What do we learn about hermeticism from these additional texts? Give me an overview of the contents, contexts, and contributions of each of the texts and fragments studied here with notes on what they add to the study of hermeticism that can't be found in the Copenhaver volume
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HERMETICA II
This volume presents in new English translations the scattered fragments and testimonies regarding Hermes Thrice Great that complete
Brian Copenhaver’s translation of the Hermetica (Cambridge ).
It contains the twenty-nine fragments from Stobaeus (including the
famous Korē Kosmou), the Oxford and Vienna fragments (never
before translated into English), an expanded selection of fragments
from various authors (including Zosimus of Panopolis, Augustine,
and Albert the Great), and testimonies about Hermes from thirtyeight authors (including Cicero, Pseudo-Manetho, the Emperor
Julian, Al-Kindī, Michael Psellus, the Emerald Tablet, and Nicholas
of Cusa). All translations are accompanied by introductions and notes
which cite sources for further reading. These Hermetic texts will
appeal to a broad array of readers interested in western esotericism
including scholars of Egyptology, the New Testament, the classical
world, Byzantium, medieval Islam, the Latin Middle Ages, and the
Renaissance.
. is a research fellow at the Institute for Religion and
Critical Inquiry in Melbourne, Australia. His recent books include:
Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Ancient Jewish and Christian
Mythmaking (); Refutation of All Heresies: Text, Translation,
and Notes (); and Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of
Jesus as a Mediterranean God ().
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HERMETICA II
The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient
Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and
Introductions
M. DAVID LITWA
Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Melbourne
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For Sam, Annie, Alex, and Eve
שבת שלום
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Contents
Preface page xi
Abbreviations xii
General Introduction
A Note on This Translation
Sigla Adopted for This Translation
( –)
( –)
( –)
( –)
Tertullian
Pseudo(?)-Cyprian
– Lactantius
– Iamblichus
– Zosimus
Ephrem the Syrian
– Cyril of Alexandria
Addendum: The Reception of Hermetic Fragments from Cyril
vii
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Marcellus of Ancyra
John Lydus
Gregory of Nazianzus
Didymus of Alexandria
Gaius Iulius Romanus
Augustine
Quodvultdeus
Michael Psellus
Albert the Great
Nicholas of Cusa
( –)
Artapanus
Cicero
Manilius
Thrasyllus
Dorotheus of Sidon
Philo of Byblos
Athenagoras
Virtues of Plants
Refutation of All Heresies
Pseudo-Manetho
Arnobius
Iamblichus
Marius Victorinus
The Emperor Julian
viii Contents
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Ammianus Marcellinus
Greek Magical Papyri
Filastrius
First Prologue to the Cyranides
Augustine
Hermias
Cyril of Alexandria
John of Antioch
Isidore of Seville
John of Damascus(?), Passion of Artemius
Al-Kindī
Abū Ma‘shar
Ibn an-Nadīm
Al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik
Michael Psellus
Emerald Tablet
Prefaces to the Composition of Alchemy and the Six Principles
of Nature
Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers
Book of Alcidus
Fifteen Stars, Stones, Plants, and Talismans
Book of the Beibenian Stars
Albert the Great
Picatrix
Nicholas of Cusa
Bibliography
Index
Contents ix
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Preface
Despite widespread interest in the Hermetica across the globe, currently
there does not exist a reliable and up-to-date English translation of the
various Hermetic fragments and testimonies. Indeed, some of these fragments and testimonies remain generally unknown.
At the turn of the twentieth century, G. R. S. Mead made a translation
of select fragments into Victorian English from now-outdated editions.
The translation of the fragments by Walter Scott () was based on his
own re-written Greek text – a jungle of emendations and transpositions.
When it came to testimonies, moreover, Scott did not actually translate the
Greek or Latin texts. He only rendered into English (via Latin translations)
texts originally written in Arabic.
The present translation serves a new generation of scholarly and lay
readers of the Hermetica. It remains faithful to – though critically engaged
with – the various manuscript traditions. Copious notes provide historical
background, parallels, and references for further reading. Included also are
many testimonies that Scott did not print. It is hoped that this volume will
spark interest in the full reception history of the Hermetica, which must
include Late Antiquity and the medieval period.
Here I gratefully acknowledge persons who read parts of the manuscript
and offered helpful suggestions: Brian P. Copenhaver, David Runia, and
Christian H. Bull. Christian Wildberg and Kevin Van Bladel also kindly
answered my inquiries and provided guidance based on their expertise. My
thanks also to Oxford University Press for the use of Van Bladel’s translations of Arabic source materials.
xi
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Abbreviations
ANRW Haase and others, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang
der römischen Welt
Ascl. The Latin Asclepius
BSGRT Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum
Teubneriana
CCAG Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vols.,
–
CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
CH Corpus Hermeticum
CH Deutsch Holzhausen, ed., Das Corpus Hermeticum Deutsch,
vols.,
Copenhaver Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
Hermeticum,
DGWE Hanegraaff, ed., Dictionary of Gnosis and Western
Esotericism, .
DH Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius
DK Diels and Kranz, eds., Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, th
edition
Disc. – Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (NHC VI,)
DPA Richard Goulet, ed., Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques,
vols., –
F Codex Farnesius
FH Hermetic Fragments from various sources
FHSG Fortenbaugh, Huby, Sharples, and Gutas, eds.,
Theophrastus of Eresus,
HHE Mahé, Hermès en Haute-Égypte, vols., –.
LS Long and Sedley, eds., The Hellenistic Philosophers,
vols.,
MSS Manuscripts
Mystique Festugière, Hermétisme et mystique païenne,
xii
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NF Nock and Festugière, eds., Corpus Hermeticum, vols.,
–
NHC Nag Hammadi Codices
NHS Nag Hammadi Studies
NRSV The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
OF Bernabé, ed., Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia
et fragmenta,
OH Oxford Hermetic Fragments
OLD P. G. W. Glare, ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary. –
OTP Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vols.,
–
P Codex Parisinus gr.
PG Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca, vols., –
PW Pauly and Wissowa, eds., Realencyclopädie, vols.,
–
Ref. Refutation of All Heresies
RHT Festugière, La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vols.,
nd edn., –
SC Sources Chrétiennes
Scarpi Scarpi, ed., La Rivelazione segreta di Ermete Trismegisto,
vols., –
SH Stobaean Hermetic Excerpts
SVF Von Arnim, ed., Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
TH Hermetic Testimonies
VC Vigiliae Christianae
VH Vienna Hermetic Fragments
Abbreviations xiii
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General Introduction
There are five groups of philosophical Hermetic writings that do not
appear in Brian P. Copenhaver’s English translation entitled Hermetica: The Greek “Corpus Hermeticum” and the Latin “Asclepius”.
The first is
the large group of Hermetic excerpts from Stobaeus, an early fifth-century
anthologist. The second is the Coptic Hermetica (discovered in )
featuring two excerpts of previously known writings in addition to a
formerly unknown Hermetic tractate (the Discourse on the Eighth and
Ninth). The third group is the collection of Hermetic Definitions, a set
of maxims extant in Greek fragments but preserved only fully in Armenian. The fourth is the previously known set of diverse fragments quoted
by various (largely Christian) authors in Late Antiquity. The fifth comprises recently discovered Hermetic fragments currently preserved in
Vienna and Oxford.
The Coptic Hermetica are widely available in English translations of the
Nag Hammadi library. The Definitions are now conveniently accessible in
English thanks to the work of Jean-Pierre Mahé. What remains to be
translated are the fragments from Stobaeus, the fragments and testimonies
from various authors, and the fragments from the newly discovered papyri.
Copenhaver’s introduction to CH and Ascl. remain relevant (Copenhaver, xxxii–xlv). See also Peter
Kingsley, “An Introduction to the Hermetica: Approaching Ancient Esoteric Tradition,” in Roelof
van den Broek and Cis van Heertum, eds., From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis: Hermetism and
the Christian Tradition (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, ), –. See Marvin Meyer, ed., Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (New York: HarperOne,
), –. Introductions to the Coptic Hermetica can be found in ibid., –; –;
–; Mahé, HHE, .–, –; .–; Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans-Gebhard Bethge,
and Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, eds., Nag Hammadi Deutsch: Studienausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, ),
–; –; –. Mahé’s translation can be found in Clement Salaman and others, trans., The Way of Hermes: New
Translations of “The Corpus Hermeticum” and “The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius”
(Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, ), –. Mahé introduces the Armenian Definitions in
ibid., –.
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It is high time to present a new translation and annotation of these (chiefly
philosophical) Hermetica to the English-speaking world.
