tradition, for Oleombrotus obtained
information from him concerning the esoteric significance

Typhon and

of

falls

and what I have quoted above

Osiris,

naturally into place in the scheme of ideas of the

tradition preserved in the treatise

cussing. 1

It,

matter, for

it

and possible

which we are

dis-

indeed, pertains to a higher side of the

purports to be the highest theoria of

even

for the souls

of

all,

the most righteous

only at long periods of time.

The
symbolical.
is
the " plain of truth," the

Of course the representation

triangle is no triangle
"

hearth

it is

The

of the universe."

to the plane of Fire proper

ordering of the
spaces.

The

"

worlds

flows

it is

down from

worlds or cosmoi,

Air.

Still,

the

similar to that of our soul

triangle is shut off

world by the Moil

Time

" is

triangle, then, pertained

and not

from the manifested

out of space and time proper.

it.

The worlds proper are 3

each divided into

60 subordinate

cosmoi, in choral dance, or orderly harmonious move-

ment of one to the other. Our soul-spaces, then, may

have been regarded as some reflection of these supernal
conditions.

One
1

Our

is

almost tempted to turn the plane triangle

difficulty,

however,

is

that Plutarch, in the words of one

of his characters, rejects the idea of this

way Egyptian, and

Sicily,

numbering being in anyHimera in

ascribes it to a certain Petron of

thereby suggesting a probable Pythagorean connection.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

173

and imagine the idea

world or wheel, at each of the four angles, and to
speculate on the Wheels of Ezekiel, the prototype of the

into a solid figure, a tetrahedron, 1

of a

Mercabah

Heavenly Chariot of Kabalism, the Throne

Supreme, but I will not try the patience
of my readers any further, for doubtless most of them
will have cried already Hold, enough
Truth

of

or

of the

The Boundaries of the Numbers which Preexist in the Soul

Perhaps, however,

it

missing the subject,

to

would be

as well, before dis-

consider

very briefly what

Plato, following Pythagoras, 2 has to say concerning the

"boundaries" of
soul.

all

numbers which pre-exist

These soul-numbers are

1, 2,

3, 4,

8,

9*,

in the

27 (the

combination of the two Pythagorean series

1, 2, 4, 8 and
Of these numbers
1, 2, 3 are apportioned to the World-Soul itself, in its
intellectual or spiritual aspect, and signify its abiding
in (1), its proceeding from (2), and its returning to
itself (3)
this with regard to primary natures.
But in

1, 3, 9, 27),

or

1, 2, 3,

22 23
,

32 33
,

addition,

intermediate

" providentially "

subtle

natures or

souls

are

ordered in their evolution and involu-

tion, by the World-Soul

they proceed according to the
power of the fourth term (4 or 2 2),
which possesses
generative powers/' and return according to that of the
fifth (9 or 3 2 ), " which reduces them to one/'
Finally
;

'

'

also solid or gross natures are also "providentially"

ordered in their procession according to 8 (2 3 ), and in

their conversion according to 27 (3 3 ). 3
1

See the section, "

Some

Outlines of Monology," F. F. F., pp.

311-335.
2

See

my

Orpheus (London, 1896), pp. 255-262.

Taylor (T.), "Introd. to Timseus," Works
(London, 1804), p. 442.
3

Of.

of

Plato


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

174

From

which we get the following scheme

all of

progression and conversion of

circular

main

various

stages through which

1

31

22

32

2s

With

compare

this
:

"

Do

plane into the solid

to

eirlireSov (ed.

passes:

21

Psellus, 19)

it

of

the soul, the

3s

the "Chaldsean

not
"

firj

Oracle" (ap.

the spirit, nor turn the

soil

irvevixa juLoXvvfls

Cory, Or.

clii.,

p.

juLrjre

fiaQvvys

270); where the

four stages correspond to the point, line, plane, and

It

solid.

is

also to be

remembered that since

= l,

= land3 = l.
That these are the boundary numbers

of the soul,

according to Pythagoreo-Platonie tradition,

is of interest,

but how this can in any way be made to agree with

the ordering of the soul-spaces in our treatise

by

is

numbers together
we
get
and by farther
9
2
3
4+8
54,
+ + 27)
(1 + + +
of
numbers
the
World-Soul
proper
adding the
(1 + 2 + 3)
we get 6, and so total out the whole sum of the phases
fudging," as we used to
to 60, savours somewhat of
It is by no means convincing, for we
call it at school.
That

puzzle.

adding

these

<l

are

here

combining particulars

though they were

of

with

equal dignity;

still

universals

as

the ancients

frequently resort to such combinations.

That, however, there

is

something more than learned

Plato may be seen by

"
on
the " nuptial number
the brilliant study
1
of Plato, which was based upon the properties of the
trifling in these

numbers
of

See Adam (J.), The Nuptial Number

and Significance (London, 1891).

Rep., viii. 5450-547 A.

of Plato

Its Solution

of

Adam

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

"

175

Pythagorean triangle," a right-angled triangle to the

containing sides of which the values of 3 and 4 were

given, the value of its hypothenuse being consequently

and

3x4x5 = 60.

The numbers 3, 4, 5, together

8, and 1, 3, 9, 27, were the
numerical sequences which supplied those " canons of
proportion " with which the Pythagoreans and Platonists
5

with the series

1,

2, 4,

chiefly busied themselves.

throw any
on the ordering of the soul spaces as given
our treatise, and we are therefore tempted to

Still,

as far as I can see, this does not

clear light

in

connect

it

with the tradition of the mysterious 60's

But what that choral dance was which

60's, and whether
they proceeded by stages which might correspond to
3's and 4's and 5's, we have, as far as I am aware,

of Cleombrotus.

ordered the subordinate cosmoi into

no data on which

to

base

an argument.

It

may,

however, have been connected with Babylonian ideas

the 3

may have been

making

12,

and

regarded as " falling into

this stage in its turn

as " falling into " 5,

and so making

" 4, so

have been regarded

60.

The Mysterious Cylinder

It is to be noticed, however, that before the. souls

the Demiurge "appointed for them limits

and reservations 1 in the height of Upper Nature, that
they might keep the cylinder a- whirl in proper order
and economy" (11).
They were, then, confined to certain orderings and
But what is the mysterious " cylinder " which
spaces.

revolted,

they were to keep revolving

So far I have come across nothing that throws any

1

Which may have been regarded

soul-spaces,

as

the prototypes of the


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

176

on the subject. However, Proclus 1 says

that Porphyry stated that among the Egyptians the
letter % surrounded by a circle, symbolized the mundane
direct light

soul.

It

is

curious that Porphyry should have referred this

idea to the Egyptians,

Plato, to

whom

when he must have known

that

Porphyry looked as the corypheus

of

philosophy, had treated of the significance of the

all

symbol

(in Greek x) in perhaps the most discussed

passage of the Timceus (36b). 2 This letter symbolized

the mutual relation of the axes and equators of the

sphere of the "same" (the "fixed stars") and

sphere of the

"

the
other " (the " seven planetary spheres ").

Porphyry, however,

may have

Pythagoras, got the idea in the

common

the

believed that Plato, or

first

This enigma of Plato

is

described as follows by Jowett

in his Introduction to the Timceus 3

"

place from Egypt

persuasion of his school.

The universe revolves round

a centre once in twenty-

four hours, but the orbits of the fixed stars take a

different direction

from that

and the inner sphere

at a point opposite to that of their

moving in a

The outer
and meet again

of the planets.

cross one another

contact; the

first

from left to right along the side

a parallelogram which is supposed to be inscribed in
the second also moving in a circle along the diagonal

first

of
it,

circle

the same parallelogram from right to left 4

of

Comment,

in

Plat.

Tim. y

216c

ed.

C.

E.

C.

or, in

Schneider

(Vratislavise, 1847), p. 250.

2

passage which Proclus, op.

by means

further explains
3
iii.

Jowett

(B.),

Dialogues

of the

cit., 213a (ed. Sch.,

"harmonic canon" or

of Plato

(3rd

ed.,

Oxford,

p.

152)

ruler.

1892),

403.

4
" The motion of the same he carried round by
Of. text 36c
the side to the right, and the motion of the diverse diagonally to
the left," that is the side of the rectangular figure supposed to be
:

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

other words, the

first

177

describing the path of the equator,

the second, the path of the ecliptic."

We

should thus, just as the Egyptians, according to

Porphyry, symbolized

it,

represent the conception

by

the figure of a circle with two diameters suggesting

respectively the equator

But what
refers,

is

ecliptic.

but which he does not further describe?

spheres;

are

circles

must be a

figure

and the

the rectangular figure to which Jowett

"of the same."

solid figure inscribed in

we now

If

The

the rectangular

and, therefore,

the sphere

set the circle revolving

parallel to the longer sides of the figure, this " parallelo-

gram "

will trace out a cylinder, while the seven spheres

of the " other," the " souls " of the " planets,"

parallel to

one

opposite direction to the sphere of the "

their

moving
and in an
same," will, by

of the diagonals of our figure,

mutual difference

of rates of motion, cause their

"bodies" (the souls surrounding the bodies) to trace

out spiral orbits.

All this in

and
into

I confess, seems very far-fetched,

itself,

I should have

thrown

my

the waste-paper basket,

notes on the subject

but for the following

consideration
Basil of Caesarea, in his Hexoemeron, or Homilies on
inscribed in the circle of the " same," and diagonally, across the
and 38d, 39a " Now,
;

rectangular figure from corner to corner

when
[i.e.

all

the stars which were necessary to the creation of time

the spheres of the sun, moon, and five planets] had attained

a motion suitable to them,

and had become

living creatures, having

bodies fastened by vital chains, and learned their appointed task,

moving in the motion

of the diverse,

which

diagonal,

is

and passes

governed by the motion of the same, they revolved,

The motion of
some in a larger and some in a lesser orbit.
the same made them turn all in a spiral." With these instruments
of "time," surrounded by the sphere of the same, compare the
idea of time flowing down on the worlds, from the iEon, in the
story of Gleombrotus.
through, and

is

VOL.

III.

12

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

178

it "

the Six Days of Creation, declared

interest to us whether the earth

is

a matter of no

a sphere or a cylinder
x

or a disk, or concave in the middle like a fan."

The

cylinder-idea, then,

was a favourite theory with

regard to the earth-shape in the time of Basil, that

is

the fourth century.

This cylinder-idea, however, I

am

inclined to think

was very ancient. In the domain of Greek speculation

we first meet with it in what little is known of the
system of Anaximander of Miletus, the successor of
Thales.

Anaximander
earth

is

reported to have believed that " the

a heavenly body, controlled by no other power,

is

and keeping its position because it is the same distance

from all things; the form of it is curved, cylindrical,
like a stone column
it has two faces
one of these is
;

the ground beneath our

to

feet,

and the other

is

opposite

it."

And

again: "That the earth

and that

Now

its

depth

is

a cylinder in form,

is

one-third of

its

breadth."

have never been able to persuade myself

Greece "invented"
the ideas ascribed to them. They stood on the borderI

that the earliest philosophers of

land

of

mythology and

mysticism,

probability, took their ideas

and,

from ancient

in

every

traditions.

So quoted in Andrew Dickson White's History of the Warfare

of Science with Theology in Christendom (New York, 1898), i. 92.
Dr White, unfortunately, does not give the exact reference. The
1

"fan" is, of course, the winnowing fan, a broad basket into which
the corn mixed with chaff was received after threshing, and was
then thrown up into the wind, so as to disperse the chaff and
leave the grain.
2

91 r

Alexander of Aphrodisias, Comment, on Aristotle in Meteor.,

(vol. i., 268 I d)
Diels, Doxographi Grceci (Berlin, 1879),

p. 478.
3

Cf. Aetius,

Be

Placitis Eeliguice,

iii.

10 (Diels, 579).

Plutarch, Strom., 2 (Diels, 579).

See Fairbanks (A.), The
First Philosophers of Greece (London, 1898), pp. 13, 14.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

Anaximander himself was

we know even

179

in every probability indirectly,

by Egyptian
and Chaldsean notions indeed, who can any longer
"
doubt in the light of the Cnossus excavations ? 1
Anaximander is thus said to have regarded the
for all

directly, influenced
;

earth-cylinder

cylinder

is

as fixed, whereas in

not the earth and

is

our treatise the

not fixed;

it

is,

on

the contrary, a celestial cylinder and in constant motion.

Can

it,

was

associated with

then, possibly

be that this cylinder notion

some Babylonian idea, and had

its source in that country par excellence of cylinders ?
In Babylonia, moreover, the cylinder-shape was frequently used for

seals,

fashioned like a small roller,

so that the characters or symbols engraved

on them

could be impressed on soft substance, such as wax.

and Egyptian civilizations

and pre-eminently
In the Copticso in the matter of sigils and seals.
Gnostic works, translated from Greek originals, and
indubitably mainly of Egyptian origin, the idea of
" characters," " seals," and " sigils," as types impressed
on matter, is a commonplace.
Can our cylinder, then, have some connection with
Further,
were, as

the Babylonian

we know,

closely associated,

the circle of animal types, or types of

life,

of

which

The souls of the

so much is said in our treatise?
supernal man class would then have had the task of
keeping this cylinder in motion, so that thereby the
various types were continually impressed on the plasms

the sphere of generation, or ever-becomingthe

in

wheel
This
air,

of genesis?

may

be

moreover,

is

so, for

in P. S.

An

19,

we read: "The

the engine, or machine, through which

1
Delitzseh also, in his Babel und Bibel, states that the great
debt of early Greece to Assyria will be made clear in a forth-

coming work

of

German

scholarship.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

180

things are made

mortal from mortal things
and things like these."
So also in K. K, 28, Hermes says: "And I will
skillfully devise an instrument, mysterious, possessed
of power of sight that cannot err
an instrument
all

that binds together all that's done."

Here again we have the same idea, all connected

of Fate or Heimarmene
the instrument
of Hermes is the Karmic Wheel, by which cause and
effect are linked together, and that too with a moral
with the notion

purpose. 1
Finally, in connection with our cylinder,

we may

compare the Aryan Hindu myth of the "Churning

of the Ocean," in the Vishnu Purana.
The churningstaff or Pillar was the heaven-mountain, round which
was coiled the cosmic serpent, to serve as rope for
twirling it.
The rope was held at either end by the
Devas and Asuras, or gods and daemons.
There is
also a mystic symbol in India which probably connects
with a similar range of ideas. It is two superimposed
triangles

(^), with

the centre a serpent

resemblance to our

and round
twined, a somewhat curious
and cylinder-idea. And so much

their apices touching,

is

for this puzzling symbol.

The Eagle,

We

now

Lion,

Dragon and Dolphin

pass to the four leading types of animals,

connected with souls of the highest rank

namely,

the eagle, lion, dragon, and dolphin (24, 25) which

it may be of interest to compare with the symbolism
of

some

of

the degrees of the Mithriac Mysteries

1
I have also got a stray reference, " KvXwtipos, Pint., 2, 682 c,
Xylander's pages," but I have not been able to verify this.
2
See Cnmont (F.), Textes et Monuments figures relat. aux

Mysthres de Mithra (Bruxelles, 1899),

i.

315.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

In one

preliminary degrees of the

of the

181
rite,

we

are

informed, some of the mystae imitated the voices of

birds, others

interpreted

All of this was

the roaring of lions. 1

by the

initiates

having reference to

as

Thus Porphyry 2

transmigration or metempsychosis.
tells

us that in the Mysteries of Mithras they called

the

mystae

by the names

common

symbolizing man's

some

called

women

men

the

of

animals, so

different

lower nature with that

Thus, for instance, they

the irrational animals.

of

of

" lions,"

and some

of

the

some were

called "ravens," while

"
the " fathers," the highest grade, were called " hawks
"lionesses,"

''eagles."
The "ravens" were the lowest grade;
those of the " lion " grade were apparently previously

and

invested with the disguises

and masks

a series

of

of animal forms before they received the lion shape.

Porphyry

tells us, further, that Pallas,

to Porphyry's day, written

Mithriaca,

now

unfortunately

was vulgarly believed

truth

it

animal

Ps. Augustine, Qucestt. Vet.

xxxiv.
2

Be

col.

2214

had, prior

lost, asserts

that

all this

to refer to the zodiac, but that in

symbolized a mystery of the

invested with

is

who

an excellent treatise on the

natures
et

Nov.

human
of

Test.

soul,

various

which
kinds, 3

(Migne, P. L., torn,

f.).

Nauck, p. 253).
Clement of Alexandria on the Basilidian theory of
"appendages," remembering that the School of Basilides was
strongly tinctured with Egyptian ideas. " The Basilidians are
accustomed to give the name of appendages (or accretions) to the
These essences, they say, have a certain substantial
passions.
existence, and are attached to the rational soul, owing to a certain
turmoil and primitive confusion. On to this nucleus other bastard
and alien natures of the essence grow, such as those of the wolf,
And not only do human souls thus
ape, lion, goat, etc.
intimately associate themselves with the impulses and impressions
of irrational animals, but they even initiate the movements and
3

Abstinentia, iv. 16 (ed.

Gf.

beauties of plants, because they likewise bear the characteristics

182

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
Thus they

according to the tradition of the Magi.

call

the sun (and therefore those corresponding to this

nature) a bull, a

lion,

a dragon, and a hawk.

remembered that Appuleius, 1

It is further to be

in

describing the robe with which he was invested after

his initiation into the Mysteries of Isis, tells us that he

was enthroned

as the sun, robed in twelve sacramental

garments

these garments were of linen with

upon them, so that from every side
" you might see that I was remarkable by the animals
which were painted round my vestment in various
This dress, he says, was called the " Olympic
colours."
stoles or

beautiful paintings

Stole."

Momus
Finally,

reader a

may

it

little

Among

the Greeks

Momus was

the spirit of fault-finding.

(214), places

make

perhaps be of service to

better acquainted with

the personification of

Hesiod, in his

Theogony

him among the second generation

answer

Stasimus,3

of

to

we

War, and on

floods (water),

human

Momus

race

sent the Theban

first

this proving insufficient,

annihilating the

to

the

Zeus, in

Earth's prayer to relieve her of her over-

population of impious mankind,4

men

when

learn that,

of the

From

children of Night, together with the Fates.

Gyjoria

the

Momus.

bethought him

by thunderbolts

advises the Father of

marry the goddess Thetis

of

and
gods and

(fire)

to a mortal, so that a

beautiful daughter (Aphrodite-Helen) might be born to

of plants

appended

to

them.

characteristics [of minerals]

of

adamant"

Nay,

shown by

there

also

certain

(F. F. F., p. 276).

Metamorphoses, Book

Which Pindar and Herodotus

See Frag. I. from the Scholion on Horn.,

See K. K., 34.

are

habits, such as the hardness

xi.

ascribed to

Homer
12., i.

himself.
ff.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

183

them, and so mankind, Greeks and Barbarians, on her

account be involved in internecine
Trojan War.
that

by the

namely, the
11.,

Momus whom Homer meant

was

it

strife

Further, the Scholiast on

avers

" will " or " counsel " of Zeus.

Sophocles, moreover, wrote a Satyric

"

5,

i.

to represent

Momus," 1 and so also Achseus. 2

Both Plato 8 and Aristotle 4 refer

to

drama

Momus.

called

Calli-

machus, the chief librarian of the Alexandrian Library,

from 260-240

B.C.,

in his JEtia,b pilloried his critic

and

former pupil Apollonius Ehodius as Momus.

Momus, moreover, was

a favourite figure with the

Sophists and Ehetoricians, especially of

century

A.D.

In Ml. Aristides,6 Momus,

the
as

second

he could

no fault with Aphrodite herself, found fault with

Lucian makes Aphrodite vow to oppose
her shoe. 7
Momus tooth and nail,8 and makes Momus find fault
with even the greatest works of the gods, such as the
house of Athene, the bull of Zeus, and the men of
Hephaestus, the last because the god-smith had not
put windows in their breasts so that their hearts might
find

be seen.9

And, interestingly enough in connection with our

one of his witty sketches,10 makes

treatise, Lucian, in
1

Frag. 369-374B (ed. Dind.)

the

context of which some

believe to be found in Lucian's Hermotimus, 20.

2 Frag. 29, from the Scholion on Aristophanes, Pax, 357.
" Nor would even Momus find fault with
3 Eep., vi. 487a
:

this."
4

De

And

Partt.

Animal, iii.
end

also at the

Epigram. Frag., 70.

6
ed. Jebb,
Or., 49
;

ii.

Dial. Deor., xx. 2.

Hermot., xx.

3
10

Bab. Fab.,

Deor. Gonsil.,

iv.

of his

Hymn
7

p. 497.

Nig., xxxii.

cf.

lix.

2.

and Jup.

Of.

to

Apollo,

ii.

112; also

Julian, Ep. ad Dionys.

Dial. Deor., ix.

Trag., xxii.

Ver. Hist.,

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

184

Momus

one

Momus

finds fault because

reckoned among the gods, and

refrain

to

with Zeus
Bacchus is
commanded by Zeus

of the persons of the dialogue

and Hermes.

from

making

is

ridicule

of

Hercules

and

Asclepius.

The popular
old

man, 1

figure of

Momus was

that of a feeble

very different representation from the

grandiose Intelligence of our treatise, a true Lucifer.

Some

representations give his one sharp tooth, and

The story runs that Zeus finally banished

him from Olympus for his fault-finding. 2
The Onomastica Vaticana s connects Momus with
others wings.

Mammon

but this side-issue need not detain

us.

The Mystic Geography of Sacred Lands

With regard

to the symbolic figure of the

Earth

of

46-48 of the second K. K. Extract, and the persuasion

that Egypt was the heart or centre thereof, we may

append two quotations on the subject from widely

different standpoints.
The first is from Dr Andrew
D. White's recent volumes 5
" Every great people of antiquity, as a rule, regarded
:

own

its

central city or most holy place as necessarily

the centre of the earth.

The Chaldeans held that their holy house of the

The Egyptians sketched the
gods' was the centre.
"

'

of a human figure, in which

and the centre of it Thebes. For
was Babylon for the Hindus, it was

world under the form

Egypt was the

heart,

the Assyrians,

it

Mount Meru;

for the Greeks, so far as the civilized

Philostratus, Ep. 21.

"

For the above and other

Momus," in Koscher's Lexicon.

references, see

Triimpel's art.

Lug., 194, 59.

See Nestle's art. "Mammon," in Cheyne's Encyclopaedia Biblica.

Op. supra cit., i. 98, 99.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

world was concerned, Olympus or the temple
for

the modern

sacred stone

Mohammedans,

is

it

185
of

Delphi

Mecca and

its

the Chinese, to this day, speak of their

empire as the middle kingdom.' It was in accordance,

then, with a simple tendency of human thought that
'

the Jews believed the centre of the world to be Jerusalem.

"

The book

Jerusalem as in the

of Ezekiel speaks of

middle of the earth, and

other parts of the world as

all

city.
Throughout the 'ages of
was very generally accepted as a direct
revelation from the Almighty regarding the earth's

set

around the holy

faith' this

St Jerome, the greatest authority of the early

form.

Church upon the

Bible, declared, on the strength of

this utterance of the prophet, that

Jerusalem could be

nowhere but at the earth's centre in the ninth century

Archbishop Rabanus Maurus reiterated the same argu;

ment

in the eleventh century

Hugh

of St Victor

gave

and
sermon at Clermont urging
the Franks to the crusade, declared, Jerusalem is the
in the thirteenth century
middle point of the earth
to the doctrine another scriptural demonstration;

Pope Urban,

in his great

'

'

an

ecclesiastical

Csesarius

of

writer

much

in

vogue, the

monk

Heisterbach, declared, 'As the heart in

the midst of the body, so

is

Jerusalem situated in the

so

was that Christ

Dante accepted
was
this view of Jerusalem as a certainty, wedding it to
immortal verse; and in the pious book of travels
ascribed to Sir John Mandeville, so widely read in the
Middle Ages, it is declared that Jerusalem is at the
centre of the world, and that a spear standing erect
at the Holy Sepulchre casts no shadow at the equinox.
"Ezekiel's statement thus became the standard of
orthodoxy to early map-makers. The map of the world
at Hereford Cathedral, the maps of Andrea Bianco,
midst

of

our inhabited earth,'

'

it

crucified at the centre of the earth.'

186

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

Marino Sanuto, and a multitude of others fixed this

view in men's minds, and doubtless discouraged during
many generations any scientific statements tending to
unbalance this geographical centre revealed in Scripture."
So much for the righteous indignation of modern

now for cryptology and mysticism.

M. W. Blackden, in a recent article on " The Mysteries
and the Book of the Dead, " writes as follows 1
physical science

'

"One

other key there

is

without which

it

is

Dead with the idea

of discussing any of those gems of wisdom for which
old Egypt was so famous.
The knowledge of its
useless to approach The

Booh of

existence

is

the

no recent discovery

it

is

simply that

ancient nations such as the Egyptians, Chaldees, and

Jews, had a system

"

map

to

of

symbolic geography.

The Jewish and Egyptian

priestly caste endeavoured

out their lands in accordance with their symbols

of spiritual things, so far as the physical features

permit.

This

symbolism

of

mountain,

city,

would
plain,

and river extended from the various parts and

furniture of the Lodge, to use Masonic phraseology, up
to the spiritual anatomy, as it were, of both macrocosm
and microcosm.
" Thus in the Jewish Scriptures it is not difficult to
desert,

distinguish, in the prophetic battles of the nations that

were

to rage

round about Jerusalem, the same symbolism

we have more

directly expressed in a little old book

The Siege of Mansoul, the author of which was
the John Bunyan of The Pilgrim's Progress, a man

as

called

who

could well grasp the excellence of geographical

symbolism.
" I cannot, of course, here enter at length into the

geographical symbols of Egypt,

it

would take too long

but as I have given Jerusalem as a symbol, I

1

The Theosophical Bevieiv (July, 1902),

vol.

may

say

xxx. pp. 406, 407.

THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

187

further that Jerusalem as a symbol corresponds to the

Egyptian On, or Heliopolis, and so astronomically to

the centre of the world and of the universe, and in
the microcosm to the spiritual Heart of Man. 1
" But there is one difference between the Hebrew
and Egyptian city for whereas the actual Jerusalem
;

among the Hebrew prophets to that Jerunow is, and is in bondage with her children,
corresponded among the Egyptian priest-

corresponds

salem that
Heliopolis

hood to that
City, the

New

city

which was

to come, the

Heavenly

Heart, that should be given to redeemed

mankind."

Here then we have a

and so I leave

to itself

volume
him who has a mind to

thesis that deserves a

it to

undertake the labour.

1
" There is an old map of the world in the British Museum
which demonstrates both these significations. See also Mappa
Mundi, 'Ebsdorf,' 1284, and that in Hereford Cathedral made
by Richard of Haldingham, one of the Prebends, 1290-1310."

EXCERPT XXVII.

FEOM THE SERMON OF

TO HORUS

ISIS

on to the last without a break.

69, under heading, "Of
Hermes A Sermon of Isis to Horus " ; G. pp. 476-481
M. i. 342-352 W. i. 458-472.
Menard: Livre III., No. in. of " Fragments," etc., as
(Patrizzi (p. 34b) runs this

Text: Stob., Phys.,

68,

xli.

above, pp. 209-221.)

1

In wondrous fashion

I.

(Horus

said)

hast thou

explained to me, most mighty mother

Isis,

the

details of God's wondrous soul-making, and I

remain in wonder

me
I

but not as yet hast thou told

whereto the souls when freed from body go.

would then thank thee

by word

of

mouth

for being

made

initiate

into this vision of the soul, 8

only mother, deathless one

2.

And

Give

Isis said

ear,

my

son

most indispensable

is

this

have numbered the paragraphs for convenience of reference.

The mystes, speaking generally, was initiated by
word of mouth, the epoptes by sight or vision.
1

ixlarTis.

Oewpia.

188

FROM THE SERMON OF

ISIS

TO HORUS

189

That which doth hold together, doth

research.

have a place which doth not disappear.

also

what

this is

my

sermon

wondrous, mighty son of mighty

when they go

[the souls]

For

will set forth.

sire Osiris,

forth from bodies, are

not confusedly and in a rush dissolved into the

air,

and scattered in the

so that they cannot

rest of boundless Breath,

any more

return again to bodies

nor

is

as the

same

[souls]

possible, again,

it

them back unto that place from which

they came at first no more than water taken
to turn

from the bottom of a jar can be poured 1 [back

again] into the self-same place whence

taken

place peculiar to

it,

but

whole mass of water.

3.

is

mixed up with the

Not thus

is

it

[with

high-minded Horus

Now

as I chance myself to be as

and that

my feet

have crossed the Plain of Truth,

how

explain to thee in detail

preface this

by

though

nature which transcendeth death,

initiate into the

I will

was

nor does the same when taken take a

souls],

it

it is

telling thee that water is a

void of reason condensed from

and

body

many compound

things into a fluid mass, whereas the soul's a

thing of individual nature, son, and of a royal

kind, a

and of

work

of God's [own] hands

itself led

Reading

The

by

itself to

and mind,

mind.

iirix^v for iv4%uv.

construction of the whole of the above paragraph

exceedingly involved.

is

;
;

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

190

What then

doth come from " one

"

and not

from "other," cannot be mingled with a

different

thing

wherefore

needs must be that the soul's

it

congress with the body

a concord wrought by

is

God's necessity.

But that they

are not [all] confusedly

and

[all]

random and by chance sent up again to one

and the same place, but each to its own proper
region, is clear from what [the soul] doth suffer
while still it is in body and in plasm, when it
has been made dense against its proper nature.

at

Now

give

good

heed

the

to

similitude

recounted, Horus well-beloved

4.

Suppose in one and the same cage have

men and

been shut up both

doves and

eagles,

swans, and swallows, hawks and sparrows,

and snakes, and

amphibious animals, as

and our own

and sheep, and some

and

seals

crocodiles

others, tortoises

my

then, that,

one [and the same] moment they are

They

[all] will

turn instinctively

gathering spots and roofs

ether, in

which

its

the

nature

is

above [the doves]

men dw ell
r

son, at

[all] let out.

man
eagle

to his

to

the

to spend its life

the doves into the neighbouring air

[to that]

and

wolves,

leopards,

lions,

dogs, and hares, and kine

flies,

the hawks

the swallows where

the sparrows round the fruit-trees

the swans where they

may

sing

the earth, [but only] so far from

the
it

flies

about

as they can

FROM THE SERMON OF

ISIS

TO HORUS

with [-out their losing] smell of

the

my

fly,

son,

tends to earth)

towards the
spots

and

to stalls

after men's tracks

fields

[all] their

and

leopards

the kine

the sheep to pastures

snakes to earth's recesses

with

especially

and the

lions

(for that

the wolves towards desert

hills;

the dogs

the

man

fond of

is

man

191

the

the seals and tortoises,

kind, unto the deeps

and streams,

so that they neither should be robbed of the dry

land nor taken from their cognate water

one returning to
internal

means

So every

its

proper place by means of

has to go,

and

say,

soul,

both in a

unless some

my

human form and

son,

that

foolish
it

is

knows where
person 1 come

possible

should live in water and a tortoise up

5.

And

plunged in

if

its

of judgment.

otherwise incarnate on the earth,

it

each

this

flesh

a bull

in air

be the case when they are

and blood

that they do nothing

contrary to what's appointed them, e'en though

they are being punished

(for

a punishment for them)

[is it

the case]

being put in body

how

when they

Now
wise.

is

the more

possess their proper

liberty [and are set free] from

being plunged [in body]

much

punishment and

the most holy ordering of souls is on this

Turn thou thy gaze above, most noble-

1
ns rwv rvfywviwv an interesting phrase as showing that Typhon
was regarded as the enemy of Osiris (the Logos or Reason).

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

192

natured son, upon their orders.

The space from

moon devotes

height of heaven to the

itself

unto

the gods and stars and to the rest of providence

my

the space,

son,

from moon to us

dwelling

is

place of souls.

This so great

which

however, has in

a belt to

it

our use to give the name of wind, a

it is

definite

air,

expanse in which

refresh the things

it

is

kept moving to

on earth, and which

will

itself

does

hereafter tell about.

Yet in no manner by

become an

it

its

motion on

obstacle to souls

for

though

it

keeps on moving, souls can dart up or dart

down, 1 just as the case

may

be, free

from

all let

For they pass through without

and hindrance.

immixture or adhesion as water flows through

oil.

6.

Now

are four

main

Of these
the earth

and sixty

son, there

special spaces.

upwards from

of four spaces, so that the earth in

certain of its

its

divisions

[divisions] the first one

is

and comes

my

of this interval, Horus,

mountain heights and peaks extends

so far, but

beyond these

it

nature go in height.

The second

after

this is of eight spaces, in

which the motions of the winds take

Give
1

cannot in

Gf.

heed,

son,

for

thou

art

place.

hearing

the beginning of the Apocalypse of Thespesius (Arictaeus)

in Plutarch,

De

Sera

Num.

Vind. xxii.
y

FROM THE SERMON OF

ISIS

TO HORUS

mysteries that must not be disclosed

and heaven and

between, in which there

is

wind and

For above

flight of birds.

own
all

this the air

life.

moreover hath of

air

that

lies

the motion of the

doth have no motion and sustains no

nature this authority

of earth

the holy air which

all

This [moving]

193

it

own

its

can circulate in

its

spaces and also in the four of earth with

the lives which

ascend into

The

it

contains, while earth cannot

its [realm].

third consists of sixteen spaces filled with

subtle air and pure.

The fourth

consists of

in which there
it is

by means

is

two and thirty

the subtlest and the finest air

of this that [air] shuts

from

the heavens above which are by nature

This ordering

7.

line

[spaces],

is

up and down

and has no overlapping

itself

fiery.

in a 'straight

so that there are

four main divisions, twelve intervallic ones and

sixty spaces.

And

in these sixty spaces dwell the souls, each

one according to
of one and the

same

dignity.

its

nature, for though they are

same substance,

they're not of the

For by so much as any space

is

higher from the earth than any other, by so

much do

the souls in them,

my

son, surpass in

eminence the one the other. 1

What
1

souls,

however, go to each of them, I

For a consideration

VOL.

III.

of this ordering, see p, 168

ff.

above.

13

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

194

will accordingly begin again to tell thee,

Horus,

[son] of great renown, taking their order

from

above down to the earth.

Concerning the Inbreathing and the

Transmigration of the Soul 1
8.

The

Horus,

[air]

between the earth and heavens,

spaced

is

out

by

by

and

measure

harmony.
These spaces have been named by some of our
forefathers zones,

by others firmaments, by others

layers.

And

in

them dwell both

souls

which have

been set free from their bodies, and also those

which have as yet been never shut in body.

And

each of them,

doth deserve

it

so

my

son, hath just the place

that the

godly and the

kingly ones dwell in the highest space of

those

least

in

honour and

the

rest

all,

the

of

decadent ones [dwell] in the lowest space of

all,

while middling souls dwell in the middle space.

Accordingly, those souls which are sent

down

to rule, are sent down, Horus, from the upper

zones

and when they are

set free [again]

go back to the same or even

ones, unless
1

it

be they

still

still

more

they
lofty

have acted contrary

This appears to be a heading inserted by Stobseus (Phys.,

some scribe ; there seems to be no break in the text.

64) or

xli.

FROM THE SERMON OF

to their

ment

own

Such

souls

as

of God.

the

these

Providence above,

according to the measure of their

banish

down

which are

195

and the pronounce-

nature's dignity

Law

of the

TO HORUS

ISIS

to lower spaces

inferior in dignity

them up from lower

doth

sins,

just as with those

and power,

[realms] to vaster

leads

it

and more

lofty ones.
9.

For up above [them

there

all]

ministers of universal Providence, of

are

whom

two

one

is

the warder of the souls, the other their conductor.

The warder [watches

o'er

the

of body], while the conductor

souls

distributor

of

souls

into

when out

dispatcher and

is

their

bodies.

The

former keeps them, while the latter sends them

forth according to the Will of God.

For

this

cause (logos)

on earth according

then,

my

son, nature

to the change of deeds above

doth model out the vessels and shape out the

tents in which the souls are cast. 1

Two

energies,

experience and memory, assist her.

And

this is

memory's

task, [to see] that nature

guards the type of every thing sent

its

source and keeps

its

mixture as

while of experience [the work

conformably to
souls
1

it

The

may have

text

is

untranslatable.

is

down out

of

it is

above

this,

to see]

every one of the descending

its

embodiment, and that the

exceedingly imperfect, and in

its

present state quite

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

196

may

plasms

be made effective 1

that

swift ones of the souls the bodies also

swift, for

the

for

may

be

slow ones slow, for active active ones,

for sluggish sluggish ones, for powerful powerful,

and

for

crafty crafty ones,

every one of them as

and in a word

for

it is fit.

For not without intention hath she clad

10.

winged things with plumage; and tricked out

with senses more than ordinary and more exact
those which have reason

footed things

and some of the

made strong with

four-

some

horns,

strong with teeth, some strong with claws and

while creeping things she hath

hoofs;

made

supple with bodies clad in easy-moving scales,

which

easily can glide away.

And

that the watery nature of their body

may

not remain entirely weak, she doth provide the

sharpened fangs of some of them with power

so that

by reason

of the

fear

of death

[they

cause] they're stronger than the rest.

swimming things being timorous, she

The

gives to dwell within an element where light can

exercise nor one nor other of its powers, for fire

in water gives nor light nor heat.

them, swimming in water clad

from what frightens

spines, flees
will,

from

using the water as

a means

But each
in

scales

or

it

where'er

it

of hiding

sight.
1

The

of

text is again very imperfect.

it

FROM THE SERMON OF

ISIS

TO HORUS

For souls are shut in each

11.

197

class of these

bodies according to their similarity [to them].

Those which have power of judgment go down

into

men

and those that lack

whose [only] law

force

is

it

into quadrupeds,

the crafty ones [go]

them attack a man in

wait and strike him down and

into reptiles, for none of

but

front,

into

lie

in

swimming things the timid ones

which

worthy

not

are

In every

elements.

enjoy

to

or those

the

other

however, there are

class,

found some which no longer use their proper

nature.

How
Horus

again,

my

mother

answered

Isis

man,

for instance, son, o'ersteps his

of judgment;
force

thou]

said.

And

[meanest

and

power

a quadruped avoids the use of

reptiles

lose

birds their fear of men.

their

craftiness

and

So much [then] for the

ordering of [souls] above and their descent, and

for the
12.

making of
In every

son, there

their bodies.

class

and kind of the above,

may be found some

also descend with various

and some

some

cold,

skilled,

dustrious,

regal souls

natures,

some

fiery,

some overbearing, and some mild,

some

unskilled,

some

idle,

some

some one thing, some another.

this results

my

others

in-

And

from the arrangement of the regions

whence the souls leap down to

their

embodiment.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

198

For from the regal zone they leap down [into

nature ruling them

birth], the soul of the like

many

for there are

and some of

Some

sovereignties.

and some of

souls,

are of

and some of

bodies,

arts,

and some are of our-

sciences,

selves.

How

[meanest thou] again,

ourselves "

son,

to this time

2
;

thy

is

it

of their bodies

after us

all,

Thrice-greatest

Osiris,

and

after

my

chenis

of poetry again Asclepius-Imuth.

up

of medicine Asclepius, Hephaestus' son

thyself,

son

him

and of philosophy Arnebes-

For generally,

13.

is

[the king] of counsel

power and might again

of

who

whereas the prince of every race

the father and the guide of

Hermes

sire Osiris

them born

[the ruler] of the souls of

is

mother, " of

For instance,

[is ruler]

my

my

son, thou'lt find, if thou

many ruling many things

sway o'er many. And he who

inquirest, that there are

and many holding

them

rules

space

all,

while he

my
who

son,

is

rules

from the highest

some part of them,

doth have the rank of that particular realm from

which he

is.

Those who come from the regal zone, [have] a

more ruling

[part to play

those from the zone

The text is here very corrupt, and the reading of the last
words of the two following sentences very doubtful.
2
That is presumably since the time when Osiris and Isis lived
on earth among men.
1

FROM THE SERMON OF

of fire

TO HORUS

ISIS

become fire-workers and

fire-tenders

those from the watery one live out their

waters

199

life

in

those from the [zone] of science and of

art are occupied with arts

from the [zone]

of

and sciences

inactivity

those

and

inactively

heedlessly live out their lives.

For that the sources of

all things wrought

on the earth by word or deed, are up above,

and they dispense

and measure
not come

for us their essences

and there

down from

is

by weight

naught which hath

above, and will return again

to re-descend.
14.

What

mother ?

And

dost thou

Tell

me

mean again by

this,

once again did make reply

Isis

my

Most

holy Nature hath set in living creatures the clear

sign of this return.

we

For that

this breath

breathe from above out of the

out up again, to take

And we have

it

air,

which

we send

in [once more].

in us organs, son, to do this

work, and when they close their mouths whereby

the breath's received, then

now we

are,

we no

longer are as

but we depart.

Moreover, son of high renown, there are some

we have added

other things which

to us outside

the weighed-out mixture [of the body].

15.

mother

What, then

(said Horus),

is

this mixture,

?
1

The

text

is

exceedingly defective.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

200

union and a blend of the four elements

It is a

and from
rises,

and union a certain vapour

this blend

which

is

enveloped by the soul, but circu-

with each, with

lates within the body, sharing

body and with

soul, its nature.

And

thus the

differences of changes are effected both in soul

and body.
For
of

if

there be in the corporeal

thereon the soul, which

fire,

taking unto
[so] being

itself

by nature

hot,

another thing that's hot, and

made more

energetic and

is

make-up more

more

fiery,

makes the

passionate,

life

more

and the body

quick and active.

If [there

more of

be]

becomes both

light

air,

thereon the

life

and springy and unsteady

both in the soul and body.

And

if

also doth
tion,

more of water, then the creature

there's

become of supple soul and easy

and ready of embrace, and able

meet and join with

others,

abundant,
while

through water's power

;

if [there's] little [of it],

it

bodies,

they are
attack of

sinks into and

it is mingled with.
As for
by dampness and by sponginess
not made compact, but by a slight
sickness are dissolved, and fall away by

doth become what

their

easily to

communion with the rest of things

finds a place in all, and when it is
doth dissolve what it surrounds,

of union and
for that it

disposi-

Cf.

17

and 20 below.

FROM THE SERMON OF

little

and by

them

severally together.

And

if

little

201

TO HORTJS

ISIS

from the bond which holds

the earthy [element]

creature's soul is dull, for

texture loosely knit,

space

or

in excess^ the

is

has not

it

for

its

it

bodyleap

to

through, the organs of sensation being dense

but by

stays within,

itself it

bound down by

weight and density.

As

but heavy and

and only moved of choice

by

inert,

for its body, it is firm,

[exercise of] strength.

But

if

there

elements], then
light for

is
is

a balanced state of

the animal

made hot

[the

for doing,

moving, well-mixed for contact, and

excellent for holding things together.

16.

all

Accordingly those which have more in

them of fire and air, these are made into birds,

and have their state above hard by those
elements from which they came.
While those which have more fire, less air, and
earth and water equal, these are made into men,
and

for the creature the excess of heat is turned

into sagacity

for that the

thing which knows not

mind

how

in us

is

a hot

to burn, but has

intelligence to penetrate all things.

And

and more
1

The

them more water

but moderate air and little fire,

those which have in

text

earth,

is

faulty, the language artificial, the analogy strained,

and the sense accordingly obscure.

Meineke reads

yewaiov dk

els

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

202
these

are

and those

turned into quadrupeds,

which have more heat are stronger than the

rest.

Those which have equal earth and water, are

made

These through their lack of

into reptiles.

lack courage and straightforwardness

fire

while

through their having water in them they are

and through

cold

are

and torpid

their

yet through their having

they can move easily

do

having earth they heavy

if

air,

they should choose to

so.

Those which have in them more of wet, and

less

of dry,

these are

made

into

through their lack of heat and

These

fish.

air are timorous

and try to hide themselves, and through excess

of wet

and earthy elements, they

home, through their

their

find

affinity, in fluid

earth and

water.
17. It is according to the share [they have]

in

every element and to the compass of that

share, that bodies reach full

growth

[in

man]

according to the smallness of their share the

other animals have been proportioned

which

to the energy

my

Moreover,

when, out of
based on the
in
1

is

according

in every element.

well-beloved,

say,

this state [of things], the

first

that

blend

commixture [of the elements

any

case],

and the resultant vapour 2 from

The

text

utterly

is

plausibly emended.

corrupt and has not yet

2

Gf.

it,

been even

15 and 20.

FROM THE SERMON OF

so far preserve their

own

TO HORUS

ISIS

203

peculiarity, that neither

the hot part takes on another heat, nor [does]

the aery [take] another

air,

nor [does] the watery

part another wetness, nor [yet] the earthy [take]

another density, then doth the animal remain in

health.
18.

But

they do not, son, remain in the

if

proportions which they had from the beginning,

but are too much increased

(I

do not mean in

energy according to their compass or in the

change

body brought about by

and

sex

of

growth, but in the blend, as

we have

said before,

of the component elements, so that the hot, for

instance,

lessened,

and so

animal be
19.

for all the rest)

sick.

And

much

increased too

is

much

or too

then

will the

if this

[increase] doth take place in

both the elements of heat and

air,

fellows, then

doth the creature

dreams and

ecstasies

the soul's tent-

fall

into symbolic

for that a concentration

of the elements whereby the bodies are dissolved

For

has taken place.

itself

which

is

dense.

the

earthy element

the condensation of the body

watery element in
it

'tis

it

as well

is

a fluidity to

Whereas the aery element

is

20. Just then as is the

1

Cf.

all

the

make

that in

us which has the power of motion, and

that which makes an end of

fire is

of them.

vapour * which ariseth

15 and 17.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

204
from the

first

conjunction and co-blending of the

elements, as though
exhalation,

whatever

the soul and draws

its

it

were a kindling or an

it

may
And

in its original relationship

keeps

its

But when

and common

life

with

what was

first laid

down

for

it,

to the whole mixture, or to its parts,

effected in the

in

the soul remains

added from without some

there's

or to one part of

or

if

rank.

larger share than

either

with

to itself, so that it shares

it

nature good or bad.

it, it

be, it mingles

it,

then

the resulting change

vapour doth bring about a change

the disposition

of the

soul

or

of

the

body.

The fire and

upward to the

as tending

air,

which dwells in the same

soul,

regions as themselves

upward, hasten

the watery and the earthy

elements, as tending down, sink

down upon

body, which doth possess the self-same

the

seat.

COMMENTAKY
Argument
The Sermon from which

this Extract is taken plainly

belonged to the same class of literature as the K. K.

Excerpts.

The

writer

is

an

initiate of a higher degree,

imparting instruction to his pupil by word of mouth.

FROM THE SERMON OF

He

TO HORUS

ISIS

205

himself however, professes to have "seen," for he

,

has been plunged in the

feet
1.

The
(4).

Cup

have crossed the Plain

The

of

of Immortality,

Truth

and his

(3).

subject is the excarnate state of souls (1-3).

instruction

Each

is

given by an analogy and a similitude

soul seeks naturally its proper

habitat in

the unseen world.

5.

is

The ordering

of the spaces of the excarnate souls

These spaces are

then described.

air,"

all in

the " great

the sublunary region, extending from the earth

surface to the moon.

6. Of this great interval there are 4 main divisions
and 60 spaces, the divisions consisting respectively of 4,
Above the second division
8, 16 and 32 sub-spaces.
from below there is no motion of the " air " the " wind,"
or " moving air " belt, belongs properly to this second
;

division,

but has also authority over the

division,

which extends from the earth-surface

first

or lowest
to the

tops of the highest mountains.

7. Besides these 4 divisions and 60 spaces, there
further ordering into 12 " intervallic " divisions. 1

8.

All

is

is

arranged by measure and harmony, and

after death every soul goes to the space of its desert,

ascending and descending according to an unerring law

of Providence.
9.

To carry out

this

of Providence, the

economy there are two ministers

warder and the conductor

of souls.

The one watches over souls who are out of body, and
the other brings them back to suitable bodies. These
bodies are made by nature in exact correspondence with
in this nature is
their former deeds and characters
aided by the energies of experience and memory (9-11).
12. The nature of the soul is conditioned by its
;

habitat in the air-spaces or zones

1

and

See Comments on K. K. 9

this is especially

10.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

206

The names of
and their offices are given.
In brief all is ordered from above; the source
is above in the soul-spaces, and as all souls come

the case with those of the regal type.

some
13.
of all

of these royal souls

thence, so will all return thither.

14 How

this

is

effected

explained

is

as

being

conditioned by a certain link between soul and body, a

sort of quintessence, or exhalation, or vapour, of the

blend of sub-elements which compose the body (14-20). 1

between soul and body

It is a sort of etheric link

it

circulates in the body, but also shares with the soul,

which

is

not thought

being in the body, but as a

of as

sphere enveloping the body

or at any rate the body is

and not the soul in the body. Health is
depend upon the maintenance of the due pro;

in the soul,
said to

portion of the " vapours "

Not

only

so,

of this " etheric double " (18).

but the increase

of vitality or intensity

is the means of
remembering symbolic dreams and passing into a state

these elements in the "vapour,"

in

ecstasy; finally it is the fiery element of this

vapour " which dissolves this " spirituous body " (19).
It is by means of this link that changes are effected
from soul to body, and from body to soul (20) and
of
"

here, unfortunately, Stobaeus ends his excerpt.

Title and Ordering

The Sermon of Isis to Horus " extract is, in both

and context, so similar to the K. K. excerpts that
"

style

we might almost

take

it to

very same treatise; but

be part and parcel of the

had been the case,

would have presumably
with a simple "from the same." He may,
if

this

Stobaeus, following his custom,

headed

it

1
This bears a curious resemblance to the prd7iamaya kosha, or
" vital sheath," of the Vedantins.

Vedantic prdna's, of which there are

five.

