M. David Litwa

M. David Litwa is a prominent scholar of ancient Mediterranean religions, early Christianity, and late antique philosophy. In the context of Hermetic studies, his magnum opus is Hermetica II: The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient Testimonies (2018).

Completing the Hermetic Corpus

For centuries, the English-speaking world relied almost entirely on the 17 treatises of the Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius (most recently translated by Brian Copenhaver). Litwa's Hermetica II gathered, translated, and provided extensive commentary on the rest of the surviving tradition. This includes the massive Stobaean anthology, the Oxford and Vienna papyri, and the myriad quotations embedded in the works of church fathers like Lactantius, Cyril, and Augustine, as well as alchemists like Zosimos.

Scholarly Impact

Litwa's comprehensive anthology allowed scholars to see the full breadth of the "Hermetic discourse." It revealed that in Late Antiquity, the Hermetic writings were vastly more extensive and diverse than the canonical 17 texts suggest, heavily involved in practical ritual, Egyptian temple myth, and fierce polemics between pagans and Christians.