Hermes-Thoth
Nothing binds together the multifarious Hermetic fragments beyond their
ascription to Hermes Thrice Great. Hermes Thrice Great is a fictional
character. Yet for many in the ancient world that fiction was history. If we
call Hermes Thrice Great a “myth,” we thereby recognize that he is greater
and more significant than any one historical figure. How do we introduce a
figure that appears in so many different ages in so many different guises? If
there was an “original” Hermes Thrice Great, we are obliged to pick up the
thread at significant points of reception.
Iamblichus (about – ) commences his book (later called On
the Mysteries) with the following flourish:
Hermes, the deity who presides over rational discourses, has long and
rightly been considered common to all who practice the sacred arts. He
who presides over true science concerning gods is one and the same
throughout the universe. It is to him that our ancestors dedicated the
discoveries of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.
Important here is the frank acknowledgement that many authors wrote
under the name of Hermes. The practice of pseudepigraphy was logical for
devotees of Hermes. True wisdom and learning merited ascription to the
lord of all learning. This is why many Egyptian scholars attributed their
writings to Hermes. Iamblichus, himself writing under a false name
(“Abammon,” an Egyptian priest), calls these writers his “ancestors.” These
“ancestors” were probably Hellenized Egyptian scribes and priests who
lived not very long before Iamblichus himself.
Later, Iamblichus gives a taste of how many persons were writing under
the name of Hermes. In On the Mysteries ., he passes on the report of a
certain Seleucus, who attributed to Hermes a total of , books.
A better-known source, the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho, nearly
Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .. On Hermetic pseudepigraphy, see Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in
Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, ), –; and more generally, Bart
D. Ehrman, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, ), –; –.
General Introduction
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doubled this number, crediting Hermes with , volumes (or
volumes for each single day in a -year period). So many books
would easily fill the shelves of a large temple library (the Egyptian “House
of Life”). Perhaps this is the point – all the wisdom of the Egyptian sacred
priesthood ultimately reverts to Hermes.
According to Iamblichus, Hermes wrote hundreds of tomes on specialized topics like “the gods in the fiery zone,” “the gods in the aether,” and
“the gods in the heavens.”
Hermes was the ultimate theologian, yet the
scope of his expertise was in fact more vast. There are existing treatises on
astrology, the virtues of stones, the principles of creation, the origin and
nature of the soul, alchemical practices, Fate, the effects of climate on
intelligence, healing, and even why children resemble their parents – all
ascribed to Hermes.
The many genres of Hermetic learning are well illustrated by a passage
in Clement of Alexandria. This Christian writer around describes a
procession of Egyptian officials in which forty-two fundamental writings of
Hermes were displayed (the number of Egypt’s districts or “nomes”). The
highest-ranking priest, whom the Greeks called “Prophet,” carried the ten
“hieratic” books on laws, the gods, and the training of priests. The Stolekeeper presented ten books on education and sacrifice. The Sacred Scribe
held up a decade of books on hieroglyphs, geography, and the temples.
Then came the Astrologer, who showed four books on astronomical
matters (fixed stars, planets, conjunctions, and the risings of astral bodies).
Finally, the Singer held in his hands a songbook and an instruction manual
for kings. As a supplement, six books on medical matters (anatomy,
medicines, medical instruments, and gynecology) were displayed. All this
vast store of knowledge was ascribed to Hermes.
Who was this Hermes? We must first of all distinguish a Greek deity
from a significantly different Egyptian one. The Greek Hermes was the
“winged son of kindly Maia,” racing on the winds as Zeus’s crafty herald,
The number has yet deeper significance in Egyptian astrology, as pointed out by Christian H. Bull,
“The Tradition of Hermes: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom”
(Ph.D. diss., University of Bergen, ), –. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .–. See, for instance, the small treatises On Earthquakes and the Brontologion attributed to Hermes
Thrice Great in CCAG .–; –. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ...–.... On books in temple libraries, see further Serge
Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt, new edition, trans. David Lorton (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, ), –; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the
Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ), –; Jan Assmann, Religion
and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Stanford: Stanford University Press, ), , –,
nn.–.
General Introduction
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helmeted with the cap of invisibility, wielding the twisted caduceus with
the power to put even Argus with his hundred eyes to sleep. The
Egyptian Hermes, on the other hand, was Thoth, depicted as the ibisheaded scribe of the gods, secretary of Re, giver of oracles, master of magic,
lord of the moon often appearing in the form of a dog-faced baboon.
When the Greeks dominated Egypt, they identified the Egyptian god
Thoth with Hermes. But why? What did they see in these two gods that
was similar?
There are several overlaps, yet we will focus on two. First of all,
Hermes as psychopomp, or escort of the dead, resembled Thoth as seen in
the various versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (or the Book of Going
Forth by Day), chapter . In the Hall of Two Truths, Thoth hears the
confession of the deceased person. After the person’s heart is weighed
against the feather of Maat (“Justice,” or “Truth”), Thoth carefully
inscribes the result with his tablet and stylus. If the heart is pure, Thoth
leads the candidate into the presence of Osiris, the ultimate judge of the
dead, and finally into the Field of Reeds. Perhaps the most famous scene
of Hermes leading souls is the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, book . In
this scene, Hermes guides the freshly slaughtered suitors of Penelope to the
netherworld. Mindless, the suitors squeak like bats on their way to the
halls of Hades.
Yet there was a more basic similarity between Hermes and Thoth.
Hermes is more than a herald or messenger. He is the Logos – the Reason,
Speech, or Word of God. The Word devises speech and brings his own
interpretation, which the Greeks called hermeneia.
Thoth is also the god
who presides over speech and interpretation. He is called “the heart of Re,
the tongue of Atum, the throat of the God whose name is hidden.” As
The “winged son of kindly Maia” derives from Horace, Odes, .. Other similarities between Thoth and Hermes are catalogued by Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel,
Thot à travers ses épithètes dans les scènes d’offrandes des temples d’époque gréco-romaine (Brussels:
Egyptology Foundation Queen Elizabeth, ), –; Andreas Löw, Hermes Trismegistos als
Zeuge der Wahrheit: Die christliche Hermetikrezeption von Athenagoras bis Laktanz, Theophaneia
(Berlin: Philo, ), –. See Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews
(London: British Museum, ), (spell b); C. J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures
of the Ancient Egyptian Religion (Leiden: Brill, ), –. For Hermes as Logos (or Word), see Ref. ..; Seneca, On Benefits .; Cornutus, Nature of the
Gods ; Heraclitus, Homeric Problems ; Acts :; Varro in Augustine, City of God .; Justin,
First Apology .; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (Moralia b). For devising speech, see Plato, Cratylus e–b; compare Diodorus, Library of History . (τὰ
περὶ τὴν ἑρμενείαν).
General Introduction
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divine speech personified, Thoth is also a creator. “What bursts from his
heart has immediate existence; what he pronounces exists for eternity.”
In the Hellenistic period (roughly – ), Greeks living in Egypt
and Hellenized Egyptians crafted an amalgam of Thoth and Hermes who
was called “the Egyptian Hermes” or later “Hermes Thrice Greatest”
(Trismegistos, Termaximus). This Hermes is superlatively great in a superlative (threefold) way. Following English convention, however, here we call
“Thrice Greatest Hermes” simply “Hermes Thrice Great.”
Greeks typically conceived of Hermes Thrice Great in a Euhemeristic
fashion. That is to say, they often considered him to have been an ancient
man – a real scribe of a real Pharaoh, often the first divine Pharaoh called
Ammon (the Egyptian god Amun). This scribe, named Thoth or Theuth,
invented the alphabet and the art of writing. Ever since, humans have
been using writing to preserve the vast array of accumulated knowledge.
Thoth was later deified to become a recognized Egyptian god or daimon (a
kind of mediating deity). Writing was the best-known benefit that
Thoth offered to human beings, but it was not the only one.
Greeks attributed to Thoth the invention of a host of other arts. Plato
(– ) made Thoth the discoverer of mathematics and astronomy.
Hecataeus of Abdera (fourth century ) ascribed to him the
invention of a common language, religious ritual, music, wrestling,
dancing, and the culture of the olive. The Jewish writer Artapanus (third
These titles derive from hieroglyphic inscriptions from the temple of Denderah printed in
Festugière, RHT, . and Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: A History of the Belief in Christ from
the Beginnings of Christianity to Irenaeus, trans. John E. Steely (Nashville: Abingdon, ),
–. The temple is dated to the time of Nero (mid first century ). Compare the
inscription on the door of the library of the great temple of Philae: “the glorious Ibis who came
forth from the heart of the god [Re]; tongue of Tenen [Ptah] when he gives command, throat of
him of the hidden name [Amun]” (quoted in Patrick Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of
Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt [London: Oxford University Press, ],
–). In the Shabaka text, Thoth functions as creator in the form of Ptah (ibid., ).