FROM THE SERMON OF

however,

have

made

ISIS

TO HORUS

a mistake, for

207

that the good

Joannes sometimes nods, may be seen from the short

Excerpt xxi., which he says is also taken from "The
"
[Sermon] of Isis to Horus x but this cannot be the case,
;

since Isis

is

here addressing a certain king as her pupil,

and not Horus.

Moreover, at

the

excerpt

very beginning of our

Horus distinctly states that Isis has already explained

to him "the details of God's wondrous soul-making,"
and thanks her "for being made initiate by word of
mouth into the vision of the soul," all of which is a

precise reference to the contents of the K. K. excerpts.

I

am, therefore, inclined to think that not only

further tractate of instruction

is it

following immediately

on K. K., but that even if it were supposed to be part

and parcel of the same sermon, and that "The
[Sermon] of Isis to Horus " was simply a sub-title or
alternative title of the "Virgin of the World," the
hypothesis could not be easily set aside. 2
I. H. belongs to
and that it pertains
to the same special class of Trismegistic literature, and
to a somewhat similar type as the treatise from which
Cyril quotes Pragg. xix., xx., xxi., in which Osiris figures
as the disciple of the Good Daimon, Trismegistus.

In any case

precisely the

it is

quite certain that S.

same type

as K. K.

The Books of
Here

also, as in

K. K.

Isis

Isis

and Horus

comes forward as " initiated

into the nature that transcendeth death," her "feet

1

Of which Schow gives the alternative heading

"

From

the

Intercession (or Supplication) of Isis," which Gaisford (in a note)

thinks

is

from the Vienna Codex.

This, however,

is

not the case,

for the Vindobonensis preserves the usual reading except that

the last word

2

R.

is

See R. 134, n. 3.
however, thinks this impossible.

missing.

(p. 135, n. 3),

208

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

have crossed the Plain of Truth " (3) that is as we have

shown in the Comments on K. K.> 10, the writer claims
to have reached the degree of illumination which
bestows on men the consciousness of the gods. " Isis,"
then,

is

"

not

common

to all

priests," as

Jamblichus

says of "Hermes," without the honorific qualification

but rather of a certain grade

"Thrice-greatest,"
initiation

the teacher of that lower grade, or HorusIsis was commonly

wisdom and teacher of all
the earliest Hellenistic period she had

Hermes' representative.

grade, being

regarded as the Lady of

magic.

Already in

all

attributes similar to those of Thoth-Hermes,

comes forward as the Orderer

only

and

so, but, like

of the

of

Thoth, she

tongue

those of the Logos.

that

is

of the

called

is

world 1

Lady

and thus
and not

of the heart

to say, her attributes

were

That there was a secret theosophic and apocalyptic

ascribed to Isis and Horus may be seen
from Lucian, who, in one of his humorous sketches,
puts into the mouth of Pythagoras the following

literature

sentence
" I also

journeyed to Egypt that I might make the

acquaintance

of

prophets

the

of

wisdom,

and

descended into the shrines of the temples and learned

the Books of

Isis

and Horus." 3

Here again, then, as Manetho tells us, these Books,

the Books of Hermes, were kept secret in the holy
holies of the

Temples

See Reitzenstein, Zwei

Plutarch,

De

as
of

and these shrines were evidently

religionsgesch.

Is. et 0s., lxviii.

"

Fragen, 104

They say

ff.

that of the trees in

and that its fruit

For nothing that men
have is more divine than the word (logos), and especially the
[word] concerning the gods." The fruit of the persea grew from

Egypt the persea

is

especially dedicated to her,

resembles a heart, and

the stem.
3

Gallus, 18.

its leaf

a tongue.

FROM THE SERMON OF

underground

for

Pythagoras

is

ISIS

TO HORUS

209

"
said to have " descended

to them.

This

is

Horus who

the

not only, after Osiris, the

is

power and might, that

king, but lord of

For Apiebeschenis,
that is Har-nebesehenis, is, as Spiegelberg has shown, 1
an Egyptian proper name, meaning " Horus lord of
Letopolis," at one time an important city in the Delta.
In the Alchemical literature also we meet with Horus

lord of

is,

philosophy, as Arnebeschenis (12).

as a writer of books, as for instance in the superscription

Horus the Gold-miner to Cronus who is Ammon." 2

Here we see that Horus stands to Isis as Asclepius
to Hermes
Asclepius wrote books to Ammon, and so
Horus wrote books to Ammon; but whereas the

"

Trismegistie

(Ammon)

proper looked back to Cronus

tradition

as

one

writings converted

by Asclepius

or

of

earliest

its

Ammon

teachers,

into a king

the

later

who was taught

by Horus.

The Watery Sphere and Subtle Body

The writer
state, that is

of S.

L H.

tells

us that the soul in

its

royal

while lord of itself, is a divine creature,

but in incarnation

it is

united with the watery plasm

K,

18, where Hermes says that in

making it he " used more water than was required "
and to which the soul in its complaint ( 21) refers as
This union makes it dense
a " watery sphere."
"against its proper nature" (3), and it is further
densified by a certain " vaporous " nature which unites

or subtle body, of K.

it

with the physical frame (15, 17, 20)

which

of

tells
1

concerning

interest to refer to Philoponus,

all

who

us that

Demotische Studien,

namen,"
2

it is of

p.

28

(c/.

i.,

also p. 41)

"Agyptische
;

u. griechisclie

R. 135.

Berthelot, p. 103.

VOL.

III.

14

Eigen-

210
"

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

They [the

ancients] further add, that there is some-

thing of a plantal and plastic

life

by

also, exercised

the soul, in those spirituous and airy bodies after death

they being nourished too, though not after the same

manner, as these gross earthly bodies of ours are here,
but by vapours and that not by parts or organs, but
throughout the whole of them (as sponges), 2 they
;

imbibing everywhere those vapours.

they who are wise will in this

For which cause,

life also

take care of

using a thinner and dryer diet, that so that spirituous

body (which we have

our grosser body)

but attenuated.

also at this present time within

may

not be clogged and incrassated,

Over and above which these ancients

made use of catharms, or purgations, to the same end

and purpose also: for as this earthly body is washed
with water, so is that spirituous body cleansed by
cathartic vapours some of these vapours being nutri;

Moreover, these ancients further

tive, others purgative.

declared concerning this spirituous body, that

not organized, but did the whole of

throughout, exercise

it

was

in every part

functions of sense, the soul

all

hearing and seeing, and perceivng

everywhere. "

it,

by

all sensibles,

it

The Habitat of Excaknate Souls

But

to return to our treatise

excarnate souls

is

the Air,

the dwelling-place of

the sublunary region of

four main layers, which are successively subtler and

finer as

they are more removed from the earth ; the

of the Air is coterminous with the

uppermost limit
fiery or setheric
1

realms

T7)s (pvriKTjs (ays,

that

(6),
is,

Endosmosis and exosmosis.

Philoponus, Procem.

Cud worth's

Intellectual

Orpheus, pp. 278, 279.

in

the habitat of the gods.

vegetative.

Aristot.

de

Anima,

System (ed. 1820),

iii.

506

as
ff.

given
;

see

in

my

FROM THE SERMON OF

In the

ISIS

TO HORUS

211

different zones, or firmaments, or layers of this

Air, dwell not only excarnate souls, during the period

between their incarnations, but

never yet been shut in body

daimones

also those

that

is,

which have

presumably, the

(8).

With regard

to the

manner

in

which souls are kept

in their appropriate spaces after the death of the body,

and the way in which they are brought back to appropriate bodies, and the two ministers of Providence (9),
it is of

line of

value to note that in this

what

is

detail in the Coptic Gnostic

It would, however,

work

of the

is

sulted

now

much

called Pistis Sophia.

Egyptian Gnostic work

this subject in a satisfactory

text

a simple out-

occupy too much space here to deal

with the representations

on

we have

explained at great length and in

manner, and as the

accessible in English, it can easily be con-

by the reader. 1

For Melchizedek, the " Receiver of light and Guide of souls,"

&, passim, and especially 35-37, 292, 327 ; for ZorokothoraMelchizedek and Ieou, see " The Books of the Saviour," ibid., 365
and for Gabriel and Michael, ibid., 138.
ff.
1

see P.

II

References and Fragments

in

the Fathers

I.

JUSTIN MARTYR
i.
Cohortatio ad Gentiles, xxxviii.
(2d ed., Jena, 1849).i

Otto

(J.

C. T.),

ii.

122

The Most Ancient of Philosophers

Now

any

you should think that he has learnt

God from those of the
philosophers who are mentioned among you as most
ancient, let him give ear to Ammon and Hermes.
For
the

if

Ammon
God

of

concerning

doctrine

in the

"utterly

Words

(Logoi) concerning himself

hidden

"

while

Hermes

calls

clearly

and

plainly declares

To understand God
Him] impossible, even
stand.

is

difficult

for one

to speak [of

who can under-

The "Words of Ammon"

This passage occurs at the very end of the treatise.

Justin will have

it

that the most ancient of

all

the

philosophers are on his side.

The Exhortation is considered by most pseudepigraphic, but

supposed by others to be the earliest work of Justin, which
may be placed conjecturally about 130 a.d. ; the First Apology
is generally ascribed to the year 148 a.d.
2 Taking
the reading irepl kavrov (Otto, n. 13), adopted in
138.
1

is

Quoted also by Lactantius, D. I.

Jul, i. 31 and Stobseus, Flor., lxxx.
;

215

Epit., 4

[lxxviii.],

Cyril Alex., Con.

94 (Ex.

ii.

1).

'

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

216

Ammon

These are

knows

of certain

Utterances

of

and Hermes.

Words

Justin, moreover,

(Logoi), or Sermons, or Sacred

Ammon, which must have been circulating

it is difficult to see how Justin was

in Greek, otherwise

They were evidently

acquainted with them.

of

an

apocalyptic nature, in the form of a self-revelation of

Ammon

or God.

Words of Ammon " have clearly nothing to

do with the Ammonian type of the surviving Tris"

These

megistic literature, where

an instructor,
Agathodaimon.
stage of

least

of

Ammon

all

is

a hearer and not

the supreme instructor or

In them we

may

see

an intermediate

direct dependence of Hellenistic

theological

on Egyptian originals, for we have preserved

to us certain Hymns from the El-Khargeh Oasis which
bear the inscription " The Secret Words of Ammon
which were found on Tables of Mulberry- wood." 1
literature

The

Ineffability of

God

The sentence from Hermes

is from a lost sermon, a

which is preserved in an excerpt by Stobaeus.
It was probably the opening words of what Stobaeus
calls " The [Sermon] to Tat," 2 that is to say, probably
one of the " Expository Sermons to Tat," as Lactantius

fragment

calls

of

them. 3

The

idea in the saying

was a common place

in

1
R. 138. The connection between this Ammon and Hermes
was probably the same as that which is said to have existed
between the king-god Thanms-Ammon and the god of invention
Thamus- Ammon was a king philosopher, to
Theuth-Hermes.
whom Theuth brought all his inventions and discoveries for his
(Amnion's) judgment, which was not invariably favourable. See
the pleasant story told by Plato, Ph&drus, 274 c. Of also the
notes on Kneph- Ammon, K. K., 19, Comment.

Stob,,

See Fragg.

loc.

infra

cit.

xi., xii., xiii., xv., xx., xxii., xxiii.,

xxiv.

(?).

JUSTIN MARTYR

217

Hellenistic theological thought, and need not be always

directly referred to the

much-quoted words of Plato

and the Maker of this universe is a
[great] work, and finding [Him] it is impossible to tell
[Him] unto all." 1 Indeed, it is curious to remark that

"

To

find the Father

Justin reproduces the text of the Hermetic writer far

more

than when he refers directly to the

faithfully

saying of Plato. 2

Apologia, xxi.

/.

ii.

Otto,

54.

i.

Hekmes and Asclepius Sons of God

And when we
first

Word (Logos) which is the

God, was begotten without interJesus Christ, our Master, and that he was
say that the

begetting of

course,

and was dead, and rose again and ascended

into heaven, we bring forward no new thing beyond
those among you who are called Sons of Zeus. For ye
know how many Sons the writers who are held in
honour among you ascribe to Zeus
Hermes, the Word
(Logos), who was the interpreter and teacher of all
and
Asclepius, who was also 3 a healer,4 and was smitten by

crucified,

the bolt [of his sire] and ascended into heaven

[and

iii.

many

others]

Ibid., xxii.

Otto,

58.

i.

Hermes the Word who brings Tidings from God

But

as to the

he were only a
because of

[his]

Son

man

of

God

called Jesus,

[born] in the

wisdom

is

even

though

common way,

he worthy

to be called

[yet]

Son

Tim&us, 28 c.
See Cohort., xxii. ; II. Apol, x.
Clemens Alex., Origen,
Minutius Felix, Lactantius, and other of the Fathers also quote
this saying of Plato.
2

That

is,

like Jesus.

eepairevr^v (therapeut).

218

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

God

of

for all writers call

And

gods."

special way,

Word

[as]

if

beyond

his

"

Father

of

common

God
common
Word (Logos) who brings
birth, begotten of

call

Hermes the

in Hellenistic

Theology

remarkable that Justin heads the

It is

God

men and

from God.

The Sons of God

of

God

say [further] that he was also in a

{Logos) of God, let us have this in

with you who

tidings

we

Dionysus,

Asclepius.

Hercules, etc.- with

Sons

list of

Hermes and

Moreover, when he returns to the subject

he again refers to Hermes and to Hermes

This

alone.

shows that the most telling parallel he could

bring forward was that of Hermes, who, in the Hellenistic theological world of his day,
was especially
thought of under the concept of the Logos.
The immediate association of the name of Asclepius
with that of Hermes is also remarkable, and indicates
that they were closely associated in Justin's mind the
indication, however, is too vague to permit of any
positive deduction as to an Asclepius-element in the
clearly

Trismegistic literature current in

Kome

in Justin's time.

any case, has apparently very little first-hand

knowledge of the subject, for he introduces the purely
Hellenic myth of Asclepius being struck by a thunder-

Justin, in

bolt,

which,

we need hardly

say, is entirely foreign to

the conception of the Hellenistic Asclepius, the disciple

Hermes.

of

An

Unverifiable Quotation

To these quotations Chambers

(p.

following passage from II. Apologia,

may
1

be placed some four or

rbv

xx vi.

5.

irapb.

$ov ayyc\TiK6v.

five

vi.,

139) adds

the

which in date

years after the First.

Compare Plutarch, Be

Is.

et

Os.,

JUSTIN MARTYR
"

Now
may

name can be given

by whatsoever name
elder the one who gives

to the Father of all no

seeing that

one

219

He

is

ingenerable

for

be called, he has as his

the name.

But

'

Father,'

and God,' and Creator/ and

'

'Lord,' and 'Master' are not names, but terms

of

address [derived] from His blessings and His works."

It is quite true that this passage

might be taken

verbally from a Hermetic tractate, but I can find no

authority in the text of Justin for claiming

For the same idea

(vi.) 10, and Lack, D. /.,

quotation.
C. H., v.

in
i.

6.

it

as a

Hermes compare

II.

ATHENAGORAS
Libellus pro Ghristianis, 1 xxviii.

Schwartz

(E.), p. 57,

24

(Leipzig, 1891). 2

Athenagoras was acquainted with a Greek literature

name of Hermes Trismegistus, to

circulated under the

whom

he refers as authority for

his

euhemeristic

contention that the gods were once simply men. 3

1

Bd.
s

Written probably about 1 76-1 77 a.d.

In Texte u. Untersuchungen (von Gebhardt and Harnack),
iv.
Gf. B.,

pp. 2 and 160.

220

III.

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
i.

Protrepticus,

(24

P.,

ii.

29

Dindorf

(G.),

i.

29, (Oxford, 1869)

S.).

Many Hermeses and

Asclepiuses

(After referring to the three Zeuses, five Athenas,

and numberless Apollos of complex popular tradition,
Clement continues :)

But what were

I to

mention the many Asclepiuses, or

the Hermeses that are reckoned up, or the Hephsestuses

of

mythology

Clement lived in the

very centre of Hellenistic

theology, and his grouping together of the

Asclepius,

Hermes and Hephaestus,

names

of

the demiurgic Ptah,

whose tradition was incorporated into the Poemandres

doctrine, is therefore not fortuitous, but shows that
these three names were closely associated in his mind,
and that, therefore, he was acquainted with the
Trismegistic literature.

by the following

This deduction

passage.
1

Fl. 9

175-200 a.d.
221

is

confirmed

"

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

222
ii.

144

Stromateis,

I.

134; Dindorf,

xxi.

ii.

108 (399

P.,

S.).

The Apotheosis of Hermes and Asclepius

Egyptians, but

who once lived as men among the

who have been made gods by human

opinion,

Hermes

Of those,

too,

[are]

Thebes and

of

Asclepius of

Memphis.
(To this we
has to

may

appropriately append what Clement

us about the

tell

"

Books

Hermes," when,

of

writing in the last quarter of the second century, he

describes one of the sacred processions of the Egyptians
as follows

:)

Ibid., VI. iv.

iii.

35; Dind.,

iii.

156, 157.

The Books of Hermes

First comes the "Singer" bearing

symbols

make
one

of music.

some one

This [priest], they

tell us,

of the

has to

himself master of two of the " Books of Hermes,"

of

which contains

(1)

Hymns

honour]

[in

of the

Gods, 1 and the other (2) Eefiections 2 on the Kingly

Life.

After

the

"Singer"

comes

the

"

Time- watcher

bearing the symbols of the star-science, a dial after a

hand and phoenix. He must have the division of the

Books of Hermes " which treats of the stars ever at

"

the tip of his tongue

The
1

first of

there being

four of such books.

these deals with (3) the Ordering of the

have numbered the books and used

capitals for greater

clearness.
2

I do not know what this term means in this

The usual translation of " Eegulations " seems to me
unsatisfactory.
Some word such as " Praise " (? read cv\oyi(Tfx6i/)
4K\oyKrjji6j/

connection.

seems to be required, as
(xviii.),

"The Encomium

may

be seen from the

of Kings."

title of

G.

H.,

223

CLEMENT OE ALEXANDRIA

apparently Fixed Stars, 1 the next [two] (4 and 5) with

the conjunctions and variations of Light of the Sun and

Moon, and the last (6) with the Eisings [of the Stars].
Next comes the "Scribe of the Mysteries," with
wings on his head, having in either hand a book and a
ruler 2 in which is the ink and reed pen with which
they write. He has to know what they call the sacred
characters, and the books about (7) Cosmography, and
(8) Geography, (9) the Constitution of the Sun and
Moon, and (10) of the Five Planets, (11) the Survey of
Egypt, and (12) the Chart of the Nile, (13) the List of
the Appurtenances of the Temples and (14) of the
Lands consecrated to them, (15) the Measures, and (16)
Things used in the Sacred Eites.
"

After the above-mentioned comes the

Overseer 3 of

the Ceremonies," bearing the cubit of justice and the

libation

cup

[as his symbols].

books relating to the training

He must know
[of

all

the

the conductors of the

4
public cult], and those that they call the victim-sealing

r<av airXav&v <paivo\x.vo>v &<rrp<i)v.

Kav6va

this

must mean a hollow wooden

case shaped like a

ruler.
3 o-ToAttrr^, called also itpStfroXos.
This priestly office is usuallytranslated as the " keeper of the vestments," the " one who i& over

the wardrobe."
contents

evidently

of

But such a meaning

the books which

the

organiser

of

is

entirely foreign to the

are assigned to

the

ceremonies,

him.

He was

especially

the

processions.
4 (j.o(rxo(r<f>payi(rTiKd

art of one

who

that is to say, literally, books relating to the

picks out and " seals calves " for sacrifice. The

meaning originally referred to the selection of the sacred

Apis bull-calf, into which the power of the god was supposed to
have re-incarnated, in the relic of some primitive magic rite
which the conservatism of the Egyptians still retained in the
public cult. Its meaning, however, was later on far more general,
as we see by the nature of the books assigned to this division.
literal

Boulage, in his Mysteres d'Isis (Paris, 1820, p. 21), says that

seal of the priests which marked the victims was a man

"the

"

224

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

There are ten of these books which deal with

the worship which they pay to the gods, and in which
the Egyptian cult is contained namely [those which

books.

treat] of (17) Sacrifice, (18) First-fruits, (19)

Hymns,

(20) Prayers, (21) Processions, (22) Feasts, and (23-26)

the

like.

After

all of

these comes the " Prophet " clasping to

his breast the water- vase so that all can see it

him

after

follow those

be distributed. 1

by

learns

" hieratic "

of the

The

heart
;

who

carry the bread that

and
is

to

" Prophet/' as chief of the temple,

the

ten

books

which

are called

these contain the volumes (27-36) treating

Laws, and the Gods, and the whole Discipline of

the Priests.

For you must know that the

among the Egyptians

is

also

"

Prophet

the supervisor of the

distribution of the [temple] revenues.

Now

the books which are absolutely indispensable 2

kneeling with his hands bound behind his back, and a sword
pointed at his throat, for it was in this attitude that the neophyte
received the first initiation, signifying that he agreed to perish
if he revealed any of the secrets revealed to
This he evidently deduced from Plutarch's De Is. et Os.,

by the sword
him."
xxxi.

3.

tV f/cirejutfw r&v &pra>v &o.(tt&ovtgs. The " Prophet " belonged to the grade of high priests who had practical knowledge
of the inner way. As the flood of the Nile came down and
irrigated the fields and brought forth the grain for bread, and so
1

ol

gave food to Egypt, so did the living stream of the Gnosis from
the infinite heights of space pour into the Hierophant, and he in
his turn became Father Nile for the priests, his disciples, who in
their turn distributed the bread of knowledge to the people.
pleasing symbolism, of which the bread and water of the earlier
ascetic schools of Christendom, who rejected wine, was perhaps a
reminiscence. Nor has even the General Church in its older
forms forgotten to sprinkle the people from the water- vase and

distribute

among them the

bread.

This seems to suggest that there were others, the knowledge

There
of which was optional, or rather reserved for the few.
may perhaps have been forty-nine in all.
2

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
for

Hermes

are forty-two in number.

225

Six-and-thirty

them, which contain the whole wisdom-discipline

of

of the Egyptians, are learned

of priests] already

mentioned.

by heart by the [grades

The remaining six are

learned by the " Shrine-bearers

treatises

these are medical

dealing with (37) the Constitution

the

of

Body, with (38) Diseases, (39) Instruments, (40) Drugs,

4
and finally (42) with the Maladies of
(41) Eyes,

Women.
The General Catalogue of the Egyptian
Priestly Library
This exceedingly interesting passage of Clement gives
us

the general

catalogue of

the Egyptian priestly

and the background of the Greek translations

and adaptations in our Trismegistic writings.
The whole of these writings fall into this frame,
and the oldest deposit or " Poemandres " type fits in

library

excellently with the content of the hieratic books (the

which Clement has unfortunately omitted), or

secret.
These hieratic books
were evidently the more important and were in charge
titles of

with those that were kept

of the " Prophet," that is to say, of those high priests

of the temples
discipline,

the

who were
very

directors

subject

of

of

our

the prophetic
<c

Poemandres

treatises. 5
1

That

is,

the priesthood.

3 Trao-To<f>6poi,

those

who

Lit.

carried the pastos as a

philosophy.

symbol

apparently symbolized the shrine or casket of the soul

this

in other

words, the human body. These Pastophors were the priests who
were the physicians of the body, the higher grades being presumably physicians of the soul.
4
This seems to be an error of the copyist.
5 As to the
hieroglyphic inscription at Edfu, which was
thought by Jomasd to contain references to the titles of these
forty-two books, see Parthey, tlber Isis

VOL.

III.

und

Osiris, p. 255.

15

IV.

TERTULLIAN
i.

Contra Valentinianos, xv.

(Ehler (F.),

ii.

402 (Leipzig,

1844).

Hermes the Master of all Physics

(Writing

sarcastically

Tertullian exclaims

of

the Gnostic

Sophia-myth,

:)

Well, then, let the Pythagoreans learn, the Stoics

know,
[sc.

even, whence matter

[yea,] Plato

which

they

the Pythagoreans and the rest] would have to be

ingenerable

derived

its

source and substance to [form]

[a

mystery] which not even the

this pile of a world,

famous

Thrice

greatest

Hermes, the master

of

all

physics, has thought out.

The doctrine

of

Hermes, and

in general, however,

God.

is

of Hellenistic theology

that matter comes from the

One

It is remarkable that Tertullian keeps his final

taunt for that school which was evidently thought the

foremost of

all

that

of the

"famous Thrice-greatest

Hermes."
1

Fl. t

c.

200-216
226

a.d.

TERTULLIAN
ii.

De Anima

ii. ;

GShler,

ii.

227

558.

Hermes the Writer of Scripture

(Inveighing against the wisdom of the philosophers,
Tertullian says

:)

She [philosophy] has

that she too has

also

been under the impression

drawn from what they

ophers] consider " sacred " scriptures

[the philos-

because antiquity

thought that most authors were gods (deos), and not

merely inspired by them (divos), as, for instance,

whom

Egyptian Hermes, with

intercourse, 1

Here

[and others]

again, as with Justin,

had

Plato

....

Hermes heads the

mind, Hermes

moreover, in Tertullian's
antiquity, to a

especially

list

belongs

to

more ancient stratum than Pythagoras

and Plato, as the context shows; Plato, of course,

depends on Hermes, not Hermes on Plato; of this
Tertullian has no doubt.
There were also "sacred
scriptures " of Hermes, and Hermes was regarded as a
god.

iii.

Ibid., xxviii.

(Ehler,

ii.

601.

Hermes the First Teacher of Eeincarnation

What
doctrine

then

is

the value nowadays of that ancient

mentioned

migration of souls;

by

Plato, 2

about the reciprocal

how they remove hence and

go

and then return hither and pass through life,

and then again depart from this life, made quick again
from the dead? Some will have it that this is a
doctrine of Pythagoras while Albinus 3 will have it to
thither,

Adsuevit.

A Platonic philosopher, and contemporary of

A.D.).

Of. Phcedo, p. 70.

Galen

(1 30-?

200

THRICE -GREATEST HERMES

228
be

divine

pronouncement,

perhaps

Egyptian

of

Hermes.
iv. Ibid.) xxxiii.

(Ehler,

610.

ii.

Hermes on Metempsychosis
(Arguing

against

ironically

psychosis, Tertullian writes

Even
until

the belief in metem-

:)

they [souls] should continue [unchanged]

if

judgment

point which was

pronounced upon them] ... a

to Egyptian Hermes, when he

[is

known

says that the soul on leaving the body

back into the soul

vidualized

not poured

1
:

FKAGMENT
That

is

the universe, but remains indi-

of

it

may

I.

give account unto the Father of

those things which

hath done in body.

it

This exact quotation

is

to be

found nowhere in the

existing remains of the Trismegistic literature, but

it

has every appearance of being genuine.

(Ehler (note c) refers to C. H.
passage of

"The Key"

is

x. (xi.) 7,

but this

only a general statement of

the main idea of metempsychosis.

more

appropriate

P. S. A., xxviii. 1

"

from the body shall take

ment and the weighing of
daimon's power"

parallel

When,

to

is

be found in

[then,] the soul's departure

place,
its

then

shall the judg-

merit pass into

its

highest

a passage, however, which retains

far stronger traces of the Egyptian prototype of the idea

than does that quoted by Tertullian.

1

Determinatam.

Tertullian marks

it

by an

" inquit"

V.

CYPRIAN
i.

De Idolorum

God

is

Vanitate,

y'i.;

Baluze, p. 220 (Paris, 1726).

beyond all Understanding

Thrice-Greatest Hermes speaks of the One God, and

confesses Him beyond all understanding and all appraisement.

This

is

evidently a reference to the most quoted

See Justin Martyr

sentence of Hermes.

i.

below, and

other references.

Chambers
says

is

l(

140),

(p.

inserts a passage

after

this

from Eusebius

(c.

notice in

325

a clear quotation from the

Cyprian,

which he
Pcemandres of
A.D.),

'

Hermes, whom, however, he [Eusebius] probably confounds with the Shepherd of Hermas."
Eusebius (Hist.

Hcc., v.

8),

however, quotes Irenseus

The Shepherd of Hermas

(Mand., i.). Indeed, it is the most famous sentence in
See the list of its quotations by
that early document.
the Fathers in the note to Gebhardt and Harnack's

(iv.

20, 2),

who quotes

literally

text (Leipzig, 1897), p. 70.

Such verbal exactitude

is

not to be found in the remaining Trismegistic literature

the idea, however,

is

theology.
1

the basis of the whole Trismegistic

About 200-258
229

A.D.

VI.

ARNOBIUS
i.

Adversus Nationes,

ii.

13; Hildebrand (G.

F.),

p.

136

(Halle, 1844).

The School of Hermes

(Arnobius

complains

that

the

followers

of

the

philosophic schools laugh at the Christians, and selects

especially the adherents of a certain tradition as follows

:)

You, you I single out, who belong to the school of

Hermes, or of Plato and Pythagoras, and the rest of you
who are of one mind and walk in union in the same
paths of doctrine. 2
1
He was a converted philosopher, and the teacher of Lactantius ;
nourished about 304 a.d.
2
Here again, as elsewhere, Hermes comes first he was evidently;

regarded as the leader of philosophic theology as contrasted with

popular Christian dogmatics.

See R. 306.

230

VII.

LACTANTIUS
Divinae, Institutiones,

i.
i.

i.

6, 1

Brandt, p. 18; Fritzsche,

13. 2

Thoyth-Hermes and his Books on the Gnosis

Let us now pass
I will bring

all,

to divine testimonies; but,

first

court testimony which

into

is

of

like

divine [witness], both on account of its exceeding great

and because he whom I shall name was carried

back again from men unto the gods.
In Cicero,3 Caius Cotta, 4 the Pontifex, arguing
against the Stoics about faiths and the diversity of
opinions which obtain concerning the gods, in order
that, as was the way of the Academics, 5 he might bring
all things into doubt, declares that there were five
Hermeses; and after enumerating four of them in
age,

succession,
1

[he

that the

adds]

pupil of Arnobius

fifth

was he by

whom

flourished at the beginning of the

fourth century.
2

Brandt

(S.),

L. Caeli Firmiani Lactanti Opera Omnia,

Divinae Institutiones

/.,

et

Epitome (Vienna, 1890).

be edited by G. Laubmann, has not yet appeared.

Pars

Pars
II., to

Fritzsche

(0. F.), Div. Institt. (Leipzig, 1842), 2 vols.

3

De Natura Deorum,

C. Aurelius Cotta, 124-76

Cicero makes Cotta maintain the cause of this school both

here and in the

De

iii.

22, 56.
(?) B.C.

Oratore.
231

232

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

Argus was slain, 1 and for that cause he fled into Egypt,
and initiated the Egyptians into laws and letters.
The Egyptians call him Thoyth, and from him the
first

month

received

their year

of

He

name.

its

unto this day

is

called

also

(that

is,

September) has

founded a city which even

The people

Hermopolis.

Pheneus, 2 indeed, worship him as a god

1

was

Argos, according to the

all-seeing

(7rav6irTris),

many

of

but, although

ancient myths concerning him,

possessed of innumerable eyes, or, in one

an eye at the top of his head. Like Hercules, he was

superhuman strength, and many similar exploits of his powers
In the Io-legends, Hera made Argos guardian of
are recorded.
the cow into which the favourite of Zeus had been metamorphosed.
Zeus accordingly sent Hermes to carry off his beloved. Hermes
is said to have lulled Argos to sleep by means of his. syrinx, or
pipe of seven reeds, or by his caduceus, and then to have stoned
variant, of

of

him

See Roscher's Ausfuhr. Lex. d. griech. u.

It is to be noticed that instead of
"Argos."
Argum, four MSS. read argentum, which is curious as showing a
See n. 4 to Giceronis Opera
Medieval Alchemical influence.
Philosophica (Delph. et Var. Clas.), vol. ii. (London, 1830).
2
Pheneus was a town in Arcadia, that country of
Pheneatce,
ancient mysteries. (It is remarkable that Hermas is taken by the
" Shepherd " in spirit to a mountain in Arcadia. See Shepherd of
Cicero begins his description of the fifth
Hermas, Sim. ix. 1.)
Hermes with this statement, and Lactantius has thus awkwardly
misplaced it. Pausanias (viii. 14, 6) tells us that Pheneus itself
was considered as a very ancient city, and that its chief cult was
or cut off his head.

rom. Myth.,

s.v,

that of Hermes.

This cult of Hermes, moreover, was blended

with an ancient mystery- tradition, for Pausanias (ibid., 15, 1) tells
us that
"

The Pheneatians have

also a sanctuary of

Demeter surnamed

Eleusinian, and they celebrate mysteries in her honour, alleging

that rites identical with those performed at Eleusis were instituted
in their land.

Beside the sanctuary of the Eleusinian goddess

what is called the Petroma, two great stones fitted to each other.
Every second year, when they are celebrating what they call the
Greater Mysteries, they open these stones, and taking out of them
certain writings which bear on the mysteries, they read them in
the hearing of the initiated, and put them back in their place
I know, too, that on the weightiest matters
that same night.
is

LACTANTIUS
he was

a man,

[really]

233

he was of such

still

high

antiquity, and so deeply versed in every kind of science,

that his knowledge of [so]

gained him the

He

wrote books, indeed

the Gnosis

of

many

things and of the arts

title of " Thrice-greatest."

many

[of

them], treating of

things divine, in which he asserts the

One and Only God, and

by the same names as we [do] God and
Father. 2 And [yet], so that no one should seek after
His name, he has declared that He cannot be named, in
that He doth not need to have a name, owing, indeed,
unto the very [nature of His] unity. 3 His words are

greatness of the Highest and

calls

Him

these 4

FEAGMENT
But God

[is]

not a name, for

and

II.

He

one

He

[as one] is The-beyond-all-

who's one needs

names.

The Historical Origins of the Hermetic

Tradition

For Lactantius, then, Hermes was very ancient;

who descended from heaven and

moreover, he was one

had

returned

thither.

When, however, Firmianus

Hermetic tradition,
was invariably the case with the ancients, he can do
nothing better than refer us to a complex though

attempts the historical origins of the

as

most
1

swear by
393 (London, 1898).

Pheneatians

of the

Translation,

i.

the

Petroma."

Frazer's

Cognitionem.

Qf.

P.

S. A., xx. (p. 42, 16,

Goldb.)

Compare with Epitome 4 below.

Lactantius here quotes in Greek.

43, 3, Goldb.).

et

Gf.

pass.

C.

K,

v. (vi.) 2.

P. S. A., xx. (p. 42, 27-

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

234

interesting myth, and to a legend of it devised to flatter

the self-esteem of

whose

cult,

its

Hellenic creators

moreover, was

known

Greek

god,

be intimately

to

connected with an ancient mystery-tradition, was the

originator of the

with

all

nations

special tradition

wisdom of Egypt. Of course and so

who had any ancient learning their
was oldest and best and originator of
;

others

all

For the

rest,

Lactantius knows nothing historically

which he esteemed so highly, and the

mention of the Latinized name Thoyth 1 and of Hermopolis 2 does but throw the paucity of his knowledge
of the tradition

deeper

into

What

relief.

Lactantius does

know

is

Greek and its general tendency.

The sentence he quotes is not found textually in any

large literature in

of the extant Trismegistic literature. 3

Ibid.,

ii.

i.

11, 61

Brandt,

p.

47; Fritzsche,

i.

29, 30.

Uranus, Cronus and Hermes, Adepts of the

Perfect Science

And so it appears that he [Cronus] was not born from

Heaven (which is impossible), but from that man who
was called Uranus and that this is so, Trismegistus
;

bears witness, when, in stating that there have been

very few in
1

whom

the perfect science has been found,

Was, however, this the spelling found in Cicero, for Firmianus

it from the text of Tully ?
It is a pity we have no critical

takes

apparatus of the text of Lactantius, for the

us with the following extraordinary

MSS. of

list

Cicero present

variants:

of

Then,

Ten, Their, Thoyt, Theyt, Theyn, Thetum, Thern, Thernum,

Theutatem, Theut, Thoyth, Thoth. See n. 5 to the text of Cicero,
cited above.

Gf.

R. 117, n.

Which he probably
home is in a place called
2

Chambers

mistaken.

2.

took from P. S. A., xxxvii. 4:

after him."

(p. 41, n. 1),

in referring

it to

"Whose

G. H., v. (vi.) 10, is

235

LACTANTIUS

he mentioned in their number Uranus, Cronus and

Hermes, his own kinsfolk. 1

iii.

Ibid.)

ii.

8,

48; Brandt,

p.

138; Fritzsohe,

i.

89.

Divine Providence
For the World was made by Divine Providence, not
to mention Thrice-greatest, who preaches this. 2

iv. Ibid.,

ii.

8,

68

Brandt, p. 141

Fritzsche,

On Mortal and Immortal

i.

91.

Sight

His [God's] works are seen by the eyes; but how

them, is not seen even by the mind, " in that,"

He made

Hermes

as

says

FEAGMENT

III.

Mortal cannot draw nigh 3 to the Immortal,

nor temporal to the Eternal, nor the corruptible

to That which

And,

knoweth no

corruption.

hath the earthly animal not

therefore,

yet capacity to see celestial things, in that

it is

kept shut within the body as in a prison house,

lest with freed sense, emancipate, it
1

14.

Gf. G.

In

H., x. (xi.) 5

my

Lactantius
2

P. 8. A., xxxvii.

commentary on the

is

i.

5, 16, 20.

all.

Also Lact., EpiL,

1.

passage I have

probably here referring to a

Fragg. ap. Stob., Eel.,

Cf.

first

should see

shown that

Hermetic treatise.
It is to be noticed from

lost

the context that Lactantius places Trismegistus in a class apart

together with the Sibylline Oracles and Prophets, and then proceeds to speak of the philosophers, Pythagoreans, Platonists, etc.

He also
3

repeats the

Propinquare.

same

triple combination in iv. 6.

L. glosses this as

meaning

"

follow with the intelligence."

4

Gf.

Frag. ap. Cyril, G.

I.,

i.

(vol. vi., p.

31

c).

come

close to

and

236

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

The

part of this citation (which Lactantius gives

first

in Latin) is identical in idea with a sentence in Frag,

iv.

that favourite source

Ex.

ii.

of quotation,

which Stobseus,

excerpted from

(Flor. lxxx. [lxxviii.] 9),

"The

[Sermon] to Tat/' 1 It might, then, be thought that

this was simply a paraphrase of Lactantius or that he
was quoting from memory, and that the second sentence
,

was not quotation but

sentence

own writing.

his

But the second

so thoroughly Trismegistic that it has every

is

appearance of being genuine. 2

v.

Ibid.,

ii.

10,

13; Brandt,

Man made

U9;

p.

Fritzsohe,

i.

96.

God

after the Image of

But the making of the truly living man out of clay 3

God. And Hermes also hands on the tradition of
this fact,
for not only has he said that man was made
by God after the Image of God, 4 but also he has
attempted to explain with what skilfulness He has
formed every single member in the body of man, since
there is not one of them which is not admirably suited
not only for what it has to do, but also adapted for
is of

beauty. 5

Man made

Image

after the

fundamental doctrines
For instance, P. S. A.,
as say the Greeks, but

of

vii.

"

which we

EpU.

God

one of the

is

the Trismegistic

of

The [man]
call

the

tradition.
'

essential/

form

of the

Compare

It is interesting to note, in the history of the text-tradition,

also Lact.,

that the received reading

stands in one

MS. (A)

from the original

4.

ar\ia\vai

<rviA&rjvcu,

("be expressed") in Stobseus

to be a transference

which seems

of L.'s propinquare.

slime or mud.

Limo,

Lact. repeats this in vii. 4.

Of. 0.

jBT.,

v. (vi.) 6.

Of. G.

H.,

i.

12.

LACTANTIUS
Divine Similitude'"

and

x.

237

3: "Giving the greatest

thanks to God, His Image reverencing, not ignorant

that he [man] is, too, God's image, the second [one] for
;

God

that there are two images of

vi.

Ibid.,

ii.

12,

4; Brandt,

p.

Cosmos and man."

156; Fritzsche,

i.

100.

Hermes the First Natural Philosopher

Empedocles
elements,

2
.

fire, air,

[and others]

water, and earth,

who

laid

down

four

perchance

[in this]

were
composed of these four elements by God.
" For that they have in them something of fire, something of air, something of water, and something of earth,
and yet they are not fire [in itself], nor air, nor water,

following Trismegistus,

said that our bodies

nor earth."

All this about the elements

of ancient physics,

is,

of course, a

and we may,

naive speculation of Lactantius,

he had the very words of the

who

first

commonplace

therefore, dismiss the

evidently thought

inventor of the theory

him; for he renders into Latin word for word

the same text which Stobseus has preserved to us in an
excerpt from "The [Sermons] to Tat" Ex. iii. I. 3

before

vii.

Ibid.,

ii.

14,

5; Brandt,

163; Fritzsche,

p.

i.

105.

The Daimon-Chief

Thus there are two classes of daimons, the one

and the other terrestrial.
The latter are
impure spirits, the authors of the evils that are done, 4
celestial,

E. 21,
Of. also Hermes-Prayer, iii. 11.
Date c. 494-434 B.C.
See also Ex. vii. 3 0. H. ii. (iii.) 11.
;

Gf;G. H. y

ix. (x.)

G. H., xvi. 10.

n. 11.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

238

whom

of

the same Diabolus

gistus calls

ii.

15, 6; Brandt, p.

Devotion
fine,

Whence Trisme-

is chief.

the " Daimon-chief ."

him

Ibid.,

viii.

In

Hermes

166; Fritzsche,

106.

i.

God-Gnosis

is

asserts that those

who have known

God, not only are safe from the attacks

of evil daimons,

He

but also that they are not held even by Fate,2

FEAGMENT
The one means

IV.

of protection is piety.

For

neither doth an evil daimon nor doth Fate rule

pious man. 8

o'er the

For God doth save the

pious [man] from every

good found

And what

in

mankind

The one and

ill.

is

only-

piety.

piety means, he witnesses in another place,

saying

"Devotion

God-Gnosis." 4

is

Asclepius, his Hearer, has also explained the

idea at greater length in that

"

Perfect Sermon

"

same
which

he wrote to the King.

Both, then, assert that the daimons are the enemies

and harriers

of

men, and for this cause Trismegistus

not found in the extant texts

be referred to Hermes, but to the
disquisition of Lactantius at the beginning of 14.
2
Gf. Cyril, G. /., iv. (vol. vi. 130 E, Aub.).
1

daifjLovtdpxn^

" Diabolus "

3
4

is,

For the same

7]

-ycfcp

This term

is

of course, not to

idea, see G. H., xii. (xiii.) 9.

evcrefieia yva)<ris

icrrt

rod Oeov,

which

Lactantius

in

another passage (v. 14) renders into Latin as " Pietas autem
is given in G. H. 7 ix. (x.) 4 as
nihil aliud est quam dei notio,
evarcfeia 5e <m deov yvSiffis (where Parthey notes no various read-

ings in MSS.).

LACTANTIUS
calls

them

" evil

angels ',"

239

so far

was he from being

ignorant that from celestial beings they had become

corrupted, and so earthly.

This passage

with numerous

is

given in Greek, and

is

quoted, but

by Cyril (Contra Julianum,

it is also practically the same as the sentence
iv. 130)
in P. S. A., xxix. " The righteous man finds his defence
in serving God and deepest piety.
For God doth guard
such men from every ill."
Now we know that Lactantius had the Greek of this
" Perfect Sermon " before him, and we know that our
Latin translation is highly rhetorical and paraphrastic.
The only difficulty is that Lactantius' quotation
ends with the sentence " The one and only good found
in mankind is piety " and this does not appear in the
Latin translation of P. S. A. On the other hand,
Firmianus immediately refers by name to a Perfect
Sermon, which, however, he says was written by
Asclepius, and addressed to the King.
Our Fragment
probably
from
therefore,
the
lost
is,
ending of G. H.,
xvi. (see Commentary on the title).
glosses, also

ix. Ibid., iv. 6,

4; Brandt,

p.

286; Fritzsche,

i.

178.

The Cosmic Son of God

Hermes, in that book which

is

entitled the " Perfect

Sermon/' uses these words

FEAGMENT

V.

The Lord and Master of all things (whom 'tis

our custom to call God), when He had made the
1

texts;

these words do not occur in our extant

but the Lat. trans, of P. S. A., xxv. 4, preserves

ayye\ovs irovnpobs,

Greek

u nocentes angeli"

240

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

second God, the Visible and Sensible,1

Him

sensible, not

Himself

He

that

Himself sensation, we

He

enquire), but that

of mind,

when,

and One and Only,

and

fair,

At Him he
His Son.

as

made Him

He seemed

quite

filled

He

object of senses

is

of

full

call

hath

some other time

will

then, He'd
2

hath sensation in

whether or no

(for as to this,

most

things good.

all

marvelled, and loved

First,

Him

to

and

Him

altogether

Lactantius here quotes from the lost Greek original

The Perfect Sermon," viii. 1. We have thus a

means of controlling the old Latin translation which
has come down to us.
It is, by comparison, very free and often rhetorical
"

of

inserting phrases and even changing the original, as,

for instance, when in the last clause it says " He fell
:

in love with
It

is,

had a

him

His Divinity."

as being part of

however, possible that the translator

may have

different text before him, for there is reason to

believe that there were several recensions of the P. S.

x. Ibid., iv. 6,

Brandt, p. 291

Fritzsche,

i.

A*

179.

The Demiurge of God

(Speaking of the Son

with the pre-existent

viii.

22, Lactantius adds

Sc. the

For

Quinque
4

of

God and

identifying

Wisdom spoken

of in

:)
2

Logos as Cosmos.

last clause, see

(7,

Hcereses, vol. viii.,

Him

Proverbs

if.,

i.

Of. also Ps.

12.

Append,

p.

E,

Of.

Frag. x.

Augustin., G.

Maur.

Lactantius himself also gives a partial translation of this

passage in his Epitome, 42 (Fritz.,

ii.

140).

LACTANTIUS
Wherefore

"Demiurge

Brandt,

the

God."

xi. Ibid., iv. 7,

Him

has called

Trisinegistus

also

of

241

292; Fritzsche,

p.

179.

i.

The Name of God

Even then [when the world shall be consummated], 2
Name] will not be able to be uttered by the
mouth of man, as Hermes teaches, saying

it

[God's

FEAGMENT
But the Cause of

this

VI.

Cause

the Divine and

is

Ingenerable Good's Good-will, which

the

first

God whose Name cannot be

brought forth the

spoken by the mouth of man. 4

Ibid., iv. 7, 3

xii.

Brandt,

293

p.

Fritzsche,

The Holy Woed about the Lord of

And

little after

is,

[my]

VII.

son, a

of wisdom, that no tongue can

1

The

drjfuovpyhv rod Oeov.

extant texts, but the idea

doctrine

see especially

is

xxi.)
2

Cyril,

G.

and Exx.

iii.

P. S. A., xxvi.

Gf. vii.

3 Sc.

will

Jul,

i.

6, iv. 2.

a Holy

(jSot$A77<ns).

"The Demiurgus of the

" God of first
18, 4
:

also G. H.,

33 (Frag. xih\), and

Gf. also Ep. 14 below.

Gf. especially

This is plainly from

Fragment.

vi.

i.

Gf. G. H.,

III.

10, 11,

6 (Frag.

i.

and

Lact.

the

and

P. S. A., Commentary.

same source

as the

Cyril, passim

(e.g.

following

Fragg. xxi.,

xxii.).

VOL.

18 below.

tell,

[Logos']

exact words do not occur in our

and the one God," and Lact., ibid., vii.

might, and Guider of the one God." See
18

Word

a commonplace of the Trismegistic

first

xvi.

all.

[he says] to his son

FEAGMENT
For that there

179, 180.

i.

16

242

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

[Word] about the only Lord

before
all

all

whom

thought,

human

power.

xiii. Ibid., iv. 8,

His

of

all,

God

the

to declare transcends

5; Brandt,

296; Fritzsche,

p.

i.

181.

Own Father and Own Mother

But Hermes

also

was

same opinion when he

of the

His own father and His own mother." 2

"

xiv. Ibid., iv. 9,

Brandt,

p.

300

Fritzsche,

182,

i.

183.

The Power and Greatness of the Word

Trismegistus,

almost

all

who

has tracked out, I

greatness of the

Word

know not how,

described the power and

truth, has often

(Logos), as the

above quotation 3

from him shows, in which he confesses the

be Ineffable and Holy, and in that

its

Word

to

telling forth

transcends the power of man.

xv. Ibid.,

iv. 13,

2; Brandt,

p.

316; Fritzsche,

i.

190.

The Fatherless and Motherless

For God, the Father, and the Source, and Principle
of things, in that He hath no parents, is very truly
called by Trismegistus "father-less" and " motherless"

in that

He

is

brought forth from none. 5

1
This passage and the preceding, then, are evidently taken
from "The Sermons to Tat." Laetantius quotes in Greek, and

again refers to the passage in

2

avToirdropa

ko.1 avro/j.'fjTopa

for the idea see G. H.,

3

Ibid., iv. 7.

airdrwp

et

apL^rap.

i.

9.

iv. 9.

not found in the extant texts

See also

Gf. Lact.,

D.

iv. 13,

but

and Ep. 4 below.

2 (Brandt).

I., i. 7,

Terms not found in our extant texts probably taken from

the same source as the terms in iv. 8 above.
;

243

LACTANTITJS
xvi.

Ibid., v. 14, 11

But

" piety is

Brandt,

446

p.

Fritzsche,

i.

256.

Piety the Gnosis of God

nothing else than Gnosis of God," x as

Trismegistus has most truly laid down, as

we have

said

in another place. 2

10 ; Brandt,

xvii. Ibid,, vi. 25,

Way

The only
Concerning

579

Fritzsche,

to Worship

ii.

60.

God

he [Trismegistus, who in this

justice,

(namely concerning

p.

sacrifice) " agrees substantially

and

verbally with the prophets "] has thus spoken

"

Unto

Word

this

thy homage pay.