According to a fourth-century papyrus fragment called the Strasbourg Cosmogony, Hermes is
depicted as creator of the world. For an introduction see Jean-Marie Flamand, “Cosmogonie de
Strasbourg,” DPA .–. See further Youri Volokhine, “Le dieu Thot et la parole,” Revue de
l’histoire des religions (): –. For Thoth the inventor of writing, see Philo of Byblos in Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel ..
(= TH a), as well as the writers cited in the next paragraph. Plato (Philebus b) expressed uncertainty as to whether Hermes (Thoth) was a god, a daimon, or
divine man. Perhaps he was a man guided by a daimon, as in Ammianus Marcellinus, Historical
Events .. (TH ). In some Hermetic texts, Hermes Thrice Great is distinguished from his
grandfather Thoth (Ascl. , with Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, –). A purely Euhemeristic
conception of Hermes Thrice Great is taken up by Christians such as Lactantius, Wrath of God
. (with the comments of Löw, Hermes –, –), Institutes .. (= FH a); Augustine,
City of God . (TH b). Plato, Phaedrus c–d; a. Diodorus, Library of History ..
General Introduction
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to second centuries ), after identifying Moses with Hermes, makes him
the teacher of navigation, devisor of weapons, machines of war, and
philosophy. According to the Roman orator Cicero (mid first century
), Hermes-Thoth “gave the Egyptians their laws and letters.”
In the
early first century , the Roman poet Manilius called Hermes “first
founder of this great and holy science” – meaning astrology. The
Christian writer Tertullian in the early third century dubbed Hermes
Thrice Great “teacher of all the natural philosophers.”
This tradition of
philosophy stretched back to Thales in the sixth century . When one
reads these testimonies (printed more fully at the end of this volume), one
gains a sense of the vast knowledge ascribed to Hermes. There was nary a
branch of learning over which the Thrice Great did not preside.
To the question: “Why was the Egyptian Hermes called ‘Thrice
Great’?” one can answer: triple greatness was the special prerogative of
Thoth. A god twice or thrice great was a god supremely great – greater
indeed than all his divine competitors (at least in the minds of his
devotees). Clay shards in the archive of Hor (around ) yield
a Greek translation of Thoth’s Egyptian epithet: “the greatest, yes,
greatest god, great Hermes!”
In Egyptian, the repetition likely had a
Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel ..– = frag. in OTP .–. See further Gerard
Mussies, “The Interpretatio Judaica of Thot-Hermes,” in M. Heerma van Voss, among others, eds.,
Studies in Egyptian Religion Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee (Leiden: Brill, ), – at
–. Cicero, Nature of the Gods . (= TH ). Manilius, Astronomica . (= TH ). Tertullian, Against the Valentinians . (= FH a). See further Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, . See in particular TH from Cyril of Alexandria. Florian Ebeling notes that, “From the second millennium on, Thoth was revered as the ‘twice
great,’ which was then escalated into ‘thrice great,’ that is, ‘greatest of all’” (The Secret History of
Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from Ancient to Modern Times, trans. David Lorton [Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, ], ). Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many, trans. John Baines
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, ), –. Greek usage is analogous. Plutarch
comments that, “We customarily express ‘many times’ also by ‘three times,’ just as we say ‘thrice
blessed’” (Isis and Osiris [Moralia c]). Mahé, HHE, (μέγιστος καὶ μέγιστος θεὸς μέγας Ἑ ρμῆς). The text is printed in J. D. Ray, Archive
of Hor (London: Egypt Exploration Society, ), , –; Maria Totti, Ausgewählte Texte der
Isis- und Sarapis-Religion (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, ), –. Alternatively, we could
translate: “the greatest and greatest, the great god Hermes.” The exact epithet to which the
Greek translation corresponds remains unclear because of the great variation of Thoth’s epithets.
These variations are summarily listed by Jan Quaegebeur, “Thot-Hermès, le dieu le plus grand!” in
Hartwig Altenmüller, ed., Hommages à François Daumas, vols. (Montpellier: University of
Montpellier, ), .– at –. See further Jacques Parlebas, “L’origine égyptienne de
l’appellation ‘Hermès Trismégiste,’”Göttinger Miszellen (): – with the correctives of
Maria-Theresia and Philippe Derchain, “Noch einmal Hermes Trismegistos,”Göttinger Miszellen
(): –; and Bull, “Tradition of Hermes,” –.
General Introduction
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distributive sense as well: Thoth is great on every occasion, at all times, in
every respect.
The earliest that Hermes attains the actual epithet “Thrice Great,” it
seems, is with Thrasyllus of Alexandria, famous astrologer of the emperor
Tiberius (reigned – ). In Greek, threeness evokes the notion of
perfection and pluri-potentiality. Hermes is the greatest god, and his
manifold powers were available in multiple ways. In this respect, Martial’s
playful line about the gladiator called Hermes ironically sums up the
essence of the Greco-Egyptian god: “Hermes – all things in one and thrice
unique!”
As the god of human sciences, both esoteric and empirical, Hermes
Thrice Great remained a fundamentally Egyptian deity. The Greek
Hermes was never really a scholar or patron of scholars until Late
Antiquity. Though “an interpreter, a messenger, a thief and a deceiver
in words,” the Greek Hermes was never a scribe. Yet writing and the
scribal wisdom it represents were associated with Thoth centuries before
the Homeric Hermes.
The Egyptian character of the Thrice Great is highlighted in the Greek
Magical Papyri (PGM). These papyri are priceless testimonies of Egyptian
domestic religion from the first to the fourth centuries . In a hymn
recorded in PGM .–, Hermes is called, “Ruler of the world,” the
“circle of Moon,” the “founder of the words of speech, pleader of Justice’s
cause ... eye of the Sun ... founder of full-voiced speech,” sender of
oracles, universal healer, and the one “who brings full mental powers.” In a
slightly longer version of the hymn, Hermes is called lord of the elements,
helmsman of the world, and the world’s very order. The creative role of
Hermes is further underscored in PGM .–, where he is, “the one
who [made] the four quarters of the heaven and the four foundations of
the earth.” According to PGM .–, Thoth, much like the Hebrew
god, “brings existence out of the nonexistent, and nonexistence from
Quaegebeur, “Thot-Hermès,” in Altenmüller, ed., Hommages à François Daumas, .. See also
H. S. Versnel, Ter Unus: Isis, Dionysus, and Hermes: Three Studies in Henotheism (Leiden: Brill,
), –. Thrasyllus (ὁ λεγόμενος Τρισμέγιστος Ἑ ρμῆς). The fragment comes from Thrasyllus’s Pinax (or
Tablet) for Hieroclea (= TH ). Later attestations of the “Thrice Great” title occur in the early to mid
second century with Philo of Byblos from Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel .. (= TH ); and
Athenagoras, Embassy . (= TH ). See further Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, , , –; Löw,
Hermes, –; Bull, “Tradition of Hermes,” –. Martial, Epigrams .. (Hermes omnia solus et ter unus). Compare CH .: the Father of the
universe is “the all who is one and the one who is all.” See further Versnel, Ter Unus, –; Löw,
Hermes, –. Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, –. PGM b.–; compare PGM .–.
General Introduction
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existent things ... the true sight of whose face none of the gods can endure
to see.” As universal creator, Hermes is also the universal knower of “the
things hidden beneath heaven and earth.”
Greek philosophers tapped into the wisdom of Hermes by – according
to legend at least – visiting Egypt and sitting at the feet of Hermes’s heirs:
Egyptian priests. These priests were naturally reluctant to share their sacred
wisdom, but their visitors proved persistent. According to tradition, all
the greatest philosophers – among them Pythagoras, Solon, Eudoxus,
Plato, and Democritus, among many others – came to “study abroad” in
Egypt. Even if one grants the historicity of these sojourns, one reasonably doubts that all these Greeks learned the specific wisdom later associated with the Thrice Great. Yet if all Egyptian wisdom ultimately derives
from Thoth, then Greece’s finest sages could later be viewed as the god’s
disciples. Only on occasion, however, is the connection between the
philosophers and Hermes himself made explicit. According to Tertullian,
Plato was especially intimate with the Egyptian Hermes. Iamblichus
affirms that Pythagoras and Plato, during their visits to Egypt, carefully
studied the stelae (inscribed pillars) of Hermes with the help of native
priests.
By Late Antiquity, Hermes the Egyptian was viewed as the supreme
philosopher, or rather the one who stood at the head of the Greek
philosophical tradition. Hermes was not a historical author, but he did
possess an important “author function.”
His name guaranteed the
antiquity and validity of a host of Greco-Egyptian writings that addressed
important scientific and philosophical topics of the time.