God,

[it is]

my

(Logos),

There

son,

thy adoration and

one way alone to worship

is

not to be bad."

Here Lactantius translates literally from 0. H., xii.

23, a sermon which now bears the title, " About

(xiii.)

Common Mind

Hermes, however, in the

context of the quoted passage, is not writing "about
justice," and much less could the whole sermon be so
the

entitled,

stand

and Ex.

indeed Lactantius intended us so to under-

if

But

it.

to Tat."

xi.,

"

Commentary,

see the

On

G.

R.

xii. (xiii.) 6,

Justice."

xviii. Ibid., v. 25,

11

Brandt,

p.

579

Fritzsche,

ii.

60.

The Worthiest Sacrifice to God

Also in that

"Perfect

when he heard

Sermon,"

Asclepius enquiring of his son,3 whether

pleasing to his
1

Notio

That
That

del.
is,

is,

father, that incense

2

Namely

Hermes' son Tat.

Tat's father, Hermes.

ii.

15,

it would be
and other perfumes

q.v. for

comment.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

244

should be offered in their holy rite to God, [Hermes]

exclaimed

FKAGMENT
Nay, nay
Asclepius

VIII.

speak more propitiously,

For very great impiety

is

[my]
to let

it

mind any such thought about that

One and Only Good.

come

in the

These things, and things like these, are not

appropriate to Him.

For

that exist and least of

all

He

is full

He

stands

of all things
in need [of

aught].

But

The

let

us worship pouring forth our thanks.

[worthiest] sacrifice to

Him

is

blessing, [and

blessing] only.

With

compare the passage in P. S. A., xli. 2

Here again we have the means
of controlling the old Latin translator, but not with
such exactitude as before, for Lactantius has also
turned the Greek text into Latin. But not only from
this

(p. 61, 16, Goldb.).

Hermes

the other specimens of Lactantius'

transla-

but also from his present close reproduction of

the ordinary wording of the Trismegistic treatises, we

tions,

may

be further confident that the Old Latin translation

is free,

paraphrastic, and rhetorical, as

we have

already

remarked.
xix. Ibid., vii. 4, 3

Brandt,

Man made

in

p.

593

Fritzsohe,

ii.

69.

the Image of God

But Hermes was not ignorant that man was made

by God and in the Image of God. 1
1

See above,

ibid., ii. 10, 13,

Comment.

LAOTANTIUS
xx. Ibid.,

vii. 9,

11; Brandt,

p.

245

612; Fritzsche,

82.

ii.

Contemplation

man

(Speaking of

being the only animal that has

body upright, and face raised

towards his Maker, Lactantius says
his

And

this " looking "

to heaven, looking
:)

Hermes has most

rightly

named

contemplation. 1

xxi. Ibid., vii. 13,

3; Brandt, p. 624; Fritzsche,

ii.

90.

The Dual Nature of Man

Hermes, in describing the nature
that he might teach

man, in order

of

how he was made by God,

brings

forward the following

FEAGMENT
From
mortal,

IX.

two natures, the deathless and

the

He made

one nature,

one and the self-same thing

that

man,

of

and having made

the self-same [man] both somehow deathless and

somehow
set

mortal,

He

him up betwixt

brought him forth, and

the godlike and immortal

1 OeoTTTiav^Oewpiav.
See, for instance, G. if., xiv. (xv.) 1, and
K. K., 1, 38, 51 also Frag. ap. Stob., Flor., xi. 23; and also
compare G. H., iv. (v.) 2 " For contemplator (eear^s) of God's
works did man become." It is also of interest to note that Justin
Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph., 218 c) enumerates the Theoretics or
Contemplatives, among the most famous sects of Philosophers,
;

naming them

in the following order

Platonics, Stoics, Peri-

patetics, Theoretics, Pythagorics.

2 Compare the "setting up betwixt" (eV^ueVy
the " setting up " of the mind "in the midst " (4v fxecnp
.

of 0. #., iv. (v.) 3.

'{dpvo-w)

with

idpv<r6ai)

THEICE-GREATEST HERMES

246

nature and the mortal, that seeing

wonder

at

all

he might

all.

Wonder the Beginning

This idea of "

wondering

of Philosophy

" was, doubtless, a

common-

place in Hellenistic philosophical circles and looked

back to the Platonic saying: "There is no other beginning of Philosophy than wondering/' Compare also
one of the newest found "Logoi of Jesus," from the
rubbish heaps of Oxyrhynchus, which runs

him that seeketh

"

Let not

when

cease until he find, and

he finds he shall wonder; wondering he shall reign,

and reigning he shall rest." 1

Wondering

this makes
and thus master of gods and
men, and so he has peace. The translation of fiacriXevcrei
by Grenfell and Hunt as " reach the kingdom " seems
to me to have no justification.
Lactantius here quotes the Greek text of P. S. A.,
viii. 3, and so once again we can control the Old Latin
version.
The Church Father is plainly the more
reliable, reproducing as he does familiar Hermetic
phrasing and style and we thus again have an insight
into the methods of our rhetorical, truncated, and in-

man

king

is

the beginning of Gnosis

of himself,

terpolated Latin Version.

xxii.

Ibid., vii. 18,

3; Brandt,

p.

640; Fritzsche,

ii.

99.

The Cosmic Eestoration

And Hermes
world]
1

p.

states

plainly.

Cf. iv. 7 above.

[the

destruction

of

For in that book which bears the

Grenfell (B. P.) and

13 (London, 1904).

this

Hunt

(A.

S.),

New

the
title

Sayings of Jesus,

247

LACTANTIUS
of "

The Perfect Sermon," after an enumeration

which we have spoken, he adds

of the

evils of

FKAGMENT
Now when

have

then will [our] Lord and

Sire,

these things shall be, as

said, Asclepius,

God and Maker

the

X.

of the First and the

God, 1 look down on what

firm His Will,

that

is

order, recalling error,

is

done, and,

the Good,

One

making

against

dis-

and purging out the bad,

by washing it away with water-flood, or

burning it away with swiftest fire, or forcibly
He [then]
expelling it with war and famine,
will bring again His Cosmos to its former state,
either

and so achieve
xxiii. Ibid.,

its

Eestoration.

Epitome,

4,

679; Fritzsche,

4; Brandt, p

117.

ii.

Of Hermes and
Hermes,
ledge of

who

his Doctrine concerning

who, on account

many

arts,

of his virtue

gained the

philosophers,

and who

declaring

is

He

the greatness of the

(p.

has no name, for

Gf. Frag. v.

Lactantius quotes the original Greek of P. S. A., xxvi. 1

48, 24, Goldb.), so that we can thus once more remark the

liberties
3

One and

Him God and

that He has no
as He alone is,

praises, calls

need for a distinctive name,3 inasmuch

2

preceded the

worshipped as god among the

Only God with unending

Father, [and says]

and know-

title of Thrice-greatest,

also in the antiquity of his doctrine

Egyptians,

God

Gf.

which the Old Latin translation has taken with the

Frag.

ii.

text.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

248

He

nor has

any parents, in that

He

is

both from

Himself and by Himself. 1

In writing to his son [Tat] he begins as follows

To comprehend God is difficult, to speak [of Him]
impossible, even for one who can comprehend for the
Perfect cannot be comprehended by the imperfect, nor
"

the Invisible by the visible/'

685; Fritzsche,

xxiv. Ibid., Ep., 14; Brandt, p.

ii.

121.

Repetition

(Lactantius repeats in almost identical words what he

has written in

i.

11.)

xxv. Ibid., Ep., 37 (42), 2; Brandt, p.

ii.

712;

Fritzsche,

140.

Plato as Prophet follows Trismegistus

By means
says,

of

He [God

him [the Logos]

as Demiurge, 3 as

Hermes

the Father] hath devised the beautiful

and wondrous creation of the world.

Finally Plato has spoken concerning the
.

second God, not

plainly as

and

first

philosopher, but

as

prophet, perchance in this following Trismegistus, whose

words I have added in translation from the Greek.

(Lactantius then translates verbally from the Greek

text he has quoted in
last clause
1

See

The

i.

iv.

6, 4,

omitting, however, the

and the parenthesis in the middle.)

6 and

iv.

8 above.

is a verbatim translation of the text of the

Stobsean Extract ii., while the second is a paraphrase even of L.'s
own version from the Greek (see ii. 8 above). We learn, however, the new scrap of information that the quotation is from the

first

clause

beginning of the sermon.

3

The

reference to the "

Demiurge " looks back

to iv. 6, 9.

VIII.

AUGUSTINE
i.

De

Givitate Dei, xxiii.

Hoffmann

(E.),

i.

392 (Vienna,

1899-1900). 1

Three Quotations from the Old Latin Version

of the "Perfect Sermon"
Augustine
(first

"

half

is

arguing against the views of Appuleius

of the

second century) on the cult of the

daimones ," and in so doing introduces a long disquisi-

tion on the doctrine of " Egyptian

call Thrice-greatest,"

Hermes,

whom

they

concerning image-worship, or the

consecrated and "ensouled," or "animated," statues of

the gods.

In the course of his remarks the Bishop

quotes at length from a current Latin version

of
2

Hippo
The

of "

Sermon " or " Asclepius " (though without himany title), which we see at once must have
been the very same text that has come down to us in
It is precisely the same text, word for
its entirety.
Perfect

self giving

word, with ours

the variants being practically of the

most minute character.

1
Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. xxx.
(Imp. Acad, of Vienna). The date of the writing of the treatise,
Be Givitate Dei, is fixed as being about 413-426 a.d.

2 Hujus JEgyptii
sunt

verba, sicut in nostram

249

linguam interpretata

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

250

First of all Augustine quotes from P. S. A., xxiii. 3,

This "prophecy" of the downfall of the

2.
Egyptian religion Augustine naturally takes as referring to the triumph of Christianity, and so he ridicules
xxiv.

Hermes

"[qui]

tarn

impudenter

dolebat,

quam im-

prudentur sciebat"
ii.

Ibid., xxiv.

The Bishop

Hoffmann,

of

his next chapter with

S. A., xxxvii.

and proceeds scornfully

subject,

iii.

396.

Hippo begins

a quotation from P.

ments

i.

1,

2,

on the same

to criticise the state-

of the Trismegistic writer.

Ibid., xxvi.

Hoffmann,

i.

402.

After quoting the sentence, from P.

8. A., xxiv.

3,

which Hermes says that the pure temples of Egypt

will all be polluted with tombs and corpses, Augustine
proceeds to contend that the gods of Egypt are all
dead men, and in support of his contention he quotes
P. S. A. xxxvii. 3, 4.
in

IX.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
i.

Contra Julimum,

i.

30

Migne,

Cyril's Corpus of

col.

a. 2

548

XV. Books

(Cyril, after claiming that Pythagoras and Plato ob-

tained their

wisdom

in

Egypt from what, he

they had heard of Moses there, proceeds

And

I think the Egyptian

considered worthy of

of the

some

title of

:)

Hermes

mention

who, they say, bears the

professes,

also should be

and recollection

he

Thrice-greatest because

honour paid him by his contemporaries, and, as

think, in comparison with

Hermes the

fabled son

Zeus and Maia.

of

This Hermes of Egypt, then, although an initiator

into mysteries,3

and though he never ceased

to cleave

to the shrines of idols, is [nevertheless] found to

grasped the doctrines of Moses,

correctness,
1

and beyond

all cavil,

if

yet

still

in part.

The date of Cyril's patriarchate is 412-444 a.d.

Migne (J. P.), Patrologice Gursus Gompletus, Series

torn, lxxvi. (Paris, 1859).

Beligione adversus
is also

S. P. iV. Gyrilli

Julianum Imperatorem Libri

given R. 211, n.

1.

251

have

not with entire

Grseca,

Pro Ghristiana

Decern.

The

text

"

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

252

For both [Hermes] himself has been benefitted [by

made
who put

Moses], and reminder of this [fact] has also been

in his

own

writings by [the editor] at Athens

together the fifteen books entitled " Hermaica."

concerning him [Hermes] in the

editor] writes

book, putting the words into the

priests of the sacred rites
"

In order then that

have

mouth

of

[This
first

one of the

we may come

to things of a like

you not heard that our Hermes

Egypt into allotments and portions,
measuring off the acres with the chain, 1 and cut canals
for irrigation purposes, and made nomes,2 and named
the lands [comprised in them] after them, and established the interchange of contracts, and drew up a list
of the risings of the stars, and [the proper times 3 ] to cut
and beyond all this he discovered and beplants
queathed to posterity numbers, and calculations, and
geometry, and astronomy, and astrology, and music, and
the whole of grammar ?
nature

(?),

divided the whole of

This Corpus of

XV. Books

is

evidently the source of

and he takes the above quotation

from the Introduction, which purported to be written
by an Egyptian priest (as is also the case in the treatise
Cyril's information,

De

Mysteriis, traditionally ascribed to Jamblichus), but

which Cyril says was written at Athens, by presumably

some Greek editor. 4
1

lit.

"Acres," lit. = areas

= measuring cord.

Or provinces

Sc. of the

100 Egyptian cubits square

and " chain,"

Migne's Latin translator gives this as " laws "

moon.

4 6 o-vvredeiKcbs 'AOrivrKri)
a phrase which Chambers (p. 149) erroneously translates by " which he [Hermes] having composed for
R. (p. 211, n. 1) thinks this redactor was some NeoAthenians "
!

platonist.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
ii.

Ibid.,

31

i.

Migne

549

col.

253

b.

The Incokporeal Eye

Thrice-greatest

Hermes

says

somewhat

as follows

(Cyril then quotes, with four slight verbal variants,

the

first

Stobaeus, Ex.

ii.,

and then proceeds without a break :)

FKAGMENT
If,

XI.
1

then, there be an incorporeal eye, let

forth from
let it fly

it

go

body unto the Vision of the Beautiful

up and soar

aloft,

seeking to see not

form, nor body, nor [even] types

but rather That which

the

by

four paragraphs of the passage excerpted

[of things],

the Maker of

is

[all] these,

Quiet and Serene, the Stable and the

Changeless One, the

Self,

Self of self, the Self in

[alone],

That which

[yet] unlike to self,

Though Cyril runs

is

the All, the One, the

self,

the Like to Self

neither like to other, nor

and [yet] again Himself. 8

this

passage

on to

the

four

paragraphs which in the Stobaean Extract are continued

by three other paragraphs,

am

quite persuaded that

the Archbishop of Alexandria took the above from the

same

"

Sermon

Sc. the soul.

Masc, not

to

Tat " 4 as the Anthologist. 6

2

8c. ideas.

neut., as are all the preceding "self's."

There

throughout a play on "self" and "same" which is

unreproducible in English.
4
That is, presumably, the "First Sermon of the Expository
[Sermons] to Tat" (see Comment to the Stobaean Excerpt).
6
See also Fragg. xii., xiii., xv., xx., xxii., xxiii., xxiv. (?).
is

also

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

254
iii.

Ibid,,

i.

33

Migne,

col.

552

D.

The Heavenly Word Proceeding Forth

And

Thrice-greatest

Hermes thus

himself

delivers

concerning God:

FRAGMENT

XII.

For that His Word (Logos) proceeding

creative

he

as

all-perfect

and

was,

forth,

and

fecund,

in fecund Nature, falling on fecund

8
Water, made Water pregnant.

The Pyramid

And

the same again [declares]

FRAGMENT
The Pyramid,
and the
above

R.

ruling

it

(p.

all,

it

For that

the Creator- Word

who, being

hath

of the

the First Power after

mouth

of God,"

but I

adjective ySpipos ("fecund") is applied to both Logos

;

spermal
reproduced K. 43.
or

fruitful,

Compare

G. H.,

i.

it might thus be varied as seedful and

Text
and productive.
Of. Frag. xiii.

8, 14, 15.

plainly reproduced from Cyril,

4

That

Sc.

is,

This Fragment
by Suidas (q.v.).

is

also quoted,

but

the Logos.

the Pyramid, in physics the symbol of

fire.

xxii.
6

it

for introducing this symbolism.

and Physis (Nature)

below [both] Nature

43) glosses this with " out of the

no necessity

The

is

Intellectual World.

Lord of

see

then,

XIII.

driixtovpybv \6yov.

Compare

Lact.,

D.

I., iv. 6, 9.

See Frag,

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

255

Him, [both] increate [and] infinite, leaned forth. *

from Him, and has his seat above, and rule o'er
He is
all that have been made through him.
the First-born of the All-perfection, His perfect,
2
fecund and true Son.

The Nature of God's Intellectual Word

And

again the same [Hermes],

Temple-folk

in Egypt questions

FEAGMENT
he

called

the

of

XIV.

most mighty Good Daimon, was

But why,
4

when one

him and says

by

name 5 by

this

the Lord of

all ?

replies

Yea, have

I told

thee in what has gone before,

but thou hast not perceived

The nature

it.

Word

of His Intellectual

a productive and creative Nature.

is

though

it

were His

[His] Nature, or [His]

1

TrpoKtyacrct.

emanation.

that

is,

(Logos)

This

is

as

or

Power-of-giving-birth,

Mode

projected,

Compare the hymn

of being, or call

it

presumably with the idea of

Heavenly Word proceeding

"

Yet leaving not the Father's side." Compare the -xapeKvtysv

i. 14, and note.
Compare 0. H. i. 6, 9, 10 xiii. (xiv.) 3 xiv. (xv.) 3. For

forth,

of G. H.,
2

slightly revised text, see R. 243, n. 3.

Keitzenstein thinks that

mind was the pyramid, or

with the sun-disk on the top.
3 renevnSbv.
The questioner was undoubtedly Osiris (see Frag,
Cyril then knows that "Osiris" was understood to
xix. below).
stand for a grade of Egyptian priests. Of. R. 131.
6 Presumably " Soul" (Psyche).
4 Presumably the Logos.
the image which the writer had in his

obelisk,

y4vt(ris.

256

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

what you

will,

He

is

only

remembering

the

Perfect in

Perfect,

Perfect makes, and creates, and

perfect

good

that

and from

the

makes to

live,

things.

He

Since, then,

He

this

thus named.

hath this nature, rightly

is

The Word of the Creator

And
"

the same [Hermes], in the First Sermon of the

Expository [Sermons] to Tat," 2 speaks thus about God

FEAGMENT
The Word {Logos)
transcends

all

sight

XV.

of the Creator,

He

[is]

[my]

self-moved

cannot be increased, nor [yet] diminished

He, and

is

identical,

alone beyond

The

first

all

He

Alone

unto Himself [Alone], equal,

like

perfect

order; for that

son,

in

He

His
is

stability,

perfect

the One, after the

in

God

knowing.

two Fragments

(xi.

and

xii.)

seem

to

be

taken from the same sermon, the contents of which

resembled the

first

part of the " Shepherd of

Men

"

it has all the appearance of a discourse addressed to Tat, and probably came in " The Expository

treatise;

Sermons."
1
This passage seems to refer to the identity of Soul and Logos.
For revised text see R. 131, and the reference there to Plato,
Gratylus, 400 b, where ^X^?, soul, is explained by the word-play
(pvorexv, that is, that which has physis, or nature, or the power of

production.
2

rcoy irpbs rbv Tclt 8ie|o5*/c&)j/.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
The

third

Fragment

(xiii.)

257

belongs to the more frankly

Egyptian type, the Agathodaimon literature, in which

Hermes, as the Good Spirit, figures as the teacher of
the Mystery-god Osiris. 1

The last Fragment (xv.) is so similar in its phrasing

Fragment xi., already given by Cyril (i. 31), that I

to

am strongly inclined to think the Archbishop took

both from the same source. If so, we can reconstruct
part of " The First Sermon of the Expository [Sermons]

which

to Tat," the beginning of

also given

by Stobseus, Ex.

ii.,

(see Lact., Mp., 4) is

with the heading from

"The [Book] to Tat," while he heads

" From the [pi.] to Tat." 2
v.

Ibid.,

ii.

35

Migne,

col.

556

Mini) of

And Hermes

other extracts

a.

Mind

also says in the Third

Sermon

of those

to Asclepius

FEAGMENT
It is

XVI.

not possible such mysteries [as these]

who

should be declared to those

initiation in the sacred

your

ears, [ears] of

But

rites.

your mind

are without
ye, lend

[me]

There was One Intellectual Light alone,

nay, Light transcending Intellectual Light.
for ever

is

Mind

of

mind

who makes

He

[that]

Light to shine.
1
See Frag. xix. below, where Cyril (ii. 56) says that this type
was found in the " Sermon to Asclepius," that is, was put with
the Aselepius-books in the collection which lay before him.

2
3

See also Fragg.

Of. K. K.> 16.

VOL.

III.

xi., xii,, xiii., xx., xxii., xxiii.,

xxiv.

(?).

17

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

258

There was no other

of Himself [alone].
for ever

doth

He

His Light and

[naught] save the Oneness

For ever

compass

Spirit.

in

all in

Himself [alone],

His own Mind,

He
And

is

All

after

some other things he says

Without

FEAGMENT XVII.
Him [is] neither god,
2

daimon, nor any other being.

of

[their] Father,

all,

and

Life,

sake.

[their]

For

He

is

Lord

God, and Source,

and Power, and Light, and Mind, and

For

Spirit.

and

nor angel, nor

all

things are in

Him and

for

His

Concerning Spirit

And

again, in the

same Third Sermon

Asclepius, in reply to one

who

of those to

questions [him] con-

cerning the Divine Spirit, the same [Hermes] says as

follows

FKAGMENT
Had

there not been

XVIII.

some Purpose 4 of the

Lord of

all,

That
Mind,

Light and Life.

See
being Life and Light."

ii.

so that I should disclose this

is,
.

Lit. outside of

For a
(iii.)

G.

if.,

i.

word

"God, the

Him.

fuller statement of the idea in this paragraph, see G. H.,

14.

Cyril thinks that the above two Fragments refer

Son (Mind of mind and Light

Ghost (the Divine supremacy and power), and

to the Father,

of light)
is

and Holy-

thus the source

of the statement in Suidas (s.v. "Hermes") that Trismegistus

spoke concerning the Trinity.
4 Or Providence, irpSvoia.
K. (203, n. 2) refers this to a belief
that only when some internal prompting gave permission to the

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
ye would not have been

(logos),

great love

Of

degree,

up

raises

it

about

which

Spirit, of

spoken many times,

that

filled

with so

Now

it.

give

rest of the discourse (logos).

same

this

me

to question

ye ear unto the

259

have already

things have need

all

things, each in its

all

and makes them

live,

and gives

for

own
them

nourishment, and [finally] removes them from

its

holy source, 2 aiding the

giving

life

The

to

"

all,

spirit,

and

for ever

the [one] productive One."

To Asclepius " of Cyril's Corpus

From the above statements of Cyril we learn that in

addition to " The Expository Sermons to Tat," he had
also before

him

a collection of "

to Asclepius "

Sermons

of these there

were at

Sermon" one

of this collection?

Was

least three.

for the style of it is cast in the

"

The Perfect

It may have been;

same mould as that of

these Fragments in Cyril.

Hermes, in the Third Sermon

of Cyril's collection, is

addressing several hearers, for he uses the plural; so

also in P. S. A,,

i.

2.

Hermes

addresses Asclepius, Tat,

and Ammon.
In the Third Sermon, Hermes
possible such mysteries

also says

%poos roiovros.

That
That

is,

is,

lie

do

so.

Gf.

is

hopelessly wrong,

Comment

corrupt.
as,
;

indeed,

P.

not

Appul.,

presumably, causing their seeming death.

the individual life-breath, unless the reading

Kovpov inset par i

(xi.) 13,

" It is

should be declared to those

master to expand the teaching, could

Metam., xi. 21, 22 ; P. S. A., i.
2

The Latin
is

S. A., vi.

translator in

frequently the case.

Exx.

iv. 2,

M-

Migne goes
Gf. G.

xv. 2, xix. 3.

H,

x.

260
who

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
are without initiation in

P. S. A.

2,

i.

Hermes

declares

the saered rites"; in

:

" It is a

mark

impious mind to publish to the knowledge

of

of

an
the

crowd x a tractate 2 brimming o'er with the full grandeur

of divinity."
The numinis majestas (grandeur of
divinity) is precisely the same idea as the Spirit, the
" Divine supremacy and power," as Cyril says referring
to Hermes.
Third Sermon, Hermes makes the
remark that the Love (epoog) of the Gnosis
which urges on the disciples, is inspired by the Providence or Foresight of God that is, by His Spirit;
P. S. A., i. 28, ends with the words " To them, sunk
in fit silence reverently, their souls and minds pendent
on Hermes' lips, thus Love (epco$) Divine 3 began to
Finally, in the

striking

speak."

The

setting of the

refer

v.

them

Ibid.,

mode

of exposition is

then identi-

two Sermons, and we may thus very well

cal in the

to the

ii.

same

52; Migne,

collection.

col.

580 b.

From "The Mind"

"

To this I will add what Thrice-greatest Hermes wrote

To his own Mind," for thus the Book is called.

(Cyril then quotes, with very slight verbal variants,

the last question and answer in G.

IT., xi. (xii.)

22.)

In our Corpus the treatise is not written by Hermes

Mind, but, on the contrary, it is cast in the mould
of a revelation of " The Mind to Hermes," and is so
to the

That

Tractatus

Of. also

is,

the uninitiated, the profanum vulgus.

presumably logos in the original Greek.
;

P. S. A., xx. 2 and xxi.

1, 3,

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

seems to have been mistaken. 1

Cyril thus

entitled.

261

may, then, have been that in the copy which lay

It

before the Church Father, the title read simply

"

The

Mind."
vi.

Ibid.,

ii.

55

Migne,

586

col.

d.

Osiris and Thkice-greatest Agathodaimon

But

mind the words of Hermes the

The Asclepius " 3 he says

will call to

Thrice-greatest

in "

FEAGMENT
Osiris said

[thou]

appear

Good

How,
Spirit,

when

did Earth in

its

entirety

The Great Good

By

thou Thrice-greatest,

then,
4

XIX.

Spirit

made

reply

gradual drying up, as I have said

many Waters

the

got

commandment

and

5
.

to go into themselves again, the Earth in its

entirety appeared,

muddy and

shaking.

Then, when the Sun shone forth, and without

ceasing burned and dried

compact
i
2

it

in the Waters, with

up, the Earth stood

Water

all

around. 6

Gf. E. 128, n. 1.
Texts of quotations reproduced in R. 127, n. 1.
From the quotations we can see that this could not have been

the special heading of the treatise from which Cyril quotes, and
which plainly belongs to the Agathodaimon type. Cyril prob-

ably means that the

general
4

title,

"

The

treatise, in his collection,

came under the

Asclepius."

'AyaObs Balixwv.

The reading is an untranslatable airb tov, where the lacuna is

probably to be completed with " from the Lord of all."
6 A distinction is evidently drawn between the (heavenly)
5

262

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
"Let there be Eabth"

Further, in yet another place [he writes]

FKAGMENT

XX.

The Maker and the Lord

Let there be Earth, and
appear

of all thus spake

let

the Firmament

1
!

And

forthwith the beginning of the [whole]

creation. Earth,

was brought into

existence.

The Generation of the Sun

So much about the Earth

as to the Sun, he again

says as follows

FEAGMENT
Then
[thou]

one

said

Osiris

Good

Spirit,

thou

Thrice-greatest,

whence came

this

mighty

Would'st thou,
the generation of

He came from
of

XXI.

all

yea, the

we tell to thee
the Sun, whence he appeared ?
that

Osiris,

out the Foresight of the Lord

Sun's

birth

proceedeth from

Water and water (the companion element of earth). The text is

immediately continued in Frag. xxi. below.
1
See C. H., i. 18, Commentary.
2 This seems
to be taken not from a different place in the " To
Asclepius," but from another sermon, or group of sermons, most
probably from the " First Expository Sermon to Tat " as may be
seen by comparing its phrasing with Frag. xxii. See also Fragg.

xi. } xii., xiii., xv., xxii., xxiii.,

xxiv.

(?).

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Lord of

the

263

through His Creative Holy

all,

Word. 1
"Let the Sun be!"
In like manner also in the
to Tat, "

" First

Expository Sermon

he says

FEAGMENT

XXII.

Straightway the Lord of

own Holy and

spake unto His

all

Intelligible

to

His Creative

Word (Logos) Let

And straightway

with His word

Fire that hath

nature tending upward, 2

mean pure

[Fire],

which gives greatest

that

Nature embraced

and raised

the

(logos),

most energy, and fecundates the

light, has the

most,

its

the Sun be

up

it

with her

aloft out of the

(After referring to Genesis

6:

i.

own

Spirit,

Water. 4

"And God

said,

Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,

and

the waters from the waters,"

let it divide

Cyril

proceeds :)
vii. Ibid.,

ii.

57

Migne,

col.

588

c.

The Firmament
Moreover the Hermes who
This
above.

is

Of.

is

with them 5 Thrice-

evidently an immediate continuation of Frag. xix.

K. 126, n.

See Frag.

Embraced the

Sc.

xiii.

1,

where the

texts are reproduced.

below, concerning the pyramid.

Fire.

the Water-Earth, one element, not yet separated, according

to G. H.,

i.

5.

For other probable quotations from

Expository Sermon to Tat," see Fragg.

xxiii., xxiv. (?).
5

Sc.

the philosophers.

xi.,

xii.,

this "First

xiii.,

xv., xx.,

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

264

greatest mentions this [that

For he describes God

is,

FKAGMENT
will

you who
laid

His creations

XXIII.

encompass you with

are disobedient to me,

on you as a

Word

the firmament] again.

as saying to

(Logos)

Command

is

Necessity,

this

which hath been

through

him ye have

for

This quotation also

as

My

own

Law.

probably taken from the same

that

from the " First

Expository Sermon to Tat." The idea and setting,
however, should also be compared with the parallel
in the K.
Excerpt (Stob., Phys., xli. 44; Gaisf.,
"
Souls, Love and Necessity shall be your
p. 408)
source as the previous passage

is,

they who are lords and marshals after

lords,
all,"

where the

" after

confirm the " up to

more

me "

me "

(/mer

ijme)

me

of

might perhaps

in the preceding note as the

correct rendering.

viii. Arid.,

ii.

64

Migne,

598

col.

d.

From the "To Asclepius"

For Hermes, who

is

called Thrice-greatest, writes

thus to Asclepius about the nature of the universe

(Here follows with a few

text of C. H., xiv. (xv.)

6,

slight verbal variants the

7,

beginning: "If, then,

all

things have been admitted to be two.")

eV >, lit. " against me," or it may perhaps be " up to

Migne's Latin translator gives " qui in mea potestatis estis"
and Chambers (p. 153), "those from me" neither of which can
1

toTs

me."

be correct.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

And some

265

he proceeds in warmer language,

lines after

setting forth a striking argument,

and says

(Then follows 8, 9 of the same sermon, except

the third sentence, and 10 omitting the last sentence.) 1

The same

must have

treatise

before

lain

Cyril

as

that contained in our Corpus in the form of a letter

with the heading, "Unto Asclepius good health

soul "

for the

Archbishop says that Hermes

thus to Asclepius."

ix.

Ibid., iv.

"

of

writes

130; Migne,

col.

702.

The Sole Protection

(After quoting Porphyry as warning against partici-

pation in blood-rites for fear of contamination from evil

daimons, Cyril proceeds

And

:)

their Thrice-greatest

Hermes seems

also to be

same opinion for he, too, writes as follows, in

the [sermon] " To Asclepius," concerning those unholy
daimons against whom we ought to protect ourselves,
and flee from them with all the speed we can
of the

"The
piety.

sole protection

For neither

and

evil

this

we must have

is

daimon, yea nor Fate, can ever

overcome or dominate a man who pious is, and pure,

and holy. For God doth save the truly pious man

from every
1

ill."

Cyril also twice omits the words "ignorance and jealousy"

"arrogance and impotence" in

" and yet the other things " in 9.
after
2

Of.

Frag,

iv.,

8,

and

also the

words

Comment.

1.
A comparison of this with Frag, iv.,
quoted by Lactantius (ii. 15), and the Commentary thereon, shows
clearly that Cyril has strengthened the original text by interpola3

Gf.

P. S. A., xxix.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

266

Ibid., viii.

x.

274

Migne,

col.

920

D.

The Supreme Artist

Moreover, their Thrice-greatest Hermes has said some-

where about God, the Supreme Artist x

FEAGMENT XXIV.
as perfectly wise He

Moreover,

Order and

of all things

its

intellectual, as

opposite

2
;

in order

established

that things

being older and better,

might

have the government of things and the chief

place,

and that things

might be subject to

sensible, as being second,

these.

Accordingly that which tends downward, and

is

heavier than the intellectual, has in itself the

wise Creative
xi.

Ibid.

Word

(Logos)*

(?).

An

Unreferenced Quotation

(Chambers (p. 154) gives the following, " GyrilL Contra

Julian., citing Hermes" but without any reference, and
I can find it nowhere in the text :)

FEAGMENT XXV.
If

thou understandest that One and Sole God,

thou wilt find nothing impossible

for It is all

virtue.
tions.

Cyril's

Emperor

176) from Julian, in which the

Hermes, is given under " Julian."
an epithet applied by Pindar (Fr. 29) to Zeus.

quotation (v.

refers to

api<TTOT*xvov>

araiav.

This seems somewhat of a piece with the contents of the

Sermon to Tat." See Fragg. xi., xii., xiii., xv

" First Expository

xx., xxii., xxiii.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

Think not that

not that
It is

tion of

it is

It

may

267

be in some one

say

out of some one.

without termination

it is

the termina-

all.

Nothing contains It;

for

It

contains

all

in

Itself.

What

difference

body and the

Uncreated

and what

is

and things

there

then between the

Incorporeal, the created

that which

Free

is

and the

subject to necessity,

between the things

terrestrial

Celestial, the things corruptible

things Eternal
Is it

is

and

not that the One exists freely and that

the others are subject to necessity

X.

SUIDAS
Lexicon,

s.v.

'J&p/jltjs

'

6 rpio-fxiyio-Tos

Im. Bekker (Berlin

1854).

Hermes Speaks of the Trinity

Hermes
sage,

and flourished

He

was an Egyptian
He was called
before Pharaoh.

the Thrice-greatest.

Thrice-greatest because he spoke of the Trinity, declaring that in the Trinity there

follows

is

One Godhead,

as

"Before Intellectual Light was Light Intellectual;

Mind

of

mind,

too,

was there

eternally, Light-giving.

There was naught else except the Oneness

and Spirit all-embracing.

of this

[Mind]

Without this is nor god, nor angel, nor any other

For He is Lord and Father, and the God of
being.
all; and all things are beneath Him, [all things are] in
Him. 2
"

(The source
1

of Suidas, or of his editor, is

manifestly

Date uncertain; some indications point to as late as the

;
if these, however, are due to later redaction,

twelfth century

others point to the tenth century.

2

He

is

above them as Lord and Father, as Mind and Light

Him as Lady and Mother, as Spirit and Life.

and they are in

263

269

sun) as
Cyril, 0. J.,

i.

which a very
The same statement
quoted by Cedrenus, John Malalas,

35 (Fragg. xvi./

garbled edition

is

xvii.), of

reproduced.

and passage is also

and the author of the Chronieum Alexandrinum.

See

Bernhardy's edition of Suidas (Halle, 1853), i. 527,

Suidas then continues without a break :)
notes.)

His Word {Logos), all - perfect as he was, and

fecund, and creative, falling in fecund Nature, yea in
fecund Water, made Water pregnant." x
After saying this he has the following prayer
"

An
"

Orphic

Thee, Heaven, I adjure, wise work of mighty

thee I adjure,
first,

when He

Word

Word 2

the Father which

of

established all the world

He

God
spake

[0 Heaven], by the alone-begotten

{Logos) himself, and by the Father of the Word

"Thee

I adjure,

alone-begotten, yea, by the

all,

Hymn

be gracious, be gracious

This

Father

who surroundeth

"
!

not a prayer from Hermes, but three verses

is

somewhat

(the last

cerpted from Cyril,

altered) of
ibid.,

also attributed to "

i.

an Orphic

33 (Migne,

col.

hymn

552

c),

exlines

Orpheus " by Justin Martyr. The

seems to be a pure invention

last half of the prayer

of Suidas,

or of his editor, based partially on Cyril's

comments.
1

This

ibid.,
2

i.

is

33

(p<avi)v.

again,

and

Frag.

xii.

this time almost verbally, taken

from Cyril

XI.

ANONYMOUS
And

here

we may conveniently append

the Dialogue of an

to

reference

a blend Platonism, Astrology, and Chrisentitled Hermippus de Astrologia Dialogus,

astrology
tianity

ancient Christian writer on

of

from the name

of the chief speaker.

This writer was undoubtedly acquainted with our

Corpus, for he quotes

(xi.)

xvi.;

(p. 9, 3)

from

G. H.,

i.

(p. 21,

from 0. H. x.
6; in a general fashion (p. 24, 25) from G. IT.,
and phrases (p. 12, 21 and p. 14, 13) from G. H.

from

5)

0.

H.

x.

(xi.)

12

(p.

70, 17)

xviii.
1

Kroll (G.) and Viereck

Dialogus (Leipzig, 1895).

(P.),
Of.

Anonymi

R. p. 210.

270

Christiani de Astrologia

Ill

References and

Fragments

the Philosophers

in

I.

ZOSIMUS
On the Anthropos-Doctrine
(Zosimus flourished
third

and beginning

was a member

somewhere

at

the

what Eeitzenstein

of

end

of

of the fourth century a.d.

(p.

the

He

9) calls the

Poimandres-Gemeinde, and, in writing to

certain

Theosebeia, a fellow-believer in the Wisdom-tradition,

though not as yet initiated into its spiritual mysteries,

he urges her to hasten to Poimandres and baptize
herself in the Cup. 1

The following quotation

importance for the understanding

Doctrine or

Myth

of

Man

of

is of first

the Anthropos-

in the Mysteries.

Books of his great work distinguished

by the letter Omega, and dedicated to Oceanus as the
" Genesis and Seed of all the Gods,"
speaking of the
uninitiated, those still beneath the sway of the
In one

of the

Heimarmene
revelations,

or

he

Fate,

writes 2

who cannot understand

his

:)

The Processions of Fate.

Such men [our] Hermes,in his " Concerning Nature,"
hath called mind-less, naught but "processions" 3 of
1.

Op. sub.

Berthelot, Les AlcMmistes grecs, pp. 229

tit.,

p. 245.
ff.

For a revised

text, see E. pp. 102-106.

processions, shows, or pageants.

Gf, C. H., iv. (v.)
" Just as processions pass by in the middle of the way without

3 -KOfx-rtds,

VOL.

III.

273

18


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

274
Fate,

in that they have no notion

of

aught

who

incorporal, or even of Fate herself

of things

justly leads

them, but they blaspheme her corporal schoolings, and

have no notion of aught

else

but of her favours.

"The Inner Door"

But Hermes and Zoroaster have

said the Eace of

by their neither
for they have mastered
rejoicing in her favours,
not by their being struck down by her
pleasures,
for ever living at the "Inner Door," 2 and not
ills,
receiving 8 from her her fair gift, in that they look
2.

Wisdom-lovers

is

superior to

unto the termination of [her]

Fate,

ills.

3. On which account, too, Hesiod doth introduce

Prometheus counselling Epimetheus, and doth tell
him 5 not to take the Gift 6 from Zeus who rules
[thus] teaching
Olympus, but send it back again,

own

his

brother through philosophy 7 to return the

Gifts of Zeus,
4.

But

that

Zoroaster,

of Fate.

is,

boasting

in

knowledge

of

all

things Above, and in the magic of embodied speech,8

being able to do anything but take the road from others, so do
such men move in procession through the world led by their
bodies' pleasures."
1

Or "in that they display naught"

Codd.

ivav\ia.

R. reads

kv

<pavr a(o/j.vovs.

which

ivavhiy,

supported by

is

the Trismegistic treatise mentioned in the next

paragraph but one. I feel almost tempted to propose to read

the

title

of

iv avhia, (fr. &v\os

v\i)

" immaterial," the

or "matter"), and so to translate

being in a state free from

it "for ever living in the

immaterial."
3

Codd. Karadexfywoi.

R. reads Karatiexeo-dai.

I suggest Kara-

Sexofizvovs.

which

Codd.

KaKcbv,

Op.

Dies, 86.

Or wisdom-loving.

Presumably what the Vaidic theurgist would

et

I prefer to R.'s kukov.

6

Sc.

PandSra

cf.

14 and 19 below.
call

mantmvidyd.

275

zosimus
professes that all

general [ones],

of Fate,

ills

are

both

special

[ills]

and

[thus] averted.

Against Magic
Hermes, however, in his

5.

"

About the Inner Door,"

doth deprecate [this] magic even, declaring that:

The

man, [the man] who knows himself,1

spiritual

should not accomplish any thing by means of magic,

e'en though he think it a good thing, nor should he

force Necessity, but suffer [her to take her course],

and

according to her nature

decree

[he

should]

progress by seeking only, through the knowledge of

himself and God, to gain the Trinity 3 that none can

name, and
clay

that

let
is,

Fate do whate'er she will to her own

the body.

FEAGMENT XXVI.
6.

And

being so minded (he says), and so

ordering his

becoming

life,

all

he shall behold the Son of God

may

things for holy souls, that he

draw her 4 forth from out the region

of the Fate

into the Incorporeal [Man].

7.

For having power in

things, whatsoever

to the Father[

doth

He

into

the

Gf. G.

rpidda.

Of.

Sc.

will,

He becometh

all

and, in obedience

s nod], through the whole

Body

penetrate, and, pouring forth His Light

H.,

mind
i.

of every [soul],

21.

15 below.

Zosimus

original.
6

He

all,

the soul or mind.

is

He

starts

it

Or

decision or judgment.

8c,

the soul.

apparently condensing from the


THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

276

back unto the Blessed Region, 1 where

before

had become

it

corporal,

was

it

following

after

Him, yearning and led by Him unto the Light.

Thoth the First
8.

Man

And [there] shall it see the Picture 2 that both

Bitos

hath described, and thrice-great Plato, and ten-thousandtimes-great Hermes, for Thoythos translated

the

sacred 4 tongue,

first

Interpreter of

maker 5
1

for all

Gf. S.,

all

Thoth

it

into

things which exist, and the

Name-

embodied things. 6

9 in the Naassene Document.

or tablet.

ir'ivaKa

Priestly or hieratic.

Lit. translates.

With this compare Syncellus' (Ghron., xl.)

from Manetho's

quotation,

the First Man, the

Sothis,

which

declares that the first

monuments recording the wisdom-mystery of most ancient Egypt

" were engraved in the sacred language by Thoth, the first Hermes

Flood they were translated from the sacred language

into the common tongue." Gf. vol. i., ch. v., on " Hermes according
to Manetho."
after the

dvofiaroiroios,

referring specially to the making of names

words corresponding

Adam

to natural cries

and sounds.

or

Compare the

of Genesis.

18 B " Some god, or rather some godman, who in Egypt their tradition says was Theuth, observing
that sound was infinite, first distinguished in this infinity a certain
number of pure sounds [or vowels], and then other letters [or
sound elements] which have sound, but are not pure sounds [the
semi-vowels] these two exist [each] in a definite number ; and
lastly he distinguished a third class of letters, which we now call
mutes and divided these, and likewise the two other classes of
vowels and semi- vowels, into their individual elements, and told
the number of them, and gave to each and all of them the names
6

Gf. Plato, Philebus,

like

(Gf Jowett's Trans., 3rd ed., iv. 583, 584.)

According to the number-system of the Gnostic Marcus, there
are seven vowels, eight semi- vowels, and nine mutes (F. F. F.,
of letters."

p.

368).

It is also of interest to notice that these elements of

sound are applied to what Marcus calls the " Configuration of the
Element" ? Sound (rb crxrjt*a fov o-rotxetov) they constitute the

zosimus

277

The Libraries of the Ptolemies

9. The Chaldaeans and Parthians and Medes and
Hebrews call Him 1 Adam, which is by interpretation

virgin Earth, and blood-red

and

Earth, and fiery

Earth,

fleshly Earth.

10.

And

collections

these indications were found in the book4

of the Ptolemies,

which they stored away

in every temple, and especially in the Serapeum,

when

they invited Asenas, the chief priest of Jerusalem, to

send a

"

Hebrew

into

Hermes,"

who

translated the whole of the

Greek and Egyptian. 6

11. So the First Man is called by us Thoyth and

by them Adam, not giving His [true] name in the
Language of the Angels, but naming Him symbolically
according to His Body by the four elements [or letters]
out of His whole Sphere, 7 whereas his Inner Man, the

Glyph

(or Character, or Impression, or Expression) of the

Figure

Diagram) of the Man of Truth. In the phrase " Glyph of the

Figure " (6 xapa/cr^p rov -ypa^aros), the word ypdfifia means either
(or

a letter of the alphabet, or

(i)

(ii)

a note of music, or

(iii)

mathematical figure or diagram (ibid., p. 367). Is there then any

connection between the Pinax of Bitos and the Diagram of the
Ophites referred to by Celsus ?
2
1
Or of the nature of blood.
Sc. the First Man.
3
Codd. irvpa ? irvpta.

Or

Much

libraries.

That is, a learned priest or scribe.

was done at that period. Com-

translation of this kind

pare the Arabic translation of a " Book of Ostanes " (Berthelot,

Age, iii. 121), in which an old inscription
on an Egyptian stele is quoted " Have you not heard the story that

La Chimie au Moyen

Egyptian priest] wrote to the Magi in

I have found a copy of a book of the ancient
Persia, saying
sages but as the book is written in Persian, I cannot read it.
Send me then one of your wise men who can read for me the
book I have found >V R. 363.
7 Presumably referring to the whole Body of the
Heavenly
Man, to whose Limbs all the letters were assigned by Marcus.

a certain philosopher
:

[i.e.

'

278

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

spiritual,

for

name and one

has [also] both an authentic

common

use. 1

NTlKOTHEOS
12.

His authentic [name], however,

owing

to the so long [lapse of time

who-is-not-to-be-found alone doth

1

this

TrpovTjyopiKSv,

signifies

know

generally

know

not,

Nikotheos 3

for

these things.

the

pramomen

as

opposed to the nomen proper.

2
5ta rb Teas,
lit. "because of the so long" ; otherwise I cannot
translate the phrase.
This would, then, presumably refer to
the length of time since the physical tradition of the ancient

Thoyth

initiates had disappeared

or the length of time the soul
Zosimus had been revolving in Genesis.
3 Lit.
God- victor, symbolizing the victory of the Inner God,
or of a man who had raised himself to the status of a god. For
Nikotheos, see the Gnostic " Untitled Apocalypse " of the Codex
Brucianus (C. Schmidt, Gnos. Schrift. in hop. Sprach. aus d. G. B.,
" Nikotheos hath spoken of Him [namely, the
p. 285), p. 12a
Alone-begotten, see ibid., p. 601], and seen Him for he is one
[sc. of those who have seen Him face to face].
He [N.] said
The Father exists exalted above all the perfect.' He [N.] hath
revealed the Invisible and the perfect Triple-power."
In the Life of Plotinus, by Porphyry (c. xiv.), among the list of
" Gnostics " against whose views on Matter the great coryphaeus
of Later Platonism wrote one of the books of his Enneads (II. ix.),
there is mention of Nikotheos in close connection with Zoroaster
and others (S. 603 ft .). If we now turn to Schmidt's Plotins
;

of

'

zum

und hirchlichen Christentum (Leipzig,

which he has examined at length the matter of the
treatise of Plotinus and the passage of Porphyry, we find him
returning to the consideration of Nikotheos (pp. 58 ff.). Schmidt
(p. 61) takes the " hidden Nikotheos" for a "heavenly being,"
indeed as identical with the Alone-begotten, and as, therefore,
Stellung

Gnosticismus

1900), in

This Alone-begotten is the " LightDarkness" of p. 13a of the "Untitled Apocalypse" of G. B. In

other words, Nikotheos seems to be a synonym of the Triumphant
See R. Liechtenhan, Die Offenbarung in Gnosticismus
Christos.
(Gottingen, 1901), p. 31. So far for the inner meaning but is
there possibly an outer one? As there was an apocalypse, for
the words of Nikotheos are quoted, there was a seer, a prophet, a
the revealer of Himself.

zosimus

But that
which

for

follows

it

common
that men

use

279
is

Man

(Phos), 1

from

are called photas.

From the Book of the Chaldeans

13. 2 "

When Light-Man

(Phos) was in Paradise, ex-

spiring 3 under the [presence of] Fate, they

Him

to clothe himself in the

[Adam]

of Fate,

him

Adam

their

persuaded

they had made, the

ills

as though
and free from

of the four elements,

[they said] being free from [her 5 ]

activities.

"And He,

on account

of this

'freedom from

who had seen and handed on.

ills/

did

somewhat remarkable
by Rabbinical
theological controversy was Balaam (Bileam), meaning " Destroyer
of the people."
Is there, then, any connection between Nikotheos on the one hand and Mko-laos (the Greek equivalent of
Balaam) on the other? There are, at any rate, many other
parallels in the Talmud Jeschu-Stories of names of dishonour on
the Rabbinical side equating with names of exalted honour on
the Gnostic and Christian side. If so dare we ask the question'?
have we in the logos of Nikotheos a fragment from an
Christos,

It

is

that one of the by-names given to Jesus (Jeschu)

" Apocalypse of Jesus "

Nay, may not Balaam-Niko-laos, to take a lesson from the

mystic word-play of the time, " allegorically " have symbolized
on the one hand the " victory of the many " (\a6s), and on the
other the " Victor of the many," for " people " in Philo signifies
the "many" as opposed to the "one'' "race" (y*vos), which
sums up all His " limbs " in the Christ ?
1
$hs,
according to the accenting of R., but <pS>s would mean

" Light."
2

This

is

evidently a quotation.

Reading BiaweSfievos with the Codd., and not Siairveoixwy

with R. This means " exhaling his light." In the Egypto-Gnostic
tradition underlying the Pistis Sophia, it is the function of the
Rulers of the Fate to "squeeze out" the light from the souls and
to devour it, or absorb it into themselves.
4

The Rulers

Sc.

the

avsvepyqrov.

of the Fate.

Seven Rulers or Energies

of

Sc. Fate's.

the Fate-sphere,

280

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

not refuse

but they boasted as though

brought into servitude [to them]." *
;

He had

been

For Hesiod said that the outer man was the

"
bond 2 by which Zeus bound Prometheus.
14.

"

Subsequently, in addition to this bond, he sends him

whom

another, Pandora,3

the Hebrews call Eve.

For Prometheus and Epimetheus

according to the system of allegory,

are

that

one
is,

Man,

Soul and

Body.

Man
And

at one time

He 5

the Mind
bears the likeness of soul, at

another of mind, at another of

flesh,

owing to the im-

perfect attention which Epimetheus paid to the counsel

of

Prometheus, his own mind. 6

15.

For our Mind 7 saith

FKAGMENT

XXVII.

For that the Son of God having power

becoming

things,

all

that

things

appeareth as he willeth to each.

1

This

of the

is

willeth,

evidently a quotation from a Greek translation of one

Books

seems to

he

in all

me

of the Chaldseans ( 9, 10) in the Serapeum.

to be a " source " on which both the Hebrew

It

and

non-Hebrew Hellenists commentated in Alexandria. Thus both

the commentator in S. and J. in the Naassene Document and the
Poemandrists of the period would use it in common.
3
Gf. 3 and 19.
Fore-thought and After-thought. 5 Sc. Man.
almost persuaded that 14 is also a quotation or
and not the simple exegesis of Zosimus; the original

Theog., 614.

That

am

summary

is,

being from the pen of some non-Hebrew Hellenistic allegorizer.

7 That is, Pcsmandres, the Shepherd of men.
8
evidently a quotation from the " Inner Door."
Gf. 7 above
Compare also the logos quoted by S. ( 8) in the Naassene Document from some Hellenistic scripture " I become what I will,
;

and am what

I am."

Do Hermes and

S.

then both depend on

281

zosimus

unto the consummation of the cosmos will

16. Yea,

He come
own,

secretly,

counselling

nay,
them

openly associating with His

secretly,

through

yea

their

minds, to settle their account with their Adam, the

blind accuser, 1 in rivalry with the spiritual

man

of

light. 2

The Counterfeit Daimon

And

17.

things come
Daimon 3 come, in
and wishing to lead them
these

to

pass

until

the

them-

with

Counterfeit

rivalry

selves,

into error, declaring

that he is Son of God, being formless in both soul

and body.
But they, becoming wiser from contemplation of
the same scripture, in the form of an apocalypse ; that is, does
Hermes in his " expository sermon" depend on the direct teaching

Mind

of the

to himself,

which would be instruction in the

first

person ?
Tvtf)\7iyopovvros.
The lexicons do not contain the word. It
probably a play on Karrjyopovpros. Gf. note on "blind from
birth" of C. in the Conclusion of Hippolytus in " Myth of Man"
1

is

(vol.
2

i.

p. 189).

presumably, though in one aspect only, the soul that

This passage
reflects the same thought-atmosphere as that which surrounds
the saying underlying Matt. v. 25 ( = Lk. xii. 57-59): "Agree

That

is,

sees in the Light as opposed to the blind body.

with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art in the way with
him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and
the judge to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Amen, I
say unto thee, thou shalt not come forth thence till thou hast
paid the uttermost farthing." The third Evangelist, instead of the
vague " agree," preserves the technical terms aTrriw&xOai, used of
the discharge of a debt
text),

and

and

(cf.

the technical KaraKKayr]v *x*

v of

our

an officer charged with the collection of taxes

This Saying was interpreted by the Gnostics as

irpdKrwp,

debts.

having reference to the reincarnation of the soul into another

body in order to discharge its karmic debts.
3 6
The term "counterfeit spirit" {avrlixifxov
avrifiiixos Saifxw.
nvevpa) occurs frequently in the Pistis Sophia.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

282

Him who is truly Son of God, give unto him l his own
Adam for death, 2 rescuing their own light spirits for
own

[return to] their

regions where they were even

before the cosmos [existed]. 8

And

18.

Books

Hermes [which

of

man

the Hebrews alone and the Sacred

is]

[it

us] these things about

tell

Guide the Son of God, and

about the earthy Adam and his Guide, the Counterfeit,
who doth blasphemously call himself Son of God, for
the

leading
19.

who

of light

men

and

his

astray.4

But the Greeks call the earthy Adam Epimetheus,

counselled by his own mind, that is, his

is

brother, not to receive the gifts of Zeus.

being both deceived

Blessed Land.

7
.

But Prometheus, that

is

the mind, interprets

things and gives good counsel in

who have understanding and

have only

Nevertheless

and repenting,6 and seeking the

all

things to

hearing.

all

them

But they who

fleshly hearing are "processions of Fate."

2
Or execution.
The Counterfeit Daimon.
The two last paragraphs are apparently also quoted or
summarized from a Hellenistic commentary on a Book of the
1

Hebrews, translated into Greek, and found in the libraries of

It is remarkable that the contents of this book
are precisely similar not only to the contents of the Books from
which J. quotes in the Naassene Document, but also to the
ideas about the Chaldseans which the commentator of S. sets
the Ptolemies.

forth.
4

If

we can

rely

on this statement

of

Zosimus, this proves

that there was a developed Anthropos-doctrine also in the Tris-

Books, that is,

from the Chaldsean Books,

megistic Books, as apart from the Chaldeean

that the Pcemandrists did not take

it

but had it from their own immediate line of tradition, namely,

the Egyptian.
6
5
Lit. changing his mind.
Cf. 13 above.
7
We could almost persuade
lacuna occurs in the text.
ourselves that Zosimus had the text of S. and even the source
For " Blessed Land," cf. 7 above.
of J. before him.

zosimus

283

His Advice to Theosebeia

To the foregoing we may append a version

1

Zosimus' advice

of

which we

to the lady Theosebeia, to

have already referred, as offering an instructive counterpart to 0. H.y

xiii.

" false prophets/'

(xiv.).

through

After a sally against the

whom

the daimones energize,

not only requiring their offerings but also ruining their

souls, Zosimus continues
"

But be not thou,

lady, [thus] distracted, as, too,

bade thee in the actualizing

turn thyself about this

God

way and

[rites],

and do not

that in seeking after

and God shall come to

thee, He who is everywhere and not in some wee spot
as are daimonian things.
"

but in thy house be

And

having

in passions too

"

And

stilled thyself in body, still

and the twelve

still,

thou thyself

desire, [and] pleasure, rage [and] grief,

fates

of

Death.

thus set straight and upright, call thou unto

thyself Divinity

and truly

shall

He

come,

He who

is

everywhere and [yet] nowhere.

"And

without invoking them, perform the

not such as offer things

[then],

sacred rites unto the daimones,

them and soothe and nourish them, but such as

turn them from thee and destroy their power, which
Mambres 3 taught to Solomon, King of Jerusalem,
and all that Solomon himself wrote down from his

to

own wisdom.

"And

if

thou shalt effectively perform these

Berth., p. 244

The twelve tormenting

for a revised text see R. 214, n.

rites,

1.

or avenging daimones of C. H.,

xiii.

(xiv.).
3

to

The famous Egyptian Theurgist and Magician who is fabled

while others say he was the
have contended with Moses

instructor of Moses.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

284

thou shalt obtain the physical conditions

of

pure

birth.

And so continue till thou perfect thy soul completely.

" And when thou knowest surely that thou art perfrom thee x the natural
things of matter, and make for harbour in Poemandres' 2
arms, and having dowsed thyself within His Cup,3 return

fected in thyself, then spurn

again unto thy

This was

own

The

[true] race."

how Zosimus understood

the Trismegistic tradition, for

winged

soul having

now found

the teaching of

he had experienced
itself

it.

wings and become the

globe.

eVi rhv Uoifidvavdpa (sic).

Of. 0.

iZ"., i.

26, 29.

Cf. G, T., iv. (v.) 4.

II.

JAMBLICHUS
Abammon the Teacher
The evidence

of

Jamblichus

is

of

prime importance

was he who put the Later Platonic

School, previously led by the purely philosophical
Ammonius, Plotinus and Porphyry, into conscious
touch with those centres of Gnosis into which he had
seeing that

it

and instructed it especially in the

Wisdom of Egypt in his remarkable treatise generally
known by the title On the Mysteries, The authorship
been

initiated,

this treatise is

of

who was

in

the

but as Proclus,

usually disputed;
direct

tradition,

Jamblichus, the probabilities

are

attributes
in

favour

it

of

to
its

authenticity.

Jamblichus writes with the authority

of

an accredited

Wisdom as taught in these

and under the name of "Abammon, the

exponent of the Egyptian

mysteries,

Teacher/' proceeds to resolve the doubts and difficulties

the School with regard to the principles of the

of

The exact date of Jamblichus is very conjectural. In my

sketches of the " Lives of the Later Platonists " I have suggested
1

about a.d. 255-330.

See The Theosophical Review (Aug. 1896),

xviii. 462, 463.

285

286

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

sacred science as formulated by Porphyry.

Jambliehus

begins his task with these significant words 1

Hermes the Inspired

"Hermes, the God who is our guide in [sacred]
sermons, was rightly held of old as common to all
priests.

And

seeing that

it is

he who has in charge

the real science about the Gods, he

And

[our sacred sermons]. 2

is

was

so it

the same in
to

all

him that our

ancestors attributed all the discoveries of their wisdom,

attaching the

had

to

name

of

Hermes

that share of this

which

to all the writings

do with such subjects. 3

And

God which has

if

we

fallen

also enjoy
to

our

lot,

according to our ability [to receive him], thou dost

well in submitting certain questions on theology to us
priests, as

thy friends, for their solution.

may

suppose that the letter sent to

fairly

Anebo was written

And

my

as I

disciple

to myself, I will send thee the true

answers to the questions thou

hast asked. For it

would not be proper that Pythagoras and Plato, and
Democritus and Eudoxus, and many others of the
ancient Greeks,4 should have obtained fitting instruc1

I translate

The term

from the text

\6yos

is,

of

Parthey (Berlin, 185*7).

used technically, as a sacred or

of course,

inspired sermon or course of instruction.

3

fvyy pd/xfxar a.
" The
Parthey here adds the following interesting note
Egyptian teachers of Pythagoras were GEnuphis of On (Plut., Be
Is. et Os., 10) and Sonchis (Clem. Al., Strom., i. 15, 69) ; Plato
was the pupil of Sechnuphis of On (Clem. I.e.), and of Chonuphis
Democritus was taught by Pammenes
(Plut., Be Gen. Boer., 578)
Eudoxus by Chonuphis
of Memphis (Georg. Sync, i. 471 Dind.)
To this Parthey appends a
of Memphis (Plut. and Clem. II. cc.)."
list of some of the many other famous Greeks who owed their
knowledge to Egyptian teachers, viz., Alcaeus, Anaxagoras of
Clazomense, Appuleius, Archimedes, Bias, Chrysippus of Cnidus,
Cleohulus, Daedalus, Decseneus, Diodorus Siculus, Ellopion, Euripides, Hecatseus of Abdera, Hecatseus of Miletus, Hellanicus,
irdvTa ra ot/ceTa

287

JAMBLICHUS

tion from the recorders of the sacred science of their

times,

and that thou, our contemporary, who art

mind with

like

ancients, should

these

from the now living bearers

Teachers.'"

of

of a

lack guidance

'Common

the title

From the above important passage we

among the Egyptians the books which dealt

learn that
technically

with the science of sacred things, and especially with

the science of the Gods, that is to say, with the nature
the hierarchy from

of

Euler

Eay

our system, were regarded

of

the Spiritual

of

science

man upwards

to the

Supreme
The

as " inspired."

Sun which illumined the sacred

was distinguished

as a Person,

and

this Person,

because of a partial similarity of attributes, the Greeks

had long
"

identified

common "

with their God Hermes.

He was

to the priests of the sacred science, that is

to say, it was this special Eay of the Spiritual Sun

which illumined their studies. Not, however, that all
were equally illumined, for there were many grades in
the mysteries, many steps up the holy ascent to union
Herodotus, Homerus, Lycurgus, Melampus, Musseus, (Enopides
Chios, Orpheus, Pausanias, Pherecydes, Polybius, Simmias,

of

Solon, Sphserus, Strabo, Telecles, Thales, Theodoras,

Xenophanes

have quoted this note on purpose to

show the overpowering weight of evidence which some modern
theorists have to face, in order to maintain their thesis that the
philosophy of Greece was solely a native product. The universal
testimony of the Greeks themselves is that all their greatest
of Colophon, Zamolxis.

philosophers,

geometricians,

mathematicians,

historians,

geo-

graphers, and especially their theosophists, were pupils of the

Egyptian Wisdom the modern theory of the unaided evolution

of philosophy on the soil of Greece, which is so universally
accepted, is, to my mind, entirely erroneous.
The "form" or
" manner" of "philosophizing" was of course solely due to Greek
genius, but the "matter" of it was of hoary antiquity.
Of.
;

Plutarch,
1

That

of race.

Be

Is. et Os., x.

is to say,

Op. dt.,

i.

presumably, teachers of
1.

all

without distinction

288

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

Now the Kays of the Spiritual Sun are

One Light," polarised " variously by the " spheres"
of which we have heard so much in the Trismegistic
treatises.
These Eays come forth from the Logos, and

with Deity.
really

each illuminates a certain division of the whole hierarchy of beings from the Logos to man, and characterises
further the lower kingdoms, animals and plants, and

Hence, for instance, among animals, we get

minerals.

the
to

ibis,

the ape and the dog as being especially sacred

Thoth or Hermes.

Those of the Hermaic Nature

Among men

generally, also, there are certain

characteristics are of a "

Hermaic

"

nature

whose

the more

evolved of these are adapted to certain lines of study

and research, while again among those few

who

of

of sacred things, that is to say,

among

the initiated

students or priests, the direct influence of this

or Person begins to be consciously

Jamblichus says, according

still

these

are beginning to be really conscious of the science

many

Now

felt,

Eay

by each, as

to his ability, for there are

grades.

the peculiar unanimity that prevailed in these

strictly hierarchical schools of initiation,

and the grand

doctrine of identification that ran throughout the whole

economy

whereby

the pupil became identified with

when he

received his next grade of initiation,

the master

and whereby his master was to him the living symbol

of all that was above that master, that is to say, was
Hermes for him, in that he was the messenger to him
of the Word, and was the channel whereby the divine
inspiration

came

to

him

rendered

the ascription to

1
It is from this region of ideas that the terms "mercurial
temperament," and so forth, have reached modern times over the

bridge of astrological tradition.

289

JAMBLICHUS
Hermes

of all the sacred scriptures,

such as the sermons

very natural proceeding.

of initiation, a

It

was not

the case of a modern novel-writer taking out a copyright for his

own

precious productions, but simply of

the recorder, scribe or copyist of the sacred science

handing on the

tradition.

As

long as this was confined

to the disciplined schools of the sacred science it

was

without danger, but when. irresponsible people began

copy a method, to whose discipline they refused to

to

submit, for purposes of edification, and so appended the

names

of great teachers to their

paved the way for that chaos

own

lucubrations, they

of confusion in

which we

are at present stumbling.

The Books of Hermes

Towards the end

of his treatise Jamblichus, in treating

innumerable hierarchies of being

and their sub-hierarchies, says that these are so multiplex that they had to be treated by the ancient priests
from various aspects, and even among those who were
of the question of the

"wise in great things" in his own time the teaching

was not one and the same.
"

The main states of being were completely set forth

by Hermes (in the twenty thousand books, as Seleucus x
writes, or in the thirty-six thousand five hundred and
twenty-five as Manetho relates), while the sub-states
are interpreted in many other writings by the ancients,
some of them sub-dividing 2 some of the sub-states and
others others."

At
1

first

sight

Porphyry (De

it

would seem that we are not

55) mentions a Seleucus

to sup-

whom

he
Suidas says that Seleucus of Alexandria
wrote a treatise On the Gods, in 100 books or chapters.
calls

Abs.,

a "theologist"

ii.

c.

Reading 5ia\aj8(W$ instead of

Ibid. , viii 1.

VOL.

III.

diafidAAovTs.

19

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

290
pose that

it

took 20,000 volumes to set forth the main

Jamblichus would seem

outlines of the cosmic system.

to

mean

that in the library or libraries of the books

treating of the sacred science, the general

scheme

of

the cosmos was set forth, and that the details were
filled in

very variously by

many

to the small portion of the

writers, each according

whole he had studied or

number of books again we

should not be dismayed, when we reflect that a book
did not mean a large roll or volume but a division or
chapter of such a roll. Thus we read of a single man
As

speculated on.

composing no

less

to the

than 6000

"

books

"

But on further reflection this view does not seem

satisfactory.
The ghost of the very precise number
36,525, which Jamblichus substitutes from Manetho
vague total 20,000 of Seleucus, refuses
by such a weak-kneed process.

for the
laid

We

see

once that 365*25 days

at

to

a very

is

close

We

approximation to the length of the solar year.

know

that 36,525 years was

further

Sothiac cycles (1461

x 25 = 36,525)/

sum

the

be

of

25

that most sacred

time-period of the Egyptian secret astronomy, which

was assigned
Great Year.

mean

does

of the

to the revolution

Now

that

of

supposing after

Hermes

cosmos in 36,525

the zodiac or the

all

"

books" or "chapters"; and

supposing further that these

" chapters "

written on papyrus, but in the heavens

still

further that these

many

that Jamblichus

actually did write the scheme

were not
and supposing

"chapters" were simply so

great aspects of the real sun, just as the 365*25

days were but aspects of the physical sun

in such case

the above favourite passage, which every previous writer

has referred to actual books superscribed with the

1

See Georgius Syncellus, Ghron.,

Eusebius, Chron.,

vi.

i.

97,

ed.

Dindorf.

Also

JAMBLICHUS

291

name

of Hermes, and has dragged into every treatise

on the Hermetic writings, will in future have to be
removed from the list, and one of the functions of the

real

Hermes, the Initiator and Recorder, will become

apparent to those

who

are " wise in greater things."

The Monad from the One

In the next chapter, after first speaking of the God
all, Jamblichus refers to the Logos, the God of
our system, whom he calls " God of gods, the Monad
over

from the One, prior to being and the source

And then continues

of being."

"For from

Him

being; wherefore

He

is

is

cometh the essence

He

of being

called Father of being.

and
For

prior to being, the source of spiritual existences

is He called Source of spiritual things.

These latter are the most ancient sources of all things,

wherefore also

and Hermes places them before the ^ethereal and empyrean and celestial gods, bequeathing to us a hundred
books on the history of the empyrean, and a like number on that of the aethereal, but a thousand of them
concerning the celestial."
I

am

inclined to think

that there

the numbers of these books, and that

10 assigned to the

is

a mistake in

we should have

100 to the second, and

In any case we see that all are
multiples of the perfect number 10 and that thus my
theory is still supported by the further information
that Jamblichus gives us.

1000 to the

first class,

third.

The Tradition of the Trismegistic Literature

We
with

next come to a passage which deals directly

our

Trismegistic literature.
Jamblichus tells
Porphyry that with the explanations he has already
1

Op.

cit., viii. 2.

292

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

way

given him, he will be able to find his

in the

Hermetic writings which have come into his hands.

"For the books in circulation bearing the name of
Hermes contain Hermaic doctrines, although they often
use the language of the philosophers, seeing that they

were translated from the Egyptian by men well

in philosophy."

skilled

The information given by Jamblichus

they were translations, but instead of a

precise;

is

literal

render-

ing, the translators used the usual phraseology of the

Greek philosophical

writers.

Jamblichus then goes on to say that physical

as-

tronomy and physical research generally were but a

very small part of the Hermaic science, by no means
the most important.
For " the Egyptians deny that physics are everything
on the contrary they distinguish both the life of the
soul and the life of the mind from nature, 2 not only in
the case of the cosmos but also in man. They first
posit Mind and Eeason {Logos) as having a being
peculiar to themselves, and then they tell us that the
world of becoming [or generation] is created. As Forefather of all beings in generation they place the Creator,

and are acquainted with the Life-giving Power which

prior to the celestial spaces and permeates them.
Above the universe they place Pure Mind this for the
universe as a whole is one and undivided, but it is

is

variously manifested in the several spheres. 3

And

they

do not speculate about these things with the unassisted

reason, but they announce that by the divine art of
their

priestly science

they reach higher and more

Ibid., viii. 4.

That

Lit. distributed to all the spheres as different.

8i& tt}s kpartKvs Oeovpylasy

priests.

is,

the

life of

the body.

lit.

by the theurgy known

to the

293

JAMBLICHXJS

universal states [of consciousness] above the [Seven

Spheres

God the

Destiny, ascending to

of]

Creator, 1

and that too without using any material means, or any

other [material] assistance than the observation of a
suitable opportunity.
" It

was Hermes who

first

And

taught this Path. 2

Bitys, the prophet, translated [his teachings concerning

it] for

temple

King Ammon,3 discovering them

4

in the

inner

an inscription in the sacred characters at

in

[From these writings it was that Bitys]

handed on the tradition of the Name of God, as That
"
which pervadeth the whole universe.' 5
Sais in Egypt.

'

"

As

to the

Good

all

Egyptians] regard It in

Itself [the

Divine as the God that transcends

Its relation to the

thought, and in Its relation to

man

as the at-one-

ment with Him a doctrine which Bitys translated

from the Hermaic Books." 6
From these two passages we learn that the ancient
doctrine of Hermes concerning the Path, which is the
keynote

our Trismegistic

of

tracts,

was

to

be found

either in inscriptions in the sacred script in the secret

of the temples, into which no uninitiated
person was ever permitted to enter, or in " books," also

chambers

in the sacred script

that these had never been trans-

King Ammon. 7 But what are

by translated? Into Greek? Not
but more probably interpreted from the

lated until the reign of

we

to understand

necessarily,
1

The Mind in

its

creative aspect.

Way up to

Sc.

See Commentary on G.

Op.

Identified

This

cit., viii.

God.
II. (xvi.).

5.

by some writers with one

Or

secret shrine.

6 Ibid.,

x. 7.

of the last kings of the

who reigned somewhere about 570

See Thomas Taylor, Iamblichus on the Mysteries, p. 306 n.
(2nd ed., London, 1895). But as there is no objective evidence
by which this identification can be controlled, we simply record it.

Saitic dynasty (the xxvith),

B.C.

294

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

hieroglyphic symbols into the Egyptian vernacular and

written in the demotic

(SiepjULqveueiv) clearly

The

character.

bears this sense

term

whereas

if

used
trans-

from Egyptian into Greek had been intended,

the same word
(juLTaypd<f)eiv) employed which Jamblichus uses when
lation

we should presumably have had

speaking of the Hermetic books that had been read

by Porphyry.
Eeitzenstein (p. 108), however, has
apparently no doubt that the writings of Bitys were
in Greek, and that these writings lay before Jamblichus
and were the only source of his information. But I
cannot be certain that this is the meaning of the Greek.
We have rather, according to my view, probably two
strata of " translation "
from hieroglyphic into demotic,
from demotic into Greek.
As to Bitys, we know

nothing more definite than Jamblichus

he was the

first to

first to

Perhaps

translate from the sacred hieroglyphs

into the vulgar tongue and script

the

tells us.

and by that we mean

break the ancient rule and write down in

the vulgar characters those holy sermons and treatises

which previously had never before been inscribed in
any but the most sacred characters.
We are not,

however, to suppose that Bitys was the only one to do

this.

Now

in our Trismegistic literature

addressed to a King

Ammon.

we have

a deposit

Is it then possible that

whoever he was, was the initiator of a change

of policy in the immemorial practice of the priests ?
It may be so, but at present we have not sufficient

this King,

data to decide the point.

Bitys

A further scrap of information concerning Bitys, however,

may

be gleaned from Zosimus (

8),

when, speak-

ing of the Logos, the Son of God, pouring His Light

JAMBLICHUS
into the soul and starting

the Blessed Eegion where

it

295

on its Eeturn Above, to

was before it had become

it

corporeal (as described in the Trismegistic

entitled " Concerning the Inner
"

And

there shall

it

Door ")

tractate,

he writes

see the Picture (irivag) that both

Bitos hath described, and thrice-greatest Plato, and ten-

thousand-times-great Hermes,
the

into

it

Man." 1
The identity
able. 2

sacred

first

of Bitys

and Bitos

Thoythos translated

Thoth

is

the

First

thus unquestion-

is

Eeitzenstein, however, asserts

these name-forms

that neither of

Egyptian, and therefore approves

Bitys with "Pitys

the identification of our

of

for

tongue,

the

Thessalian " of the Papyri, 3 as Dieterich has suggested.

The headings

fragments

of the

in the Papyri run

"

The

Way

of the writings of Pitys

[or

Method]

Pitys the

From

King"

"

of

Of Pitys the Thessalian."

this Eeitzenstein (n. 2) concludes that already

in the second and

included

What

of Pitys "

"The Way

"Pitys to King Ostanes Greeting";

among the

third

centuries

a.d.)

(?

Pitys

is

prophetical theologi and Magians.

the precise date of these Papyri

may

be

it is

not

easy to determine, but, whether or not they belong to

the second and third centuries,

it is

evident that Pitys

was regarded as ancient and a contemporary

Magian Sage Ostanes.

of the

King, 4 referring to a passage of the Elder Pliny (Nat.

Hist, xxx.

4),

which remarks on the similarity

of the

See notes appended to the extract from Zosimus.

As has already been supposed by Hoffmann and Riess

Pauly-Wissowa's BealencyHopadie,
3

i.

1347.

in

R. 108.

Dieterich, Jahr. f. Phil., Suppl., xvi. 753

Wessely, Denk-

K. K. Ahad. (1888), pp. 92, 95, 98.

4 King
(C. W.), The Gnostics and their Remains, 2nd ed.
(London, 1887), p. 421, who, however, does not document his

schr. d.

statement.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

296

Magian Gnosis with the Druidical Gnosis of Gaul and

Britain, says " Pliny by his Magica understands the
rites instituted by Zoroaster, and first promulgated by
Os thanes to the outer world, this Osthanes having been
'

'

military chaplain

'

to

Xerxes during his expedition to

Greece."

This date,

if

we can

rely

upon

Conquest

the Persian

to

it,

would take us back

Egypt, but what has a

of

Thessalian Pitys to do with that

Curiously enough also Pliny in his xxviiith Book

makes use

the

of

writings

of

a certain

Bithus of

Dyrrachium, a city on the coast of Illyricum in the

Ionic Gulf, known in Grecian history as Epidamnus.
All of this
clusions

may

puzzling enough; but whatever con-

is

be drawn from the evidence, the clearest

indication is that Bitys

was

ancient,

and therefore that

whatever translating or rather "interpreting" there

may have

been,

demotic, and

was probably from hieroglyphic into

the latter was subsequently further
it

" interpreted " into

Greek.

OSTANES-ASCLBPIUS

But

is

Ostanes the Magian Sage of tradition, or

we adopt

the brilliant

conclusion

of

may

Maspero, and

equate Ostanes with Asclepius, and so place him in the

same
"

circle

Asclepius "

with Bitys, or rather see in Bitys an

?

At any rate the following interesting paragraph of

Granger 1 deserves our closest attention in this
connection, when he writes:
" Maspero, following Goodwin, has shown that Ostanes
the

is
1

name

of

Granger (F.), "

a deity

who

The Poemander

belongs to the cycle of

of

The Journal of Theological Studies,

(London), p. 398.

Hermes
vol.

v.,

Trismegistus," in
no.

19,

ap.

1904

297

JAMBLICHUS
Thoth. 1

His name, Ysdnw, was derived by

Egyptians themselves from a verb meaning 'to
tinguish,'

and he was a patron

As time went

tion.

on,

the
dis-

of intellectual percep-

he gained

importance.

in

Under the Ptolemies he was often represented upon

the Temple walls (I.e.). In Pliny he appears as an
early writer upon medicine. 2 Some of the prescriptions
quoted as from him are quite in the Egyptian style. 3
Philo Byblius, on whom, to be sure, not much reliance
can be placed,4 mentions a book
teuch. 6

Ostanes

of

collection as the six medical books

last place in Clement's

from his

list of

directly.

If

list.

authorities,

we note

Oda-

which occupy the

Now

the

with some such

It is tempting to identify this

Pliny, as

appears

does not quote

Ostanes

that Democritus

is

mentioned by

Pliny in the same context, and that Ostanes

is

the

legendary teacher of Democritus upon his journey to

Egypt, we shall consider

it

at least probable that Pliny

depends upon Democritus for his mention of Ostanes.

The Philosopher, whose visit to Egypt may be regarded

as a historical fact, would in that case be dealing with
a medical collection which passes under the
Asclepius,

Ostanes.

who appears

in

name

of

the Pcemander,

Greek equivalent of Ostanes. Thus the

Hermes and Asclepius is analogous to the
the Egyptian deities, Thoth and Ysdnw."

will be the

collocation of

kinship of

From the Hermaic Writings

That these Bitys-books contained the same doctrines
is evident from the whole

as our Trismegistic writings

1

Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., xx. 142.

Nat.

Hist., xxviii. 6.

P. 8. B. A.,

He, however, was very well placed

ledge on such a point. [G. R. S. M.]

ibid.,

256, 261.

have accurate know-

to

Eus.,

Pmp.

Ev.,

x. 52.

Strom., VI. iv. 37.

298

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
Jamblichus throughout bases

treatise of Jamblichus.

himself upon the doctrines of Hermes, 1 and

suggests that he does not
lations only, as

owe

clearly

his information to trans-

was the case with Porphyry, but to

but whether to the demotic

records in Egyptian;

Bitys-school or to

the heiroglyphic

records themselves he does not say.

That these doc-

treatises

of

the

were identical with the teachings in our Trismeno proof to any one who has
read our treatises and the exposition of Jamblichus;
trines

gistic literature requires

for the benefit, however, of those

Jamblichus, 2

we append

who have not

a passage to

show the

read

striking

Treating of the question of free-

similarity of ideas.

and necessity raised by Porphyry, and replying to

the objection that the Egyptians taught an astrological
fatalism, Jamblichus writes
" We must explain to you how the question stands
by some further conceptions drawn from the Hermaic
will

Man has two souls, as these writings say.

The one is from the Eirst Mind, and partakes also of
the Power of the Creator, 3 while the other, the soul

writings.

under constraint, comes from the revolution of the

celestial [Spheres]

that

is

period.

into the latter the former, the soul

the Seer of God, insinuates

This then being

us from the worlds

so,

itself

at

a later

the soul that descends into

keeps time with the circuits of

these worlds, while the soul from the Mind, existing in

us in a spiritual fashion,
1

is

free

from the whirl

of

Book VIII., which is entirely devoted to an exHermaic doctrine, and ought perhaps to be here trans-

Especially in

position of

however, preferred to select the passages

by Jamblichus as Hermaic.
2
Who must be read in the original and not in the inelegant
and puzzling version of Taylor, the only English translation.
3 The Second Mind according
to " The Shepherd."

lated in full.

I have,

definitely characterized

The Seven Spheres of the Harmony.

The Seven Spheres.

299

JAMBLICHUS

Generation; by this the bonds of Destiny are burst

asunder ; by this the Path up to the spiritual Gods is
brought to birth by such a life as this is that Great
;

Art Divine, which leads us up

Spheres

Genesis,

of

brought to

to

That beyond the

its

consummation." 2

The Cosmic Spheres

With regard

to the nature of

these Spheres,

physical planets, as

may

the

be seen from the following

De Mysteriis
With regard to partial existences,

passages of his
"

not

they are

blichus shows very clearly that

Jam-

then, I

the ease of the soul in partial manifestation,3

mean in
we must

admit something of the kind we have above. For just

such a life as the [human] soul emanated before it
entered into a human body, and just such a type as it
made ready for itself, just such a body, to use as an
instrument, does

it

have attached to

it,

and

just such a

corresponding nature accompanies [this body] and re-

more perfect

ceives the

life

the soul pours into

it.

But

with regard to superior existences and those that surround the Source of All as perfect existences, the
inferior are set within the superior, bodies in bodiless

existences,

things

made

in

their

makers;

and

the

former are kept in position by the latter enclosing

them in
" The

a sphere.

revolutions of the heavenly Bodies* therefore,

being from the

first set

in the celestial revolutions of

the aethereal Soul, 5 for ever continue in this relationship;

while the Souls of the [invisible] Worlds, 6 ex-

tending

to

their

[common] Mind,
2

are

completely

irpbs

an individual soul and not as the world-soul.

6
Physical planets.
Of all of our visible system
That is to say, the seven spheres.

rb hyhvqrov.

That

is,

Op.

cit., viii. 6.

as

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

300

surrounded by
birth in

existence."

And

also contained in superior states of

is

again in another passage Jamblichus writes

We

rest]

and from the beginning have their

in like manner, both partially

it,

And Mind

it.

and as a whole,

"

say that [the Spiritual Sun and Moon, and the

are so

from being contained within their

far

Bodies, that on the contrary,

it

is

they who contain

these Bodies of theirs within the Spheres of their

vitality

and energy.

And

own

so far are they from tending

towards their Bodies, that the tendency of these very

Bodies

is

towards their Divine Cause.

Moreover, their

Bodies do not impede the perfection of their Spiritual

and Incorporeal Nature or disturb

in

it."

it

by being situated

To this we may add what Proclus

Commentary on the Timceus of Plato

writes in

his

" Each of the [Seven] Planetary Spheres is a complete

World containing a number of divine offspring, which

are invisible to us, and over all of these Spheres the

we see is the Euler. Now Fixed Stars differ

from those 4 in the Planetary Spheres in that the former
have but one Monad, namely, their system as a whole 5
while the latter, namely the invisible globes in each of
the Planetary Spheres, which globes have an orbit of
Star 3

their

own determined by

the

respective Spheres, have a double

revolution

Monad

their

of

namely, their

system as a whole,6 and that dominant characteristic

which has been evolved by selection in the several

spheres of the system. For since globes are secondary
to

Fixed Stars they require a double order

1

Op.

That
That

tit., i. 8.

is,

visible planet.

is,

perhaps, the invisible globes.

Lit. their wholeness.

In our

case the

whole solar system.

of governIbid.,

i.

17.

JAMBLICHUS
ment,

first

subordination to their system as a whole,

and then subordination

And

301

that in each of these spheres there

the same level

extremes. 4

same

For

with each, you

if

may

the Fixed Sphere

level as itself,

spheres. 1

respective

to their

a host

is

on

from the

infer

has a host on the

and Earth has a host

earthy

of

animals, 6 just as the former a host of heavenly animals, 7

necessary that every whole 8 should have a

it is

of animals on the same level with

because

of

itself

levels,

however, are outside the range

our senses, the extremes only being

through the transcendent brilliance of

other through
It

is

chains

its

to
" of

we

the one

nature, the

its

are here dealing with

Theosophical students

as

what are

the "planetary

our system, and that therefore these Spheres

are not the physical planets

visible,

kinship with ourselves." 9

evident that

known

it is

the latter fact that they are called wholes.

The intermediate
of

number

indeed

Or, as one

the visible planets are

would say in modern Theosophical terms,

to their

planetary chains.
2

Hierarchy.

That is to say, we may infer from the fixed stars

from the globes which we can see (i.e. the visible
4

manner of those we cannot see.

5 The sphere of fixed stars or
6

That

is

a-va-roixov-

(or suns)

and

planets), the

suns.

to say, all the visible globes (vulgo planets) of our

system as a whole. An "animal" means a "living thing"; so

that here " earthy animals " mean the living vehicles of the
heavenly beings which we so erroneously call " heavenly bodies."
7
That is to say, suns or solar systems.
8
9

Here whole means plane.

That is to say, the brilliant

light of the suns in space,

and the

reflected light of the physical globes of the planetary spheres of

our system. See Proclus, Commentarius in Platonis Timceum, Bk.

The
iv., p. 279 d, E, p. 676, ed. Schneider (Vratislaviae, 1847).
passage is very difficult to translate because of its technical nature.
Taylor, in his translation (London, 1820, ii. 281, 282), misses
nearly every point.

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

302

but a very small portion of the globes of these chains,

of some of which there are no globes at all visible.
The ascription therefore of the " influence " of these
Spheres to the sun, moon, and five of the visible planets
is

"

at

best

symbolism

a
."

makeshift, a

" correspondence/'

or

III.

JULIAN THE EMPEROR

Text: ap. Cyril, Contra Julianum, v. 176; Migne, col.

770 a.
See also Neumann (C. I.), Juliani Imperatoris
Librorum contra Gliristianos quae supersunt (Leipzig, 1880),
2
p. 193.

The Disciples of Wisdom

That God, however, has not cared for the Hebrews
His love for all nations He

only, [but rather] that in

on them \sc. the Hebrews] nothing

worth very serious attention, whereas He has given
us far greater and superior gifts, consider from what

hath bestowed

The Egyptians, counting up of their own

names of not a few sages, can also say they
have had many who have followed in the steps 3 of
Hermes. I mean of the Third Hermes who used to
come down 4 [to them] in Egypt. The Chaldseans [also
can tell of] the [disciples] of Oannes and of Belus;
will follow.

race the

Julian the Emperor reigned 360-363 a.d.

It

was during

the last year of his reign that he wrote Contra Christianos.

2

Also Taylor (Thomas), The Arguments of

the

Emperor Julian

against the Christians (London, 1809), p. 36.

" from the succession "

Lit.

im<f>oiT'f}(rai'ros i

of the "

" to come

(tiiatioxrjs).

habitually to "

coming upon one," or inspiration

303

of a

iirKpolrria-is is

God.

used

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

304

and the Greeks

Wisdom] from

of tens

of

Cheiron. 1

thousands [who have the

For

it is

from him that they

derived their initiation into the mysteries of nature,

and their knowledge

[in

of divine things

so that indeed

comparison] the Hebrews seem only to give them-

selves airs about their

own

[attainments].

Here we learn from Julian that the Third Hermes,

Hermes presumably of our Sermons, was known,
by those initiated into the Gnosis, to be no physical
historical Teacher, but a Teaching Power or Person,
the

who taught from within

1

Partially quoted

spiritually.

by Reitzenstein

(p. 175, n. 1).

IV.

FULGENTIUS THE MYTHO-

GRAPHER
An

intermediate of the parent copy of our Corpus in

every probability lay before Fulgentius.

him

(p. 26,

18 H

find

referring to the first sermon, though

enough,

barbarously

Thus we

phrase:

the

in

"Hermes

in

Opinandre Mbro" and quoting from the introductory

words; he also quotes

E.

G.

xii.

88,

(p.

3)

some words from

them to Plato,

stupidly referring

(xiii.),

adding in Greek:

FKAGMENT
The human mind

XXVIII.

god

is

if it

be good,

God

[then] doth shower His benefits [upon us].

And twice (p. 85, 21, and p. 74, 11) Fulgentius refers
in all probability to the lost ending of " The Definitions
Asclepius," in the latter passage telling us, "as

of

Hermes Trismegistus
of music,

that
1

The

namely

is,

"

says," that there

were three kinds

adomeno^psallomenon, aulumenon"

and

singing, harping,

piping.

date of this Afro-Latin writer cannot be later than the

sixth century.
2

Helm

(R.),

Fdbii Planciadis Fulgentii V. G. Opera (Leipzig,

1898).

VOL.

III.

305

20

IV

Conclusion

AN ATTEMPT AT CLASSIFYING
THE EXTANT LITERATURE
Before we proceed

append our concluding remarks,

down some attempt at classifying our extant sermons and fragments. Unfortunately,
however, this cannot be done in any scientific manner,

it

to

will be as well to set

owing

were

to the fact that the literature, even

before us, would be found to be too chaotic.

it

fully

Indeed,

even with our fragmentary information concerning

we

are acquainted with

Corpora

those

less

own

it,

than four unrelated

that lay before Lactantius, Cyril,

Stobseus, and our

tradition.

no

and

imperfect Corpus of Byzantine

There must also have been other Corpora

or collections, as, for instance, the books that Jamblichus

used, not to mention the ancient body of

MSS. which

lay before Petosiris and Nechepso.

Of Hermes
First

and foremost, standing in a

class

by

itself,

must

be placed
C.

This

is

H.

i" The Pcemandres."

the fundamental Gospel of the School, the

Hermes- or Master-grade.
based upon it in general type, though not

Self-instruction of the

With
in form,

it,

as

must be taken
C.

H.

xi. (xii.).

"

Mind unto Hermes."

309

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

310
This

but

later date,

is of

comparatively early, for

which must be

early,

the doctrines laid

it

and

down

still

must have been

it

introduces the iEon-doctrine,

is

in C.

the esoteric instruction on

H.

The Cup "

the most important

iv. (v.)

"

which was perhaps regarded as

sermon after " The Pcemandres."
Of the lost early literature we can get no clear
indication; it may, however, be mentioned that the
"rSayings of Agathodaimon " referred to in the Tat
Sermon, C. H. xii. (xiii), probably belonged to the most
archaic deposit of the Trismegistic literature, and may be
compared with the " Sayings of Ammon " mentioned by
These belonged, presumably, originally

Justin Martyr.

solely to the Hermes-grade.

With

the same type as the conclusion of the " Poem-

andres " in

present form, that

its

is

to

say with a

later development, we must classify

(iv.). "The Sacred

C.

H.

iii.

C.

H.

vii. (viii.). "

Here also,
must place

Sermon "; and

Whither stumble ye."

for lack of a

more

satisfactory heading,

we

An Apophthegm Hermes/'
A Hymn the Gods."
Ex. xxiv.
From The Inner Door."
Frag.
For Our Mind
Frag,

Ex.

xxii.

of

"

of

"

"

xxvi.

xxvii.

The
of

last being

saith."

"

probably from one of the oldest deposits

the literature.

The next most convenient heading

is

of

for classification

that under which we can place the greatest number

pieces, namely

To Tat

We

know

that the Tat-instruction was divided into

CONCLUSION
The General Sermons,"

(a)

"The Key"

said

is

of

which

be the

to

311
H.

C.

epitome

x.

(xi.)

or

rather

summation; and (b) "The Expository Sermons/' of

which C. H. xiii. (xiv.) " The Secret Sermon on the
Mountain " was the consummation.
It is, of course, not certain whether the Tat Sermons
were divided simply into these two classes, for though

we

are certain in a

number

of instances that

we

are

dealing with an extract from an Expository Sermon,

we
when the heading is only " From the
Sermon," or " Sermons to Tat," how to classify it. We
do not know how many General Sermons there may

are often in doubt

have been, or whether they were divided into Books as

were the Expository Sermons and the " To Asclepius,"

For convenience of
though perthe sermons and fragments

at anyrate in the Corpus of Cyril.

however, we

classification,

fectly arbitrarily, that all

may

consider,

which cannot

may

fall under the heading of "Expository"

be treated as " General."

The General Sermons

C.

H.

C.

H.

(ii.). "The
viii.

General Sermon."

(ix.). "That

No One

of

Existing

Things do Perish."
Ex.

x.

"

Concerning the Eule

Ex. xi. "Of Justice."

of Providence."

Ex. xx." The Power of Choice."

Fragg.
C.
1

The

H.

vi.

x.

and

vii.

(xi.)."The Key."

text has bodily fallen out of our

Corpus with one

of the

quires.
2

C.

This seems to be a complete sermon, and to be presupposed in

xii. (xiii.) ; as also Ex. xi.

H.

3 Exx. x.-xiii. probably go here as being part of the " Sermons

on Fate to Tat" but they are assigned otherwise by Stobaeus.
;

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

312
This last

stated to be the epitome or

is

"The General Sermons."

of

Asclepius and Tat, and

with

"

It

is

summation

addressed

to

both

be taken in connection

is to

The Perfect Sermon."

The Expository Sermons

Of these there were in the Corpus

Books to

Cyril

of

three

the First of which are assigned

Fragg. xx.

Ex.

ii.

To be assigned

(?),

xxii, xxiii., xxiv.

and Fragg.
to

iii., xi., xii.,

xv. 1

"The Expository Sermons"

in

general without any clearer indications

Exx.
Ex.

iii.

iv.

Exx.

(?). "Of Truth." 2

v., vi., vii., viii., ix.

Ex. i. "Of Piety and True Philosophy."

From

the Corpus Hermeticum

assign the following to this class

C. H.
C.
C.

H.
H.

v.

(vi.). "

vii.

conjecturally

(v.). "The Cup."

iv.

we may

Though Manifest."
About the Common Mind." 7

(viii.)."

These all seem to go together from the same Sermon or Book,

which in the case of Frag. xv. is definitely assigned by Cyril to
1

the "First of the Expository Sermons." The beginning of the

Sermon is given in Lact. xxiv., and a reference in Lact. xiii.

of

Seems

By comparison with Ex.

Ex.

them

to be a complete tractate.

ix. is

all,"

vii.

and chiefest
end of one of

characterised as " the most authoritative

and therefore came, presumably,

at the

the Books of these Sermons.

5
complete tractate, containing heads or summaries of
previous sermons, and probably one towards the end of this

collection.
6
7

The esoteric counterpart of which is C. H. xi. (xii.).

These three sermons are too advanced to be classed among

CONCLUSION
Finally,

course

"Expository

these

of

consummated by what we may

is

call "

The

Tat":

Initiation of

H.

C.

whole

the

Sermons "

313

(xiv.).

xiii.

The Secret Sermon on the

"

Mountain."

We

next

pass

on

what Cyril calls the "To

The Expository Sermons,

to

Asclepius," of which, as of "

there were in his Corpus at least Three Books.

To Asclepius
In our Corpus Hermeticum the following are assigned
to Asclepius

H.

C.

ii. (iii.).

of the

"

An

Nature

Introduction to the Gnosis

of All Things."

C.

H.

vi.

(vii.). "In

C.

H.

ix.

(x.). "

C.

H.

xiv.

From

God Alone

About

(xv.). u

Sense."

A Letter

"To Asclepius"

the

is

Good/'

to Asclepius."

in Cyril's collection

we

have:
Frag. xxv.

And
"The

definitely

(?).

from the Third

"

To Asclepius "

General Sermons," and in the case of the

last,

Tat

is

questioner and not a hearer as he indubitably was in the intro-

ductory instruction.
1
This is said to follow on " The Perfect Sermon," which was
not included in our Corpus among the selections of the Poeman-

drist apologist
2

This

instruction

"To

redacted

it.

by the

editor

already given

the doctrine
(xii.)

who

said

is

"Mind

to

very similar
unto Hermes.

to

is

Asclepius."

'

to

be

an expansion

Tat, in Asclepius'

It

of

absence,

an
and

that contained in C. H. xi.

also

stood in Cyril's

(viii.)

314

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES
Fragg. xvi.-xviii.

In this Third Book

Sermon
which

"

is

it is

was included in
the longest

we

probable that " The Perfect

Cyril's Corpus.

addressed to Asclepius alone, for

par

excellence "

This sermon,

was evidently

possess,

its

The Asclepius," and

originally

alternative title

my

Asclepius,

the introduction of the "holy three"-

and

Ammon is

out by

our

all

list

due to a later

editor, is

We may thus

the evidence.

is

conjecture that

Tat

amply borne
well conclude

with
"

The Perfect Sermon."

For the fragments

of the lost

Greek

original of this

important tractate, see Lactantius

Fragg.

This Sermon

is

v., viii., ix., x.

to be

taken in close connection with

"The Key" which sums up "The General Sermons"

to Tat.

To Ammon
Book or
To Ammon." These
be more appropriately

Stobseus ascribes eight of his extracts to a

Books

of his collection entitled "

excerpts, however,

would seem to
"Sermons to Tat."

under
As, however,
Johannes distinctly so describes them, we will append
classified

them

here.

Exx.

xii., xiii.

Exx. xiv.-xix." Of Soul,"

Exx.

i.-vi.

xvi.-xix. follow one another in the text of the

Excerpts by Stobseus

as Ex. xviii., however, refers to

"The General Sermons"

it

make

therefore would

us

The Expository Sermons" to Tat, or that the Ammon-grade

had already had communicated to them " The General
suppose that either we are here dealing with

"

Sermons."

The above are the four types

of Trismegistic

Sermons

CONCLUSION

we next turn

proper, and
of

315

to the writings of the Disciples

Hermes.

Of Asclepius
It

is

remarkable that Asclepius, the most learned of

the Three, writes his treatises and letters, not to philo-

sophers or priests, or students, nor yet to his younger

brother Tat

He

but

invariably to the

invariably writes to

King

"Ammon"; and

or to Kings.

the once exist-

ing literature of this class was a very rich one,

if

we

The
by
that remain, however, are
no means

can believe the writer or redactor

fragments

of C.

H.

(xvi.).

numerous, and include

H. (xvi.)." The Definitions of Asclepius." 1

iv.
Probably from the lost ending of above.
C. H. (xvii.). " Of Asclepius to the King." 2
which may, perhaps, be more
Ex. xxi. (?)
"
correctly headed " Of Asclepius to the King
"
instead of with Stobaeus Of Isis to Horus."
C.

Frag.

To neither Tat nor

when Tat

for

is

Ammon

are tractates assigned

perfected he becomes in his

Hermes, and so writes as Hermes, while

man

of action

and

affairs

who

Ammon

does not teach.

turn
the

is

May we

phenomena conclude that " Asclepius "

was the man who was skilled in theory and intellectual
grasp, but was not capable of direct illumination as
was Tat ?
The next class of literature falls under the heading

further from these

Of
Whether
we possess

Isis

or not the forms of this literature

are contemporaneous with

The end

A fragment only from

or later

which
than

is lost.

the end of the sermon

is

preserved.


316

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

the Tat and Asclepius Sermons,

we cannot

say; but

the

any case they are based on ancient types

Books of Isis to Horus." To this type we assign

in
"

Ex. xxi. " Of

Isis to

Horus."