PGM .–. See especially the case of Thessalus, discussed by Festugière, Mystique, –; Jonathan Z. Smith,
“The Temple and the Magician,” in Map is Not Territory: Studies in the History of Religions
(Chicago: Chicago University Press, ),
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[Web browsing]
What Hermetica II adds to the study of Hermeticism is not simply “more texts,” but a different map of the tradition: one that shows how Hermetic teaching circulated in anthologies, papyri, school notebooks, Christian polemic, late–antique philosophy, Arabic science, and medieval speculation. Read alongside Copenhaver’s Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius, these materials change both the scale and the texture of what we mean by “Hermeticism.”
Where Copenhaver gives us a relatively coherent philosophical-theological corpus, Hermetica II exposes a much messier, more socially embedded, and historically mobile body of literature.
This means the Hermetic writings here appear as school texts, circulating alongside Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the tragedians.
Copenhaver’s volume presents Hermeticism mainly as a set of philosophical dialogues oriented around salvation through knowledge. The Stobaean texts show something broader:
Hermeticism as a cosmological science.
Here Hermes is not merely a revealer of divine knowledge but a teacher of:
This material also shows that Hermetic myth could operate on the same level as Plato’s Timaeus: as speculative cosmology, not merely religious exhortation.
The Hermetic texts are therefore preserved in a Byzantine educational environment.
These fragments show Hermeticism functioning as a technical philosophical discipline, not only as revelation literature.
Here Hermes teaches:
Copenhaver’s Hermes is a preacher of divine awakening. The Oxford Hermes is a philosopher of mind and body. These texts reveal that Hermeticism was part of the same intellectual ecosystem as Galenic medicine, Aristotelian psychology, and Stoic physics.
The roll originally contained at least ten Hermetic tractates, one titled On Energies. On the other side of the papyrus is a Jewish romance about Jannes and Jambres, the magicians who opposed Moses.
This juxtaposition is extraordinarily revealing.
These papyri show Hermeticism as a book tradition, not merely a loose set of dialogues.
They prove that:
The citers include:
This material gives us the reception history of Hermeticism.
Copenhaver’s volume ends in Late Antiquity. Hermetica II shows:
It is here that Hermes becomes:
The witnesses include:
These testimonies explain why Hermetic texts carried authority.
They show Hermes functioning as an author-function — a legendary name that guaranteed antiquity, legitimacy, and universality. Hermes is not merely a speaker in dialogues; he is the imagined source of all sacred science.
This is how Hermes becomes:
Taken together, these materials force a major revision of the standard picture.
Copenhaver’s Hermetica presents:
a philosophical-religious movement centered on salvation through divine knowledge.
Hermetica II reveals:
a trans-Mediterranean intellectual tradition encompassing cosmology, medicine, astrology, alchemy, theology, magic, psychology, and natural philosophy.
We learn that Hermeticism was:
That total vision — philosophical, scientific, theological, and mythic at once — is only visible when the Stobaean excerpts, papyri, fragments, and testimonies are read alongside the Corpus Hermeticum.
In that sense, Hermetica II does not merely supplement Copenhaver’s volume. It completes the historical reality of Hermeticism. fileciteturn1file0turn1file3turn1file4turn1file1
tell me more about the witnesses
[Web browsing]
Below is a closer look at the witnesses to Hermes Trismegistus preserved in Hermetica II — who they are, why they cite Hermes, and what kind of Hermes they construct. What emerges is not a single figure but a sequence of Hermes-images shaped by the needs of pagan philosophy, Christian polemic, Islamic science, and medieval natural magic.
These testimonies are not marginal curiosities. They are the machinery by which Hermes becomes one of the central ancestors of Western esotericism.
The “testimonies concerning Hermes Thrice Great” (TH 1–38) are ancient and medieval reports about Hermes rather than writings by him. They range from the Hellenistic period through the Renaissance and come from pagan philosophers, Christian theologians, astrologers, historians, alchemists, and Islamic encyclopedists.
As Litwa notes, the collection is not exhaustive. There exist dozens more Arabic, Latin, alchemical, astrological, and magical texts that invoke Hermes, many of which remain unedited or poorly studied. Hermes appears everywhere in technical literature, often as a legendary authority or primordial teacher. fileciteturn2file1
The witnesses show that Hermeticism cannot be reduced to the philosophical dialogues translated by Copenhaver. Instead, Hermes becomes:
Artapanus was a Jewish-Hellenistic writer who identified Moses with Hermes. In his account, Moses-Hermes teaches navigation, military engineering, philosophy, and technology. Hermes becomes the origin of civilization itself.
Here Hermes is not a mystic but a culture hero — inventor, lawgiver, engineer, and political founder. This anticipates later Islamic portrayals of Hermes as the first scientist.
Cicero reports that Hermes-Thoth gave the Egyptians their laws and letters. Hermes is presented as the inventor of writing and the foundation of political order.
This is the Euhemeristic Hermes: not a god but a divinized sage whose achievements explain the rise of civilization. fileciteturn2file3
The Roman poet Manilius calls Hermes the founder of astrology — “the first founder of this great and holy science.” Hermes is now the patriarch of astral knowledge.
This establishes the association between Hermes and the science of the stars that will dominate Islamic and medieval Hermeticism. fileciteturn2file3
Thrasyllus, astrologer to Emperor Tiberius, is the earliest known author to explicitly call Hermes Trismegistus. He helps crystallize the triple-great title that becomes canonical.
Here Hermes is an astronomical authority tied to imperial power.
Dorotheus, one of antiquity’s greatest astrologers, treats Hermes as the primordial source of horoscopic astrology. Hermes stands at the beginning of technical astral science.
Philo presents Hermes as the inventor of writing and sacred science, embedded within Phoenician and Egyptian myth-history. His Hermes belongs to a lineage of ancient theologians and culture heroes.
For Iamblichus, Hermes is the supreme theological authority and guide of theurgists. Hermes is the patron of ritual science and divine ascent.
Iamblichus explicitly states that many Egyptian priests wrote under the name of Hermes, and that true sacred science was always attributed to him. Hermes becomes an author-function: the name under which divine knowledge circulates. fileciteturn2file4
Julian, the last pagan Roman emperor, treats Hermes as a divine philosopher and defender of traditional religion against Christianity. Hermes is part of Julian’s attempt to revive pagan theology as a rational religious system.
Christian authors are among the most important witnesses because they quote Hermes extensively — often to refute him, but sometimes to appropriate him.
Litwa notes that most surviving Hermetic fragments come from Christian writers, especially Lactantius and Cyril of Alexandria. fileciteturn1file1
Tertullian is the first Latin Christian to mention Hermes. He calls Hermes “teacher of all the natural philosophers.” For him, Hermes is a rival authority whose prestige must be neutralized.
Lactantius treats Hermes as a pagan witness to Christian truth. He quotes Hermes as teaching:
Cyril preserves more Hermetic material than any other author. He quotes Hermes in order to refute pagan theology, but in doing so he preserves large sections of otherwise lost Hermetic treatises.
Through Cyril, we glimpse a sophisticated pagan theology rivaling Christianity in scope and ambition.
Augustine presents Hermes as a historical Egyptian sage who was later deified. He accepts Hermes’ antiquity but denies his divinity.
Augustine’s account will shape medieval Christian views of Hermes for centuries.
In Islamic tradition, Hermes becomes a prophetic figure — sometimes identified with Idris (Enoch) — and the founder of astronomy, alchemy, and philosophy.
Al-Kindī treats Hermes as an authority on astrology and cosmology. Hermes stands at the beginning of scientific tradition.
Abū Ma‘shar presents Hermes as the primordial sage who transmitted astral wisdom to humanity after the Flood.
This establishes Hermes as the ancestor of Islamic astral science.
In his bibliographic encyclopedia, Ibn an-Nadīm lists dozens of books attributed to Hermes. Hermes appears as a prolific scientific author.
He presents Hermes as a philosopher-king, lawgiver, and sage — part of a lineage of ancient wisdom figures.
Psellus links Hermes with Zoroaster and Ostanes, the Persian magi. Hermes becomes part of a trans-cultural lineage of ancient magic and theology. fileciteturn2file2
The most famous Hermetic text of all: source of the dictum “as above, so below.” Here Hermes is the father of alchemy and the science of transformation.
This text becomes central to medieval and Renaissance alchemy.
Albert treats Hermes as a natural philosopher and master of occult properties. Hermes becomes part of scholastic natural science.
In this Arabic grimoire, Hermes is the originator of talismanic magic and astral ritual.
Nicholas treats Hermes as a prisca theologian whose teachings converge with Christian mysticism.
From these testimonies, several conclusions follow:
1. Hermes is not just a philosopher — he is the ancestor of science.
He founds astrology, alchemy, medicine, magic, law, and theology.
2. Hermeticism is not marginal — it is civilizational.
Hermes stands at the beginning of writing, astronomy, kingship, and law.
3. Hermeticism is not purely mystical — it is technical.
Hermes teaches astronomy, talismans, medicine, chemistry, cosmology.
4. Hermes is a trans-religious figure.
He belongs to paganism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Renaissance Platonism.
5. Hermes is an author-function.
His name legitimates knowledge by giving it immemorial antiquity.
In short, the witnesses show that “Hermeticism” is not merely a set of late antique philosophical dialogues. It is a civilizational myth of knowledge itself — the story of how divine wisdom entered human history through writing, science, ritual, and philosophy.
This Hermes is not only the revealer of gnosis.
He is the imagined founder of the sciences.
what about the various authors?\
What Hermetica II makes possible — and what Copenhaver’s Corpus Hermeticum by itself cannot give you — is a prosopography of Hermes’s readers: a long chain of philosophers, priests, theologians, astrologers, alchemists, and encyclopedists who invoke Hermes for very different purposes. These authors are not merely transmitters. Each constructs a different Hermes according to the intellectual economy of his own time.
What follows is a guided tour of the major authorial clusters and the kinds of Hermeticism they produce.
These authors establish the cultural authority of Hermes.
Here Hermes is a civilizational architect — not a mystic but a technologist and lawgiver. This is the earliest form of the Hermes-as-founder-of-science tradition.
This is the Euhemeristic Hermes: a historical sage later divinized. Cicero’s Hermes stands at the origin of culture itself. fileciteturn2file3
This is the first clear formulation of Hermes as patriarch of astral knowledge — a role that will dominate Islamic and medieval Hermeticism.
Here Hermes becomes a metaphysician and ritual theorist.
Iamblichus presents Hermes as the supreme theological authority and guide of theurgists. He explicitly states that Egyptian priests wrote their sacred books under Hermes’ name and that all divine science was attributed to him.
Hermes is no longer merely an author — he is the divine patron of ritual philosophy and sacred science. Iamblichus treats Hermetic literature as part of the same world as Chaldaean Oracles, Platonic theology, and temple ritual. fileciteturn2file4
Christian authors preserve more Hermetic material than anyone else — often unintentionally.
Litwa notes that thirty-nine of the forty-five Hermetic fragments come from Christian writers, especially Lactantius and Cyril. fileciteturn1file1
Hermes here is a rival intellectual authority whose prestige must be neutralized.
Through Cyril we glimpse a pagan philosophical theology fully competitive with Christianity.
Here Hermes becomes the father of occult science.
Hermeticism here becomes chemical, metallurgical, and soteriological at once.
In Islam, Hermes becomes a prophetic figure — often identified with Idris (Enoch).
From this chain of witnesses, Hermeticism appears not as a marginal cult or a set of late antique dialogues, but as a civilizational myth of knowledge:
Hermes is imagined as:
Hermeticism emerges not as a school, but as a genealogy of wisdom stretching from Egyptian temples to Renaissance laboratories.
Give me 50 "Fun facts" about the new picture of hermetism that emerges
Here are 50 fun facts about the new picture of Hermeticism that emerges once you read Hermetica II alongside Copenhaver — the Hermes of libraries, laboratories, temples, palaces, monasteries, and observatories, not just philosophical dialogues.
This is Hermes not only as mystic teacher, but as the imagined founder of civilization’s sciences.
1. Hermes was believed to have written tens of thousands of books — Manetho credited him with 36,525 volumes, one for every day of a four-year Egyptian calendrical cycle.
2. In antiquity, Egyptian temple libraries were sometimes called the “House of Life,” and Hermes was believed to be their original author.
3. Hermes was thought to have invented writing itself — making him the ancestor of all literature, not just esoteric texts.
4. The famous title Hermes Trismegistus (“Thrice Great”) probably originated in Egyptian priestly epithets that were later translated into Greek.
5. The earliest author to use the title “Trismegistus” is Thrasyllus, astrologer to Emperor Tiberius.
6. Hermes was believed to be the founder of astrology, not just a practitioner.
7. Roman poet Manilius called astrology a “holy science” founded by Hermes.
8. In Islamic tradition, Hermes was often identified with Idris (Enoch), the prophet who ascended to heaven.
9. Hermes was believed to have survived the Flood and re-founded civilization afterward.
10. In Arabic sources, Hermes is sometimes described as a philosopher-king who ruled Egypt.
11. Hermes was credited with inventing navigation, war machines, and engineering.
12. Some Jewish writers identified Moses himself with Hermes.
13. Hermes was thought to be the inventor of law and the founder of political order.
14. Ancient Egyptians believed Hermes (Thoth) governed the judgment of the dead in the underworld.
15. Hermes was believed to be the cosmic scribe who recorded the fate of every soul.
16. In the Greek Magical Papyri, Hermes is invoked as creator of the cosmos.
17. Some hymns call Hermes the helmsman of the universe.
18. Hermes was thought to rule over the four elements.
19. Hermes was believed to control the hidden powers beneath heaven and earth.
20. Hermes was said to possess knowledge no god could fully behold.
21. Hermes was the patron god of alchemy centuries before the Emerald Tablet became famous.
22. The earliest alchemist, Zosimus of Panopolis, treats Hermes as the source of alchemical revelation.
23. Hermes was linked with Zoroaster and the Persian magi.
24. Hermes was part of a trans-cultural lineage of ancient sages including Ostanes, Pythagoras, and Plato.
25. Neoplatonists believed Plato studied the pillars of Hermes in Egypt.
26. Hermes was considered the supreme authority of theurgy (ritual ascent to the gods).
27. The philosopher Iamblichus said Egyptian priests wrote all sacred science under Hermes’ name.
28. Hermes functioned as an ancient author-function — his name guaranteed authority.
29. Christian theologians treated Hermes as a pagan prophet who anticipated Christianity.
30. Lactantius quoted Hermes as teaching monotheism.
31. Hermes was sometimes portrayed as a teacher of divine providence.
32. Augustine accepted Hermes as a real Egyptian sage later deified.
33. Medieval monks preserved Hermetic fragments while trying to refute paganism.
34. The Emerald Tablet became the most famous alchemical text in Europe.
35. The phrase “as above, so below” originates from Hermetic tradition.
36. Hermes became the ancestor of talismanic magic.
37. The grimoire Picatrix presents Hermes as founder of astral ritual.
38. Hermes was believed to control planetary intelligences.
39. Hermes was associated with medicine and healing.
40. Hermes was believed to have written treatises on embryology.
41. Hermes taught psychology centuries before Aristotle.
42. Hermetic texts were copied into Byzantine school anthologies.
43. Hermetic texts circulated alongside biblical commentaries.
44. Hermetic papyri were reused for Jewish magical romances.
45. Hermes was read by Christian bishops, pagan emperors, Islamic astronomers, and medieval monks.
46. Hermes became one of the central figures of Renaissance magic.
47. Ficino believed Hermes was older than Moses.
48. Hermes became the foundation of the Renaissance idea of ancient wisdom (prisca sapientia).
49. Hermes was imagined as the ancestor of both science and religion.
50. Hermeticism turns out to be not a cult or sect, but a civilizational myth of knowledge itself.
Copenhaver gives you Hermes as a philosophical mystic.
Hermetica II gives you Hermes as the imagined founder of:
And that story starts in Egyptian temples, travels through Roman palaces, Byzantine monasteries, Islamic observatories, and Renaissance laboratories — all under the name of Hermes Thrice Great. fileciteturn2file1turn2file2turn2file3turn2file4
give me a deep dive on the hermetic discussions of falls into bodies into our text and how it differs from iamblichus account
Make sure to include fileciteturn3file0 in your response to cite this file, or to surface it as a link.
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Iamblichus and the Foundations of Late Platonism
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Ancient Mediterranean
and Medieval Texts
and Contexts
Editors
Robert M. Berchman
Jacob Neusner
Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism,
and the Platonic Tradition
Edited by
Robert M. Berchman
Dowling College and Bard College
John F. Finamore
University of Iowa
Editorial Board
JOHN DILLON (Trinity College, Dublin) – GARY GURTLER (Boston College)
JEAN-MARC NARBONNE (Laval University, Canada)
VOLUME 13
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/spnp
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Iamblichus and the
Foundations of Late Platonism
Edited by
Eugene Afonasin
John Dillon
John F. Finamore
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Iamblichus and the foundations of late platonism / edited by Eugene Afonasin, John Dillon, John F.