Though, as we have suggested above, this is an error

of Johannes, and should be rather " Of Asclepius to the
King."
Ex.

xxiii.

From Aphrodite."

Where Aphrodite probably

Exx. xxv., xxvi.
Ex. xxvii.

From

"

The remaining
the

name

equates with

"The Virgin
the

of the

Sermon

Isis.

World."

of Isis to Horus."

class of literature is connected

of Osiris as the Disciple

the Thrice-greatest, and

may

with

Agathodaimon,

of

be headed as

From the Agathodaimon Literature

Our fragments

are all taken from Cyril's Corpus, and

are referred to by

him under the heading "To Asclepius/'

them under this

We

have, however, not included

heading in our tentative classification, because they are

plainly not addressed to Asclepius, but

belong to a

quite different form of literature, most probably throw-

ing back to an ancient type of the same nature as the

"

Books

To

of Isis."

this class are to be assigned

Fragg.

This

xiv., xix., xxi.

form may be

taken with the

"

xiii.,

Sayings of

"

perhaps more appropriately

Sayings of Agathodaimon " and the

Ammon "

as

Agathodaimon

both of which

pertain to the oldest types of the Trismegistic literature.

Finally, we add the appendix to our Corpus written
by a Pcemandrist rhetor and apologist
C.

H. (xviii.). " The Encomium

of Kings."

CONCLUSION

may

This

And
tion

be taken with the quotation from the editor

Corpus

of Cyril's

so

at the time

XV. Books.

of

we come

with the

end

to the

classify

it,

when
so

of

full conviction,

our tentative

classifica-

however, that as no one

the literature was extant in a

Corpora and collections

of

317

now

all sorts

of

we have only

that

number

attempted to

the flotsam and

jetsam of this once abundantly rich cargo before

inventory can be
value,

made

that

and we can at best

heaps of

disjecta

membra

us,

no

of the slightest scientific

is

offer the reader a

few sorted

of varying dates.

Of Judgments of Value

We

now approach

the conclusion of our task, but

with the feeling that the whole matter should be put

any attempt be made to set down

any judgments of value. We are as yet too much
involved in a maze of details to be able to extricate
ourselves into the clear space in which we can walk at
ease round the labyrinth and view it from a general
and detached point of view.
Nevertheless, we will endeavour to set down some
aside for years before

general impressions of our experiences in the labyrinth

of the

many

many windings we have had to traverse, and the

way out into which we have been

places with no

by following the paths of history and criticism out

which there has been time and again no egress, even

led
of

when holding

fast to the thread of light

woven out

of

the illuminating rays of the doctrines of the tradition.

It

is

indeed a difficult task to stand with the feet of

the mind set firm on the surface of objectivity, and

with the head and heart

of the subjective

superhuman task

of it in the heights

and depths

And yet this almost

Work set before every

and unmanifest.
is

scholar of the Gnosis

the Great

the man who would think

truly

318

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

and judge justly, viewing the matter from all standand appraising it from without and within,
from above and below, endeavouring to unite centre
and circumference in a blended intuitional sense that
transcends our divided senses and intellect.
The Trismegistic literature is scripture, and to its
understanding we must bring all and every faculty
that the best minds of to-day are bringing to bear upon
the special scripture which each one may believe to be
the most precious legacy from the Past to the Present.
Now the application of what is called "criticism"
to scripture is the wielding of a two-edged sword
this
sword is not only two-edged, but it is fiery.
If it is
rightly used, it will disperse the hosts of error and hew
a path into the Paradise of Truth but if it is wrongly
used, it will react on the daring soul that attempts to
grasp it, and he will find in it the flaming brand in the
hands of the Angel-Warden that keeps him from the
Gate of Heaven.
Criticism, which is regarded with such fear and
trembling by some, and is sneered at and despised by
others, is the sword that the Christ has brought on earth
There is now war in the members
in these latter days.
of the faithful, war within them, such war as they
cannot escape, if God has given them a mind with
which to reason. Every man of intelligence who loves
his own special scripture, is keenly aware of the war
within his members head against heart and heart
against head, form against substance and substance
This is keenly felt by those who love
against form.
their own special Bible; but how few can enter into

points,

the feelings of another

some other Bible?

other man's religion?

an absolutely

who

Who

loves with equal fervour

can be really

And by

this

lifeless indifference, in

fair

to

any

we do not mean
which the head

319

CONCLUSION
alone

type

is

concerned

who

but

for there are not a

few

men

of this

deal with the comparative science of religion

sympathy that knows that the other man's

and the
revelation of God's Wisdom.

a lively

religion is the highest thing on earth for him,

light-giving

The Sons of God

In treating
Gnosis

the "Keligion of the Mind," of the

of

Hermes,

of Thrice-greatest

to enter into it

entered into

have endeavoured

as I conceive the Disciples of that

it,

with love and reverence.

Way

would do

the same with any other of the Great Eeligions of

Humanity (and have done

so in some cases), if I desired

and predilections apart, I will
not say, to understand it for what mortal mind can
grasp the Divine Eevelation in any of its Great
Forms? but to share, however imperfectly, in its
illumination.
Now, this attitude of mind and love of
and
God
man is strongly deprecated by those who fear

fervently, all prejudices

to stand accused of lack of

ticular

form

of that

Great

own

par-

Faith which

God

loyalty to their

Form

of

The one object

other Great Forms of Faith is to

has given for their guidance.

enquiries into

that their

own small form

the
is

prove

"

ends, and the highest

and that the other countless forms are of

Enemy of their God.

the Father of

all

"

Great Form to which

of the

they give allegiance, is the end of

of all heights,

of their

all,

God, or rather God, for

has no enemies

brethren, and loves

refuse to believe

My

all

He

has

many

He

sons,

them equally even though they

Him.

There

is

but one Eeligion,

its

Great Forms are many, the forms of these Forms are

innumerable, as

many

as are the individual

hearts of men, and the

individual man.

many

minds and

hearts and minds of

320

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

And

here I would set forth

Form

my present

all-insufficient

known as Christianity, for there will doubtless be some who read these
volumes who will accuse me of I know not what attitude other than that of their own to that Faith.
notion of the Great

My

faith in the

Master

of .Religion

of

Christendom

I dare not limit it or qualify it

me

the

Mind

for that

of all master-hood,

is

unbounded

Master

is for

Poemandres Himself.

For how can any small mind of man dare to limit the
Illimitable, the Mystery of all mysteries, that enfolded
Jesus the Christ, and Gautama the Buddha, and
Zoroaster the Mage, and Lao-tze the Sage, and Orpheus
the Bard, and Pythagoras the Philosopher, and Hermes
the Gnostic, and all and every Master and Master of
masters ? Do I detract from the transcendency of Jesus
the Christ, when I mention His Brethren, all Sons of

God

and

apart, set over one against the other

I do not, for the

one Sonship

must be

Sons of God are not separate

of the Father,

left

those

to

they are

all

and these apparent differences

who think themselves

wise

enough to judge between them instructed enough to

know the within of the matter as well as the without,
which in no case has come down to us in any but the
most fragmentary and erroneous tradition. I do not
know I dare not judge those who are Judges of the
;

And

quick and dead.

who would
If,

nevertheless, I

by some,

so I leave this audacity to those

forget the logos of their Saviour

it is

standable.

am

still

"Judge not."

judged as a " calumniator

"

but natural injustice and quite under-

There

is,

however, no real Injustice in the

who would be

Justified and rise again

must balance mortal seeming justice and
injustice to reach the true equilibrium, and so be free
It
of mortal opinion, and stand in the Hall of Truth.
is to the bar of this Judgment Hall that all men in

universe, and he

with

Osiris,

321

CONCLUSION

the last resort appeal, whether they be born Christian

or

Mahommedan, Brahman

Zoroastrian or Pagan

manner

of faith that is

faith that includes

Christianity

is

or Jew, Buddhist or Taoist,

whether they be born to a
none of these, or to an ideal of

or

them

all.

World

the Faith of the Western

the Faith most suited to

He

in nature and in form.

it

abundance through
who gave that Faith, gave
many sources; and the greatest sign of His authority,
of His authentia was the throwing open of some part
in fullest

of

the age-long secret mystery-teaching to the

without distinction of age, sex,

nation, or of instruction.

many

class, caste, colour, or

The inner doors

Temple

of the

were thrown wide open to the Amme-ha-aretz ; but

the innermost door still remained closed, for it is a door
that is not man-made it opens into the within of
things, and not into some inner court of formal instrucThat door still remained naturally closed to the
tion.
unworthy and unknowing but no Scribe or Pharisee
of the established order of things could any longer keep

the key thereof in his selfish hands.

given to

all,

but given

The key was

mystically, for it

still

in the inner nature of each son of man, and

not in himself, searching into the depths

hidden

is

he seek

if

of

his

own

That key is the opener

and syzygy
complement
the
Gnosis,
of the Gate of the
womanof
the
husband
and spouse of Faith the virile

nature, he will never find

it.

side of the Christ-Keligion.

In the early days that Gnosis was given in greatest

Faith there was, Faith in mighty abundance,

fullness

but there was also Gnosis

and

it

was because

of this

Gnosis of not a few that the Faith of the many was

But over these mysterious days, and the
so intense.
inner in-working of

drawn

the

Mystery, a veil has been

to hide the holy operations from profane eyes

vol. in.

21

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

322

So that to-day, these

many

centuries after, the foolish

the Faith deny there was ever a Gnosis; just as

of

their

still

more

predecessors

foolish

persecuted

the

them down as AntiSatan.

The natural veil

Gnostics of Christ and howled

and First-born Sons of

was thus drawn over the too bright light of the Sacred
Marriage when Heaven had kissed the Earth once more.

christs

So great, then,
Master, so great
Gnosis.

If this

my

is

my

faith in the authentia of the

assurance of the wisdom of His

be thought "calumny" of His trans-

we are judged "calumniators" with

Knower of the Mystery, and so complimented

cendency, then

Hermes, a
immeasurably beyond our

deserts.

Concerning Dates

And now let us turn to the Eeligion of the Mind,

which is also the Eeligion of the Heart for is not
Thoth Lord of the heart of man ?
In the first place we have endeavoured faithfully to

investigate every statement or suggestion that can be

thought to be indicative

of

date,

and we have not

succeeded in any single instance in fixing a precise date

any sermon or fragment. What, however, we have

been able to do, is to clear the ground of many false
opinions, and to show the insecurity, if not the abEvery hypothesis
surdity, of any attempt at precision.

for

of precision of date,

when

that hypothesis has favoured a

any sermon, has broken down. Whenever

there has been a clearer indication, as, for instance, in
the case of the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Pcemandres
of Hermes, it has thrown the time-period backwards

late date for

and not forwards.

What

has been proved, and amply proved, however,

is

that our literature goes back in an unbroken tradition

of

type and form and content to the earliest Ptolemaic

CONCLUSION
The

times.

forms

earliest

but clear records

of its

of

323

this literature are lost,

nature remain.

Of the extant

literature there are specimens of varying date,

how they should be

what, however,

is

though
by no means clear;
that some of our documents

ordered

clear is

is

are at least contemporaneous with the earliest writings

of Christianity.

In

"

the

Prolegomena "

we have

established an
which Gnosis and
Mystery-teaching have been handed down through preChristian, Pagan and Jewish, and through Christian
hands. We have further shown that the Gnosis of our
Trismegistic documents is a simpler form than that of

unbroken

line

of

tradition

in

the great doctors of the Christianised Gnosis, Basilides

and Valentinus, who nourished in the first quarter of

the second century. The earlier of our sermons, therefore, represent one of the main streams, perhaps the
main stream, of the Unchristianised Gnosis. We have
further shown that, together with many other schools,
both our Pcemandrists and the writers of the New
Testament documents use a common theological or
theosophical nomenclature, and have a common body
of ideas.

What

is

clear

from

all

this

is

that there

is

no

plagiarism, no deliberate copying, no logoklopia of other

though there was the freest drawing on

The condition of affairs and the
a common fund.
nature of the problems involved are such, that any
men's

secrets,

theory of plagiarism at once becomes a two-edged sword

he who says that Trismegisticism copied from Christianity, can at once have his argument reversed into
the form that Christianity copied from Trismegisticism.

As

to date, then,

we

are dealing with a period

when

there was as yet no divorcement between Gnosis and

Faith even in Christianity

itself,

and therefore the

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

324

canons of judgment erected in later times by ecclesiastical self -limitation

cannot be made to apply.

The Blend of Tkaditions

The view

of

General Christianity, gradually narrowed

down by the Church Fathers

into

Mcene

dogmatic

Christianity, looked to one tradition only as the school-

master

the Faith

of

God-favoured Folk.

the

tradition

tongue and the Greek method

of

of

Israel as

the

was the fair Greek

thought that were used

Nevertheless

it

in evolving this special dispensation into a world-cult

for the

many.

The Trismegistic
limitation;

its

tradition laboured under

no such

sympathies were more catholic.

main source was

It

is

embraced
with whole-hearted affection the wisdom of Hellas and
the genius of Greece which were developed under
Divine Providence to teach the Western Nations the
At the same time
glory and beauty of the mind.
its sympathies were not divorced from the tradition of
the Hebrews, though it refused to set them apart from
the rest of humanity, and looked rather to the great
river of wisdom in the Books of the Chaldseans, Persians,
Medes, and Parthians, than to the single stream shut off
true that

in the

its

Books

writings

is

of Israel.

The

in Egypt, but

it

spirit of our Trismegistic

the same as that which inspired the Pagan and

Jewish and Christian Gnostic scribes of the Naassene

Document, all of whom believed that there was but one
Mystery which all the mystery-institutions of the
world attempted to adumbrate.
If,

then,

we were

to say for the sake of convenience

that our Trismegistic writings enshrine the

Egypt in Greek

tradition,

we should not

Wisdom

of

divorce that

Wisdom from the Wisdom of the Chaldaeans and the rest.

The Wisdom was one, the forms were many and both
;

325

CONCLUSION

Egypt and Chaldsea looked back to an Archaic Gnosis

the common mother of their most ancient

that was

forms

of

And

Mystery-teaching.

if

we say

this

Wisdom has come down

that this

us in Greek tradition,
Grsecising or

we

to

should ever remember that

philosophising has to do with the

form and not with the substance. For whence did

Thales and Pythagoras and Plato draw the inspiration
for their philosophy or love of wisdom; was it not
from Egypt? At anyrate so say the Greeks themselves

And

without a single dissentient voice.

can

we think that the Greeks, who were always so proud of

their own achievements and boasted their own genius
would have given the palm of wisdom to
Egypt had they not been compelled by overwhelming
evidence to do so ? But this does not mean that we
Hellas was
are to deprive Hellas of her just laurels.

so

loudly,

systematic

the mother of philosophy in the sense of

thinking and the development of the analytic reason

independent reand the piercing analysis of the intellect and

the beauty of clear thinking in excellent expression,
were her gifts to the "Western world. It was she

This

is

her great virtue and honour

search,

beyond the other nations that created

for herself

subtler vehicle of thought for the manifestation of the

powers

of

mental analysis.

That, however,

is

not

necessarily in itself wisdom, but the perfecting of an

instrument

whereby wisdom, if it be attained

may be the more clearly expressed

other means,
those

in

whom

the

analytic

are

faculties

by
for

being

developed.

Wisdom
cination

is

transcends this

mode

of

mind

for ratio-

not ecstasis, the practical intelligence

the contemplative mind.

contrasted with

Nor

is

mind, using

is

it

not
as

the other faculties and energies and

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

326

powers in man, the only or even the highest thing in

man. This Secret of the Sphinx Egypt had possessed
for millennia

so that her priests could say to Solon

"You Greeks

are all children"

for

the intellect in

Greece was young, though destined to grow into a

giant; whereas the hoary Gnosis of the heart of

was

and

prior to the seons,

will

continue

man

when

the

seons shall cease.

That Gnosis of Man still awaits decipherment in

Egypt it is hidden in her glyphs and symbols and holy
signs.
But that Gnosis will never yield its secret to
;

those

who

Language

persist in interpreting these

symbols

of the

Gods into their lower forms, forms

children and not for men. And indeed

of the

intended for

our Trismegistic sermons, if they should teach us nothing

else,

can at least assure us of

were

still

ear to

this, for their writers

mouth with the Living Voice of that

Our Poemandrists

once Great Church of Wisdom.

knew what

mystery-tradition inculcated

the

knew, for they had been within the holy

At anyrate
view

my

for

of the matter,

part

they

shrines.

I prefer to believe

their

than to listen to the contemptuous

patronage of modern conceit bred of complete ignor-

ance of the manifold natures and powers and energies

in man.

Of
Indeed the whole

of

Initiation

intended to lead a
to

the

portals

man up

of

the

theosophy

this

indeed of the theosophy of

all

of

Egypt, as

climes and times, was

the stairway of perf ectioning,

first

true natural

initiation,

whereby he becomes superman, or, as Hermes would

and in truth "man" and not a "procession
of Fate."
Beyond that stage are many others too sublime
and it is just because
for us in any way to understand

say, at last

CONCLUSION

327

we do not understand and

of their sublimity that

so

we

" interpret " things of the height into the lowest notions

and opinions of the most limited things of sense. For

beyond the superman stage comes the Christ, and then
but who shall speak of that which transcends even

perfected master-hood

And by

initiation, in this sense,

we do not mean

probationary forms of drama and of instruction, "of

things said and done/' but a natural thing and process, all

that which the Christ of Christendom has laboured to

inculcate with so much

wisdom even in the blurred record

To this initiation a man may
come without a physical guide or the help of any tradition
Nevertheless, he would indeed be
of formal ceremony.

down

that has come

foolish

to us.

who should say

that the greater mystery-institu-

tions which have been established by wise teachers and

the Providence of God, have been or are of no effect.

On

the contrary, the disciple of wisdom will study

every record of such institutions accessible to him, and

ponder on their marvellous multiplicity, and marvel at

the infinite modes devised to play the pedagogue, that

man may be brought unto his God. Nevertheless, if

he has not the love and wit to study such things, he
should not despair, for is he not already in the Outer

so

Court

Temple,

of the

if

he would but

lift

up

his eyes to

see the mysteries of the universe that surround

every side

We
how

all

long

him on

are babes in the

we
T

Womb

of the

Great Mother

continue as babes, as embryos, remains

for each of us to decide.

alone cannot bear

all

For in

this Birth the

the pains of labour;

Mother

we

too

and struggle and dare to breathe

within her holy Womb, so as to accustom our dead
lungs to expand, before the Great Birth can be accomplished, and we can at length walk forth into the Inner

must help and

strive

"

328

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

World

erect upon our feet and draw in at every pore

and in every atom its pure air without fear.
But
this Inner World is no thin shadow of the outer

world, as

it

may

appear to us in the dark night of our

present ignorance

it is

the Inner Cosmos, not the inner

Eapts and visions

earth.

may

let

us see some mysteries

of the inner earth,

less the

Nor

but not the mysteries

Divine Mysteries of Cosmos.

is

of Earth,

much

there any need to label these things with

now even the most experienced in

such vision can know but in part whereas then we shall
precise

terms, for

know

But
knowing this, who shall tell the Mystery, who can tell
the Mystery for is not the whole of Nature telling us
the Fullness, face to face, without a parable.

Mystery, now at every

moment with infinite voices

mouths, and yet we hear nothing ? For is
not the whole creation designed with this one purpose to
this

from
tell

infinite

every son of

man

that he

is of

Light and Life and

only happens to be out of them, as Hermes says

A
But

Last

Word

very possible that some who have done me

the honour of reading to the end, will say " This man
it is

is

a dreamer, an ecstatic

we have no

use for such in

the hard world of rigid facts that confront us in our

everyday

life

But indeed

have

little time for dreams and ecstasies

which my supposed critics would use
the words, as any one may see who can realise the
labour that has been expended on these volumes, ninetenths of which are filled with translations and commentaries, criticisms and notes, in which dreams and
ecstasies have no part, but only strenuous co-labour of
mind and soul and body. And that is just the carrying

in the sense in

out of what I hold to be the true doctrine of practical

329

CONCLUSION
mysticism, or
that
is

much

objection be taken by the reader to

if

ill-used word, of the

true that

Work

Great

It

of life.

almost impossible to talk of these

is

it

high or deep things except in language that in every

and in every word is liable to misFor even when we call them high things,

expression

construction.

they are not high in space or place, but rather in the

sense that they are of greater intensity than the shows

and appearances

of opinion that

superficialities of

our world of normal conditioning.

form the surfaces or

mind to
must work
proper dignity, nature, and

Spirit in itself is not superior to mind, or

soul,

body;

soul to

or

each

together according to their

energy,

in

and

all

equilibrium in the perfect man.

perfect

They are not descending degrees of some one thing, but

are mutually in some mysterious way all aspects of
one another.
For

we

should

regard

distinguished solely,

them

as

quantitatively

then we should be looking at

them from the point of view of divided body alone or

we regard them as qualitatively distinguished,
then we should be looking at them from the point of
;

should

view

them

separated soul alone;

of

as

regarding

we regard
we should be

or should

distinguished, then

logically

them from the standpoint

the formal

of

we should look at them

synthetically,
monadically and
we should be
reason solely

while

if

them from an abstract and not a

Nevertheless they are
in difference

and

and middle and

end

is

regarding

vital view-point.

each of other, the same

all

different in the same.

their

as wholes

Man, and

Their source

Man

alone can

reach unto the Gnosis of God.

And

therefore

we may conclude with

Hermes by the Mind

counsel given unto

fit

for

Men.

the

daring
doctrine

THRICE-GREATEST HERMES

330

thou dost not make thyself like unto God,

thou canst not know Him.
For like is knowable to
" If, then,

like alone.

Make thou

"

grow

same stature as
the Greatness which transcends all measure leap forth
from every Body transcend all Time become Eternity
and then shalt thou know God.
thyself to

to the

"

Conceiving

nothing

unto

impossible

is

think thyself deathless and able to

know

all

thyself,

all arts,

the way of every life.

Become more lofty than all height, and lower than

all sciences,

"

depth.

all

creatures

into

Collect

of

fire

thyself

senses

all

in

earth,

womb, young,

in sea, in sky; not yet begotten, in the

"

all

Think

and water, dry and moist.

that thou art at the same time in every place

old,

of

and dead, in after-death conditions.

And

thou knowest

if

all

places, doings, qualities,

these things at once

and quantities

times,

thou canst

know God."
This

is

Way, the Good's Own Path, the

the Straight

Ancient Eoad.
" If thou but
everywhere,

when thou

sett'st

'twill

thy foot thereon,

anywhere be

dost expect

it

not

journeying, by night, by

naught.

For there

is

seen,

waking,

meet thee
both where and
'twill

sleeping, sailing,

day, speaking,

naught that

is

and saying

not image

of the

Good."

And

so for the present writing

Thrice-greatest

we

bid farewell to

Hermes and the teachings

of his

Mind,

the Shepherd of all men-with heart-felt thanks that by

the Mercy of God the echo of his voice has come to us
across the ages and bidden us once more remember.

Index
Aah-Tehuti, i. 66.
Aahlu, Territory of Illumination,
i.

70.

Aall,

i.

33.

Aan, i. 55.
Ab, i. 89.

Abammon,

the Teacher,

Abbot Olympius, Story

Abercius,
Abortion,

Abraham,

285.
384.

55.

ii.
i.

iii.

of, i.

350.
ii.

Achemides, i. 400.
Active Principle, the, i. 225.
Acts of John, i. 236, ii. 55, 238,
mystery ritual in, i. 182,
iii. 157
;

ii.

156.
147.
115, 149, iii.

243,

Acts of Philip,

body

i.

of,

i.

iii.
i.

i.

277, 281 ;
i. 146.

281 ; celestial,
336.

Adam (J.),
Adam Kadmon,

i.

146.

Adamant, i. 392.
Adamas, i. 146, 159, 161.
Adams (see Marsham).
Adomenon, iii. 305.

Mon

or JSons, i. 182, ii. 240.

JEon- doctrine, the, i. 387, ii. 190.
JEonian Essence Above, i. 152.

JEonic

Consciousness,

ii.

Adrasteia,

Advent,

ii.

430,
171.

i.

iii.

" rootage"

of,

ii.

317;

type

of the, ii. 282.

Aerolites, iii. 53.
JEsculapius, cult of, i. 468.
.Ether, i. 84, 101, iii. 50, 98, 101,
125 ; the height of the, i. 233

Again-becoming,

116.

Adversary, Agree with thine,

244

407.
-ffionology,
ii.
192,
32,
248
Hellenistic origin of, i. 401, 405.
Moiis, ii. 373; father of the, i.
411 ; hymn of the, ii. 43 ; Great
Silence,
Mother of, ii. 241
of Pleroma, i. 408,
ii.
245;
i.

quintessence or, ii. 92 ; Mighty

Whirlpool, i. 451.
Ethiopia (see Ethiopia), i. 188, 281.
^Ethiopian queen, i. 316.

Adonis, i. 151, 156, 294.

Adoration of images, ii. 286.

281.

literature,
i.
410
406 Mithriac, i. 399
in Plato, i. 404
song of praise
to the, i. 408
is not time, i. 405
boundary of all universes, i. 392
wealth -giving, i. 402.
i.

Immensities of Egypt,

265.

Adam,

Acharantus, the Husbandman,

183,

i.

i.

Logos,

i.

i.

303.
103.
JEon, i. 66, 92, ii. 128, 175, 232,
370, iii. 117, 161 ; become, ii.
190 ; birth of the, iii. 160 ; circle
of infinitude, i. 399 ; communities of the, in Phoenicia, i. 403 ;
demiurgic, i. 410
eternity or,
iii. 91 ;
feast of the, i. 403
in

Mian,

Theurgic

335,
366.
253.
82, 402.
ii.

Abraxas, i.
Abraxoid, i. 82.
Abydos, i. 292.
Abyss, i. 408, ii. 27, 80, 81, 269.
Accuser, blind, iii. 281.
Achaab, the Husbandman, ii. 265.
Acbsea,

JEacus,

Agamemnon,
iii.

i.

Agathodaimon,
479,

ii.

213,

ii.

76, 83.

446.
i.

iii.

85, 98, 105, 109,

156, 157, 163

332

INDEX

Osiris

261

disciple
literature,

sayings
iii.

Age,

of,

iii.

Almond-tree,

478, iii.
257, 316
310, 316 ; type,
of,

i.

Alone-begotten,
Alter-egos,

261.

Golden,

years,

135

iii.

Agree with thine adversary,

iii.

Amenhotep,

Aion, Reitzenstein's monograph on,

337.
to,

i.

131.

467.

i.

i. 387.
Aipolos, i. 175, 177.
Air, ii. 342, iii. 6Q, 129, 210.

Amenthe,

Air very

American Encyclopaedia, i.
Amme-ha-Aretz, iii. 321.

iii.

Ammianus
Ammon, i.

318.

Ammon-Kneph, iii. 158.

Ammonius, iii. 285.
Amoun, i. 274, iii. 61
of,

i.

i.

200.

Alexandrine Gnostics and

fourth

38.

Alexarchus, i. 314.
Alkyoneus, i. 149.
calAll, ii. 310 ; in all, ii. 221
umniators of the, ii. 228 genesis
of the, i. 406 ; and Good, ii. 175
master of the, i. 409 and one,
ii. 118
is one, ii. 213, 268, 308,
309 ; one and, i. 136, ii. 230,
344
threefold divided, i. 165
;

255.
ii.

8.

All-form, ii. 185, 194.

All-god, Hymn to, ii. 108.
All-goodness, ii. 344.
All -perfection, iii. 255.
All-receiving, i. 333.
All-seed Potency, ii. 30.
All-seeing Light, ii. 253.
All-sense, ii. 364, 396.
All-soul, ii. 145.
Allegory, i. 200.

meaning

273.

Amphithemis,
Amphitrite,

Amsu,

197.

Alexandrian religio-philosophy,

All-Father Mind,

Marcellinus,
100, 101, 149, 273, 471,

i.

ii.

24.

113.

i.

Alethophilus, i. 13.
Alexander, brother of Philo, i. 204
Cornelius (Polyhistor), i. 164.
Alexandria, i. 99, 301
Jewish
colony of, i. 204 ; Library of, i.

perfected,

70.

i. 148, 286.
401.
Albinus, iii. 227.
Alchemist, the true, ii. 139.

ii.

i.

Union

of

Kronos
ii. 308; King, iii. 293;
sayings of, iii.
that is, ii. 279
words of, iii. 152, 215,
307, 313
216 ; temples of, ii. 279 (Zeus),

Alalkomeneus,

gospel,

304.
;

205.
Akasha-Ganga, i. 110.
Akhraim, i. 282.
Akron, i. 364.
Ajax, i. 446.
Alaric,

i.

Place
Amenti, i. 379
with Unseen Father, i.

air, iii. 17.

Air-spaces,

278.

iii.

Amenhotep-Asclepius, i 473.
Amentet, i. 304.

326.

i.

283.

43.

Amen, i. 74, 274,

Amen-Ra, Hymn

281.

Agrippa (Cornelius), i. 13.

Ahriman, i. 325, 326, 400.
Ahura Mazda (see Ormuzd),

ii.

ii.

403,

i.

Amasis, i. 465.
Ambrosia, i. 161.
Amelineau, i. 50.

seven

of

37.

iii.

182.

i.

Alone Good Father,

iii.

i.

i.

149.
359.

i.

327.

Amulet, i. 346, 349.

Amygdalos, i. 182.
Amyxai, i. 183.
Anacreon, cup of, i.

167, 193, 455.

180, ii. 171.
Anaximander, iii. 178, 179.
Anebo, iii. 286.
Angel, recording, i. 64 ; sovereign,
i. 371.
Angel-chief, i. 234.
Angels, the, i. 240 ; of Darkness,
evil,
i. 424; eldest of all, i. 198
of Light, i. 424 ;
ii. 355, iii. 239
paternal, i. 159 ; tongue of, ii.
32; " words," i. 243.
Anger, ii. 224.
Animal, hylic, ii. 63 ; soul, ii. 246
spirits, i. 363.
Animal-soul of cosmos, i. 353.
Animals, burials of, i. 295 celestial,

Anaktoreion,

i.

ii.

282;

circle

of,

iii.

46,

51;

earthy, iii. 301 ; sacred, ii. 52,

383, iii. 102, 288; worship of,
i. 353.
Ankh-tie, i. 61.
.

333

INDEX
Ankhnes-Ra-Neferab,
Announcement, Great,

Annu, i.
Annuals
Anpu, i.

74.
(winds),
342.

i.

73.

i.

ii.

170, 317.

316.

Anthropos, Myth of, i. 143 Prototype of humanity, i. 139.

Anthropos-doctrine,4. 193, iii. 273,
282 ; Zosimus on/ i. 196.
;

Anticleides,

314.
Antigonus the Elder, i. 298.
Antilegomena, i. 370.
Antoninus Pius, i. 464.
Ants, iii. 35, 36.
Anubis, i. 88, 100, 283, 284, 315,
322, 342.
Ape, i. 87, 95, 446, 449.
i.

Ape-form, i. 95.
Ape-Thoth, i. 462.
Apelles,

298.

i.

Aphrodite,

i. 61, 151, 181, 280, 305,

327, 350, 352, 359, ii. 345, iii.
89, 316.
Aphrodite-Helen, iii. 182.
Apion, i. 307, 387, ii. 5.
Apis, i. 267, 268, 277, 292, 303,
304, 307, 309, 311, 322, 337,

355 = Epaphos, i. 314 animated

image of Osiris, i. 321.
Apocalypse of Jesus, iii. 279
of
Thespesius, iii. 192
Untitled,
;

it 107, 282.
Apocalypsis, Vision and,

20

ii.

ff.

Apocrypha, i. 365.
Apocryphal, ii. 234, 236.
Apogeneses of souls, ii. 260.
Apokatastasis, ii. 128.
Apollo, i. 279, 298, 334, 342, 352,
;

golden

monad,

i.

Apollonius

curls

275.
of Tyana,

of,

i.

352

374,

ii.

Apophis,

i.

ii.

of Hermes, iii. 88.

Memoirs ofi. 195.
Apotheosis, ii. 163
of Hermes,
;

Appetite,

iii.

iii.

145, 181.
and heart,

75

iii.

78.

Apple, of the eye,

World-Eye,
Appuleius,

Apu,

ii.

282.
Arabs, i. 272.
i.

iii.

307.

iii.

167.

165

of the

of

88.

i.

Aristotle,

i.

perfumes,

327, 340, 362

364.

62,
i.

on

Ark, tables of the laws in the,

238.
of the Sun,

Arms

331.
Arnebeschenis, iii. 198, 209.
Aroueris, i. 279, 280.
Arrival of Isis from Phoenicia,
330.
Arsaphes, i. 314.
Art-prose, ii. 300.

i.

i.

i.

Artaud, i. 27.
Artemidorus, i. 158.
Artemis, i. 352 dyad, i. 275.
Artificer of Time, ii. 192 ; of this
;

Artist,
iii.

ii.

iii.

290

iii.

118.

Supreme, iii. 266.

40, 198 ; and sciences,
;

199, 325.
(Osiris),

i.

276

and Ast,

i.

367.

Asar-Hapi, i. 302.
Ascension of Isaiah, ii. 232.
of the Soul, ii. 41

Ascent

222.

Appendages,

241

Aristagoras, i. 267.
Aristarchus, i. 100.
Ariston, i. 314.

Asar

313.

Apophthegm

iii.

ii.

i.

Ariouth,

298.

Apostles,

66

of every other
Soul, ii. 71 ;
Time's, i. 229, ii. 193.
Archi-charila, i. 310.
Architect, iii. 122, 125, 235.
Archontics, i. 424.
Arcturus, i. 288.
Ares, i. 305, 327.
Argives, i. 299, 311.
Argo, i. 296.
Argus, iii. 232.
Aridseus, Vision of, i. 438, 452.
light,

Arts,

197, 252.

Apology of a Pcemandrist,

238.
197.

Archetype,

new World,
i.

ii.
i.

Archemachus, i. 301.
Archetypal, Form, ii. 6, 8, 9, 29 ;
Model, i. 236, 241; Pattern, i.
235 Seal, i. 235.

359

Aratus, i. 314.
Arbiter (Thoth), i. 58.
Arcadia, i. 376 ; Mount of,
Archangelic Booh of Moses,

ff.

Straight, i. 428.
Asclepieion, i. 460.
Asclepius, i. 127, 469, ii. 391, iii.
184, 198; the Healer, i. 467;
the pupil of Taautos, ii. 279.
Asclepius- Imuth, i. 461, iii. 96,
198.
Asclepiuses, many, iii, 221.

334

INDEX

Asenas, iii. 277.

Ashes, i. 355.

Authentia, iii. 318, 319.

Authentic Name, the, ii. 252.
Autozoon, i. 154, 400.
Avarice, ii. 224.
Avatara, iii. 143.
Avengers, iii. 50.

Ashvaghosha, ii, 44.

Ashvattha, ii. 317.
Aso, i. 281.
Asp, i. 356, 357.
Aspalathus, i. 365.
Asphodel, iii. 134.
Ass, i. 290, 307, 329, 422

Avenging Daimon,
;

bound,

305, 330.
Ass-like, i. 305.
Assyrians, initiations of the, i. 151
mysteries of the, i. 155, 426.
Astarte, i. 285.
i.

Astral

body, the

crater,

i.

true,

ii.

172

453.

Athena,
352,

i.
i.

i.

89.

i.

115.

311.

Bacchus, ii. 56 ; starry cup of, i.

414 infant, i. 303.
Bad, i. 341.
Balaam (Bileam), iii. 279 Jeschu,
ii. 80
the Lame Man, i. 335 ;
;

343,

hebdomad,

275;

house of, iii. 183.

Athenceum, The, i. 68.
Athenagoras, i. 59, 61,

i.

iii.

220.

Athenais, i. 285, 286.

Athenians, Colonies of the, i. 314.
Athens, i. 350.
Athlete, i. 446 Therapeut, i. 206.
Athur (Athyr), i. 282, 316, 337,
;

350.
i.

106

names,

i.

285.
Atlanticwni, i. 108.
Atlantis, Plato's, i. 176 ; Story of,
i. 285.
Atom, ii. 269.
Atomicity, i. 395.
Atoms, permanent, i. 289.
Atonement, Great Day of, i. 306.
Atropos, i. 442.
Attis, i. 152 ; the, i. 179 ; will I
sing, i. 186.
Atum, i. 130, 132, 134, 135.
Atum-Ptah-Thoth, i. 136.
Augoeides, i. 361.
Augurs, ii. 273, iii. 112.
i.
110, ii. 352 ; quotations from the old Latin version
of, iii. 249.
Aurelian Sun-God, ii. 281.

Augustine,

i.

i.

Baba, i. 329.
Babe, ii. 216.
Babel und Bibel, iii. 179.
Babes, ii. 295 new-born, ii. 296.
Babylonian cultus, i. 379 ; Tal-

mud,

62, 273, 286, 308,

Atlantic Island,

Ba,

15, 40.
160.

ii.

Bacchic caves, i. 453 ; mysteries,

i. 212 ; initiates, i.
191 ; orgies,

296.

359;

91,

that sleepest,
Azazel, Ritual of, i. 306.
Azoth, 1, 281.

Astronomers, iii. 112.

Asuras, iii. 180.
At-one-ment, ii. 50, 190, 371.
Atalanta, i. 446.
Atem-cult, i. 88.
Atf-crown, i. 71, 77.
Athanasius, ii. 72.
Atheism, i. 278.
Atheists,

i.

Awake thou

= Nicolaos,

ii.

80,

iii.

279.

Balaamites, i. 165, ii. 80.

Balance, i. 55, 64, 72, ii. 95, 118.
Balancer, i. 58, 64 ; Judge of the
two Combatant Gods, i. 56.
Baptism, in the Cup, ii. 191
of
light, ii. 255 ; spiritual, ii. 92.
;

Baptist,
Baptize,

Bardic
Barga,
Baris,

John

lore,

Da
i.

the,

i.

470.

87.

ii.

392.

i.

(P. Angelo),

i.

10.

289.

Barley-water,

i. 347.
436, ii. 32, 98, 107,
160, 400, iii. 135, 140, 145;
Exegetica of, ii. 215 ; Hermes
and, ii. 215.

Basilides,

i.

Bastardy, i. 334 ; charge of,

Bath-kol, i. 101, 279, 285.
Bats (simile), i. 161.
Battle, inner,

iii.

ii.

51.

6.

Baudissin (Count), i. 123.

Baumgarten-Crusius, i. 13, 24.
Bear,

i.

176, 295, 422,

51, 130, 131

Bears, ii. 62.

Little,

ii.

101,

iii.

51.

iii.

Beast, i. 398.
Beasts, Great, i. 424, 425.
Beautiful, the, ii. 113, 114, 118;
Vision of the, iii. 15, 53.

335

INDEX
Beauty,

ii. 8, 28, iii.

54 ; of the
Gnosis, ii. 123 ; of the Good, ii.
144, 145, 163 ; of the Truth, ii.
121.
Bebi, i. 329.
Bebon, i. 329, 343.
Becanus Goropius, i. 20.
Become iEon, ii. 190 ; all things,

194.

ii.

333.
356.

i.

i.

Beginning,
i.

of philosophy,

197,

i.

276,

iii.

295; Pinaxof, iii. 277.

Bitter Chaos, i. 92, 192 ; matter,
awesome
i.
92 ; path, ii. 362
and, i. 397 ; water, i. 92.
cup of, ii.
Bitterness, i. 92, 153
139
of God, i. 92 ; of Jacob
;

Bbhme,

274.

Behemoth,

108.

ii.

423, 424 ; monster of

the south land, i. 427.

Behnesa

i.

logoi

Oxyrhynchus),

(see

17, 239.
Belly-lust, ii. 112.
Beloved, the, ii. 35.
Belus, iii. 303.
ii.

Benci, i. 9.
Benefactor, i. 320
213.
Beqesu, i. 60.
Bergk, i. 149.
Bernays, ii. 392.

men,

of

ii.

Better One,

ii.

236

340,

the, i.
of the

ii.

291,

193;

of

Veii,

ii.

235.

iii. 282 ; Man Above,

164; Nature, i. 155;
Nature Above, i. 152 Ones, ii.
206; Region, iii. 276, 295;

i.

103.

iii.

22

from

Above,

ii.

of the JEon, iii. 160 ; blind

from, i. 189, iii. 281 ; Chamber
of, i. 75 ; of a Christ, the, ii.

conception and, iii. 68 ;

243
demiurge of, ii. 244 engine of,
essential, ii. 228, 250 ; in
ii. 39
of Horus, i. 75,
God, ii. 226
;

76, 95, ii. 242, iii. 122, 157, 160,

162; of Man, ii. 241 ; mysteries

new, ii. 239,

of a divine, i. 75
240, 250 ; of Osiris, iii. 122
bringing-into, ii.
parent of
232 ; second, i. 79 ; in understanding, ii.
226 ; virgin, ii.
240 ; way of this, ii. 244.
;

my

from birth,

iii.

i.

270.

Bodhisattvas, ii. 45.

Bodies, how composed,
everlasting,

iii.

189

i.

281.
Bliss, ii. 226.
Boat, i. 52, 89 ; Solar,
Bocchoris, i. 272.
Bbckh, i. 107.
189,

ii. 329.
Bodiless,

165.
27.

i.

Biographie GJnfrale,
iii.

107,

159,

celestial,

Bileam (Nico-laus),

iii.

Blessed Land,

i.

Beyond-same, ii. 62.

Bhakti-Marga, ii. 119.
logia,

Bitys-school, iii. 298.

Black dog-ape, i. 88 ; rite,
141, 149, 155.
Black-robed, i. 332.
Blackden, iii. 186.
Blasphemers, ii. 140, 244.

Space, ii. 98.

Blind, Accuser,

294, 297.

Bible of Hellas,

92, 397.

328,

i.

i.

Bitys (see Bitos), i. 197, iii. 294

the prophet, ii. 280, iii. 293.
Bitys-books, iii. 297.

i.

Bestiaries, iii. 112.

Bestower of the Spirit, ii. 231.
Better, i. 333 ; the, ii. 89.

239

Bitos (see Bitys),

234

i.

Begrudgeth,

Birds,
Birth,

Becoming,
Beetle,

Birthday of the Eye of Horus, i.

331 of the Sun's Staff, i. 331.
Birthdays of the Gods, i. 279 ; of
Horus, i. 332.
Bithus of Dyrrachium, iii. 296.

iii.

165

ii.

ii.
133
glory of
30
migration into,
;

88, 128

ii.

the,

65,

ii.

14.

Body,

63

iii.

of

aery, iii. 145

divine, ii. 93

Adam,

281
45

i.

of bliss,

ii.

elements of,
;
encompasses all things,

iii.

200
46; fiery, ii. 151, 154, 171; of
God, ii. 85
of the Great Man,
of
i.
425 ; house of, ii. 321
Jesus, i. 286
the last, ii. 187,
195 of the Law, ii. 44 mixture
soul
of, iii. 199
noetic, ii. 242
and, ii. 124, 130 spirituous, iii.
145, 210 ; subtle, iii. 145, 209
that can never die, ii. 221 times
;

iii.

of transformation, ii.
44 ; type of, iii. 49 ; universal,
ii. 125.

of,

iii.

336

INDEX

Bodying,

iii.

Breath,

31, 36, 38.

Bohnie, Jacob, i. 92.

Boissonade, ii. 38.

of

of Horus, i. 189, 343 ; of the

sea-hawk, i. 189, 343 ; of Typho,

Book of Breathings, i. 65.

Book of the Dead, i. 52, 54,

iii.

Ill

76.

ii.

i.

158.

i.

Brockhaus, i. 35.
Broiled fish, i. 270.
Brother, of the Lord, James,
of

Man,

i.

143

35.
21.

ii.

Brucker, i.
Brugsch, i. 49, 55, 57.
Bubble, i. 390.

Buddha, Gantama the,

Three Bodies of, ii. 44.
Buddhism, Great Vehicle
Buddhist seer, i. 379.

iii.

320

ff.

44.

of, ii.

Budge,

78.

Book of Ostanes, iii. 277.

Book, The Sacred, i. 75.
ii.
235 ; of the
Chaldseans, i. 392, ii. 81 fF., iii.
280, 321 ; preserved from flood,
on the Gnosis, iii. 231 ;
i. 113 ;

Books, canonical,

iii. 293 ; of Hermes, i.

100, 115, 196, 342, 380, iii. 282,
289; of Hermes described by Clem.
of A., iii. 222 ; hieratic, iii. 225 ;
of Isis, iii. 316 ; of Isis and
Horus, i. 481, iii. 208 ; of Isis
to Horus, iii. 316 ; Lord of, i.
53 ; of Manetho, i. 104 ; of
Moses, i. 456, ii. 158 ; of the
Saviour, i. 418 ; of Taautos, ii.
279 ; of Thoth, i. 122, 124 ;
Victim-Sealing, iii. 223, 224.
Bootes, i. 288.
Boreas, iii. 132.
Boundary, ii. 9 ; Great, ii. 35
Horos or, ii. 366 ; of the Spheres,

Hermaie,

195.

Boundless Light,

i.

93

Point, the,

184.

Boutos, i. 288.
Brain, the, i. 162, 169.
Branch, The, i. 227.
Brass, sounding, i. 303.
Bread, distribution of, iii. 224
which the Lord hath given you
to eat, i. 246 ; super- substantial,
;

i.

gift of,

232,

Bringer-of-good,
55, 69,

83, 290 ; flood in the, i. 109 ;

mysteries and the, iii. 186.
Book of Elxai, i. 369.
Book of Enoch, i. 126, 424.
Book of God, i. 467.
Book of the Great Logos according
to the Mystery, i. 166, ii. 96.
" Book of the Living," i. 367.
Book concerning the Logos, ii. 265.
Book of the Master, i, 68, 77,

i.

i.

Brimo, i. 180.
Brimos, i. 180, 314.

189, 343.
ii. 108.

Bonnet,

ii.

199

iii.

God,

Brethren, ii. 50 ; the two Horus,

6Q ; of the Lord, i. 147.
Brick-bat, i. 115.

Bone
i.

86.

Breadth-depth-length-height-ray,
94.

Breasted,

i.

130, 138.

i.

i. 52, 89, 103, 367.

Builder, mind as, ii. 153.
Builder- Souls, iii. 140.
Builders, iii. 139, 140.
Bull-born, i. 311.
Burials of Animals, i. 293, 295
Osiris, i. 295.
Burn living men, i. 355.
Burns his food publicly, i. 270.
Busiris, i. 293, 305.
Buto, i. 315, 347.
Buys Plato, i. 351.

Byblos,

of

284-286.

i.

Oabiri (Kabiri),

i.

127.

Caduceus, i. 61, iii. 232.

Camites, i. 142.
Call thou me not Good, ii. 72.
Called,

i.

147.

Calumniators,

ii. 233, 250,

277, 322.
i. 167.
Cancer, i. 415.
Candalle (Flussas), i. 10.

Cambyses,

Cana of

iii.

317.

i.

Galilee,

Canopus (Canobus), i. 296, 301.

Capitoline Zeus, i. 352.
Carapace, cosmic, ii. 321 ; of darkness, ii. 121 ; of selfhood, ii. 42.
Caravanserai, ii. 283.

Cardamum,

i.

365.

Carpenter, Estlin, i. 468.

Carriers of holy symbols,

Casaubon, i. 21.
Cask, drop from

a,

344.
Catalogue of kings,
Catharms, iii. 210.

Cat,

i.

i.

190.

i.

i,

277.

264.

INDEX
Cave, ii. 126, 128.
Cedrenus, iii. 269.
Celsus,

423;

147,

i.

True

Word

of, ii. 50.

Celts,

350.

i.

Ceremonies, Overseer of the,

iii.

223.
Chalcidius, i. 19, 435, ii. 159.
Chaldgeans, i. 196, 327, ii. 53
Books of the, i. 392, 465, ii. 81
ff., iii.
280, 324; mystery-tradition, i. 138.
Chamber of Birth, i. 75 ; of Flames,
i. 75
of Gold, i. 75.
Chambers, i. 34, iii. 218, 266
;

opinion of, i. 34 f.
Champollion, i. 27.
Chaos, i. 150, 338, 388, 389, ii. 27,
liquid,
102 the bitter, i. 192
;

191.

i.

Character, ii. 244, iii. 179.

Charila, i. 310, 311.
Chariot, celestial, i. 154, iii. 173 ;
of the Powers, i. 238.
Charioteer, i. 429, 430, ii. 270.
Charity, ii. 346.
Charops, i. 303.
Cheiron, iii. 304.
Chemia, i. 263, 309, iii. 158.
Chemmis, i. 282.
Cherubim, i. 238.
Cheyne, i. 468.
Child of the Egg, i. 139 ; of God,
ii. 255.

Child-making,

ii.

68.

Children, likeness of, iii. 89 ; recognition of, iii. 20.

Chnouphis (Chnuphis), i. 92, 477,
ii.

265.

Chnubis,

477.
477, 480, iii. 155, 159.
Choeroboscus, iii. 112.
Choir (choirs) of daimons, ii. 89,
145, 272, 273, iii. 102 ; of Gods,

Chnum,

ii.

i.

i.

Christ-stage of manhood, i. 367,

368.
Christ-state, ii. 93, 243.
Christos, descent of the, i. 90.
Chronicum (Eusebius), i. 20.
Chrysippus, i. 298.
Church, ii. 117 ; virgin, i. 377.
Churning the Ocean, iii. 180.

Chwolsohn, ii. 57.

Cicala, song of, ii. 292.
Cicero, ii. 235.
Circle of the All,

iii. 47 ; of animals,
51 ; Life-producing, iii.
51 ; of Necessity, i. 428 ; of Sun,
iii. 52 ;
of types-of-life, ii. 194,

46,

iii.

227.
Circles, seven,

ii. 76, iii. 47.