Finamore.
p. cm. – (Ancient Mediterranean and medieval texts and contexts, ISSN 1871-188X ; v. 13)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18327-8 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Iamblichus, ca. 250-ca. 330. 2. Neoplatonism. I.
Afonasin, E. V. (Evgenii Vasil?evich) II. Dillon, John M. III. Finamore, John F., 1951-
B669.Z7I26 2012
186'.4–dc23
2012007354
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CONTENTS
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Pythagorean Way of Life in Clement of Alexandria and
Iamblichus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Eugene Afonasin
Chapter 18 of the De communi mathematica scientia. Translation and
Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Luc Brisson
The Letters of Iamblichus: Popular Philosophy in a Neoplatonic
Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
John Dillon
Iamblichus: The Two-Fold Nature of the Soul and the Causes of
Human Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Daniela P. Taormina
Iamblichus on Mathematical Entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Claudia Maggi
The Role of aesthesis in Theurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Gregory Shaw
Iamblichus on the Grades of Virtue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
John F. Finamore
The Role of Divine Providence, Will and Love in Iamblichus’ Theory
of Theurgic Prayer and Religious Invocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Crystal Addey
Iamblichus’ Exegesis of Parmenides’ Hypotheses and His Doctrine of
Divine Henads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Svetlana Mesyats
Iamblichus and Julian’s “Third Demiurge”: A Proposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Adrien Lecerf
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Crystal Addey
Lecturer in the School of Classics, University of Wales Trinity St. David. She
completed her PhD at the University of Bristol in 2009, on the role of oracles,
divination and theurgy in the writings of the Neoplatonist philosophers
Porphyry and Iamblichus and has a number of published journal articles
and book chapters. She is currently working on a monograph exploring the
role of divination and theurgy in Neoplatonism.
Eugene Afonasin
Professor of Philosophy at Novosibirsk State University, Senior Research
Fellow, Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences. His works include two books on Gnosticism
(St. Petersburg, 2003 and 2007), a Russian translation of the Stromateis by
Clement of Alexandria (St. Petersburg, 2003, in 3 vols.), and a Russian translation of Iamblichus’ Letters (Novosibirsk, 2010).
Luc Brisson
Directeur de Recherche (1ère classe) at the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, Paris, a member of the Centre Jean Pépin (Unité Propre de
Recherche nº 76 du CNRS). His works include the books How Philosophers
Saved Myths (ET Chicago 2004); Plato the Myth Maker (ET Chicago 1999);
Inventing the Universe, with W. Meyerstein (New York: SUNY 1995), Sexual Ambivalence: Androgyny and Hermaphroditism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity (ET Berkeley 2002); etc. and numerous translations and commentaries
on the Sophists, Plato, Plotinus, Proclus, and Iamblichus, including (with
A.Ph. Segonds) Jamblique, Vie de Pythagore(Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1996).
John Dillon
Regius Professor of Greek (Emeritus), Trinity College, Dublin,Ireland, Director (Emeritus) of the Plato Centre. He has published numerous works on
various aspects of Greek thought, especially the Platonic tradition, including The Middle Platonists (Cornell UP, 1977, 19962
), The Heirs of Plato
(Oxford UP, 2003), Iamblichi Chalcidensis in Platonis dialogos commentariorum fragmenta (Leiden: Brill 1973; The Prometheus Trust, 20102
), (with
J. Hershbell) Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Way of Life (Atlanta: Scholars
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viii list of contributors
Press,1991), (with E.C. Clarke and J. Hershbell)Iamblichus,De mysteriis(Leiden: Brill, 2004), and (withW. Polleichtner)Iamblichus, The Letters(Atlanta:
Scholars Press, 2009).
John F. Finamore
Professor of Classics, University of Iowa, USA. He has published numerous
articles and book chapters on various aspects of the philosophy of late antiquity, a book, Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul (Chico, CA:
Scholars Press, 1985), and (with J.M. Dillon) Iamblichus’ De Anima: Text,
Translation, and Commentary (Leiden: Brill, 2002).
Adrien Lecerf
A PhD student at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des Sciences
religieuses, Paris. The thesis (directed by Prof. Philippe Hoffmann and provisionally entitled“De Plotin à Proclus: le tournant théologique du néoplatonisme”) will concern the evolution of Neoplatonic theology and metaphysics,
from Plotinus’ three hypostases to the complex, highly hierarchic system of
Proclus’ Platonic Theology.
Claudia Maggi
Lecturer at the University of Salerno, Italy. She has published a series of
works on the mathematics in Late Antiquity, including Plotino. Sui numeri.
Enneade VI 6 [34]. Introduzione, testo, traduzione e commento (Napoli:
Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa, 2009) and Sinfonia matematica. Aporie e soluzioni in Platone, Aristotele, Plotino, Giamblico (Napoli: Loffredo, 2010).
Svetlana Mesyats
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, Moscow. Her works are dedicated to Ancient metaphysics, the
philosophy of nature, Neoplatonism, and Late Antique philosophic commentaries. She has published a series of articles and Russian translations of
Proclus’ Elements of physics (Moscow, 2001), Porphyry’s Sententiae (Novosibirsk, 2009), and Proclus’ Elements of theology (Moscow, 2010).
Gregory Shaw
Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College, USA. He has published
numerous articles on Neoplatonism and religions in Late Antiquity and
a book, Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus (Penn State
Press, 1995).
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list of contributors ix
Daniela P. Taormina
Professor at Università di Roma Tor Vergata,Italy. She has published numerous articles on philosophy in Late Antiquity and the books, Plutarco di
Atene, l’Uno, l’anima e le forme. Roma, L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1989; Il
lessico delle potenze dell’anima in Giamblico. Firenze, La Nuova Italia, 1990;
Jamblique, critique de Plotin et de Porphyre. Quatre études. Paris, J. Vrin, 1999;
(with Piccione R.M.) Giamblico, I frammenti dalle epistole. Napoli, Bibliopolis, 2010.
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INTRODUCTION
Born to a noble family in Chalcis ad Belum (in Coele-Syria, modern Qinnesrin) c. 240ad, and studying with the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry—
probably—in Rome, Iamblichus (᾽Ιάµβλιχος) established in his native Syria
a philosophical school which constituted an important link in the Golden
Chain of the Platonic tradition. His difficult and controversial works have
provoked a good deal of attention on the part of historians of philosophy
and religion and occupy a distinct place in modern scholarship. Hailed by
some as the most sublime and dazzling metaphysician who changed the
course of Platonism, he is deprecated by others as the most obscure though
prolific author, who imported into his texts all sorts of superstition, oriental
beliefs and magic, and eclectically fitted all this into his own bewildering
metaphysical schema with a heavy reliance on triadic subdivisions.
On his death in around 325ad, Iamblichus left to posterity a diverse body
of writings, some of which are still extant in their complete form, while others are now available in the extracts preserved, most notably, in Stobaeus’
vast Anthologia and in Neoplatonic commentaries. His writings influenced
the later Neoplatonists, such as Syrianus, Proclus and Damascius, while his
name became talismanic in the course of the pagan opposition to Christianity, most notably in the case of the Emperor Julian.
To the student of antiquity Iamblichus is perhaps best known as the
author of a treatise On the Pythagorean Way of Life, originally intended
to be an introduction to his ‘Compendium to Pythagorean Doctrine’ in
ten volumes, and now valued as a major source for our knowledge of the
Pythagorean tradition. Probably the most popular of Iamblichus’ works, the
treatise is much studied and translated into modern languages.1
A treatise, On the Mysteries of Egypt, a defense of theurgy more properly
entitled A Reply of the priest Abammon to the letter of Porphyry to Anebo, and
the solutions to the questions it contains, is equally popular among students
1 To mention complete and relatively recent translations only, the treatise was rendered
at least once into German (Albrecht 1963) and French (Brisson–Segonds 1996), twice in
English (Clark 1989, Dillon–Hershbell 1991) and Spanish (Ramos Jurado 1991, Periago Lorente
2003), three times in Italian (Montoneri 1973, Giangiulio 1991, Romano 2006) and Russian
(Poluektov 1997, Chernigovskij 1998, Melnikova 2002), etc. The edition: Deubner–Klein 1937,
19752
. For further details and bibliography cf. the paper by Eugene Afonasin, included in this
volume.
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2 introduction
of Platonism and classical religion. This difficult work has been regularly
rendered into modern languages, and is now available in a new edition with
an English translation and extensive commentary by E.C. Clarke, J.M. Dillon
and J. Hershbell (2004).2
Another text in the Pythagorean sequence, entitled the Exhortation to
Philosophy (Protrepticus), a work based on Aristotle’s lost Protrepticus,
which also includes an important extracts from an unknown sophist (the
end of the fifth century bce), the so called Anonymus Iamblichi, and various
Pythagorica, has also received much scholarly attention, both in a ‘disassembled’ form and as a complete work, although no modern English translation
of the Protrepticus exists.3
The third Pythagorean treatise On the General Principles of Mathematics
(De Communi Mathematica Scientia) was edited by Festa and Klein (1891,
19752
) and translated into German (Schönberger–Knobloch 2000) and Italian (Romano 2006). A paper by Luc Brisson, included in this volume, signals
the beginning of a new stage of research on the treatise.
Iamblichus’ Commentary on the Introduction to Arithmetic of Nicomachus of Gerasa, edited by Pistelli–Klein (1894, 19752
) and recently translated
into Italian by Romano (2006) definitely deserves more attention.
Other volumes of the Compendium are not extant, although Dominic
O’Meara (1981 and 1989, 217–229) recently identified a text in Psellus as comprising excerpts from Iamblichus’ On Pythagoreanism V–VII (On Physical
Number and On Ethical and Theological Arithmetic).
Although from a different hand, The Theology of Arithmetic, a cento of
passages from a lost homonymous work of Nicomachus of Gerasa and On
the Decad of Iamblichus’ teacher Anatolius, is a work of some significance
for the history of ancient numerology and, in such capacity, also deserves
more attention.4
The fragments of Iamblichus’ commentaries to Plato’s dialogues were
independently collected and analyzed by Dalsgaard Larsen (1972) and John
2 Edition: Parthey (1857, 19652
); translations: three French (Quillard 1895, Des Places 1966
and Broze–Van Liefferinge 2009), two Italian (Sodano 1984, Moreschini 2003), one German
(Hopfner 1922), Russian (Lukomskij 1995) and Spanish (Ramos Jurado 1997).
3 For the complete English translation we still have to rely on that by Thomas Johnson,
prepared in 1907. Besides, one can recollect German (Schönberger 1984), French (Des Places
1989), Spanish (Molina Ayala 1998) and two Italian (Periago Lorente 2003, Romano 2006)
translations. Also note special works on Anonymus Iamblichi (Mari–Musti 2003, Brisson
2009). Edition: Pistelli–Klein 1888, 19962
.
4 Edition: De Falco–Klein (1922, 19752
). Translations: English (Waterfield–Critchlow
1988), Italian (Romano 2006), Russian (Bibikhin–Schetnikov 2009).
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introduction 3
Dillon (1973),5 while for the Aristotle commentaries we still have to rely
on Dalsgaard Larsen’s edition and various specialized studies. Clearly more
work could be done in this respect.
Other minor fragments and testimonia concerning Iamblichus, scattered
in various sources, still await their editor, while a fragment of an Arabic
version of a Commentary on the Golden Verses, attributed to Iamblichus,
has been recently edited and translated by O’Meara (1989, 230–232) and
Daiber (1995). On the other hand, the doxographical sections of Iamblichus’
original treatiseOnthe Soul, preserved in Stobaeus’ Anthology, collected and
for the first time studied by Festugière (1953), are now comprehensively
edited, translated and commented by J. Finamore and J.M. Dillon (2002).
Finally, Iamblichus as a public figure emerges from a collection of Letters, addressed to his friends, pupils and local dignitaries, recently independently collected and studied by J. Dillon and W. Polleichtner (2009), and
D. Taormina and R. Piccione (2010).6
Clearly, thanks to recent scholarship, many old prejudices have been
overcome and Iamblichus has become a more attractive figure for the student of the history of Late Platonism. The bibliography below is designed to
illustrate the process of these advances and highlight the areas for possible
further development.7
The idea of this volume was conceived at a seminar on Iamblichus which
took place in the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies at Athens on March 8–10,
2009, organized with the help of the Centre for Ancient Philosophy and the
Classical Tradition (Novosibirsk, Russia) and the Olympic Centre for Philosophy and Culture (Athens). The director of the Irish Institute, John Dillon,
presented to the public his new edition of Iamblichus’ Letters, while the
participants discussed Iamblichus’ heritage against the background of the
greater Platonic and Pythagorean tradition in Late Antiquity. This anthology contains developed versions of some papers given at the seminar as well
as a number of studies written especially for this volume.
5
J.M. Dillon’s book is now reissued with corrections by The Prometheus Trust in a
new series “Platonic texts and translations” (2010). Also note a Russian translation of the
fragments by R. Svetlov (2000).
6 Cf. articles by J. Dillon and D. Taormina included in this volume. Also note Johnson
(1907, 19882
), Molina 2005, O’Meara–Schamp 2006 (which also contains a fine selection of
the letters by Iamblichus’ best student Sopater), and Afonasin 2010.
7 Many thanks go to A. Lecerf and J. Molina for consultations concerning French and
Spanish bibliography.
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4 introduction
Covering the totality of Iamblichean scholarship was certainly not our purpose, but nonetheless the contributors managed to isolate and treat a number of important issues, ranging from Pythagorean paideia to the metaphysics and hierarchy of virtues in Late Platonic philosophy.
The collection opens with two studies on the Pythagorean tradition.
Eugene Afonasin highlights the wealth of information on Pythagoras and
his tradition preserved in Clement of Alexandria’s Stromateis and presents
them against the background of Later Platonic philosophy. He first outlines
what Clement knew about the Pythagoreans, and then what he made of
the Pythagorean ideal and how he reinterpreted it for his own purposes.
Clement clearly occupies an intermediate position between the Neopythagorean biographical tradition, firmly based on Nicomachus, and that
more or less vague and diffuse literary situation which preceded the later
developments, and in this respect is a very good source, worth studying for
its own sake and as supplementary material which can help to understand
the great Pythagorean synthesis attempted by Iamblichus. Developing their
variants of the “exhortation to philosophy” (protreptikoi logoi), these men
were much concerned with the educational value of the Pythagorean way
of life rather than biographical circumstances, designed to place the ancient
sage in the proper cultural context.
In his contribution to the volume, Luc Brisson first outlines the content of Iamblichus’ On the common mathematical science, the third book of
the ten-volume compendium of Pythagoreanism, envisaged and partially
accomplished by the Syrian Neoplatonist, and then offers a new translation of an extract from the treatise (chapter 18), interesting in at least two
respects. The chapter is devoted to changes in the pedagogical technique,
allegedly introduced by the Pythagoreans in the teaching of mathematics:
namely, having taken numerology as a deductive system, they, according
to Iamblichus, perceived it as leading towards the intelligible realm, after
purification achieved by means of preliminary knowledge revealed in σύµβολα and αἰνίγµατα. Thus Iamblichus introduces his famous picture of the
Pythagorean School, distinguishing, on the one hand, between the so-called
hearers (ἀκουσµατικοί) and the scientists, or disciples (µαθηµατικοί), whom
he identifies with those on the inside (τοὺς εἴσω) and those on the outside
(τοὺς ἔξω), and, on the other hand, equating the σύµβολα with ἀκούσµατα.
However anachronistic, this view was quite widespread in Late Antiquity
(cf. the previous study for greater details). Besides, Iamblichus shows how
“the Pythagoreans” derived the entire metaphysical structure from the OneGood and the first principles (Limit and Unlimited): they first produced
numbers, which, by means of participation, largely dependent on resem-
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introduction 5
blance, were then placed in relation to genuine realities (Plato’s Forms)
along with the rest of reality from the gods to matter.
Two subsequent contributions deal with the Letters of Iamblichus. John
Dillon starts with general observations on protreptic epistolography in Antiquity and notes that, of the Neoplatonists,Iamblichus appears to be among
those few who took interest in the possibilities offered by this genre. We
have no idea who collected the letters, but it well could be that Iamblichus
and his circle perceived them as a good introduction to philosophy for the
uninitiated. While the style of Iamblichus’ more technical works in general
leaves much to be desired, the letters show the author of a lost treatise ‘On
judging the best type of speech’ as a reasonably good stylist. Asking what
makes a piece of writing a philosophical letter, Dillon answers tentatively
that, unlike a treatise in the form of a letter, a real letter must be personalized, contextualized, and pitched firmly at the level of popular philosophy. Indeed, among the correspondents of Iamblichus one finds his pupils,
the members of local aristocracy, and friends, although some of the correspondents cannot be identified with any certainty. The letters address the
ideas of political justice and right education and revolve around the concept
of fate. All forms of divine agency, from blind fate to personalized tychai,
Iamblichus derives from one general source, a certain “most comprehensive
principle of causality” (Letter 8, fr. 1), ultimately responsible for all cosmic
order. Various means of instruction and, most notably, four forms of dialectical argumentation (Letters 5 and 13), should constitute the educational
system which leads to knowledge of this causal principle (Letter 14). Dialectical reasoning is the major milestone on the way of self-knowledge and
apprehension of true virtues, first addressed in general terms in Letter 16
and then specified in a series of letters, dedicated to such virtues, as arête,
phronêsis, homonoia, andreia, and, on the contrary, akharistia. Although no
traces of a very detailed hierarchy of virtues, introduced by Iamblichus and
discussed by J. Finamore below in this volume, can be discerned in the letters, still “to the very culmination of all the virtues and the summation of
all of them … one can come being led by justice” (Letter 2, fr. 1), while “multiform” virtue of self-control brings about a suitable apportionment among
these of ruling and being ruled (Letter 3, fr. 1, and also 6, fr. 2). Good government depends on an advantageous combination of natural (φύσει) and
social (νόµῳ) factors, on the one hand, and the personality of the ruler and
his personal skills (τέχνη) and luck (τύχη καὶ καιρός), on the other. Appropriate concord and ὁµογνωµοσύνη is a sign of good government (Letters 9 and
6). On the contrary, good social contract is undermined if the ruler is found
“in two minds toward himself” (διχογνωµονῶν) (Letter 9).