Circuit (Eudoxus), i. 269.
Circumambient, i. 300.
Circumterrene, ii. 276.
Cities of Refuge, i. 237.
Citizens, true, i. 221.
City, ii. 109 ; of the Eight, i. 57 ;
of God, i. 235, 245, 246, ii. 256 ;
i.
the
grandest,
235 ;
the

Intelligible,
i

206.

i.
154,
190.
Christ, i. 301 ; a, ii. 174 ; the, i.
160, iii. 324 ; the birth of a, ii.
241, 243; disciples of, i. 290;
garment of, ii. 249 ; of God, ii.

43; "scourge" of,

umphant, ii. 117.
Christ-baptism,
Christ-mystery,
III.

ii.
i.

ii.

93.

198.

173;

tri-

235

i.

the

Little,

293

Civ'il

Wars,

i.

352.

Claudius, i. 119.
Cleanthes, i. 347.

Clement, Second Epistle of, i. 153.

Clement of Alexandria, i. 153, ii.
on the mysteries,
215, 235, 300
on the tradition of the
iii. 150
;

Gnosis, i. 148.
Clementine Homilies, i. 388, ii. 72.
Cleombrotus, iii. 170, 175.
Cloak, hateful, ii. 121.
Closed lips, ye of the, i. 210.
i. 209.
Clotho, i. 442.
Cnossus, iii. 179.

Closet,

Cock,

iii.

162

crowing

of, iii.

161,

162.

Cocks,

Chonouphis, i. 274.
Chrism, the Ineffable,

VOL.

337

325.
Codex JBrucianus, i. 50, 93, ii. 282 ;
Untitled Apocalypse of, ii. 303.
Coffin, i. 287.
Colberg, i. 22.
Colonies of the Athenians, i. 314.
Colony, ii. 354.
Colour, one, i. 391 ; ray-like, i.
i.

224.

of Hermes, i. 112.
i. 104
Combatant Gods, Judge of, i. 53.
Combatants, Two, i. 66.

Columns,

22

;;

INDEX

338
Come unto
Comets,

us,

iii.

ii.

ii. 207 ; matter or, ii.

gaze through Me upon the,
179 ; meaning of, ii. 85

ciples of,

43.

336

52.

Common

hearth, iii. 171 ; reason,

teachers, iii. 287.
Companions of Horus, i. 270, 290 ;
of Odysseus, i. 270.

ii.

Completion-Beginning, i. 74.
Comprehensible Incomprehensibles,

thought

i.

346

184.

Conductor of Souls,

i.

text of the D. V. C.,

282

Coptos,

i.

133, 139 sensible

; sensible image
a sphere, ii. 148 ;

334

i.

ii.

161.

critical

200.

i.

iii

his,

i.

453

Creator,
of the,

God
iii.

i.

the,
256.

51.
iii.

293

Word

254.
i. 51.
Cretan civilisation, i. 149.
Crete, i. 359.
Critias, i. 106.
Criticism, iii. 315.
Crocodile, i. 77, 267, 288, 329,
330, ii. 382 ; sixty eggs, i. 356,
358 ; tongue-less, i. 357.
Crocodilopolis, ii. 382.
iii.

Creatures of Light,

i. 246, 247.
Corporality, ii. 212, 218.
Corpse, sensation's, ii. 121.
Corpus (Hermeticum), original MS.
quires lost from, ii.
of, i. 6 ;

69.

Corruption's chain, ii. 121.

Cory, i. 104, 106, 123.
Cosmogony, Chart of Orphic,
162 ; of Taaut, i. 126.
Cosmoi, Seven, i. 407.

258.

i.

291.

Creator-Word,

335.

Cronus
ii.

Cosmos, ii. 325, 337, 377, iii. 39

Animal-Soul of, i. 353 beautiful,
ii.
147 ; most wise Breath, ii.
118 of Cosmos, i. 91 course of,
ii. 133 ; divine mysteries of, iii.
egg or womb of, i. 451
325
imitator of eternity, ii. 368
second God, ii. 125
good, ii.
358; great body of, ii. 128;
Horus, i. 338
higher, ii. 378
intellect of, ii. 373
intelligible,
i.
146, ii. 167, 194, 275; prin;

of Spirit,

in
Crater, ii. 92 ; astral,
;
Orpheus, Macrobius, and Proclus,
i. 151 ; in Plato, i. 450 ; sidereal
of Father Liber, i. 451 ; vulcanic,
i. 452.
Crates, Visions of, i. 380.
Creation, new, ii. 243 ; of the
world, iii. 117.

Coriander seed,

i.

74, 75.

Gnostic Codex Brucianus,

works, the, ii. 51.

Coptic
ii.

i.

167

ii.

Creation-myths,
71

ii.

of, ii.

Cow-horns,

397.

219,

357

ii.

of, ii.

185
resense-and-

Cowherd, i. 272.
Cradle, Hall of the Child in

208.

ii.

ii.

Covent Garden theory,

Cow, i. 316, 332.

Contemplator, ii. 93.

Continence, ii. 225.
i.

of,

68.

Contemplation, iii. 94.

Contemplative or Theoretic Life,

Conybeare,

paradigm

224.
Cotta, iii. 231.
Counterfeit, iii. 282

Cone-bearing, i. 266.
Configuration of the Element, iii.
276.
Congress, ii. 240.
ii.
Consciousness,
iEonic,
244
Nirvanic, i. 51, ii. 45, 46.
Constancy, ii. 390.
Constantine, ii. 55.

Continuum,

of,

i.

this,

iii.

159.

Consummation, Supreme,

134

ii.

passions

birth

of,

Conception, ii. 390 ; and birth,

68 ; Typhon, i. 304.
Concupiscence, ii. 224.

i.

196

or hylic,

i.

order,

(see Kronos), i. 390, ii. 144,

162, iii. 234; Ammon, i. 127;
Mithriac, i. 400 ; mystery deity,
i. 400.
Cross, i. 286, ii. 367 ; seal of a, iii.
161.
Crosswise, iii. 24, 47.
Crown of lives, i. 71.
Crux ansata, i. 61.

Cry (of Nature), ii. 34.

Cudworth, i. 32.
Cult of ^Esculapius,
Jesus,

Cultores

i.

468;

et

Cul trices

pietatis,

208.

Cumont,

i.

of

138.

ii.

324, 399, 400, 401.

i.

339

INDEX
Cup,

ii.

86,

iii.

273

Darkness,

of Anacreon,

167, 193, 455 ; baptism in the,

ii.
191 ; of bitterness, ii. 139
of Dionysus, i. 452 ; of the
divine draught, i. 245 ; His, iii.
284 ; which I drink, i. 168 ; of
immortality, iii. 205 ; of initiation, ii. 94 ; in which the King
i.
drinketh,
167 ; of Living

i.

Water bubbling- forth,

i.

399

of prudence, i. 454 ; of Tantalus,

ii. 198.
Gupido, ii. 309.
Cure of intellect, ii. 347.
Cutting of wood, i. 293.
Cybele, priests of, i. 169.
Cyclic Gods, ii. 77, 89.
Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature^
i.

91, 325, 451,

i.

79, 80, 81

carapace

comprehended

not,

it

4, 13,

ii.

121
125

of, ii.
i.

genesis of fire and,

i.
ser197
pent of, ii. 31 ; thrice-unknown,
ii. 25
torment of, ii. 226, 245.
Dawn, Land of Eternal, i. 80
;

New,

96.

iii.

Day of Light, i. 326.

De Eaye, i. 196.
De Horrack, i. 49.
Be Mysteriis, iii. 252.
De Sphcera Barbarica,

407.

i.

Dead, Book of the, i. 52, 54, 69,

judge of the, i. 64
83, 290
prayers for the, i. 78 things, if
raise, i.
ye have eaten, i. 175
resurrection of, ii. 165
373
rising from, i. 173, iii. 163
;

27.

Cyllene, i. 158, 168.

Cylinder, i. 176, 439, iii. 101, 175,
177, 178.
Cymbal, tinkling, i. 303.
Cynocephalus, i. 55, 56, 120.
Cyperus, i. 364.
Cypress, i. 364.
Cyril's Corpus of XV. Books, iii.
251.

Cytherea,

iii.

92.

from graves, the,

shall leap forth

i.

172

sheeted,

161

i.

the,

417,
39, 126, 209 ;
living, ii. 121 ; of the serpent,
ii.
300 ; there is no, ii. 124 ;
ii.

i.

twelve fates
ii.

of,

ii.

249

Way

avenging, i.
Chnum the Good,
91, ii. 15, 40
counterfeit, iii. 281
i.
477
essence of, is activity, ii. 273 ;
i. 84,
evil, i. 355 ; Good,
97,
i.

324, 443

402, ii. 156, 199, 203, 204, 206,

150, 155, 255 ; Good Holy, i.
94 ; mind a, ii. 154, 171 ; selfborn, iii. 120.
Daimon-Chief, iii. 237.
Daimones, ii. 313, 375, iii. 49
choirs of, ii. 89, 272, 273, 277,
Concerning the, ii. 282 ;
iii. 102
hierarchy of, ii. 314 ; Homer on,
incursions of, ii. 277
in
i. 299
Theory of the,
service, ii. 274
i. 298.
Daimonial Energy, ii. 137.
Daimonials, ii. 130.
Daimonic Soul, ii. 229.
Damascius, i. 91, 152, 156, ii. 19,
25, 260.
Damatrios, i. 350.
mystery, iii.
Dark mist, i. 125
149 ; space, ii. 26 ; wisdom, i.
iii.

87, 91.

of,

18.

Death-genius, i. 88.
Deathless Water, ii. 18.
Way
Deathlessness, ii. 128
;

Daimon,

i.

172.

Death,

of,

ii.

39.

Decans,

100,

i.

names of,
iii.

iii.

iii.

54

45

Egyptian

Six-and-thirty,

45, 46.

Deep, Infinite, i. 390.

Deer, form of a, i. 191.

Demon,
Delphi,

307.

i.

256 310; Oracle

i.

Demagogue

of,

i.

i.

349.

431.
305, 318, 345, 350,

Demeter, i.
232 limbs
;

at,

(in Plato),
of,

i.

347

i.

iii.

wanderings

298.

Demi-Gods, i. 106.
Demiurge, i. 130, 457, ii. 33, iii.
of birth, ii. 244 ; of God,
22, 30
the Sun, ii. 269.
iii. 240
Mind, i.
Demiurgic iEon, i. 410
Thought, iii. 56.
137, ii. 35
;

Democritus, i. 323, iii. 297.

Denderah, i. 73, 74, 75.

Deo nubere,
Depth,

i.

i.

216.

409.

Der-el-Bahari,

i.

120.

Descent of the Christos, the, i. 90 ;

from the Head Above, i. 169 of
Kore, i. 350 ; of Man, ii. 34.
;

340

INDEX
Discourse on Sense,

Desert, i. 163.
Desirable, ii. 161

Destiny,

69

iii.

299.
Destruction,
i. 182.
Detailed, ii.
264.

One,

bonds

Way
237

Determination,

Deus Lunus,

i.

ii.

of,

iii.

that leadeth to,

Discourses,

ii.

ii. 357, 358.

166.

Devas, iii. 180.

Deveria, i. 28.
Devil taking form of fisherman,

iii.

164.

Devotee of God,

139.

ii.

Devotees, race of, ii. 241.

Devotion, iii. 238 God-gnosis, ii.
and Gnosis, ii. 114
131, 136
;

Way

of, ii.

119.
289.

Devourer, i.
Devourers of the Unrighteous,

i.

425.

Dharmakaya,

ii.

44, 45.

Diabolus, iii. 238.

Diaconic, i. 300.
Diadochi, i. 102.
Dialogues with Tat,
Diaspora, i. 255.
Diaulos, i. 149.

Didymus,

ii.

Dieterich,
197.

ii.

237.

72.

i.

82,

84,

90,

92,

94,

Dreams and

Diktys, i. 271, 286.

Dinarchus, ii. 236.

Dionysiac rites, i. 256.

Dionysian night-rites, i. 311.
Dionysius (the sculptor), i. 352.
Dionysius iEgeensis, i. 62.
Dionysus, i. 281, 298, 301, 302,
310, 313, 345, 347, 416,
bull-formed, i. 311 ; cup of,

453
gladsome, i. 312 ; ivy of,
i. 452
mysteries of, i. 311
i.
314
relics of, i.
Osiris and, i. 310
312 and Semele, i. 161 Spirit
;

318.
Thrice - Greatest
Disciples
of
Hermes, i. 481.
Disciples of the Christ, i. 290 ; of
God, i. 254 ; of the Logos, i. 243 ;
is, i.

Triad of, i. 476 ; the Twelve, i.

169 of Wisdom, iii. 303.
Discipline of the Priests, iii. 224 ;
;

of Souls,

ii.

347.

ii.

ecstasies,

203

iii.

the

people of, i. 162.

Drexler, i. 115, 166.
Druidical Gnosis, iii. 296.

Diochite, i. 292.
Diocletian, ii. 300.

305,

131, 132.
264.
Disobedient Ones, iii. 143.
Dispensation of all things, ii. 158 ;
of the Universe, ii. 173.
Divider of all, the, i. 236.
Divining, art of, i. 262.
Divinity, Feminine, ii. 32 ; Greatness of. ii. 309 ; Reason of, ii.
311, 318.
Dodecagon, i. 305.
Dodecaschoenus, iii. 155.
Dog, i. 87, 90, 277, 284, 288, 295,
296, 322, 325, 342, 352, 353, 358,
422.
Dog-days, i. 355.
Dog-headed, i. 355 ; ape, i. 55.
Dog-town, i. 354.
Dolphin, iii. 113, 180.
Door, About the Inner, iii. 275 ;
Inner, iii. 274, 280.
Doser, i. 465, iii. 155.
Double, image or, i. 189.
Dove, i. 352.
Dowsing in the Mind, ii. 255.
Dragon, i. 94, 352, 422, iii. 112,
180 ; lower, i. 426.
Dragon-slayer, i. 94.
Drainer of Water, ii. 39.
Draughts, i. 278.
Dream, ii. 222 ; of Scipio, i. 413.
Dream-sight, ii. 130.
ii.

Discourses, Detailed,

254.

Drummond,
Dry,

200.

i.

iii. 66
space,
Preau, i. 10.
Dual Soul, ii. 169.
;

ii.

75, 76.

Du

Dualism,

ii. 31, 115 ff.

Dualistic, ii. 140.
Dualists, Theory of the,
Diimichen, i. 49.

i.

Duncker and Schneidewin,

323.
i.

Duration, ii. 211.

Dwarf, iii. 165.
Dwelling of the Golden One,

Dyad,

i.

143.

i.

75.

275, 414.

Eagle, i. 56, 284, 330, 422, 446, 449,

iii. 133, 180.
Earth, ii. 209, iii. 66, 130, 261 ;
the black, i. 156 ; blood-red, iii.

277
277

fiery,

depths

iii.

of,

277 fleshly, iii.

Let there
i. 413
;

INDEX
iii. 262 ; primal, i. 310
red,
150 ; Sons of God on, i. 233 ;
very earth, iii. 17 ; virgin, iii.

be,

i.

277.

Ebionites,

Ebony,

i.

321.
177.

iii.

Ecstasis,

28,

ii.

61.

iii.

251, ii. 157, 161, 303.

Eden, i. 159 ; brain, i. 187 ; river
of, i. 187.
Edersheim, i. 200.
Efflorescence, iii. 100.
Efflux, God's, iii. 121, 122.
i.

125, 126, 131, 326, 389, 462,

i.

282 Child of, i. 139 ; first, i.

391 God from, i. 392 ; skull-like,
i. 391
sphere or, i. 427 ; throbii,

137

Watchers,

i.

iii.

337

i.

54
95 ;

names

emanation

teachers of
iii.
Greeks, iii.
mysteries,
286
grades of, i. 50 ; philosophy, i.
syncretism
rhetor, ii. 299
28
1000 B.C., i. 135 ; translation
from, iii. 294.
Egyptians, Gospel according to the, i.
doctrine,

150,

153, 242,

ii.

54,

164.

i.

152.

Embalmment, Ritual

of,

i.

460.

Embarking, i. 321.
Embryology, ii. 102.
Embryonic stages of Incarnation
(Pistis Sophia),

362,

Enclistra,

iii.

68.

159,

i.

300, 435,

ii.

237.

iii.

ii.

iii.

174.
93.

Eneyclopddie, (Pauly), i. 26, 33.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, i. 34.
Encyclopsedism, i. 107, 108.
End, i. 315.

Endymion,

of, ii. 98.

Egyptian alphabet,

142,

Elysian state,

Emanation, holy, iii. 121.

Emanations, i. 84.

Emptiness,

Egypt, is body, i. 164; image of

heaven, ii. 351 holy land, i. 70 ;
sacred language of, ii. 280 ; once
sea, i. 317
geographical symbols
of, iii. 186 theosophy of, iii. 323

of Decans,

iii.

i. 59, 160.
Eleusis, i. 178, 179, 180, ii. 171.
Elis, i. 359.
Elohim, Sons of, i. 159.
Elxai, i. 71 ; Booh of, i. 369.

Empedocles,

bing, i. 182.
Egregores, iii.
126.

wisdom

and enmity with,

Elephantine, i. 320, 477.

Eleusinian logos, i. 175 ; mysteries,

369.

i.

Economy,

Energies,

i.

ii.

151.
211, 212,

iii.

37.

Energy, ii. 259 and feeling, iii.

34, 40 ; of God, ii. 160, 178,
;

180, 203.

Enformation according to Gnosis,

ii.

246.

Engine of birth,

ii.

of Justice,
34
universe, iii. 50.
;

39
ii.

cosmic, ii.
41 ; of the

Enoch, Book of, i. 126, 424.

Entrance, i. 321
of the Golden
Heavens, i. 75 ; on Light, i. 79.
;

Egyptians, Greek disciples of, i.

274.
Eight, i. 71 ; at the, ii. 228 ogdoad or, i. 275 ; spheres, ii. 275 ;
wardens, i. 85, 121.
Eight-and-twenty, i. 320.
Eighteen, i. 319.
Eighth, ii. 16 ; sphere, ii. 42 ff.
El-Khargeh Oasis, iii. 216.
El Shaddai, i. 159.
Elder Horus, i. 279, 280, 334, 343,
;

367.

Eldest of
Elect,

311.

i.

Element, Configuration of the, iii.

276 the One, ii. 195, 244.
Elements of body, iii. 200 complaint of, iii. 118 ; four, ii. 311
friendship
133.

87.

i.

Eclipses,
Ecliptic,

38,

Eleians,

Earth-and- Water, ii. 5, 8, 37.

Earth-born, ii. 49 ; folk, ii. 122.
Ebers Papyrus, i. 50.

Egg,

341

i.

all

147,

Angels,
ii.

117.

i.

198.

Envy,

224.
Epachthe, i. 350.
Epaphos, i. 314.
Epeius, i. 446.
Epicurus, i. 323.
ii.

Epimetheus, iii. 274, 280, 282.

Epiphanius, ii. 79.
Epiphany, Feast of, iii. 160.
Epiphi, i. 331.
Epopt, ii. 93, iii. 188.
Epopteia, i. 263, ii. 21, iii. 159.
Epoptic, i. 362 ; mystery, i. 362.
Equator, iii. 177.

INDEX

342

Equilateral triangle, i. 305, 359.

Equilibrium, i. 56.
Er, "Vision of, i. 413, 426, 428,
437, ii. 15, 40, 187.
Erataoth, i. 422.

Erdmann,

i.

32.

Evoi, i. 186.
Excerpts from Theodotus, ii. 251.
Executioner, mind the, ii. 201.
Exegetica of Basilides, ii. 215.
Exhalation, iii. 206.
Existing Non-existences, i. 184.

125.
Eros, i. 125, ii. 309, 345.
Error, ii. 224.
Esaldaios, i. 159, 166.

Experience and memory, iii. 195.

Expository Sermons, ii. 250, 264,
iii. 54 ; to Tat, iii. 216, 256, 257,

Eschenbach,

Eye, altogether

Erebus,

i.

i.

259, 262, 263, 264, 266.

62.

first, iii.
Essence, ii. 269, iii. 84
of God, ii. 113, 199 ; in55
moist,
telligible, ii. 276, iii. 57
i. 187, 388,
390, 454, ii. 4, 75 ;
one, i. 391 ; primal, iii. 56 ; of
;

156.
Essence-chief, ii. 341.
Essenes, i. 30, 208, 369, 373, ii.
395.
Essential, iii. 236 ; birth, the, ii.
250 ; man, ii. 116, 251, 321.
Eternity, ii. 325, 366 ; Mon, i. 229,
seed,

i.

91 ; become, ii. 188 ; cosmos

of eternity, i.
imitator of, 368
moving image of, i. 405
91
illumined by Logos, i.
399 ;
maker of, i. 66 ; prince of, i. 132.
Etesian Winds, i. 316.
Ether, i. 125.
Etheric double, iii. 206 ; link, iii.
206.
iii.

Ethiopia (see ^Ethiopia), i. 98.

Ethiopian, i. 88 ; enchanters,

i.

Eucharist,

ii.

Eudoxus,

i.

(see

Eunomus the

106.

94.

269,
332, 343, 345.

Euhemerus

i.

274,

293,

Evemerus),

ii.

305,
162.

Locrian, ii. 300.

Eunuch, business of, i. 186.
Euphrates, i. 188; waters of the,
i. 426.
Euripides, i. 323, 352, 357.
Eusebius, i. 20, 123, 370.
Eustathius, i. 172.
Eve, iii. 280.
Eve, Gospel of, i. 142, ii. 24, 25,
238.
Evemerus (see Euhemerus), i. 257,
296, 297 theory of, i. 295.
Everard, i. 12.
239 ;
Evil angels, ii. 355, iii.
create, i. 91 ; Daimon, i. 355 ;
pleroma of, ii. 113.
;

i.

ii.

Ezekiel, Hebrew poet, i. 164.

Ezekiel, i. 154, 227, 379 ; Mercabah, or Chariot of, i. 238 ; Wheels
of, iii. 173.

Fabricius,

5,

i.

263.

ii.

Face, i. 433 ; of God, i. 218.

Fairbanks, i. 159.
Famine Years, Inscription of the
Seven, i. 466.
Famines, plagues and, iii. 49."
Farrar, ii. 55.
Fast to the world,

ii.

239.

Fate (see Heimarmene),

domad
385

iii.

of, ii.

7,

ii.

201,

61, 85, 265 ; heb251 ; and necessity,

procession of, ii. 49, iii.

273, 282, 326 ; providence and,
iii. 36, 55, 60 ; Sermons on, ii.
217.
Fate-Sphere, ii. 41, 282, 283.
Fates, i. 439.
Father of the seons, i. 411 ; Alone
Good, ii. 283 ; who is in the
Hidden, i. 209 House of the, i.
224 ; own, iii. 242.
ii.

Ethiopian History,

all,

165; heart's,

iii.

202, 273,

119.

214

apple
of
121
Horus, i. 336 House of, i. 288
iucorporeal, iii. 253
of intellect,
of mind, ii. 253 ; pupil
ii. 308
of,
Pupil of the
i.
84, 394
World's, iii. 159 ; of the soul, iii.
i.
129 ; spiritual,
214.
of,

Father-God,
Fatherhood,

ii.

i.

6.

150;

of

God,

i.

73.

Fatherless,

iii.

242.

Fawn-skin, i. 191, 311.

Fecund, iii. 254, 269.
Feeling, energy and, iii. 34.
Fellow-rulers of height, ii. 302.
Fence of fire, i. 427 ; of iniquity,
427 ; of the teeth, i. 162.
Ferment, i. 125, 396.
Fever, iii. 115.

i.

INDEX
Few, the,

i.

207,

346,

ii.

Ficinio, Marsiglio,

iii.

in

Fiery body, ii. 154, 171 ; ruler,

166 ; whirlwinds, i. 409.
Fifth part, a, ii. 318.
Fifty-six-angled,
Fig-leaf, i. 312.
Figs, i. 349.

i.

Flood,

11.

8, 9, 19.

i.

194

Foresight,

or layers,

iii.

Firmicus Maternus, i. 477.

i. 391 ; essence, iii. 55
God, i. 339, iii. 85 ; Hermes, ii.
83 ; man, i. 115, 139, ii. 27 ;
cube (Poseidon), i. 275 ; woman,

First, egg,

139,

ii.

27.

First-born God, ii. 203; His, i.

227 of water, i. 398.
Fish, broiled, i. 270 ; cosmic, ii.
great, i. 425 ; taboos, i
56
269.
Fish-eater (Oannes), i. 149.
Fisher-soul, i. 271.
Fishers, i. 59, 61 ; of men, i. 59,
372.
Fishes, i. 373.
Five, i. 336; branched, i. 266,
;

285

curii,

Fifths, the,

i.

203

Mer-

109.

i.

Five-branched, nor from, i. 265.

Flame, i. 457 ; rite of the, i. 93.
Flame-coloured robe, i. 331.
Flames, Chamber of, i. 75 ; Region
of,

i.

Foreknowledge,

51.

iii.

iii.

317
i.

86.

iii.

5.

12, 58, 96.

262.

Forethought, ii. 12, 39, iii. 22, 280.

Forgiveness of sins, i. 251.
Form, ii. 9 ; archetypal, ii. 6, 8, 9,
29 ; distinctive, ii. 244 ;
of
divine similitude, ii. 319 ; one,
ii. 35 ; root of, ii. 193 ; servant's,
i.

211.

i.

Food, twofold form of, ii.

forms of, ii. 317 ; of Gods,

iii.

i.

264

317

i.

the,

Forebears, ii. 329, 381, 382,

Forefather, iii. 21, 98, 292.

Firmaments,

ii.

He who in
169, 170; of
Nile, ii. 83 ; those of the, i. 154.
Flower of Fire, iii. 138.

263,

83, iii. 154, 276

the Dead, i. 109
preserved from the, i. 113

106,

habiteth

Finger on lips, i. 349.

Fire, ii. 310
fence of, i. 427 very
fire, iii. 17 ; flower of, iii. 138
knowing, iii. 98 ; and mind,
God of, i. 130 ordeal of, i. 79
robe of, ii. 152 ; and snow, i. 95
sons of, iii. 136
sphere of, i.
428
voice of, ii. 5, 26 ; and
water, iii. 66.
Fire-tenders, iii. 199.
Fire-tree, ii. 317.
Fire- workers, iii. 199.
Firmament, iii. 262,
water above, i. 188.

i.

Booh of

books
in Egypt,

i.

305.

343

398,

Formless state,

ii.

31, 45.

Formlessness, iii. 27.

Fornication, iii. 166.
Fornicator, ii. 202.
Fortune, ii. 341.
Fount of Light, i. 74.
Four, i. 337, ii. 65 ; elements,
311 ; quarters, i. 93 sets of,
328 ; winds, i. 60, 61, 84.
Fourteen pieces, i. 288, 320.
;

Fourth Gospel from

Gnostics,
i. 194.

i.

38

ii.

Alexandrine

quotations from,

Fourth state, i. 152.

Foxes have holes, iii.
Fragrance, force

ii.

35.

394.
158. .
From Thee to Thee, ii. 231, 254.
Fruit, Perfect, i. 182.
Fruitful, i. 177.
Frazer,

of,

i.

i.

Fulgentius, iii. 305.

Fullness, iii. 325 ; of Godhead,
117.
Furies,

i.

Gabriel,

i.

ii.

327.

422,

iii.

211.

Galaxy, i. 416.
Galen, i. 100.

Mount

Flask of clay,

Galilee,

Flautists,

ii.

Fleas,
Flesh,

51.

Ganges, Heavenly, i. 110.

Garamas, i. 149.
Gardener of Life, ii. 140.
Gardthausen, i. 113.
Garment, celestial, i. 399
of the
Christ, ii. 249 ; of shame, i. 153,

iii.

i. 190.
289.

refraining

tongue

from,

31.
Fleshless meal, ii. 390.
Flies, iii. 51, 133, 190.
of, ii.

Flock, sacred,

i.

226, 238.

i.

267

of, ii.

238.

242,

ii.

42.

344

INDEX

Garments, twelve sacramental stoles

182.
Garrucci, ii. 56.
or,

;;

iii.

Gate, guardian of the, i. 428 ; of

heaven, i. 181, ii. 240 ; which
Jacob saw, i. 171 ; mystery at
third, i. 190 ; True, i. 190.
Gate-keeper, i. 311.
Gates of Celestial Nile, i. 71 ; of
Gnosis, ii. 123 ; of Oblivion and
Wailing, i. 303 ; of the Sun, i.
162.

Gautama the Buddha,

317.

iii.

Gaze into the Light, i. 93 through

Me upon the Cosmos, ii. 179.
Genera, ii. 313 ff. restorer of all,
ii. 310 ; and species, ii. 378.
General, i. 296 ; instruction, ii.
236 Sermons, the, ii. 141, 145,
;

158,
308.

219,

236, 264,

45, 77,

iii.

Sabsean,

140; end of science,

ii.

147 ; seers of, ii. 94 ; Sethian,

i. 393 ; Simonian, ii. 107 ; of teachings, ii. 257 ; they who are in, ii.
of truth, i. 207
131, 137, 138
of Trismegistic documents, iii.
Unchristianised, iii. 323 ;
323
virtue of soul, ii. 167 ; way of, ii.
ii.

Generated Ingenerables,

184.

i.

Generation, i. 333.
Generative Law, the,

Geneses of Souls,

i. 191.
260.

ii.

26 of the
all, i.
and darkness,
i, 197
ground of, i. 337 matter's
becoming or, ii. 177
moist
and seed of
essence of, i. 170
all the gods, iii. 273
soul is
vase of,
cause of all in, i. 151
iii. 26
wheel of, i. 426, ii. 274,

Genesis,

148, 177,
406 ; of fire
ii.

iii.

mystic, iii.
sacred lands, iii. 184.
Gephyrgeans, i. 350.
Geryones, i. 147, 166.

130

of

Gnostic,
nias,

i.

i.

elements in HerFew, the, i. 382

250, ii. 348 ; Jottings,

377
376

Glories,

Horos, i.
things seen in the mysteries,

165 ; house of, i. 79

171 robe of, i. 361,
Glossalaly, i. 303.

ii.

Glosses,

i.

of,

43.

342.

Glow-Yforms,

Hermeticism

ii.

296

archaic,

iii.

322

beauty of, ii. 123 books on, iii.

231 Christianised, iii. 320 devotion joined with, ii. 114; of
things divine, iii. 233 ; of divinity,
;

ii.

another

192.

139

ii.

of piety,

5.

of,

i.

229

all-pure,

239

all,

212

ii.

295

iii.

apostles
artificer of time, i.
ii.

beyond

all names, ii. 99 ;

ii.
226; body of, ii.
85 Book of, i. 467 ; born in, ii.
244
born from rock, i. 95
breath of, i. 232, ii. 76; with
bull's foot, i. 311 ; as cause, ii.
66 celestial Messiah of, i. 226
child of, ii. 255 ; city of, i. 235,
245, 246, ii. 256 contemplator of
works of, iii. 245 cosmos, second,
ii.
125 ; creator, iii. 293
cupbearer of, i. 245 ; demiurge of, iii.
240 devotee of, ii. 131, 139 disciples of, i. 254
efHux of, iii.
122, 162 from egg, i. 392 energy

birth in,
;

391.

i.

Gnosis, i. 192, ii. 14, 17, 20, 90,

97, 131, 146, 246, iii. 76 ; of the
all,

for,

Goat-herd, i. 175.
ii.
358 ; is

king

ii.

i.

name

God,
258

80, 96.
75, 261 ; of celestial bodies,

iii.

150, 156.

iii.

i.

ii.

Goal of Gnosis,

Gibbon, i. 23.
Gift, God's greatest, ii. 95.
Gigantic Passions, i. 298.
Globe, winged, i. 390.

98.

Gnosticism,

283.

Geography,

Glory,

ii. 330 ; Druidical, iii.

296 enformation according to, ii. 246 ;
gate of, iii. 318 ; gates of, ii. 120,
123 ; goal of, ii. 139 ; of God, i.
147, ii. 150, 225, iii. 243, 326
of the Good, ii. 113, 144, 163
of Thrice -greatest Hermes, iii.
316 Introduction to the, ii. 68 ;
of joy, ii. 225 ; Judsso- Egyptian,
i. 31
to Klea concerning the, i.
261 ; light of, ii. 155 love of, iii.
260 Magian, iii. 296 ; of Man, i.
masters of, ii.
147, 178, iii. 323
162
ma thesis or, ii. 264 ; of
Mind, ii. 88, 96 ; apotheosis of
Mind, ii. 167 ; Ophite systems of,
bepath of, ii. 98, 195
i.
98
ginning of the Path, ii. 248 ;
prayerfor, ii. 49; pupil of, ii. 135 ;

INDEX
160, 178, 180, 203 ; essence
113, 199 ; essentiality of,
ii. 199 ; eye of, i. 247, ii. 312 ;
face of, i. 218 ; father, ii. 67 ;
fatherhood of, i. 73 ; of fire and
of,

ii.

of,

ii.

mind, i. 130;
85 first-born,

first,
ii.

339,

i.

203

gift

iii.

of,

gnosis of, i. 147, ii.

150, 225, iii. 243, 329 ; and
Gods, ii. 67 ; Good, ii. 240 ; is
good, ii. 66 ; Good is, ii. 110,
112; the Good of, ii. 189;
greatness of, ii. 244 ; herald of,
ii. 95 ; house of, i. 171, 181, ii.
240 ; ignorance of, ii. 120
image of, i. 232, 236, ii. 91, 92,
two images
100, iii. 236, 244
ii.

87, 95

of, ii.

326

ineffability of,

iii.

14,

knower of
294
Laughter, Son
of,
law
iii.
195
220
light of, i. 232
likeness with,
ii. 132
love of, ii. 323 lyre of,
ii. 292
Man of, i. 411 Mind is,
iii. 305 ; imperishable Mind, iii.
113 musician, ii. 288 mysteries
of, i. 213
mystery of, Son of, i.
226 ; name of, i. 198, 234, ii.
one and
344, iii. 293 one, i. 53
sole, iii. 266 ; organ of will of,
ii.
133 Osiris, a dark, iii. 156
place of, i. 233,
oracle of, i. 250
race of, i.
ii. 71
primal, i. 135
;
253 race, friend of, i. 233 ray
of, ii. 275
rays of, ii. 155 river
of, i. 244
from rock, i. 392,
399 sacrifice to, iii. 243 second,
i.
230, ii. 127, 170, 320, 365;
seeds of, ii. 131, 137; seer of,
sense-and- thought of, ii.
iii. 298
servant,
sensible, ii. 311
135
servants of, i. 212, 220
i. 251
i.
shepherd,
shadow of, i. 236
son of, i. 138, 157, 198,
226
216

true,
of,

inner,

ii.

97, 196

ii.

i.

345

280 ; way to worship, ii. 212,

243 ; who lookest behind
thee, i. 59
will of, ii. 160, 220,
wisdom of, ii. 176.
395, iii. 195

ii.

iii.

132, 133, 135.

God-gnosis, ii. 88, 93, 138, iii. 238 ;
devotion is, ii. 131, 136.
God-the-Mind, male and female,

God-circle,

ii.

7.

God- words,

i. 134.
Goddess-of-child-bed-town,

Godhead, fullness
Godlessness,

Gods,

choir

spirit of,

ii.

81

is spirit, ii.

71

beyond
228
ununderstanding, iii. 229
way of
wearied spirit, ii. 290
birth in, ii. 223, 244 ; way up to,
two temples

of,

i.

206

of,

i.

279

creation of,

iii.

Going-forth, the,

Going-home,

ii.

ii.

246.

98.

Gold, Chamber of, i. 75 heavenly

flame of Burning, i. 75.
Golden age, iii. 135 ; calf, i. 316 ;
hawk, i. 76 ; heaven of Isis, i.
75 ; Horus, i. 76 ; One, Dwelling
;

of,

75.

i.

Good,
175
163

211

Beauty
Daimon,

402,

Son

88,

ii.

of,

All and, ii.

144, 145,

ii.

i.
84, 92, 94, 97,
156, 199, 203, 204, 206,
iii. 151, 155, 255 ; Daimon,

ii.

gnosis

of, ii.

355.

i.

117.

cyclic, ii. 77, 89 ; duty of,

272 Egyptians don't mourn
if they believe in, i. 351 ; food
of, i. 86 ; genesis and seed of all,
iii.
273 ; great, i. 127, 347 ;
hymn of, iii. 91 ; inerrant, ii.
lan145 ; intelligible, iii. 25
guage of, ii. 279, iii. 323 ; immortal men, ii. 213 mother of,
i. 152, 176 ; mountain of, i. 244
;
On the, iii. 289 path up to, ii.
169, 299 ; proscription of worship
of, i. 399
scribe of, i. 53
scribe
of the nine, i. 50 six-and-thirty,
iii.
star-flocks of, i. 373
49
super-cosmic, ii. 373 ; way-ofbirth of, ii. 242 ye are, i. 163.

105

ii.

332 ; sons of, i.

sons of,
198, 229, iii. 217, 316
in Hellenistic theology, iii. 218
sower,
sons of the one, i. 234
sphere of, ii. 230
220
ii.
song

birthdays

of, ii.

213

of, ii.

200.

ii.

145

ii.

226, ii. 28, 116, 118, 133, 140,

221, 222, 241, iii. 239, 275, 280,

282

i.

f.,

of,

i.

104

efllux of,

i.

361

113, 144, 163 ; God,

ii. 240 ; is God, ii. 110, 112 ; of
God, ii. 189 ; good- will of, iii.
241 ; husbandman, ii. 213, 265 ;
imperfect, i. 320 ; Itself, iii. 293 ;
law, iii. 8 ; Logos, i. 333 ; mind,
ii. 127,
155, 156 ; news, i. 141
path of the, ii. 190 ; own path
of, ii. 189, 196, iii. 330 ; perfect,
i. 205 ; physician, i. 461, ii. 213
;
of, ii.

INDEX

346
pleroma
i.

of,

37, 373,

261

iii.

vision

of,

117

ii.

52

ii.

shepherd,

213;

ff.,

threshold of,
119, 143.

spirit,

ii.

97

ii.

Good-Doer, i. 320.
Goodness, i. 215.
Gordian, ii. 198.
Goropius Becanus, i. 20.
According
Gospel, iii. 135
;

to the

Egyptians, i. 38, 142, 150, 153,

242, ii. 54, 164
of Em, i. 85,
142, ii. 24, 25, 238 ; fragment of
a lost, i. 153 According to the
Hebrews, ii. 238 ; of Osiris, i.
;

367 ; of Perfection, i. 142 ; of

Philip, i. 142 ; proem to the
fourth, ii. 371 ; quotations from
the fourth, i. 194 ; According to
Thomas, i. 142, 155, iii. 37.
Gourd-tree, ii. 56.
Grace, ii. 20.

Grand Master,

ii.

300.

Grasshoppers, ii. 292.

Grave, three days in the, i. 71.
Graves, dead shall leap forth from,
172.

Great Announcement,

184,

i.

ii.

70, 170, 317.

299
ii. 169, iii.
beasts, i. 424
425
body of Cosmos, ii. 128 boundcreator, Light,
ary, ii. 29, 35
i. 71,
79 ; fish, i. 425 Gods, i.
127, 347 ; Green, i. 84, 92, 94,
131, 132, 176, 424, iii. 154;
heart, i. 131 ignorance, iii. 140
Jordan, i. 163 ;
initiator, ii. 21
King's viceroy, i. 226 ; likeness,
and little man, ii. 23
ii. 164
Man, i. 60, ii. 40,
lives, ii. 128
56 ; Man from Above, i. 150
Man, Body of, i. 425; Mind,
ii.
213 ; Mother, mysteries of
Mysteries, the, i.
the, i. 186
Name, i.
185, 217, 362, ii. 240
93 ; Ocean, i. 171, ii. 92 Power,
i.
184 ; Ptah, the, i. 130, 135 ;
Pyramid, i. 69 saying, iL 234
27,
sea, iii. 163 ; serpent, ii.
Vehicle of
snake, ii. 26
35
Buddhism, ii. 44; work, iii.
317, 329 ; year, iii. 290.

Great, art divine,

heast,

i.

i. 53, 88, 118 ff.

Grihastha Ashrama, ii. 73.

Griffith,

Ground of

Genesis,

337.

i.

Grudging, ii. 86, 108.

Guardian of the Gate,

Guards of the whole,

Guile,

23.

Granger, i. 36 ff., 260, ii. 50;

theory of, ii. 51.
Grasshopper, story of Pythic, ii.

i.

Greater deaths, greater lots, i. 180.

Greatness, ii. 187, 222, 244, 344 ;
a, i. 185 ; of divinity, ii. 309 ;
of God, ii. 244.
Greatnesses, i. 165, ii. 28.
Greek, disciples of Egyptians, i.
286 ; names in foreign
274,
languages, i. 342 philosophizing,
ii. 267, 281
wisdom, i. 193.
Greeks, Protrepticus, or Exhortation
to the, ii. 300.
Green, Great, i. 92, 94, 132, 176,
424, iii. 154 ; tree, i. 266.
Grenfell and Hunt, i. 93.
Grief, ii. 224, iii. 42.

i.

iii.

428.
48.

224.

ii.

Gymnosophists,

i.

208.

Habit, ii. 41.

Habitat of excarnate

souls,

iii.

210.

Hades,

i. 302, 305,
325, 327, 342,
350, 362, 453, ii. 337, 338;
vision of, i. 223 ; visit to, i.
380 ; way of salvation from, i.
152.
Hadrian, i. 195.
Haf, i. 462.
Haggadist, ii. 239.

Haimos,

169.

i.

Hall of the Altar, i. 74 ; of the

Child in his Cradle, i. 74, 75 ;
of the Golden Rays, i. 75.

Halm,

56.
iii. 101, 117.
or soma-plant, i. 325.
Harbour of good things, i. 293
salvation, ii. 123.
i.

Hands,

Haoma

Hardadaf,

of

467.
Fabricius, i. 23.
i. 174, iii. 166.
Harmonic canon, iii. 176.
Harmony, i. 323, ii. 9, 10, 15, 16,
39, 41, 89, iii. 63, 64, 66, 67, 74,
80, 86 ; heavenly, ii. 253 ; true,
ii. 251 ; of wisdom, i. 237.
Harnack, i. 469, ii. 55.

Harles,
Harlot,

i.

i.

Harnebeschenis (see Arnebeschenis),

i.

76,

iii.

209.

Harper, story

of,

ii.

291.

INDEX
Harpocrates,

291, 346, 349,

i.

ii.

265.

i.

Hating,

Hawk,

i.

115

ii.

429

i.

ii.

95.

353, 355,
golden, i. 76.
Above, descent from,
;

Head-born,

359.
Healer, Asclepius the, i. 467.
Health, iii. 203 ; of soul, ii. 257.
Hearer, i. 185, 292, ii. 255.
Heart, iii. 75 ; appetite and, iii.
78 ; eyes of, ii. 121 ; great, i.
131 ; of Ra, i. 53 ; of silence,
i. 73 ; and tongue, i. 136.
Hearth, common, iii. 171 ; of universe, iii. 172.
Heather-bush, i. 284.
Heather-tree, i. 284.
i.

Heaven, beauty
earth

of,

iii.

contrasted,

Egypt image
181,

queen

ii.

of,

160

411,

i.

ii.

240,

of, iii.

ocean,

iii.

94

iii.

351 ;
157

and

10 ;
gate of,
9,

iii.
;

Isis,

law of, iii. 62 ;

154 ; pole-lords

power to travel
176
through, ii. 197 ; seven fortunes
i.
of,
176; song of, ii. 384;
sphere-like, i. 390 ; Thee I adthird, i. 166, 173
jure, iii. 269
tongues of, ii. 32 ; voices from, i.
323 ; war in, iii. 118.
Heaven-born, ii. 162.
of,

i.

Heaven- walkers, i. 101.

Heavenly bodies, iii. 301 ; chariot,
flame of burning gold,
iii. 173
Ganges, i. 110 ; harmony,
i. 75
;

horn, i. 167, 193, 453 ;

Jerusalem, i. 74 ; Man, ii. 102,

ii.

iii.

253

277; Nile,

iii.

158;

Word

proceeding forth, iii. 254.

Heavens, Entrance of the Golden,
i. 75 ; kingdom of, i. 185 ; kingship of, i. 167, ii. 43 ; overseers
sound of, i. 161.
of, i. 126
Hebdomad, Athena, i. 275 ; celestial, i. 422 ; of Fate, ii. 251 ;
Ophite, i. 421.
:

Hebrew

384,

(Fate),

Hekekyan Bey,
Helen,

275, 341,

ii.

273.

iii.

111.

i.

147.
Heliopolis, i. 103.
i.

Heliopolitan theology,

169.

i.

i.

Heimarmene

of body,

56, 329, 330,

i.

133, 181

Head,

the,

i. 268, 274, 472.

322, 352.
Hedgehogs, i. 325.
Heh, i. 407.
Height of Cosmos to Depths of
Earth, i. 413.

Hecate,

fish,

iii.

to

238.
Hecatseus,

179.
i. 308.
Hateful cloak, ii. 121.
Hathor, i. 74, 316.

Hate

Hebrews, Gospel according

ii.

Harpocratians, i. 147.
Harris Papyrus, i. 131.
Harrison (Jane E.), i. 310.

Hatch,

347

influence,

ii.

38, 81.

i. 135.
Helios, i. 278.
Hellanicus, i. 310.
Hellas, Bible of, i. 193; wisdom
of, 186.
Hellenistic, myth of Anthropos, i.
143 ; theology, i. 200, 202, 218,
255.

Hemisphere, upper,

Hemlock juice,
Hep-Tep,

i.

148

who

61,

i.

men

271.

74.

Hephgestus,
iii.

ii.

179.

i.

is, iii.

of,

130, 307, 347,

iii.

183; Ptah

96.

Hera, i. 305, 307.

Heracleian stone,

i. 189.
Heracleides, i. 301.
Heracleitus, i. 302, 323, 327, 361
sayings of, ii. 213.
Heracles, i. 303, 318, 319.

Heracleon, i. 39.
Herald, ii. 86 ; of God,

Herb-knowers,
Herba medica,
Hercules,
of,

i.

ii.

95.

111.
293.

iii.
i.

myth

of,

i.

147

noose

61.

Hermseus, i. 314, 320.

Hermaica, iii. 252.
Hermaic, books, iii. 293 doctrines,
iii.
292 ; writings, ii. 169, iii.
;

297.

Hermanubis, i. 342.
Hermaphrodites, ii. 37.
Hermas, Apocalyptic,

i.
378 ;
Gnostic elements in, i.
376 ;
higher criticism of, i. 370 : name
of, i. 374 ; Old Latin version of,
i. 378 ; Pastoral, i. 370 ; Shepherd
of, i 369, ii. 238, 248, iii. 319
shepherd of, ii. 229, 232.
Hermeneutic, i. 300.
Hermes, i, 278, 295, 319, 334, ii.
38, iii. 234; (I.), ii. 83, iii. 147,
;

348

INDEX

152

i. 104, iii. 152

(III.),
Alchemical literature, i.
5.; all-knowing, iii. 95
apophthegm of, iii. 88 Arab tradition,

Hierarchies, ii. 276, 314, 340, 342.

Hieratic, iii. 276 ; books, iii. 225.
Hieroglyphics, i. 134, 276, 277, 312,
330.

and Asclepius, apotheosis

of, iii. 222
and Asclepius, sons
of God, iii. 217
and Basilides,

Hierophants,

iii.

(II.),

303

i.

215 beloved son of Zeus, i.

122; books of, 115, 196, 342,
380, iii. 282,
289; books of
described by Clem, of A., iii. 222
city of, i. 87 ; columns or pillars
of, i. 112
first natural philosopher, iii. 237 ; gnosis of, iii.
316 the Gnostic, iii. 320 ; grade
of, ii. 250 ; great-and-great, i.
117 inspirer, iii. 286; inventions
of, i. 5 Kriophoros, ii. 52 ; Logius,
ii. 54 ; Logos, i. 158 ; master of
all physics, iii. 226 ; mind of, iii.
260
monuments of, i. 113 ;
prior to Moses, i. 19
Paut of, i.
263 prayer of, i. 402 ; prayers,
i. 82
a race or being, iii. 135 ;
religion of, i. 82
rod of, i. 61,
160, 161 ; scriptures of, iii. 227 ;
spell of, iii. 97 ; suppliant of, ii.
236 ; teacher of reincarnation, iii.
227
ten-thousand-times-great,
iii. 276 ; Thoth the first, i. 104
writer of scripture, iii. 227
Word who brings tidings from
God, iii. 217.
Hermes-city, i. 329.
ii.

Hermeses and Asclepiuses, many,

iii.

221.

Hermetic tradition, origins of

iii.

the,

233.

Hermippus de Astrologia Dialogus,

iii.

270.

Hermodotus,

i.

298.

i.

342.

Hesiod,

265, 300, 338, 389.

305.
Hesychius, i. 100, 269.
Het-Abtit, House of the Net,
Hexads, ii. 117.
Hexsemeron, iii. 117.

128 ; of Shepherd of Hernias,

370.
Hilaria, i. 152.
Hildebrand, ii. 307, 392.
Hilgenfeld, i. 370.
Hilgers, i. 25 ; theory of, i. 369.
i.

i.

Hippocrates, i. 155.
Hippolytus, i. 94; Conclusion of,
i. 186 ; and the divulging of the
Mysteries, i. 140; Philosoph-

umena

of,

140.

i.

Hippopotamus,
Hoeffer,

i.

Hoffmann
i.

i.

329, 330, 427.

27.
(G.),

i.

33

(S. F.

W.),

9.

Holiness,

Song

of, ii.

Holy, Holy, Holy,

50.
19.

ii.

Homer, i. 309, 318, 327, 330, 388 ;

on daimones, i. 299
nodding,
;

the good, i. 196.

Homilies, Clementine,

i.

388,

ii.

72.

Honey, i. 349, 364.

Honey-brew, i. 347.
Honey-clover, i. 284, 315.
Hor, Son of the Negress, i. 88
Son of Pa-neshe, i. 119.
Horapollo, i. 48, 55, 56, 408.
Horizon, i. 74, 332 ; of Light, i. 75.
Horizoned, i. 335.
Horn, the, i. 190 ; of Men, i. 166 ;
of one-horned bull, i. 187.
Horoeus, i. 427.
Horos or Boundary, ii. 366 Great
Boundary, ii. 29 ; Gnostic, i.
250, ii. 348 ; Mighty Power, ii.

33.

Heru-p-Khart, i. 346.
Heru-ur. i. 279.
Hestia,

i.

Hermopolis, i. 56, ii. 382.

Heru-Behutet, i. 57.

Heru-em-Anpu,

i.
210,
211 ;
of
212.
Hierosolymus, i. 307.
Higher Criticism of Pcemandres,

mysteries,

'i.

Horoscopes, ii. 193, 341.

Horse, i. 290.
Horses, i. 430 yoke of, i. 430.
Horus, i. 53, 63, 77, 88, 92, 94,
132, 133, 136,
334,
ii.
51 ;
bastardy suit against, i. 291
birth of, i. 75, 76, 95, iii. 122,
157, 160, 162, 242
birthday of
Eye of, i. 331 ; Birthdays of, i.
332 ; bone of, i. 189, 343 ; how
born, i. 315; Books of Isis and, iii.
208 Books of Isis to, iii. 313 ;
;

i.

i.

58.

Hezekiah, ii. 232.^

Hibbert Journal, ii. 71.
Hidden mystery in silence, the, i.
167 ; Places, House of the, i. 68.

INDEX
brethren, i. 66 ; companions of,
i. 270, 290 ; is cosmos surrounding earth, i. 321 ; cosmos that is,
cutting up into pieces of,
i. 338
i.
291 ; elder, i. 279, 280, 334,
343, 346, 367 ; eye of, i. 336 ;
gold- miner, iii. 209 ; golden, i.
76 ; Isis to, iii. 87 ; questions of
;

290 and Set, i. 56,

white, i. 296 ; worshippers
57
the younger, i. 291.
of, i. 147
Hour, i. 72, 266.
House, ii. 117
of body, ii. 321
of virginity,
of the eye, i. 288
i.
218
of Father, i. 224
of
of God, i. 171, 181,
glory, i. 79
Hidden
Places,
i.
ii. 240
of
68
of Net, i. 58
of Osiris, i. 79
Osiris to,

i.

robber in thy,
Hu-siris,

Humanists,

17, 18

i.

Husbandman,

263

ii.

MSS., i. 8.
Achaab, ii.

265 good, ii. 213, 265.

Hyades, i. 161.
Hye Kye, i. 160.
i.

161, 310.

"Holy

Thou,"

art

19;

ii.

for

evening prayer,
ii. 252
of Re-birth, ii. 229
to
of Yalentinus,
the Sun, ii. 253
for

ii.

284.

Hymnody, secret, ii. 230

Hymns, Orphic, ii. 235.

f.

Hyparxis, ii. 269.

Hysterema, ii. 239.

120.
Illumination, i. 241, ii. 255 ; degrees of, iii. 208.
Image, ii. 35, 368 ; divine, i. 235 ;
or double, i. 89 ; of God, i. 232,
ii.
91, 92, 100, iii. 236, 244;
His, i. 233 ; after His, ii. 125 ;
of,

ii.

image of,
Images,

i. 235; of the One, ii. 118.

adoration of,
ii.
286 ;

ii.

381.

Imhotep, i. 459.
Immisch, i. 169.
Immortality, ii. 210 ; cup
draught of,
iii.
205
iii.

am

thou,

85, 87, 89,

i.

I-em-Hetep,
Ialdabaoth,
Iao,

i.

i.
i.

ii.

24.

457.
139, 159, 422.

411.

Iao Zeesar,

191.

Iamblichus (see Jamblichus).

Iatromathematici, i. 471.
Ibis, i. 48, 54 ff., 87, 353,

symbolism

of,

i.

358.

Inaction,

ii.

Inbreathing,

ii.

178.
iii.

194

of universe,

254.

Incantations, i. 88.
Incarnation, iii. 145 ; embryonic
stages of (Pistis Sophia), iii. 68.
Incarnations of Thoth, i. 463.
Incense, i. 363.
Increase and multiply, i. 37, ii. 12,
38, 82.
India, i. 208, 303,
Raj in, i. 354.

ii.

197

British

Indian, ii. 353 ; wisdom, ii. 198.

Indians, ii. 401.
Induced Days, i. 279, 280.
Inexpressible man, i. 170.
Inferi, ii. 338.
Initiates, the Bacchic, i. 191 ; of
Isis, i. 263
Orphic, i. 95, 191.
Initiation,
iii.
323 ;
"in the
black," i. 91; Cup of, ii. 94;
into Divine Mysteries, i. 208 ;
doctrines of, i. 73
final, ii. 43 ;
hall, i. 179 ; Isis a grade of, iii.
in the
208 ; mount of, ii. 238
sacred rites, iii. 257 ; of Tat, iii.
313; temples of, i. 74; theurgic
:

355;

iii.

163

163.

i.

of,

Impression of a seal, i. 215, 395.

Impulses, ii. 204.
Imuth-brotherhood, iii. 148.
Imuth-Asclepius, i. 466.

ii.

120 ; great, iii. 140 ; mystery of,

ii. 25
sea of, ii. 123
way out
of, ii. 237
web of, ii. 121 wine

philtre of,

Hyle, i. 151, 389.

Hylic animal, ii. 63 ; cosmic, ii.
319 Mind, i. 452 ; Nous, i. 416.
Hymn of the iEons, ii. 43 to AllGod, ii. 108
to Amen-Ra, i.
131
to Attis, ii. 56 ; of the
Four, ii. 389 ; of the Gods, iii.
91
to Jupiter Ammon, i. 149
Orphic, iii.
Naassene, ii. 109
269 of Osiris and Isis, iii. 124,
146 ; of Praise, ii. 49 of Praise

morning and

Idea, i. 336. ii. 185.

Ieou, First Book of, i. 172.
Iexai, ii. 242.
Ignorance, ii. 146, 246 ; of God,

Hyes (Hues),

Ibis-headed moon-god, i. 47.

Icheneumon, i. 356, 436.

sacred,

121.

ii.

310.

i.

349

rite of,

ii.

255.

350

INDEX

Initiations, iii. 171 ; of the Assyrians, i. 151 ; Therapeut, i. 251.

Initiator, iii. 251 ; Great, ii. 21 ;

Thoth
Ink,

the,

i.

149.
Inn or caravanserai, ii. 283.
Inner, doctrine of the mystery-institutions, i. 141 ; Door, i. 157,
iii.

the,

iii.

way,

274, 280
275, 295 ;
101.

i.

Door, About
man, iii. 277 ;

Iniquity, Fence of, i. 427.

Insufficiency, ii. 174, 241, 245.
Intef, Stele of, i. 138.
Intellect of Cosmos, ii. 373
eye of,
ii. 308.
Intellectual Light, iii. 257, 268.
Intelligible cosmos, i. 146, ii. 167,
194, 273, 275, 286 ; essence, ii.
model, i. 241.
276, iii. 57
Intemperance, ii. 224.
Interception, i. 319.
Intercourse of souls, ii. 314.
Interpreter, i. 158.
Intf, i. 467.
Intoxication, i. 414.
Invention, iii. 98.
Inventor of philosophy, i. 138.
Invert himself, ii. 243.
Invocation, of the powers, ii. 249 ;
theurgic rite of, ii. 245.
Io, i. 314.
Irenseus, i. 139, ii. 27.
Iris, i. 292.
Isaac, i. 217, 220, 221.
;

Isaiah,

ii.

232

The Ascension

of,

ii. 232.
Iseion, i. 263.
Ishon, iii. 165.
Isia, i. 341.

Isis,

i.

beheading
iii.
316

i.
291
books of
Horus and, i. 481 ; feminine
principle of Nature,
i.
333
Golden Heaven of, i. 75 ; hastening, i. 340 ; to Horus, iii. 87 ;
house of, iii. 163 ; true initiate
of, i. 256, 263 ; grade of initiation, iii. 208 ; Intercession of,
iii.
87; from "knowledge," i.
341 ; Lady, iii. 155 ; mysteries
of, i.
155, iii. 182; and Osiris,
texts and translations of Plutarch
on, i. 259 ; Queen of Heaven, iii.
160; robe of, i. 62, 264.
;

of,

of,

303

ii.
;

seeing,

i.

198.
Israelitismus, i. 124.
Italy, iii. 131.

Ithakesian Island men,

Ithyphallus, i. 158.
Jackal, i. 87.
Jacob, i. 217

Jamblichus,

dream

i.

112,

i.

270.

i. 223.
169, 280,

of,

ii.

iii.

285.

James, Brother of the Lord, i. 143,

147 ; the Just, i. 148 ; John, and
Peter,

475.

i.

Janus, i. 59.
Japanese, the, ii. 302.
Jennings, Hargrave, i. 12.
Jeremiah, i. 178, 217.
Jerusalem, i. 246 ; Above,
183,

245,

Below,
Jeschu,

i.

ii.

42,

251,

163,

i.

iii.

100;

178.
335, ii. 239.

i.

Jeschu (Jesus), i. 165.

Jeschu ha-Notzri, i. 270.
Jesus, i. 147; body of, i. 286;
cult of, ii. 138
the living one,
i.
93 ; logoi of, iii. 246 ; Sisters
;

of,

i.

147.

Jesus Christ, spiritual oblations

through, ii. 254 ; through, ii.
255.

Jesus (Joshua),

i.

164.

Jivanmukta, ii. 167.

Jnana-Marga, ii. 119.
Johannine document,
i.

63, 279, 332, 346, 349, 373,

30
books
ii.

ingathering of,
the myths of, i. 202

Israel,

71.

iii.

270,

Isis-Righteousness, i. 85.
Isis-Sophia, iii. 134.

sources

of,

195.

John, Acts of, ii. 55, 238.

John, the Baptist, i. 470.
Jonah, ii. 56.
Jordan, Great, i. 163.
Joseph, i. 220.
Josephus, i. 103, 113, 114.
Jothor, i. 164.
Joy, i. 220, ii. 346 ; grief and,
iii.
42 ; lord of, i. 74 ; religion
of,

i.

73.

Judseo-Egyptian gnosis, i. 31.

Judseus and Hierosolymus, i. 307.
Judge, of two combatant Gods, i.
of the dead, i. 64.
53
Judges, statues of, i. 276.
Judgment, i. 79 ; scene, i. 55.
;

Judgments

of value,

iii.

317.

351

INDEX
Julian, the Emperor, i. 113, iii.
303.
Juniper, i. 364, 365.
Jupiter, i. 416, 418, 419.
Jupiter Amnion, Hymn to, i. 149.
Just, the, i. 70, 79, 156.
Justice, i. 359, iii. 58, 243 ; engine

Justification,
Justified,

Ka,

i.

i.

79.

71,

iii.

Knife,

320.

89, 97, 132,

i.

134, 280,

133,

287.
Kabalah, i. 281.
Kabeiros, i. 149.

463,

iii. 151.
277.
Knowledge, vehicle of, i. 49.
Kopto, i. 283.
Koptos, i. 305.
Kore, i. 59, 151, 318, iii.
Descent of, i. 350.
Koreion, i. 403, iii. 161.

263.

i.

Kingsford and Maitland, i. 15.

Kingship of Heavens, i. 167, ii. 43.
to, i. 276.
Klea, i. 260, 264, 310

Kneph, i. 295.
Kneph-Kamephis,

of, ii. 41.

Justice (Maat),

and escort of souls of, iii. 127 ;

presidents of common weal and
peace, ii. 293 ; successions of, i.
315.

ii.

Kabiri (Cabiri), Seven,

127,

i.

i.

Korybantes

ii.

161

Corybantes),

(see

i.

149.

279.

Kakodaimon, i. 448.
Kamephis, iii. 107, 149, 159, 167.
Karma, instrument of, iii. 116.
Karmic, agents, ii. 282 ; scales,
Teller of the,
Kastor, i. 306.

i.

72

wheel,

ii.

Korybas, i. 169.
Koshas, ii. 168.
Kriophoros, ii. 54.
Kroll,

83.

Kathopanishad, ii. 168, 317.

Kaulakau, i. 165, ii. 80.

Kenyon,

i.

Khaibit,

i.

82, 86, 117.

76 t 89.

Khamuas, Tales

of,

118,

i.

281,

100, 101.
Cronus), i. 151, 278,
298, 307, 322, 350 ; that is,
Ammon, ii. 279 ; whether blest
child of, i. 185 ; sacred dirge on,
i. 30 ; tears of, i. 308.
Kuphi, i. 332, 364, 366.
Kuretes, i. 149.
i.

Kronos

(see

380.

Khat,

Labyrinth of

89.

i.

Khemennu,

53, 56, 58, 65

eighth city," i. 120.

Khepera,

Khmun,
Khu,

i.

i.
i.

i.

"the

191.

King, Ambassador of the, i. 250 ;

Ammon, i. 77, ii. 280 ; Correspondence of Asclepius with the,
ii. 278 ; of glory, i. 171 ; God as
shepherd and, i. 226 the highest, ii. 293
The Perfect Sermon
to the, ii. 266, 281 ; Praising of
the very statues of
the, ii. 294
the, ii. 298
the true, ii. 302.
King (L. W.). i. 61, 328, 344, 348.
;

iii.

144.

Kingdom

of the Heavens, the, i.

185 ; within man, i. 155.
Kingdoms, doivnfalls of, iii. 48.
Kings, iii. Ill, 126 ; Catalogue of,
i. 277 ; divine, i. 106 ; encomium
of,

ii.

299

eulogy

glorious fame

of, ii.

i.

Words,

89.

King-soul,

i.

ills, i.

of,

292

ii.
;

298
guard
;

191.

352.
442.

Ladder, of Being,

357.
119, 120.

Kid, thou hast fallen into the milk,

i.

Lachares,
Lachesis,

ii.

165

239.
Lady, of heart and tongue,
of all wisdom, iii. 208.
Lagides, i. 99.
Lake Mareotis, ii. 403.
Lame, i. 334.

of the

i.

iii.

208

Lamp-magic, i. 92.
Land, Black, iii. 158 ; Blessed, iii.
282; of Eternal Dawn, i. 80;
flowing with milk and honey, ii.
251 of the Living, i. 50, 51
Seriadic, i.
of the Lord, ii. 251
;

110ff.

114.

Lang, Andrew, i. 258.

Language, of Gods, ii. 279

Word,

i.

Larks, i. 356.
Lauchert, i. 56.
Laughter, i. 221
iii.

of the

54.

seven peals

of,

137.

Law, body

of, ii.

191; of God,

44 generative,
195; good, iii.

iii.

i.

8.

; ;

INDEX

352
Laws, of Lycurgus,
ii.

ii.

235

238

sacred,

235.

Laya,

260.
Layers, iii. 194.
Laying-on of hands,
Lazarel, Loys, i. 10.

ii.

Light-giver,

246

i.

Lily,

ii.

28,

278.

iii.

i.

29.

ii.

iii.

11.

77.

i.

Limbs,

346.
415.

375

i.

veil,

i.

religion

Light-word, ii. 5.
and unlike,
Like, ii. 90
Likeness (see Image).

82, 84, 90.

i.

75

i.

179.
Light-God, i. 473.
Light-man, iii. 279.
Light-spark, i. 395,

167.

Leemans,
Lentils,

of,

revealer of,

Light-Darkness,

242.

Lazarus, i. 71.
Lead, i. 282.
Leading Forth, i. 164.
Leah, i. 217.
Leaven hid in three measures of
i.

73

i.

treasure of,
29, 31.

ii.

flour,

chamber

of,

387,

ii.

iii.

277.

Leo, i.
Leontocephale, la divinite, i. 399.
Lepsius, i. 49, 69.
Lethe, Plain of, i. 447 ; River of,

Linen, i. 71, 265 ; cloth, i. 71.

Linus, i. 293 ; song of, i. 293.
Lion, i. 56, 90, 290, 314, 422, 446,

416, 452.
Leto, i. 315.
Letronne, i. 107, 117.
Leviathan, i. 267, 423, 424.
Liberation, ii. 167.
Library, i. 102 ; Alexandrian, i.
of Egyptian
catalogue
197
priestly, iii. 225 ; of Osymandias,
i. 50
of priesthood of Ra, i. 103 ;
at Thebes, i. 465.
Libya, Mount of, ii. 382.
Libyan Hill, ii. 360, 402.
Life, ii. 184 ; circle of types of, ii.
194 ; gardener of, ii. 133, 140 ;
and Light, ii. 13, 14, 20, 226,
231, iii. 325 ; lord of, i. 132 ;
place of, ii. 133 plastic, iii. 210

Lionardo of Pistoja,

449,

i.

(see

Beh-

ii.

24,

116,

239,

Logoi, Behnesa,

ii.

17,

239

234

Logos,

406

79.

Life-giving one,
292.

268; and life

77 Logos is,
manifestation to, iii. 160
i. 231
mountain of, ii.
moist, i, 391
iii.
;

257,

lily of,

i.

171

362

68,

i.
;

Book

disciples

(see life)

iii.

of,

activity,"
i.

iii.

Mori the,

concerning,

" cause of

iii.

Life-producing circle, iii. 51.

Lift up the gates, i. 170.
Light, all-seeing, ii. 253 ; baptism
of, ii. 255 ; boundless, i. 93
creatures of, i. 51 ; day of, i. 326 ;
entrance on, i. 79 ; exhaling his,
fount of, i. 74 gnosis
iii. 279
of, ii. 155 ; of God, i. 232 ; the
great creator, i. 71, 79 ; horizon
of, i. 75 ; hymn, i. 94 ; intellectual,

i.

of Jesus,
or logia, ii. 234.
Logoklopia, iii. 323.
ideas,

power,

Oxyrhynchus
209,

ii.

nesa),
255.

46

8.

plenitude of, ii. 208 shame of, i.

242 i theoretic, ii. 163 ; tree of,
types of, ii. 245 ; way of,
i. 428
well of, i.
i.
182, ii. 15, 40, 41
iii.

i.

181.
Lionesses,
Lions, iii. 112 ; mouths, i. 314.
Lipsius, ii. 108.
Liquid Chaos, i. 191.
Littre, i. 155.
Living, Book of the, i. 367 ; death,
ii.
121 ; land of the, i. 50, 51 ;
mother of the, i. 163 ; one, i. 93 ;
water, i.
stones, ii. 254, 256
188, 190.
Locust, iii. 133, 356.
Logia, bible of, ii. 236 ; logoi or,
iii.

180.

iii.

ii.

ii.

i.

and
246

239,

265
254

243 ; Eternity
399 ; Good, i.
Image of
158

illumined by, i.
333 ; Hermes, i.
God, i. 232 ; Life and Light, i.
231 race of, ii. 18, 241 sophiaspermatic
i.
aspect of,
49 ;
essence of, i. 390 ; spiritual sun,
Thoth as, i. 63, 90.
i. 241
;

Logos-Demiurge, i. 135.
Logos -doctrine, i. 51.
Logos-Mediator, i. 249.
Longing, ii. 346.
Lord, of books, i. 53 ; Brethren of,
i.
147 of divine words, i. 53
of joy, i. 74 ; of all knowledge, i.
;

INDEX
55
i.

land of the, ii. 251 ; of life,

132 of moist nature, i. 161 ;

Malice,

Mammon,

184.
127, 157, 321, 325, 326 ;
Above, i. 149, 197 ; Adamas, i.

73

word

of,

Man,

6.

ii.

iii.

245

named

East,

227

i.

116, 251, 319, 321 ;

first, i. 115, 139, ii. 27, iii. 295 ;
gnosis of, i. 147, 178, iii. 323 ;
great, ii. 23, 40, 56 ; heavenly,
ii. 102, iii. 277
inexpressible, i.
170 ; inner, iii. 277 ; of light, iii.
after
ii.
likeness,
281 ;
277
material, ii. 132 ; of mighty
names, i. 146, ii. 109, 254; a
essential,

ii.

92.

i.
i.

an

of, ii.

Loves, the, iii. 95.

Lowrie, ii. 55. v -
Lucian, i. 158.
Lycopolitans,

iii.

9,

appearance, iii. 21 ;
241 brother of, ii.
35 ; celestial, ii. 37 ; cosmic, ii.
12, 116, 382 ; daring of, iii. 114
descent of, ii. 34 ; dual nature of,
;

birth

Lychnomancy,

ii.

148

Loreto, i. 469.
Lost sheep, the, i. 191.
Lotus, i. 347, 458.
Lourdes, i. 469.
Love, i. 77, 125, 338, ii. 12, 39, iii.
259 birth of, i. 338 of gnosis,
iii. 260 ; divine, ii. 94, 309, 346,
iii.
260 ; Himself, ii. 297 ; and
necessity, iii. 110, 264 ; pure, ii.
332 ; single, ii. 330.
;

224.

ii.

Malkander, i. 285.
Mambres, iii. 283.

of palingenesis, i. 50
of rebirth,
i.
50
of time, i. 76 ; of two
lands, i. 134 ; of unseen world,
i.

353

305.

Lycurgus, i. 274 laws

Lydus, i. 403, 404, ii.
;

235.
342, 361,

of, ii.

385.
Lyre, Pythagoreans used,
strings, i. 335.
Lysippus, i. 298.

i.

366

mighty wonder, ii. 315

the
mind, iii. 280
mind-led, ii.
203 ; mystery of, i. 141 ; new,
ii. 43 ; one, ii. 222, 244
original,
i.
168
Phos, iii. 279
Plato's
definition of, i. 433 ; principles
;

149 ; second, i. 139, ii. 27 ;

shall not live by bread alone, i.
248 ; son of, i. 160, ii. 43, 138 ;
sons of one, i. 197, 234 ; substantial, ii. 132 ; size of thumb,
iii. 165;
Thv, ii. 232; true, i.
228 ; of truth, figure of, iii. 277 ;
twofold, ii. 319 ; typal, i. 168.
of, ii.

Maasse, i. 418.
Maat, i. 52, 64, 89, 99, 458.
M'Clintock, i. 27.

M'Lennan,

i.

Macrobius

on

353.

Soul," i. 413.
Macroprosopus,

Madiam,
Magi,

i.

" Descent
ii.

the

iii.

182,

282.

164.

207, 326,

i.

of

ii.

170,

Man-mystery, the,
Man-Shepherd, ii.

277.

Magian

gnosis,

Magic,

iii.

papyri,

Magica,

ii.

iii.

275

iii.
;

296.
formulae,

i.

50

Making-new- again,

ii.

33.

VOL.

III.

i.

15.

5,

ii.

10, 12,

14, 15,

6,

/Shdstra,

ii.

73.

Maneros, i. 287, 288, 293, 294.

Manes, i. 297.
Manetho, i. 99 if., 103, 273, iii.
Beloved of
289, 302, 329, 355
Thoth, i. 102 ff.
books of, i.
104 ; Sothis of, i. 117, 121 trans;

lation activity of,

ii.

280.
of,

i.

368.

Manic,

75, 83, 128.

Malalas, iii. 269.

Male-female, i. 146, 152,

198.

Mangey, i. 200.
Manhood, christ-stage

44.

Maia, iii. 251.

Maitland, Kingsford and,
Making-manifest, ii. 99.

i.

3,

17, 18, 19, 52.

Mdnava Dharma

252.
296.

Magna Mater Mysteries, i. 179.

Magnet, i. 189, ii. 91.
Maha-vakyam, ii. 234.
Mahdbhdrata, ii. 235, 242.
Mahayana, ii. 44.
Mahdydna-shraddhotpdda - shdstra,
ii.

Man-after-His-Likeness, i. 198, 234.

Man-doctrine, i. 138, 193, 197.

297.
246.
Mansoul, Siege of, iii. 187.
Mantra-vidya, i. 64, iii. 274.
Mantrah, i. 64, 365.

Manna,

i.

i.

23

367,

INDEX

354
Maim,

Many,

ii.

with,

Mayin,

107.
i. 400.
Mazdes, i. 297.
Means, i. 338.
Measure, six-and-fiftieth

112.

i.

Manvantara,

Avoid converse
unknowing, ii. 250.

131, 308

11

iii.

Many-named, i. 184.
Maps of the world, iii.

185, 187.

Marcella, Porphyry's Letter to,

260.
Marcellus, i. 106.

Marcion, ii. 72.

Marcus, Gnostic,

Marduk,

Measurer, the great,

i.

the,

Meinian, i. 273.
Meinis, i. 272.
Melchizedec, i. 127,

of,

Melilote,

i.

8,

i.

Martial,

i.

108.

ii.

71 ; Magdalene, i. 147
Concerning the Offspring of, i.
142 ; Questions of, i. 142.
Masdesin, i. 297.
Mason, Master, i. 466.
Maspero, i. 130.
Mass, ii. 269.
Master, of the All, i. 409 Booh of
;

245
466

78; of feast, i.
Mason, i.
23
of the
of masters, iii. 317
68,

i.

ii.

iii.

of,

iii.

103

fourfold,

181

root of,

Maya,

i.

is one,

ii.

324.

26.

106

ff.

blend
of, ii. 177
cosmos, ii. 336 ;
;

i.

166

Menelaos,

389 ; by itself, ii.

pure, ii. 7
ii. 118

ii.

Menander

ii.

becoming

278

first,
of, ii. 213
37 fishers of, i. 59, 372 of
Hephaestus, iii. 183 burn living,
nourishgods, iii. 136
i. 355
ment of, i. 133 perfect, ii. 87,
sacred or typical, iii. 138
97
seven, ii. 11 ; Shepherd of, i.
ii.

ii.
;

acts

Menard, views
Mendes, i. 320
Mene, iii. 91.

212, 218.
Mathematici, i. 292, 336; theory
of, i. 318.
Mathesis, i. 262, ii. 264, 372, iii. 5.
Matter, i. 225, 276, 334, 336, 338,
339, 389, 390, 415, 451, ii. 125,
176, 210, 211, 241, 269, 332,
333, 335, 343, iii. 26, 66, 226,
Materiality,

i.

231.

heavenly horn

of,

i.

167, 455.

wheels, iii. 120.

Master-architect, i. 48.

Masterhood, ii. 47,

Mastery, i. 80.
Mastich, i. 365.

195; restored,

Men, benefactor

Men,

iii.

372, 375,

77,

grand,

50.

ii. 221.
105, 292, 293, 347,
460 ; brazen gates at, i. 303 ;
Ptah-priests of, i. 135.

and,

Memphis,

i.

the,

211.

iii.

Memoirs of the Apostles, i. 195.

Memory, i. 433, ii. 397 experience

71, 147.
116.

Martyrdom of Peter
Mary,

127.

i.

284.
i. 135.

Memnon, i. 96.
Memnonium, i.

opinion

19.

i.

Martha,

Thoth,

i.

Members,

68, 81.

i.

Medinet Habu, i. 463.

Megaloi Theoi (see Cabiri),

Marsiglio Ficino,

53

i.

66.

i.

Mediator, i. 58, 325.

Medici, Cosimo, i. 8.

Mareotis, Lake, ii. 403.

Mariam, the sought-for, i. 164.
Mariamne, i. 143, 147, 301.
Marriage, with right reason, i. 223
sacred, i. 182, 216, 224, ii. 96,
137, 173, 240, 241, iii. 156, 157,
319.
Mars,"i. 416, 418, 419.

Marsham Adams,

i.

Medes, i. 196.
Median, i. 197.

276.

iii.

even,

305.

60.

i.

ii.

Mazdseans,

137.

iii.

Menander,
;

i.

351.

27 ff.
goat at, i. 356.

of,

i.

i. 296.
iii. 173 ; or Chariot of
Ezekiel, i. 238 ; vision of, i.
154.
Merciful (Potency), i. 237.
Mercury, i. 417, 418, 419.
Mercy-seat, i. 238.
Merriment, ii. 346.
Mesopotamia, i. 171.
Mesore, i. 349.
Mesotes, ii. 251.
Messala, i. 403, 407.
Messiah-ites, i. 190.
Metamorphoses, i. 150 ; of soul, ii.
163.

Mercabah,

INDEX
Metempsychosis,

ii.
164, 166, iii.
110, 142, 228; concerning,
i. 429 ; Plotinus on, i. 434.
Methyer, i. 337.
Meyer, ii. 300.
Michael, i. 422, iii. 211.

26,

Middle Way,
Midst,

96.

ii.

316.

ii.

Mighty Power,

ii.

29, 33.

Migration into other bodies,

329
Milky* Way, i. 414.

ii.

Miller, i. 140.
Million, i. 407.

Min, i. 337.
Mind, ii. 6, 86 All-father, ii. 8 ;
born in, ii. 221 ; as builder, ii.
153 counterpart of, ii. 40 cup
of, ii. 242 ; a daimon, ii. 154,
demiurgic, i. 137, ii. 35 ;
171
door-keeper, ii. 14 dowsing in,
eye of, ii. 228, 230, 253
ii. 255
;

gnosis of,
apotheosis

95

gnosis
of, ii. 167 ; good, ii.
imperishable, iii.
127, 155, 156
88,

ii.

113
great, ii. 213
hylic, i.
452 joy of, ii. 230 ; judge, ii.
201 man, iii. 280 ; of all masterhood, ii. 3, 4, 229
of mind, iii.
257 of my own mind, iii. 104 ;
pilot, ii. 201
pure, ii. 324, iii.
292
religion of, i. 91, ii. 401,
iii. 316 ; of universals, i. 225.
Mind-consciousness, ii. 239.
Mind-led man, ii. 203.
;

Minerva Mundi,
Ministers,

iii.

iii.

93.

50.

Minoides Mynas,
Minos, i. 149.
Mint, i. 293.

i.

140.

Minutoli, i. 465.
Mirrors, ii. 285.
Mist, dark, i. 125.
Mithras, i. 325, iii. 181.
Mithriac, Mon, i. 399 Cronus, i.
400 ; mysteries, i. 290, iii. 180 ;
mystery- tradition, i. 95.
Mithriaca, i. 173, 179, 182, ii. 276,
iii. 181.
Mixture, iii. 102.
Mnaseas, i. 314.
Mnevis, i. 272, 309.
;

Mbhler,

i.

25.

Moirogenesis, i. 465.
Moist, i. 309, iii. Q6 ; essence, i.
170, 187, 388, 390, 454, ii. 4, 75 ;

355

i.
391 ; nature, i. 151,
310, 312, 313, ii. 4, 5, 13, 26.
Moistened, i. 161.
Moistener, i. 161, 279.
Moisture, i. 313.
Moly, i. 325.
Momos, iii. 115, 116, 142, 182;
speech of, iii. 113.
Monad, i. 359, 395, 404, 414, 456,

light,

90
One,

ii.

from the
i. 275
pleroma, i. 405

Apollo,

291

iii.

quintessence, i. 403.
Monastery, i. 209, iii. 93.
Montanus, ii. 292.
Montet, i. 387,
Moon, i. 319, 321, 332, 417, 419,
ii. 180, 312.

Moon-God Thoth,
Morning,

i.

Infinite,

i.

72.
80.

Moses, ii. 38 ; Archangelie Book of,

i. 197 ; Books of, i. 456, ii. 158 ;

companions

Book

of,

i.

Eighth
244
hierophant
;

197, 411
and prophet, i. 247.
of, i.

Mot

(see Mut), i. 125, 126.

Mother, of Gods, i. 152, 176 Holy
of living, i. 163
Spirit, ii. 238
own, iii. 242 wisdom, i. 224
;

womb

of great,

Mother-iEon,

iii.

324.

163.
Mother-city, best, i. 237.

Motion,

ii.

61.

ii.

Mount, of Arcadia,
140
375

ii.

238

Athos,

of Galilee, ii. 238 ; holy,

of initiation, ii. 238 ; of
i.
;
Olives, ii. 54 ; Passing o'er the,
ii.
171 ; of perfection, ii. 24
i.

Tabor, ii. 238 ; way up to, ii.

150, 171 ; wending up, ii. 219,
237 ; mountain, i. 377 ; of light,

238 ;
234
Mozley, i.
Mukti, ii.

Secret

ii,

ii.

Sermon on,

i.

56,

top of, ii. 237.

34 on poles, i. 176.
;

167.

Mulberry-tree,

i.

284.

Mulberry-wood, tables

of, iii.

216.

104, 117.
Miiller (0.), i. 107, 123.
Mummification, iii. 123.
Mummy, i. 71.
Miiller,

i.

Muratorian Fragment, i. 378.

Murderer, ii. 202.
Muses, i. 280, 287, ii. 323 ; the
nine or ennead, i. 85 ; prophets
of the,

Museum,

ii.
i.

292.
102.

356

INDEX

Music,

Naas,

324, 331.

ii.

Music-maker, ii. 290, 291.

Musician, God, ii. 288 ; the,

Mustard

seed,

Mut

Mot),

(see

i.

i.

ii.

291.

247.
337.

iii.
Anthropos251 ;
theory of, i. 193 ; of Assyrians,
i. 155
Bacchic or Corybantic, i.
below, the, iii. 94
and
212
Book of the Dead, iii. 186 ; of
Dionysus, i. 311
Eleusinian, i.
the Great, i. 217, 362, ii.
59
of Great Mother, i. 186 ;
240
hierophants of, i. 212 Hippolytus
and divulging of, i. 140
most
holy, i. 221
ineffable, i. 210
Lesser, i. 180,
of Isis, iii. 182
of light and
ii.
159, 214, 240
birth, i.
divine
Magna
75
Mithriac, i. 290,
Mater, i. 179
iii. 180
On the, iii. 285 punishment for revealing, i. 213 ; of
of regeneration,
purity, i. 154
ii. 240
scribe of, iii. 223
of
solemn life, i. 209
of godlike

Mysteries,
;

207.
Mysterious black, iii. 158.
Mystery, of birth from virgin womb,
ii. 240 ;
of blessed bliss, i. 154 ;
Booh of the Great Logos according
to,
i.
166 ; dark, iii. 149 ; of
deity, i. 225 ; deity, Cronus, i.
400 ; epoptic, i. 178 ; at third
gate, i. 190 ; of Heavenly Man,
226 ; of ignorance, ii. 25 ; of
i.
man, i. 141 ; of repentance, ii.
245 ; ritual in Acts of John, i.
182, 183 ; of sameness, ii. 241 ;
of Samothracians, i.
168 ; of
virgin-birth, i. 211.
iii.
Mystery- institutions,
327 ;
inner doctrine of, i. 141.
virtues,

i.

Mystery-myth, the, i. 278 ff.

Mystery-play of all time, i. 377.
Mystes, i. 210, ii. 93, iii. 188.
Mystic, ii. 240, iii. 184 enclosure,
eucharist, ii. 94
images,
i. 179
spectacle, iii. 107.
i. 207
Mystical god-blending, i. 156.
Mysticism, practical, iii. 325, 326.
treatment
Myths, of Plato, i. 109
;

of,

i.

201.

200

i.

332, 364, 366.

i.

187, 192.

142.

Naassene

Myer, Qabbalah of, i. 281.

Myriad-eyed, i. 184.

Myrrh,

i.

Naassene Document, i. 92, 390, ii.

analysis of,
54, 91, iii. 280, 282

under-meaning

of,

i.

Hymn,

109.

ii.

Naassenes, i. 141.
Naasseni, i. 146.
Nai, i. 294.
Nakdimon, Rabbi,

ii. 239.
211, 213, 373, 374.
Name, i. 85, ii. 343 ; authentic, ii.
252 of God, i. 198, 234, ii. 344,
iii. 293
ogdoad, ii. 252.
Name-maker, iii. 276.
Names, i. 352 of power, ii. 279 ;
energetic speech of, ii. 267.
Naos, i. 187.
Nature, iii. 25 Arise blessed, i

Naked,

i.

155 ; by-products of, iii. 52

contemplators of, i. 206 ; fairest
part of, ii. 348, 350 moist, i.
;

151, 161, 310, 312, 313,

13,

26

original,

4,

ii.

155

i.

5,

pro-

ductive,
Q6 ; seven-robed, i.
156 vaporous, iii. 209.
Naughtiness, superfluity of, i. 451.
Naumann, History of Music of i.
iii.

294.

Nazorenes, i. 369.
Nebris, fawn-skin,

i.

Necessity,

ii.

264

i.

101,

191.
211,

iii.

61,

daughters
of, i. 442
fate and, ii. 385
foreknowledge and, iii. 12, 58
love and, iii. 110, 264 ; spindle
of, i.
throne of, i. 447 ;
440
utterance of, ii. 362.
Nechepso, i. 100 ff., 464, 472, 477.
Necheus, i. 464.
Nectar, i. 415.
Nefer-Tem, i. 458.
Negress, Hor, son of, i. 88.
;

circle of,

i.

428

Nehe-maut,

i.

49.

Neilos, i. 307.
Neilotis, i. 115.
Neith, i. 108, 273.
Nemanous, i. 285.
Nemesis, iii. 116.
Neophytes, i. 214.
Nephthys, i. 280, 284, 315, 322
337, 340, 344.
Nesert, i. 457.

Net, i. 58 ff., 62 house of, i. 58 ;

temple of, i. 62 ; of Vulcan, i.
;

62.

Netting,

i.

62.

INDEX
Nicolaitans,

i.

165,

ii.

Olympian path, the, ii.

Olympic stole, iii. 182.
Olympus, i. 61, 299.
Omar Khayyam, i. 167.
Omega, iii. 273.
Omniform, ii. 194, 245,

79.

Night, i. 91, iii. 94, 114.

Night-stool boy, i. 298.
Nightingale, i. 445, 449.
Nigidius, i. 407.
Nikolaos, iii. 279.
Nikotheos, iii. 278.
Nile,

i.

345,

Omphis,

267, 269, 308, 314, 316,

347, 384, ii. 265, iii. 148,
celestial, i. 70, 92, 156, iii.
father, i. 109 ; flood of, iii.

154
163
224 heavenly, iii. 158 ; Osiris,
i. 308
Osiris' efflux, i. 312.
Nine, ii. 16.
;

Nineteenth Century,

Nirmanakaya,

ii.

192.

ii.

44.

i.

51,

ii.

Noah,

ii.

56.

world,

iii.

Soul,

iii.

173.

Nurse,

i.

310,

ii.

i.

276, 285, 336

209.

of

all,

i.

image of, ii. 118 man, ii. 222,

244
and only, ii. 258, iii. 22
pleroma, ii. 133 ; second, ii. 118,
sense, ii. 139, 244
268
sight,
;

161

source,

65.

Obscuration, ii. 260.

Obscure Philosopher, ii. 215.
Ocean, i. 162 ; churning the, iii.
of
180 ; of divine love, ii. 94
generation, iii. 163 ; great, ii.
92 ; heaven, i. 131, iii. 154
stream of, i. 162, 282.
Oceanus, i. 310, iii. 273.
Ochus, i. 277, 307.
Odateuch, iii. 297.
Odysseus, i. 446 ; companions of,
;

270.

(Enuphis,

Ogdoad,

i.

274.

57, 120, 130, 132, 246,

263, 275, ii. 42, 228, 251 ; name,
i.

252.

Old man of sea, i. 176.

Old old path, ii. 98.

150.
One, ii. 100.

One-and-Only

ii

iii.

258.

Onnofris, i. 294.
Onoel, i. 422.

Ophianse,
Ophitse,

ii.

392,

i.

ii.

235.

27.

ii.

27.

Ophite, hebdomad,

i.

421

systems

of gnosis, i. 98.
Ophites, i. 142
diagram of, i. 422,
423, 449, iii. 277.
Opinion, i. 430 ; and sensation, iii.
84.

Oracle, at Delphi, i. 349,

Ordeal of fire, i. 79.

Oannes, i. 149, 425, iii. 303.

Oblivion (Lethe), Place of, i. 454.
Oblong, i. 319.

ii.

Numinis majestas, iii. 260.

Nuptial number, iii. 174, 336.

i.

ii.

Onomacritus,

80.

Non-Being, ii. 161.

Noose, of Hercules, i. 61.
Nourishment of gods, i. 133.
Numbers, i. 404 ; which pre-exist in

Nut,

100

ii.

197,

Oneness, ii. 90, 91, 92,

Onion, i. 271.
Only Son, ii. 196.

384.

Nochaitse, i. 142.
Noetic, body, ii. 242

341.

320.

i.

;
and all, i. 136,
118, 230, 310, 344 ; is
all, ii. 268, 308, 309 ; colour, i.
element, ii.
195, 244 ;
391
essence, i. 391 ; form, ii. 35

One,

ii.

45, 46, 98.

i.

171.

Nirvana, ii. 98.

Nirvanic consciousness,
Nitriote nome,

357

ii.

42, 228.

Order, ii. 385 ; and its opposite,

iii. 266.
Orderer of the world, iii. 208.
Orelli, i. 24, 123.
Orgies, i. 149, 155, 211, 350.
Origen, i. 140, 423, ii. 72, iii. 99 ;
Celsus and, i. 423.
Original, man, i. 168 ; nature, i.

155

Orion,

i. 155.
295, 296.
i. 325, 400

seed,
i.

Ormuzd,

servant

of,

i.

297.

Orpheus, i. 391, 392, 445, iii. 320.

Orphic, eschatology, i. 439
frag'
ments, i. 265
hymn, iii. 269
hymns, ii. 235 ; initiates, i. 191
Phanes, ii. 282
or Pythagorean
initiate, i. 95
world-egg, i. 387
;

388.

Orphicism,

392.
Osiriaca, the, i. 256, 311.
Osirian Passion, i. 288.
i.

358

INDEX
and Typhonic

Osiric
298.

Osirified,

and

i.

the,

i.

65,
65.

Passions,

120

71,

i.

Thoth

i. 63, 74, 80
193, 279, 367,
;
198 Apis animated image of,
i. 321
birth of, iii. 122 ; black,
i.
burials of, i. 293,
296, 309
320 great campaign of, i. 353 ;
dark God, iii. 156 and Dionysus, i. 310 ; disciple of Agathodaimon, i. 478, iii. 261
efflux
of, i. 328 ; eye of, iii. 158
fourteen parts of, i. 289 ; garment of,
i.
gospel of, i. 367
house
71
of, i. 79
and Ms, blessings of,
iii.
members of, i. 156
122
mystery-god, iii. 257 ; Kile, i.
308 secrets of, iii. 96 ; seeking
for, i. 332
the sun, i. 332
tombs of, i. 289, 292, 293, 312 ;

Osiris,
iii.

is water, i. 156.
Osiris-myth, i. 130.

Osiris-plant,

Ostanes,

iii.

i.

314.

295

Book

of, iii.

277,

Osymandias, library of, i. 50.

Outbreathing of universe, ii. 254.
Outline of His Face, ii. 282.

i.

ii.

47.

269, 354, iii. 246

173, 209, ii. 24,
116, 239, 255 ; logion, probable
completion of, ii. 122.
Oxyrhynchus-town, i. 354.
logia,

i.

i.

172,

Pa-neshe,

i. 119.
Psean, i. 293.
Pain, sharp tooth of, iii. 115.
Paitoni, i. 9.
Palsestinos, i. 287.
Palestine, i. 208.
Palingeneses, i. 311.
Palingenesis, i. 283, ii. 83 ; lord of,
i.

50.

Palisade, i. 163.
Palladius, ii. 50.
Pallas, iii. 181.
Pamphilus, i. 100.
Pamphus of Athens,
Pamyle, i. 279.
Pamylia, i. 279, 312.

194, 245, 341.

Paophi, i. 331.
Papa, i. 172.
Paphie, iii. 91.
Papyrus, i. 284, 289 ; Ebere, i. 50
Harris, i. 131 ; Insinger, ii. 244.
Paradigm, of cosmos, ii. 196 ; of
;

time,

196.

ii.

Paradigms,
Paradise,

iii.

56.

173, 187,

i.

279

iii.

244 celestial, i. 425

with trees, i. 189.
i.

Parallelogram, iii. 177.

Paraplex, i. 269.
Parents we are to abandon,
;

a,

planted

ii.

96.

criticism

of

Passing o'er Mount,

356, 422.

Oxyrhynchus,

ii.

text of, ii. 64.

Parthians, i. 196, 197.
Passage of Sun, i. 71, 77.

Overseer of ceremonies, iii. 223.

Overseers of heavens, i. 126.

Ox,

Pantomorph,
Panu, i. 294.

Parmenides, i. 181.
Parthey, i. 14, 26

296.

Own-form, ii. 46.

Own-nature of masterhood,

Pan, i. 186, ii. 56.

Panacea, i. 241.
Panathensea, i. 62.
Panchaea, i. 297.
Pandora, iii. 274, 280.
Panics, i. 283.
Panopolis, i. 282.
Pans, i. 282.
Panthers, i. 436.

ii. 171.
Passion, i. 283, ii. 204, 262, 288 ;
and sensation, iii. 42.
Passions, i. 277, 351, ii. 249, 262 ;
Osiric and Typhonic, i. 298 ;
Titanic, i. 311.
Passive Principle, i. 225.
Pastophors, iii. 225.
Pastos, iii. 225.
Path, i. 70, 74, ii. 89, 91, 114, 118,
iii.
bitter, ii.
293
362 ; of
gnosis, ii. 98, 195, 248 ; up to
Gods, ii. 169, iii. 299
Good's
own, ii. 189, 190, 196, iii. 327 ;
secrets of holy, i. 192 ; old old,
ii. 90, 98 ; Olympian, ii. 171
of
return, iii. 144 ; of salvation, ii.
171 ; of self-knowledge, ii. 40
moving on a soundless, i. 357
steps of, i. 79 ; to supreme, ii.
197 ; thither, iii. 6 ; to truth,
;

iii.

5.

Patrizzi,
i.

181.

i.

11.

Paul, propaganda of, i. 204.

Pauly, i. 26.
Paut, i. 57, 132 ; of Hermes,

i.

263.

INDEX
Pawnbroking bye law,

i.

242.

its, iii. 4 ; virtue

of perfect, i. 218.
Peacock, i. 391.
Pearls, i. 175.
Peisistratidse, i. 392.
Pelasgos, i. 149.
Pelousios, i. 287.
Penelope, i. 159.
Pentateuch, i. 203.
Perception, iii. 84.
Perfect, i. 434 ; blessedness, ii.

182 men, ii. 87,

Sermon, ii. 136,
266 glory of soul, ii. 165 the,
iii. 14, 256
vision, iii. 96.
Perfection, beginning of, i. 178
Gospel of, i. 142 ; mount of, ii.
24 perfect, i. 178.
Perfume-makers, i. 365.
Permanence, ii. 271.
97

fruit,

one,

i.

91

ii.

Permanent atoms,
Perret,
Persea,

ii.

i.

289.

56.

208.
Persephassa (see Proserpina),
i.

349,

Persephone,

i.

Acts

i,

Payni, i. 305.
Peace, author of

242

359

iii.

i. 301.
151, 181, 347, 350,

iii. 161.
Persia, ii. 206.
Persians, i. 207.

Person, i. 136, iii. 287, 288.

Persona, ii. 25.
Persons, of Ptah, i. 132.
Peter, James, John, and, i. 475.
Petosiris, i. 100 ff., 464, 472, 477.
Petra, iii. 161.
Petroma, iii. 232.
Petron, iii. 172.
Phseacians, i. 270.
Phsedrus, river, i. 287 ; soul and
her mysteries in the, i. 429.
Phallephoria, i. 279, 313.
Phallus, i. 289, 312.
Phamenoth, i. 321.
Phanes, i. 391, 394.
Phaophi, i. 305, 346.
Pharaoh, rat of, i. 356.
Pharisees, i. 209.
Pharos, i. 318.
Pheidias, i. 359, ii. 290.
Pheison, i. 188.
Pheneatians, iii. 232,
Pheneus, i. 376.
Pherecydes, ii. 260.
Philadelphus, i. 104.
Philse, i. 460.

of,

i.

147

of,

142.
Philo,

i. 211, ii. 128, 137 ; of Alexandria on the Man-Doctrine, i.

197 ; Bvblius, i. 122 ff. ; of
Byblos, i. 402 ; De Legatione of,

ii.

237

two Horoi

in, i. 367 ;
203 ; his method,
monotheist, i. 231.

inspiration

i.

i. 199
Philonean tractates, L 199.
Philoponus, ii. 172, iii. 209.
Philosophers, iii. Ill ; most ancient
of, iii. 215 ; prince of, ii. 38.
Philosophumena, of Hippolytus, i.
;

140.

Philosophy, beginning of, i. 274,

iii.
246 ; Egyptian, i. 28 ; inventor of, i. 138 piety and, iii.
3 ; pure, ii. 331 ; true, ii. 232 ;
;

work

233.
Philostratus, ii. 197.
of,

i.

Philtre, immortal,
Philtres, i. 88.

246.

i.

Phosilampes, ii. 107.

Photius, i. 62, 152.

Phrygian writings,

i.

303.

Phrygians, i. 350.
Phylarehus, i. 303.
Physician, good, i. 461, ii. 213.
Physicists, theory of, i. 307, 312.
Physiologus, i. 56, 330, 345,
357, iii. 112.
Physis, iii. 256.
Picture, iii. 18, 276, 295.
Pierret,

i.

356,

28.

Pietschmann,

i. 47 ff., 72, 112, 116,

119.
Piety, iii. 3, 5, 243, 265.
Pig taboos, i. 271.
Pillars of Hermes, i. 112.
Pilot, i. 296, 347
mind as, ii.
201.
Pinax, of Bitos, i. 197, iii. 277.
Pindar, i. 312, 366.
Pine, i. 364.
Pine-resin, i. 364.
Piper, the, i. 183.
Pistis Sophia, i. 84, 92, 94, 326,
general
371, 418, 426, ii. 43, 96
title of, i. 142 ; song of powers
in, ii. 241.
;

Pitra,

i.

6.

Pitys the Thessalian, iii. 295.

Pius, Bishop of Rome, i. 378.
Plague, i. 364 ; great, i. 364.
Plagues and famines, iii. 49.

360

INDEX

Plain, of Forgetful ness (Lethe), i.

447 ; of Truth, i. 430, ii. 19, 49,
50, 97,

208.
Plane,

iii.

171, 172, 189, 205,

Poor,

iii.

164.

373.

i.

Porphyry, i. 113, 123, 124, ii. 42,

229 Letter to Marcella, i. 260.
;

174.
Planetary chains, iii. 301.
Planets, five, iii. 46.
Plasm, sealing of the members of
the, iii. 70.
Plato, i. 62, 103, 113, 265, 274,
iii.

277, 297, 298, 299, 300, 333,

336, 337, 338, 340, 362, 392,
405, 406, 414, ii. 167 Atlantis
of, i. 176 ; buys, i. 351 ; crater
in, i. 450 ; definition of man by,
;

433 ; marriage scheme of, i.

336 myths of, i. 109 nuptial
number of, i. 336 transformation of soul in, iii. 110
follows
i.

Trismegistus, iii. 248.

Pleiades, i. 350.
Plenum, space a, ii. 70.
Pleroma, i. 85, 246, 335, ii. 28, 32,
93, 241 ; of bad, ii. 115 ; of evil,
ii. 113 ; common fruit of the, ii.
241 ; of Good, ii. 117 ; and

hysterema, ii. 239 ; of ideas,

128 intelligible superspatial,
one,
196 ; monad, i, 405
133
of virtues, ii. 117.
;

ii.

ii.
ii.

Pletho,

Plew,

Pontius (Pontus) Pilate,

i.

8.

Pleyte, i. 49.
Pliny, iii. 296.
Plotins Stellung

Gnosticismus,

Poimandres, the name, ii. 50.

Pole-lords of heaven, i. 176.
177.
177.
Poles, i. 87 ; seven,
Polichne, i. 292.
Poleis,

18.

first cube,
176, 318
trident of, i. 359.
Poseidonius, i. 102.
Possessions, ii. 327, 330.
Pothos, i. 125.
Poverty, i. 338.
Powers, chariot of the, i. 238 ;
invocation of the, ii. 249 ; song
of the, ii. 42, 43.
Pralaya, ii. 260, iii. 137.
Prana, i. 363, ii. 168, iii. 146,
206.
Prayer for gnosis, ii. 49.
of Essenes,
Prayers, for dead, i. 78
i.

275

i.

Hermes', i. 82.
Praying-room, i. 209.
Amygdalos
Pre-existing, i. 150
ii.

49

182.
Presence, the,
Priam, i. 299.
the,

i.

24, 47.

ii.

Prima Materia,

151.
Prince, of eternity, i. 65, 132 ; of
philosophers, ii. 38.
Principles of man, ii. 149 ; and
cosmos, ii. 207.
of sense, ii. 127.
Privation, i. 327
Probation, three stages of, ii. 236.
Probationers, the, i. 185.
of fate, ii. 49.
Procession, ii. 89
Proclus, i. 101, 106, 435, ii. 169 ;
on descent of souls, i. 435 ; on
spheres, iii. 300.
Proem to fourth gospel, ii. 371.
Prometheus, i. 263, 314, iii. 274,
280, 282.
Promise of silence, the, ii. 219.
Pronoia, ii. 39.
Prophetenpredigt, ii. 122.
Proscription of worship of gods, ii.
399.
Proserpina (Kore), i. 59.
Protection, sole, iii. 265.
Proteus, i. 176.
Prototypes, iii. 56.
Protrepticus, or Exhortation to the
Greeks, ii. 300.
Providence, ii. 39, 207, 211, 216,
and
iii. 61, 195, 235, 258, 260
i.

zum

iii. 278.
Plotinus, ii. 42, 198, 228, 302;
Life of, iii. 278 ; on metempsychosis, i. 434 soul of, iii. 32 ;
yoga of, i. 251.
Plucked green wheat-ear, i. 178.
Plumes, i. 337.
Plutarch, i. 84, 103, 223, 255, 453 ;
Consolation of i. 260 ; Yogin of,
iii. 169.
Pluto, i. 301, 362.
Poemandres, early form of the, i.
374 ; higher criticism of the, i.
128 variant spellings of, i. 3.
Poemandrist, Apology of a, ii. 298.

i.

Poleitai,

iii.

Poseidon,

115.

i.

Portrait,

fate,

i.

i.

95, 402.

i.

iii.

237

211.

36,

55,

60

ministers

legislative,

of,

iii.

205,

INDEX
Psammetichus,
Pselcis,

Psellus,

i.

7,

i.

38, 58.

ii.

Pseudo-Appuleius,

ii.

392.

Pseudo-Manetho, i. 110, 115.

Psychagogue and psychopomp,
159.
Psychosis,

Ptah,

i, Myer's, i. 281.
Questions, of Mary, i 142 ; of Osiris
to Horus, i. 290.
Quick, i. 186.
Quiet and Serene, iii. 253.
Quintessence, iii. 102, 206 ; aether,
ii. 92 ; and monad, i. 403.

268.

117.

i.

i.

99, 102, 168.

iii.

148 ; the great, i.

Hephaestus, i. 160,
iii.
96 ; noose of, i. 61
persons of, i. 132 ; hath spoken,
i.
138, iii. 148 ; temple of, i.
457,

i.

130 workshop of, i. 457.

Ptah- doctrine, i. 130.
;

Ptah-Hotep,

i.

105

(IY.),

74.

460

i.

(IX.),
i.

i.

466.

104

Letter of Manetho to, i. 103.

Pulse, i. 349.
Pupil of the eye, i. 394.
Pupilla Mundi, iii. 93.
Pupilline, l'Ame, iii. 167.
Pupils of the eyes, i. 84.
Pure, and holy love, ii. 332 ; not
lawful for, i. 265 ; matter, ii. 7 ;
mind, ii. 320, 324, iii. 292
philosophy, ii. 331 ; shepherd,
;

ii.

and Apep,

53, 68

i.

Ptah-priests of Memphis, i. 135.

Ptah-Thoth, i. 132.
Ptolemies, i. 102, 103 ; libraries of
the, iii. 277.
Ptolemy, Gnostic, ii. 371 ; the
saviour, i. 301 ; (II.), i- 103,

463; (X.), i. 466; (XL),

Ptolemy Philadelphus, i.

i.

of,

131

i. 57 ; heart
herald of will of, i.
49 ; library of, i. 103 ; light-god,
i. 473 ; tongue of, i. 49, 68.
Race, i. 205, 207, ii. 20, 50, 162,
of
221, 290 ; of Elxai, ii. 242
God, i. 253 ; without a king, i.
164 ; ineffable, i. 166 ; of Logos,
ii.
18, 241 ; self-taught, i. 174,
220, ii. 241 ; within, iii. 5.
Rachel, i. 178, 220.
Raise the dead, i. 273.

Ra,

iii.

135;

130,
382,

361

Raisins, i. 364.
Ram of perfectioning, the, i. 212.
Ramses III., i. 131.
Raphael, i. 422.
Rashness, ii. 224.
Raven, i. 286, 352, iii. 181.
Ray, iii. 288 ; of God, ii. 275.
Ray-like, i. 224.
Rays, hall of golden, i. 75.
Reason, iii. 84 articulation of, ii.
224 common, i. 346 ; continuing, i. 247
of divinity, ii. 311,
;

highest whole, ii. 320

318
marriage with right, i. 223 selfperfect, i. 222, iii. 60 ; true, ii.
;

319.

55.
t

Purpose, iii. 258.

Purgations, catharms
Purity, mysteries of,

ding garment of,

Purusha, ii. 168.
Pyauepsion, i. 350.
Pyramid, ii. 85
;

great,

i.

or, iii.
i.

ii.

154

Rebecca,
Rebirth,

210.
;

wed-

iii.

254,

255

Pyriphlegethon,
361, 362.
Pythagoras, i. 113, 274, 298, 392,
iii. 317 ; his symbols, i. 274.
Pythagorean, i. 305 ; triangle, iii.

i.

327.
Pythagorics, i. 308, 327.
Pythian oracle, ii. 42, 228.
Pytho, ii. 300.
Python, i. 298.
i.

hymn

of,

manner

275

219

ii.

author

of cosmos, ii.
229 ; lord of,

ii.

of,

226,
219,

Recording Angel, i.
Red, ass, a, i. 306

175.

Pythagoreans, i. 359.
messages,
Pythagoric,

222, 243

ii.
221, 224,
233, 264; sermon on, ii.
227, 236 ; tradition of, ii.
220 ; way of, ii. 248.
Reborn, ii. 239.
Recitation Ode, i. 192, 193.
Recognition of children, iii. 20.
Recollection, i. 433.
i.

ii.

217.
58, 353,

ii.

357 ;
50

249.

69.

opposites,

of,

i.
i.

Sea,

i.

earth,

i.

150

163.

Red-skinned,
Regeneration,
ii.

64.
;

i.

295, 305, 306.

ii.

239

mystery

of,

240.

Reincarnation, i. 137, ii. 76, 83

Hermes, teacher of, iii. 227.

362

INDEX

Reitzenstein,

i.

15, 51, 121,

monograph on "Aion,"

i.

143
387;

general view of, i. 40 ff.

Religion, of Hermes, i. 82 ; of joy,
i. 73 ;
of light, i. 73
of mind,
i. 91, ii. 401, iii. 316.
Reminiscence, ii. 241, 372.
;

Ren, i. 89.
Repentance, mystery
true,

ii.

of,

ii.

245;

98.

Round-the-same,

ii.

Rulers, seven,

7, 9

ii.

62.
;

workmen of,

70.

iii.

Rush,
Rusta,

312.

i.

70.

i.

Sacrificers, iii. 112.

Saffron-coloured, i. 342.
Sages, the seven, i. 207.

Sah,

i.

89.

Resin, i. 332, 363, 366.

Restoration, ii. 126, 128, iii. 246.
Resurrection of dead, ii. 165.
Return, the, ii. 246.
Revealer, of hidden, i. 49 ; of light,

Sai-an-Sinsin, i. 79.
Sals, i. 108, 273, ii. 280,

375.
Revelations, divine, i. 216
phant of, i. 211.
Revelling-place, i. 84, 97.

Salome,
John,

i.

Rhea,

hiero-

151, 153, 278, 305, 334,

26 ; womb of, i. 335.
Rib, i. 279.
Richter, i. 200.
Riddle, i. 273.
Riess, i. 100, 101.
Right hand, i. 348.
Righteousness, i. 53, 60, 85, 263,
ii. 225, 231.
Ring Pass not, ii. 9.
Rishis, ii. 242.
Rising from dead, i. 173.
Rite, black, iii. 107, 141, 149,
155 ; of flame, i. 93.
Ritual, i. 58, 59, 65, 72, 74, 76,
77, 79, 84 ; of Azazel, i. 306 ; of
Embalmment, i. 460 ; of Initiation in Acts of John, ii. 243.
River, of Divine Reason, i. 244 ; of
God, i. 244 ; of Heedlessness, i.
447; of Lethe, i. 416, 452.
Road, Ancient, iii. 327.
Robber in house, ii. 121.
Robe, of fire, ii. 152 ; of glory, i.
361, ii. 43, 249 ; of Isis, i. 62
single, i. 373.
Robes, her, i. 340 ; of Isis, i. 264 ;
sacred, i. 361.
Rock, God from, i. 95, 392, 399 ;
the, i. 161.
Rod of Hermes, i. 61.
Root, of form, ii. 193 ; of matter, ii.
26 ; one, ii. 269 ; of universals,

390,

i.

i.

ii.

184.

Rootage of

eeons,

Rosetta stone,
~
11.

M.

i.

ii. 317.
117.

Sakkara,

i.

372

iii.

293.

step-pyramid

of,

465.

i.

Salmon,

Salt,

i.

147, 195, 196, 421.

147, 153 ; mother of St

i.

38.

i.

267, 397.
Salvation, harbour
i.

path

of, ii.

171

120, 123
ii. 120.

of, ii.

port

of,

Sambhogakaya, ii. 45.

Same, i. 327, ii. 268, 369.
Sameness, ii. 207, 244.
Samothracians, i. 168.
Sampsaeans, i. 369.
Samsara, ii. 167, 283.
Sanchuniathon, i. 24, 112
122,
Saosis,

ii.

ff.,

113,

2,79.

285.
Sarah, i. 217, 220, 221.
Sarapis, i. 301, 302, 342.
Sassanean, i. 297.
Satan, sons of, iii. 319.
Satrap, iii. 133.
Saturn, i. 416, 418, 419.
Satyrs, i. 282.
Saulasau, i. 165.

Save
i.

i.

my

alone-begotten from lions,

170.

Saving One, i. 340.

Saviour, Books of the, i. 418
i. 241
Ptolemy the, i. 301
;

i.

my,

the,

224.

Sayings, of Good Daimon, ii. 213

f. ; of Heracleitus, ii. 213.
Scaly-coat, i. 289.
Scape-goat, i. 306.
Scarab, i. 276, 356.
Scarabseus, i. 356.
Scetis, i. 384.
Scherer, i. 36.

Schmidt, Carl, i. 50, 93.

Schmitz, i. 34.
Schneidewin, i. 143.
Sciences, iii. 40, 85, 198
ii.

322,

iii.

199.

arts and,

363

INDEX
Dream

o/, i. 413.
282.
Scourge of Christ, ii. 173.
of the nine
Scribe, of Gods, i. 53
Gods, i. 50 of the mysteries, iii.
223.

Scipio,

Scorpion,

i.

Scripture-making,
Scroll, secret,

Scyth,

77, 78.

i.

253, 401.
Sea, Great, iii. 163
ii.

ii.

123

infinite,

395,

i.

395

i.

389

of,

189, 343.

i.

79

223.
Sealers, i. 306.

Seirias,

i.

i.

111.

89, 131.

Sekhet,

i. 457.
Selene, i. 151, 278.
Seleucus, iii. 289.
Self-begotten, i. 150.
Self-taught, ii. 242 ; race,
ii. 241.
Semele, i. 161, 454.
Semiramis, i. 297.
Semitismus, i. 124.
Semneion, i. 209.

Sermons, classification

of, iii.

306

462, ii. 250, 264,

of Fate, ii. 217 ;
iii. 33, 54, 309
General, i. 462, ii. 141, 145, 236,
264, iii. 45, 77, 308.
Serpent, i. 86, 87, 97, 98, 146, 344,
of Darkness, ii.
ii.
4, 26, 301
31 ; death of, ii. 300 ; great, ii.
of
winged, i. 398
27, 35 ;
wisdom, i. 194, 480.
God,
i.
Servant of
251.
Servant-form, i. 398, 399.
Servants of God, i. 212, 220.
Seseli, i. 365.
Sesostris, i. 297.
Sesquioctave, i. 320.
Set, i. 53, 57.
Seth, i. Ill, 114, 319, 329, 343,
ii. 27 ; sons of, i. 114.
Seth-Hermes, sons of, i. 113.
Sethian, i. 139, 393, ii. 4, 27;
gnosis, i. 192, 393.
i.

Seti, (I.),

i.

174,

Sempiternity, iii. 9.
Seneca, i. 102.
Sensation, iii. 41 ; corpse of, ii.
121 ; energy and, of, iii. 40
opinion and, iii. 84 ; passion and,
iii.

i.
104 ; land, i.
107, 110 ff. ; monuments, i. 113.
Sermon, Perfect, ii. 136 ; Secret,
ii. 250 ; about sense, ii. 129 ; on
rebirth, ii. 219, 227, 236.

Seriadic, country,

Sealing members of plasm, iii. 70.

Sebennyte, i. 104.
Second, birth, i. 79 ; God, i. 230,
ii.
127, 170, 365 ; man, i. 139,
ii. 27 ; one, ii. 118, 268.
Seeds of God, ii. 137.
Seeing Israel, i. 198, 234.
Seer, ii. 255, iii. Ill ; of Gnosis, ii.
94 ; of God, iii. 298.
Seething, i. 396.
i. 115.
Seirios (see Sirius),

172.

i.

mighty type
which marked victims,
iii.

iii.

Sekhem,

Sept, i. 111.
Sepulchres, ye are whited,
Serapeum, ii. 399, iii. 277.

Expository,

Sea-hawk, bone
of,

of ignorance,
old man
;

i.

176.

of, i.

Seal,

22.

ii.

Separator or Divider, ii. 70.

Sepphora, i. 164, 217.

42.

Sense, ii. 319 ff., 340, 345 ; cosmic,

ii. 371, 372 ; discourse on, ii. 131,
132 ; higher, i. 227, ii. 338 ; one,
ii.
139, 244 ; privation of, ii.
127 ; sermon about, ii. 129 ;
single, ii. 389 ; whole, ii. 371.
Sense-and-thought, ii. 132, 134,
137 ; of cosmos, ii. 133, 139.
Sensible, ii, 286, 320, 340, 377 ; or
hylic cosmos, ii. 167.

i.

50.

Setme, i. 380.
Seven, ii. 341 ; basis, i. 419 ; circles,
ii. 76 ; cosmoi, i.
407 fortunes
halls, i. 380 ;
of heaven, i. 176
men, ii. 11
Kabiri, ii. 279
peals of laughter, iii. 137 poles,
rulers, ii. 7, 9 ; sages,
i. 95, 402
sons of Sydyk, i.
the, i. 207
127 ; spheres, iii. 60 times, i.
virgins,
i. 176
wise ones,
332 ;
worlds, the, ii. 179
i.
458
zones, i. 413,
youths, i. 176
;

ii.

42.

Seven-robed Nature, i. 156.

Sevenfold "Ha," iii. 137.
Seventeen, i. 319.
Seventy-two, i. 281.
Sex, iii. 129, 145, 203.

Shadow,
Shakti,

ii.

i.

52,

casting,

ii.

i.

326.

107.

Shame, garment of, i. 153,

Sharing-with-all, ii. 225.
Sharp-snout, i. 289, 354.

ii.

42.

;;;;

364

INDEX

Shaven, i. 265.
of ten-thousand names,
Sheep, i. 356.
Sheeted dead, the, i. 161.

She

i.

333.

JSermas,

i. 369, ii. 238, 248, iii.

229, 232, 319 ; of men, i. 375,
ii.
231, 372; pure, ii. 55; of
bright stars, i. 186, ii. 56 ; symbolic representation of, i. 372
true, i. 238 ; who hath his fold
in the west, i. 373.
Shore, other, ii. 89.
Short-armed, i. 295.
Shrine-bearers, iii. 225.
Shu, i. 131, 133.
Si-Osiri, i. 380.
ii.
Sibylline,
literature,
330

iii.

235

writers,

ii.

49.

Sickness, health and, iii. 203.

Siddhis, ii. 197.
Siege of Mansoul, iii. 186.
Sige (Silence), ii. 163.
Sight, mortal and immortal, iii.
235 ; one, ii. 161 ; of peace, i.
246.
Sigils, iii. 179.
Signs of zodiac, i. 54, ii. 52.
heart of, i. 73
Silence, ii. 19, 20
holy, ii. 163 ; promise of, ii. 219,
233 ; vow of, ii. 250.
Simon, Jules, i. 434.
Simon Magus, ii. 108.
Simonian, gnosis, ii. 107, 317
tradition, i. 184, 188.
Simonides, i. 296.
Sinai, i. 384.
Single, love, ii. 330 ; sense, ii. 389.
Sinope, i. 302.
Sins, forgiveness of, i. 251.
Siren, i. 442.
Siriad land, i. 114.
Siriadic, i. 111.
Sirius, i. 110, 314, 326.
Sister-wife, i. 147, 301.
Sistrum, i. 303, 344.
;

ii. 54.
Six-and-fiftieth
305.
Sixteen, i. 319.

Sittl,

even

iii.
i.

32.

125.
i. 343.
Snake, i. 329, 356, ii. 4, iii. 133 ;
great, ii. 26.
Snow, fire and, i. 95.
Socrates, i 406 ; Books on Rites,
i. 311.
Solar, boat, i. 270 ; table, i. 452.
Soldier, ii. 276, iii. 50.
Soli, i. 438.
Solid, iii. 174.
Solomon, iii. 283.
Solon, i. 103, 108, 274.
Son, of God, i. 138, 157, 198, 220,
226, ii. 28, 116, 118, 140, 222,
241, iii. 239, 275, 280, 282 ; only
beloved, i. 224 ; eldest, i. 227 ;
of man, i. 150, 160, ii. 43, 138 ;
of the One, ii. 228, 251 ; only, ii.
196
of virgin, iii. 160, 161 ;
younger, ii. 192, 257.
Sonchis, i. 274.
Song, of holiness, ii. 50 ; of Linus,
i. 293 ; of the powers, ii. 42, 43
;
of praise to Mon, i. 408.
Sons, of Elohim, i. 159
of Fire,
iii. 136 ; of God, i. 198, 233, iii.
of
His
eternal Likeness, i.
316 ;
234 of the one God, i. 234 ; of
one man, i. 234 ; of Satan, iii.
319 ; ofSeth, i. 113, 114.

Smu,

Shepherd, i. 371, ii. 43, 228, 229,

231; good, i. 373, ii. 213; of

oracles,

Sleep,

Slime,

measure,

i.

Sixty, iii. 168 ; spaces, iii. 192.

Skiff (baris), i. 288.
Skin, red, i. 305.
Slave, i. 91, ii. 10 ; enharmonised,
i. 183.

Sonship,
of,

i.

43, 50,

ii.

140

iii.

wings

390.

Sophia, i. 335 ; Above, i. 74, ii. 7Q.

Sophia-aspect of Logos, i. 49.

Sophia-mythus,
30, 32,

i.

334, 377,

ii.

26,

226.
431.
225.
302.

iii.

Sophist,

i.

Sorrow,

ii.

Sosibius, i.
Sothiac, i. Ill

cycles, iii. 290.

;
80, 104, 115, 117, 121,
295, 342, iii. 276 ; a forgery, i.

Sothis,

107

i.

ff.

Sotoles, i. 302.
Soul, i. 150, 414, 417, ii. 145, 182,
309, iii. 63, 194 ; animal, ii. 246 ;

ascent

of, ii. 41 ff.

of becomi.
49 ; and body, ii. 124,
130 cosmic, ii. 151, 216 daimonic, ii. 229 ; dual, ii. 169 ;
essence of, i. 225 ; eye of, iii.
129 ; eyes in, i. 214 cause of all
in genesis, i. 151
perfect glory
of, ii. 165
gnosis virtue of, ii.
;

ing,

365

INDEX
health
425
265 ; rational
impress in, i. 230 infant's, ii.
Macrobius on descent
150, 216
of, i. 413 ; masculine power of, i.
152 metamorphoses of, ii. 163
mysteries of, in Phcedrus, i. 429
numbers which pre-exist in, iii.
173
parts of, ii. 274, iii. 5
passions of, i. 177 transformation of, in Plato, iii. 110
progression of, iii. 174 ; sluggish,
ii.
157
transfiguration of, ii.
164 vehicles of, ii. 167 vision
of, iii.
188
(II.), of, iii. 65
(III.), of, iii. 72
(IV.), of, iii.
75; (V.), of, iii. 77; (VI.), of,
group,

167

of,

ii.

257,

i.

293

Spirit,

Dionysus, i. 318 ;
258 Do not soil, iii.
of
fragrance of, i. 396
174
God, ii. 81 Good, iii. 261 in
harmony, i. 183 ; sensible, iii.
82 story of the, i. 371 virginal,
divine,

iii.

Soul-gnosis,

137.
Soul-making, iii. 188.
Soul-regions, the sixty, iii. 168.
Souls, colours of, i. 223
conductor,
i.
159 ; discipline of, ii. 347 ;
fountain of, i. 452 ; habitat of
excarnate, iii. 210 ; intercourse
iii.

190

two,

298

iii.

warder

195.

Sound

of heavens, i. 161.
brass, i. 303.
Source, i. 234, ii. 90, 176 ; one, ii.
150 of stars, i. 232.
Sovereign, angel, i. 371
potency,
i. 237.
Sovereignties, iii. 198.
Sower, the, i. 174.
Space, ii. 60, 71, 212, 334, 376, iii.
dry, ii. 75, 76
63 ; dark, ii. 26
a plenum, ii. 70.
Spaces, sixty, iii. 192.
Species, ii. 313 ; genera and, ii.
378.
Speech, ii. 206.
Spermatic essence of Logos, i. 390.
cosmos a, ii.
Sphere, ii. 126, 337
148 ; egg, i. 427 ; eighth, ii. 42
ff. ; of fire, i. 428 ; God's deathless, ii. 230 ; watery, iii. 209.
Spheres, boundary of the, ii. 195 ;
cosmic, iii. 299 ; of destiny, iii.

Sounding
;

i.

181, 182,

Spirit-air,

kinds of, iii. 78 ;

155, 314
of kings, iii. 127 ; lamenting of,
iii. 108 ; equal to stars, iii. 100 ;
ordering of, iii. 191 ; power of
sight of, i. 214 ; Proclus on
descent of, i. 435 ; royal, iii. 125 ;
simile of animals in a cage and,
of, ii.

of, iii.

66, 81, bestower of,

iii.

281

68,

80.

iii.

seven

part played by, in conception, iii. 66 ; counterfeit, iii.

231

ii.

iii.

275

168, 318, 332, 336,

33,

ii.

390, 396,

ii.

177.

eight,

planetary, iii. 60, 300 ; Proclus

on, iii. 300 ; six, ii. 276 ; Tartarean, i. 445 ; Servius on seven,
i. 418.
Sphericity, law of revolution, ii.
387.
Sphinx, secret of, iii. 323.
Spiegelberg, i. 112, 130, ii. 244.
Spiral, fashion, ii. 271 ; orbits, iii.

iii.

ii.

ii.

240, 241,

iii.

157.

34.

Spirit-matter, ii. 332, 334.

Spirit-word, ii. 5.
Spirits, iii. 25,
111 ; animal, i.
363 ; delegate, i. 184.
Spiritual, baptism, ii. 92 ; birth, i.
163 ; crucifixion, ii. 238 ; eyes,
i. 214 ; prototype of humanity,
i.
139 ; sun, ii. 253, 300 ; way,
ii. 240.
Spirituous body, iii. 210.
Spit out and cleanse the mouth, i.
291.
Sponges, iii. 210.
Square, i. 319.
Staff, i. 96, i. 373.
Stahelin, i. 196.
Stands, He who, ii. 170.
Star, native, iii. 110 ; the one, i.
232.
Star-courses, ii. 89.
Star-flocks of gods, i. 327.
Star-groups, iii. 53.
Star-mixture, iii. 74.
Starry cup of Bacchus, i. 414.
ii.
341 ;
fixed,
Stars, iii. 45 ;
groups of, ii. 273 ; long-haired,
iii. 52 ; souls equal in number to,
iii. 100 ; source of the, i. 322.
Statues, ii. 351 ; of judges, i. 276.
Stending, i. 310.
Steward, ii. 358.
Stewart, i. 429, 439.
Stigmata, iii. 162.
-

366

INDEX

Stock, Logos as, ii. 70.

Stoics, i. 83, 318, 319, 323.
Stone cut without hands, the, i.
162.
Stones, iii. 39 ; ensouled, i. 151.
Storks, i. 356.
Stretchers, iii. 50.
Strife, i. 359, ii. 362.
Strive to know yourselves, ii. 256.
Strivers,

iii.

Syncretism, i. 135, 136

Neoplatonic, i. 26.

Ta-urt,

Taaut,
i.

290.
124, 127

i.

i.

cosmogony

of,

126.

Taautos, Asclepius pupil

50.

theory of

Syria, i. 208.
Syriktes, i. 183, 398.
Syrinx, iii. 232.

of, ii.

279

Strong, i. 27, 314.

Subsistence, ii. 161.
Substance, ii. 269, 270.
Substantial, ii. 139.
Successions of Kings, i. 315.
Suchness, ii. 44.

Tables of mulberry- wood, iii. 216.

Taboos, fish, i. 269 pig, i. 271.
Tabor, Mount, ii. 238.
Talmud, i. 115, 425 Jeschu-stories,

Sudan,

i.

Tamar,

Suidas,

i.

Books

iii.

Summa
Sun,

4.

416, 419, ii. 142, 273, 294,

339, 365, 366, iii. 21, 25, 31, 126 ;
arms of, i. 331 ; as charioteer
with crown of rays, ii. 281
circle of, iii. 52 ; delineation of,
i.

demiurge, ii. 269, 281

gates of, i. 162
generation of,
iii.
262; a "head," ii. 270;
hymn to, ii. 253 ; Osiris is, i.
332 passage of, i. 77 ; ray of
spiritual, iii. 287
rays of the,
iii. 288
spiritual, ii. 253
birthii.

282

day

of staff of,

i.

iii.

323.

Super-substantial bread, i. 86.

Superfluity, i. 265, 267, 268.
Superior One, ii. 292.
Superstition, i. 278.
Supplanter, i. 220.
Suppliant, i. 376, ii. 219, 237, 238
of Hermes, ii. 236.
422.
i. 286.
Swan, i. 445, 449.
Sweet-flag, i. 365.
Swine, i. 175.
Sydyk, i. 127.
Syene, i. 269, 477.
Syncellus, i. 104, iii. 152.
Syncrasia, i. 193.
i.

Swallow,

Targum,

194.

i.

Tartarean spheres,

i. 445.
152, 338, 439, ii. 361,
zones,
i. 421.
362 of seven
distinction
Tat, and Asclepius,
between, ii. 264 ; dialogues with,

Tartarus,

i.

ii.

237

Expository Sermons

to,

216, 256, 257,

259, 262, 263, 264, 266 ; initiation of, iii. 310
priesthood, iii.
148.
Tatenen, i. 131, 134.
iii.

13,

16,

44,

Tathagatas, ii. 44.

Tatian, ii. 72.
Tax-gatherers, i. 174.
Taxis, ii. 43, iii. 145.

331.

Sun-god, ii. 391.

Sun-ship, i. 94.
Sunshine, the real, ii. 252.
Super-man, i. 301, ii. 93,

Suriel,

224.

i.

Tanitic mouth, i. 282.

Tantalus, cup of, ii. 198.
Taphosiris, i. 293.

ii.

ii.

279.

Tamarisk, i. 284.
Tanes, iii. 49.

100, iii. 268.

Suitors, i, 159.
Sulphur, i. 262.
79.
potestas,

279.

55.

Sumerian,

of, ii.

Taylor on numbers,

i.

432.

Tcheser, i. 465.
Teachers, common, iii. 287.
Technactis, i. 272.
Teephibis, i. 463.
Tefnut, i. 131, 133.
Teh, Tehu, Tehut, variants
;

Thoth,

i.

of

48.

Tehuti, i. 124 ; derivative of,

variants of, i. 112.
Telescope of Zoroaster, i. 13.

i.

54

Tern, i. 66, 337 ; Young, i. 458.

Templa, regiones coeli, ii. 273.
Templar Cod ex of Fourth Gospel,
475.

Temple-folk,

iii.

255.

Temple-watchman,

Temu,

i.

459.

iii.

162.

i.

367

INDEX
Ten, the, ii. 16, 226, 245.
Tent, ii. 211, iii. 20, 32 or taber-

Theuth, iii. 276.

Theuth-Hermes,

nacle of soul, ii. 227.

Tent-fellows, iii. 203.
Teos, i. 463.
Terebinth, i. 87.

Thiasos,

Termaximus,

i.

53.

Territory of Illumination,
Initiation,

Tertullian,

i.

i.

i.

70

of

70.

71.

Testaments, ii. 235.

Tethys, i. 310.
Tetraktys,

360.
279.
Thales, i. 103, 160, 187, 274,
Thamus, i. 472, iii. 216.
Thamyras, i. 445.
That art thou, ii. 234.
Thath, i. 112, 461, 462.
Thautabaoth, i. 422.
Thebes, i. 50, 272; library
465.
Thekla, i. 147.
Themistius, ii. 236.
Thenen, i. 460.
Theocritus, i. 373.
Theodoret, i. 139, ii. 27.
Theodoras, i. 348.
Theodotus, Excerpts from, ii.
Theognis, ii. 156.
Theophanies, i. 232.
Theopompus, i. 326, 350.
Theoretic Life, ii. 163.
Theoretics, iii. 148, 245.
Theoria, iii. 172.
Theosebeia, iii. 273 ; advice
283.

Thabion,

i.

ii.

i.

309.

at,

i.

words

i.

26,

241,

exercises,

community,

i.

208

ii.
i.

63.

to,

iii.

172;
177

initiations,

Therapeutrides, i. 208, 219.

Therapeuts, i. 30, 31 f., 200, 208,
212, 243, ii. 252, 311, 330, 402,
iii. 59 ; prayers of the Essen es
and, ii. 49.
Thersites, i. 436, 446.

Thesmophoria,

i. 350.
i.
223, 453
vision of, ii. 363, iii. 192.
Thessalians, i. 356.
Theurgic rite of initiation, ii. 255
invocation, ii. 245.
Theurgy, i. 83, ii. 163.

ff.

ii. 136.
124.
i.
110, 112, ii. 279, iii.
234, 277, 278.
Thoyth-Hermes, iii. 231.
Thoythos, iii. 276, 295.
Thracians, i. 169.
Thraemer, i. 461.
Threshold of the Good, ii. 97.
Thrice-great, i. 53.
Thrice-greatest, Egyptian equiva-

Thouth,
Thoyth,

251.

Thespesius (Aridseus),

i.

Thought, iii. 84.

Thought-and-sense,

251.

15, 95, 118,

allegorical

of,

Thoth (Tehuti), i. 47
Thoth (Tekh), i. 458.

42.

Therapeut,

i.

Gnoses of, i. 50 ; first Hermes, i.

104 ; ibis symbol of, i. 48 ;
incarnations of, i. 463 ; the
initiator, i. 71 ; as Logos, i. 48,
63, 90, 135 ; first man, iii. 295
moon-god
the measurer, i. 66
and the Osirified, i. 65
i. 72
pre-eminence of, i. 67, 467
shrine of, i. 56 variants of name,
iii. 234; the wise, i.
68, 134
the eternal wisdom, i. 71, 72

ii.

TheosopMcal Review,

iii. 216.
206, 256.
Third heaven, the, i. 166, 173.
Third-born, i. 359.
Thirty-six, ii. 341, iii. 50.
Thomas, Gospel according to, i. 142,
155, iii. 37.
Those-that-are, i. 80, 137, ii. 42.
Thoth, i. 68, 124, 136, ii. 244;
books of, i. 122, 124; eighttimes-great, i. 119 ; his company
The Great
of eight, i. 57 ff.

i.

lent

the

i.

of,

i.

title,

119
i.

Hermes,

iii.

198

66.

Thrice-unknown Darkness, ii. 25.

Throne, of Necessity, i. 447 ; of
Truth, iii. 109, 173.
Thrones, iii. 101.

Through the Word,

Thueris,

i.

ii.

255.

290.

Thyestian banquets, i. 444.

Thyiades, i. 310, 311, 312.
Thyrsus, i. 311.
Tiamat, i. 60.

Tiedemann,

i. 13, 16, 23.

188.
Time, ii. 192, 367, iii.
archetype of, i. 229,

Tigris,
;

i.

artificer of,

ii.

192

63
193 ;
grandson of
28,

ii.

INDEX

368

God, i. 229 instruments of, iii.

100 lord of, i. 76 ; paradigm of,

Twelve, disciples, the, i. 169 ; fates

of death, ii. 249
maidens, ii.
249
stoles, iii.
182 ; the, ii.
226, 245 ; tribes, i. 169 ; women

ii.

196.

Time-watcher, iii. 222.

Timceus, i. 106, ii. 70, 167.
Tinkling cymbal, i. 303.
Titanic Passions, i. 311.
Titans, i. 268, 303, iii.
or stretchers, i. 282.
Toil,

50,

163

Twin-gods, i. 131.
Two, combatants,

Tybi,
i.

121.
;

136, iii. 208.

Tongues of heaven, ii. 32.
Tormentors, ii. 223.
Torments of darkness, ii. 245.
Tortoise, i. 359.
Tosothrus-Asclepius, i. 465.
Totemism, i. 353.
Trajan, i. 145.
Transfiguration, ii. 238 ; of soul,
ii. 164.
i.

Transformation, body of, ii. 44.

Transformations, ii. 145, iii. 111.
Transmigration, ii. 166, iii. 194.
of light, i. 246.
Treasure, i. 167
Treasure-house, i. 211.
Treasury, ii. 269.
Tree of Gnosis, i. 428.
Triad of disciples, i. 476.
equilateral, i.
Triangle, iii. 172
most perfect, i. 358
305, 359
Pythagorean, iii. 175.
;

Triangles, fairest of the, i. 336.

Tribes, the twelve, i. 169.

Trikayam,

ii.

44.

Trinity, i. 214, ii. 79, iii. 258, 268,

275.
Triphyllians, i. 297.
Tritons, i. 359.
Triumphant Christ, ii. 117.
Trojan War, i. 324, iii. 183.
Trumpeters, ii. 289.
Truth, ii. 225, 231, iii. 17 beauty
of, ii. 121 ; gnosis of, i. 207
hall of, iii. 317 ; figure of man
of, iii. 277 ; path to, iii. 5 ; plain
of, i. 430, ii. 19, 49, 50, 97, iii.
171, 172, 189, 205, 208 ; is sweet,
i. 349 ; throne of, iii. 109, 173.
Turiya, i. 152.
Turmoil, ii. 167.
;

Turnebos, Adr., i. 10.

Turning-back, ii. 98.

ways,

i.

329.

i.

Typal Man, i. 168.

Type, of seons, ii. 282

292, 293, 312,

Tongue, of angels, ii. 32 of flesh,

is fortune, i. 349
heart
ii. 31
and,

QQ

i.

56.

iii.

Tombs
ii.

98.
of Osiris,

in dark robes, ii. 249.

Twice-great, i. 53.

iii.

of body,

49.

Types, of life, ii. 227, 245 of lives,

iii. 102
of wisdom and intelli;

gence,

106.

iii.

Typhon, bone of, i. 189.

Typhon, i. 279, 295, iii. 191

bone
343 concerning, i. 304
conspiracy of, i. 315 foam of, i.
308 pursuing pig, i. 272 ; reddish-yellow body, i. 309 ; virilia

of,

i.

of,

i.

Tyrant,

335.
i. 431.

Under-girdings,

440.

i.

Under-meaning of myths,
Underworkers,
Unfruitful,

i.

201.

i.

50.

iii.

175.

Unguent, scent

of,

i.

393.

Uniter of the earth, i. 59.

Unlike, ii. 90, iii. 11.

Unnu,

i.

56.

Unorder, ii. 126.

Unseemliness, i. 154.
Unseen World, i. 86, 223

; Lord of
the, i. 73.
Untitled Apocalypse of the Codex
Brucianus, ii. 107, 282, 303.
Upanishads, ii. 163, 168, 234.

Uranus,

i.

151,

144, 162,

ii.

iii.

234.

Urim and Thummin,

i.

250.

Ursin, i. 21, 110.

Urtuhet, i. 294.
Usertsen (I.), i. 458.

Vdhan,

ii.

96,

Valentinian,
Yalentinus,

284
of,

ii.

i.

94,

i.

38

letters

of,

ii.
;

ii.

32.

hymn
283

of,

ii.

psalm

217, 312.

Vanaprastha ashrama, ii. 73.

Vaporous nature, iii. 209.
Vapour, iii. 66, 200, 202, 203, 206.
Vapours, iii. 206, 210.

INDEX
Varro,

110, 407.
genesis, iii. 26.
Vedanta, ii. 107.
Vedantavadins, ii. 107.
Vegetative, iii. 210.

Void, ii. 64, 374.

Vortex, i. 389, 390, 453,

i.

Vase of

Victim-sealing books, iii. 223, 224.

Virgin, i. 179, 218, 403
birth, ii.
big
220, 240 ; church, i. 377
;

cinct of the,

147

son

182,

i.

240

ii.

161

iii.

pre-

sister,

i.

160, 161 ; womb

240 ; of the world,

of, iii.

399, ii.
iii. 93, 125.
Virgin-birth, mystery of the,
of,

i.

of Er,

power

most

blessed,

413, 426, 428,

i.

187

40,

glorious,

of godly,

143 ; of Hades,
great and little man,

ii.

Mercabah,
96
iii.

i.

154

i.

102

15,

ii.

161 ;
of Good,
of
223
238 of

ii.

19

iii.

i.

ii.

perfect,

iii.

simple, ii. 221 ; of soul,

188 ; of spiritual crucifixion,

supreme, ii.
264
visions, ii. 210
of Crates, i.
380 of Zosimus, i. 380.
ii.

238

Vital sheath, iii. 206.

Voice, direct, iii. 147 ; of tire, ii.
heavenly, i. 101 ; living,
5, 26
iii. 323.
;

VOL.

III.

Wagenfeld,

i.

Wagner,

94.

Wall,

ii.

123, 124.

90, 163.

i.

Walton, Alice, i. 461.

War, i. 327 in heaven,

iii.

Trojan,

324,

118

183.
i. 85, 121.
of the souls, iii. 195.
i.

iii.

Wardens, eight,

Warder

Warriors,

iii.

50.

Wars, Civil, i. 352.

Watcher, witness and, iii. 111.
Watchers (Egregores), i. 126,

iii.

137.

Water, iii. 189 awesome, i. 394,

395 ; deathless, ii. 18
drainer
of, ii. 39 ; fire and, iii. 66
above
firmament, i. 188 ; first-born of,
i. 398 ; living, i. 188,
190, 399 ;
Osiris is, i. 156 ; sinuous, ii. 4;
as source, i. 309 ; sprite, i. 367 ;
very water, iii. 17.
Water-earth, ii. 33, 34.
;

Virgins, seven, i. 176.

Virginal Spirit, i. 181, 182, ii. 240,
241, iii. 157.
Virginity, i. 218, 219.
Virtue, kinsmen of, i. 241 ; of
perfect peace, i. 218 ; silence on
their, ii. 250.
Virtue-lovers, i. 244.
Virtues, i. 216, ii. 245 ; company
of, ii. 245 ; seven, ii. 248 ; lists
of vices and, ii. 246.
Vishnu Purdna, iii. 180.
Vision, and apocalypsis, ii. 20 ff. ;
of Aridseus (Thespesius), i. 438,
452, ii. 363 ; of Beautiful, iii.

253

of Silence, ii. 250.

Vulcan, net of, i. 62.
Vulcanic Crater, i. 452.
Vulture, i. 90.
Vyasa, ii, 235.

211.

i.

Virgin-mother, i. 74.
Virgin-mothers, i. 220.

15, 53,

187.

ii.

Vow

Vehicles of the soul, ii. 167.

Veii, bible of the, ii. 235.
Venus (Isis), i. 382.
Vergecius, Angelus, i. 10.
Vestments, keeper of the, iii. 223.
Vestures, ii. 152.
Vettius Valens, i. 101, 102.
Vices, horde of, ii.
245 ; and
virtues, i. 377.

with child,

369

Water-rats, i. 325.
Watery sphere, iii. 209.
Way, above, ii. 15, 41 ; of birth in
God, ii. 244 ; of this birth, ii.
244 of death, ii. 18 ; of deathlessness, ii. 39 ; that leadeth to
destruction, i. 182 ; of devotion,
ii. 119 ; of gnosis, ii. 98 ;
up to
;

God, ii. 280 to worship God, ii.

212
out of ignorance, ii. 237 ;
inner, i. 101
of life, i. 182, ii.
15, 40, 41 ; middle, ii. 96 ; up to
mount, ii. 150, 171 old, old, ii.
98 ; of rebirth, ii. 248 ; straight,
;

ii.

189,

iii.

327,

ii.

40, 287.

Weasel, i. 356.
Weasel-armed,

Web

i. 295.
of ignorance, ii. 121.

Wedding garment,
Well of

Life,

Wending up
Wessely,

i.

i.

ii.

42,

ii.

the Mount,

ii.

82, 86, 93, 97.

Whale, belly

of,

i.

425.

Wheat-ear, i. 178, 179.

Wheel, karmic, ii. 83.

Wheels

249.

79.

of Ezekiel,

iii.

173.

24

219.

INDEX

370

"Whether blest child of Kronos,

i.

185.

Whirlwinds, fiery, i. 409.

White, cock, i. 342
rock,

162,

i.

163.

Whole, ii. 310 sense, ii. 371.

Whoring, iii. 166.
Whorl, i. 441, ii. 187.
Wilamowitz, i. 185, 195, ii. 300.
Will, ii. 142 ; of God, ii. 160, 220,
;

395.

Wind, i. 396.
Windows, not
Winds,
Wine,
i.

iii.

120

of,

great,

iii.

314, 326.

World, old age of, ii. 356 end of,

ii.
400 ; fast to the, ii. 239
inner, iii. 325; intelligible, ii.
;

globe,

i.

Egypt, i. 44, 69, ii. 98, iii. 321 ;

church of, iii. 323 ; Greek, i.
in harmony, i. 183
193
harmony of, i. 237 ; husband of,
218 ; Indian, ii. 198 ; lady of
i.
laws of, i. 120 ;
all, iii. 208
mother, i. 224, 228
practisers
of, i. 206 ; serpent of, i. 194,
480 spark of, i. 206 ; supreme
master of, i. 68 ; tradition of, i.
208 ; that understands in silence,
;

watcher,

iii.

first, i.

139,

Worms,

iii.

i.

of animals,

i.

strange,

396, ii. 128 ; ever-virgin,

i. 222 ; fecund, ii. 390 ; of Great
Mother, iii. 324 ; tore asunder
His, i. 182 ; impure, i. 398 ; of
Rhea, i. 335 ; is Silence, ii. 241 ;
of Virgin, i. 399.
Women, band of seven, ii. 248 ;
maladies of, iii. 225.
Wonder, ii. 93, iii. 246.

i.

298, 299.
351.

i.

320.

Yahweh,
27

187

51.

Xenophanes,
Xois,

166.
i.

of, iii.

orderer of, iii.

208 ; shrine of all, ii. 351 ;
stranger to, ii. 220 ; unseen, i.
223 ; virgin of, iii. 93.
World-citizens, i. 206.
World-egg, ii. 33 ; Orphic tradition
of, i. 387, 388.
World-eye, apple of the, iii. 167.
World-illusion, ii. 220, 237.
World-soul, i. 414, ii. 36, 70, 184,
260, iii. 173.
World-tree, the, ii. 317.
Worlds, number of, 183, iii. 171 ;
plurality of,
iii.
170 ; seven
subject, ii. 179.
Worm, i. 171.

Xenocrates,

and

111.

ii.

map

353.

Wolf, i. 87, 90, 325.

Wolf-town, i. 354.
Wolves, i. 436.

Woman,

273, 286, 302 ;

noetic, iii. 80 ;

Worse, i. 328.
Worship, ii. 323

162.

Wisdom-discipline, iii. 225.

Wisdom-lover, i. 431.
Wise, Thoth the, i. 134.
Withdrawn volumes, ii. 236.
Witness, the, ii. 50, 51 ;

iii.

Work,
ii.

390.
Wings, i. 432 ; feathers of their, i.
430 ; of sonship, i. 390.
Wisdom, i. 206, 220, 221, 223,
225, ii. 251, iii. 163 ; mass of
archaic, ii.
236 ; brotherhood
for sake of, i. 233 ; dark, i, 87,
disciples
of, iii. 303 ;
of
91 ;

Womb,

165.

109.

268.

iii.

He who

soweth the, ii. 18 ; language of

proceeding
the,
i.
the
54
thought, i. 137 ; spoken, ii. 343 ;
by whom all things were made, i.
136 through the, ii. 233, 255.
Word-play, ii. 106.
Words, of Ammon, iii. 215 whom
it is custom to call angels, i. 243 ;
ladder of, i. 139 ; of Thoth, i.
63
three more-than-mighty, i.
;

eyes,

four, i. 84.
of ignorance,

Winged

Wood, cutting of, i. 293.

Word, of creator, iii. 256

iii. 166, 167.

are Gods, i. 163.
shall leave your parents, i. 249.
are whited sepulchres, i. 172.
Year, great, iii. 290.
Year-god, i. 402.
Years, thousand, i. 432 ; ten thousand, iii. 171 ; three thousand,
i. 326.
Yedidyah ha-Alakhsanderi, i. 200.
Yoga, ii. 163 ; of Plotinus, i. 251.
Yoga-practices, ii. 197.
Yogin, Plutarch's, iii. 169.

Ye
Ye
Ye

INDEX
Yoke

Zion, foundation of,

Zodia, iii. 53.
Zodiac, i. 414, 416,
of the, ii. 52.
Zoega, i. 400.

of horses,

i. 430.
201.
Young Tern, i. 458.
Younger son, ii. 192, 257.
"Youths, seven, i. 176.
Ysdnw, iii. 297.

Yonge,

Zeesar,
Zeller,

i.

i.
i.

Zone, regal,

32, 36,

ii.
i.

ii.

341

162.

ii.

245; signs

198.
iii.
ii.

97,
42.

194,

211

i. 126.
325, 437, iii. 274, 278,
296 ; the Mage, i. 324, iii. 317
The Telescope of, i. 13.
Zorokothora, iii. 211.
Zosimus, i. 157, 270, ii. 249, 265,

Zoroaster,

gifts

of,

274 ; lame, i. 343 ; Phrygius,

172 ; sons of, iii. 217.

iii.
i.

i.

Zophasemin,

392.
400.

Zeus, i. 151, 279, 305, 313, 327,

330, 359 ; above, ii. 359 ; below,
ii., 359 ; bull of, iii. 183 ; cosmic
breath, i. 313 ; date of, i. 149 ;
essence-chief,

iii.

Zones, ii. 41,

seven, i. 413,

165.

Zervan Akarana,

371

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