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6 introduction
The two-fold nature of the human personality (soul), one part of which is
affected by fate, while the other is free of its influence, is further discussed
by Daniela Taormina. She offers a very detailed analysis of two relevant passages: the fragment of a letter addressed to Macedonius, On Fate (Letter 8,
Dillon–Pollechtner) andDe mysteriis, VIII 6–7. Both texts link the individual
soul to two principles: one included within the order of fate, the other superior to nature and free from the order of fate. The latter principle does not
make individual soul belong to the intelligible realm; nor does it infuse the
soul with the intelligible. Rather, it reflects the metaphysical view of participation that Iamblichus adopts to describe the one-sided relation between
inferior and superior.
In her study of Neoplatonic metaphysics, Claudia Maggi asserts that
Iamblichus’ doctrine of mathematical entities as metaxy follows from a
background mixing different traditions: not only the Neopythagorean one,
but also Platonic, Aristotelian and Plotinian ones. The hierarchy of numbers, presented by the philosopher, probably lies not only with Neopythagorean models, but also with Aristotle’s attribution to Plato of the doctrine that there are two kinds of separated numbers, the eid¯etikoi and the
mathematical ones, and with Plotinus’ numerical structure of being. The
Neopythagorean idea of the duplicity of archai mixes Old Academic doctrines, which can be traced back to Speusippus, and the Aristotelian notion
of intelligible matter, also used by Plotinus. Plotinus’ influence on Iamblichus is particularly visible through the doctrine of vertical causation.
One of the most peculiar aspects of Iamblichus’ solutions is that they carry
out a synthesis capable of recovering, behind the name of Pythagoras, an
agreement underlying all ancient philosophical tradition, and of catching a
glimpse of such agreement in mathematical knowledge.
Gregory Shaw, who has done so much previously for conveying to the
scholarly world a true understanding of the nature and role of theurgy
in later Platonism, here contributes an insightful study of the status of
sense-perception (aesthesis) in theurgic practice. The gods of theurgy, after
all, penetrate the material realm with their influence, and theurgists are
concerned to engage and embody these gods by means of prayer and ritual.
This means that the aesthetic life of theurgists is necessarily the medium
through which they contact the gods. Far from escaping from the material
world and the senses, the theurgist employs aesthetic experience as the
necessary path to deification, and the vehicle through which this deification
occurs is the soul’s subtle body, the ochêma. In theurgic ritual, the ochêma,
purified by daily prayer, is filled with the light of the gods and becomes
shining, augoeides: theurgists, in effect, become gods. The role of the ochêma
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introduction 7
is not to lift the soul out of the sublunary realm; rather, the light-filled
ochêma becomes simultaneously a vehicle for the descent of the god and
the deification of the soul. As Shaw emphasizes, it is important for us to
overcome our natural resistance to this way of looking at the theurgist’s
experience, and recognize that there is much in their thought-world that
remains alien to us.
Next, John Finamore addresses the intriguing question of Iamblichus’
contribution to the theory of the grades of virtue initiated by Plotinus,
specifically in his treatise I 2 [19]. Plotinus was initially seeking to address
the problem of the different, but analogous, ways in which the canonical four virtues manifest themselves at various levels of human spiritual
progress. It is arguable that Plotinus was only proposing to distinguish
between two levels of virtue proper, the ‘political’ (of the soul as immersed
in civic affairs and the material life) and the ‘purificatory’ or kathartikai,
proper to the philosophical soul that has diverted itself from worldly concerns. The ‘paradigmatic virtues’ above these are properly paradigms of
virtue manifested in higher beings from pure souls up to gods. However that
may be, Porphyry, in s. 32 of his Sententiae, which is an exegesis of Enn. I 2,
chooses to discern fully four levels of virtue; and Iamblichus, in a treatise
On the Virtues (now lost), caps this by adding three more levels, one below
the Plotinian / Porphyrian levels (the ‘natural’, proper even to irrational animals), and two above, to accommodate the accomplished theurgist. All this
John Finamore discusses with great lucidity.
The significance of the role of divine providence, love and will in the philosophy of Iamblichus is the theme of the essay of Crystal Addey, as well
as his defense of the operation of theurgic prayer, religious invocation and
sacrifice. Recognizing that theurgy has all too often in the past been aligned
with magical practices, she argues that, on the contrary, the significance of
divine providence within Iamblichus’ defense of theurgic prayer and religious invocation serves to distinguish theurgy definitively from contemporary magical practices.
Svetlana Mesyats deals with the doctrine of divine henads, which she
accepts as being initially developed by Iamblichus, and identifies as arising,
in all probability, as the result of an exegesis of the first two hypotheses of
the Parmenides, in particular in relation to taking the predicates denied and
then asserted of the One as characteristics of different classes of henads. She
proposes a new reconstruction of Iamblichus’ doctrine of henads, according
to which they are neither products of the One nor some lower substances
following after it, but rather different modes of its being a cause, insofar as
the One anticipates in itself this or that particular order of Being.
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8 introduction
Lastly, Adrien Lecerf focuses on an interesting connection between Iamblichus and the Emperor Julian. In the latter’s Oration To the Mother of the
Gods, which is a philosophical interpretation of the myth of Cybele and
Attis, reference is made to an enigmatic ‘third Demiurge’. Contrary to the
usual identification of this figure with the visible Helios, or to attempted
links with the theory of ‘three demiurges’ of Amelius and Theodorus of
Asine, he suggests that it may be better to make a comparison with the
system of Demiurges to be discerned in Proclus, where we find a hierarchy
of Zeus, Dionysus and Adonis. Such a hierarchy of entities, he argues, on
the basis of parallels with Damascius, may well go back to Iamblichus,
and illuminate the revolution for which he is responsible in the field of
Neoplatonic theology.
It is to be hoped that this collection of papers will contribute to a further deepening and refining of our appreciation of the contribution of
Iamblichus to the development of later Platonism.
The editors wish to thank the authors for their papers, Jacqueline Jones
who worked on the index for us, and the editors at Brill, especially Thalien
Colenbrander. Their hard work and diligence is much appreciated.
Iamblichus of Chalcis: Texts and Translations8
De vita Pythagorica
Deubner, L., Klein, U., eds. 1937. Iamblichus, De vita Pythagorica. Leipzig: Teubner
(2nd corr. ed. Stuttgart: Teubner 1975).
Albrecht, M. von, trans. 1963. Jamblich, Peri tou pythagoreiou biou. Pythagoras,
Legende, Lehre, Lebensgestaltung. Zürich, Stuttgart: Artemis.
Montoneri, Luciano, trans. 1973. Giamblico, Vita pitagorica. Bari: Laterza.
Clark, G., trans. 1989. Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Life. Liverpool: Liverpool
University Press.
Dillon, J., Hershbell, J., ed. and trans. 1991. Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Way of
Life. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
Ramos Jurado, Enrique A., trans. 1991. Jámblico, Vida Pitagórica. Madrid: Etnos.
Giangiulio, M., trans. 1991. Giamblico, La vita Pitagorica. Mailand.
Brisson, L., Segonds, A.Ph., trans. 1996. Jamblique, Vie de Pythagore. Paris: Les Belles
Lettres.
Poluektov, Yu. A., trans. 1997. Iamvlikh, Zhizn’ Pifagora. St. Petersburg: Russian
Christian Institute of Humanities (a Russian translation of Iamblichus’ On the
Pythagorean Way of Life).
8 English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian.
<PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 20 / 212>
introduction 9
Chernigovskij, V.B., trans. 1998. Iamvlikh, Zhizn’ Pifagora. Moscow: Novyj Akropol’
(a Russian translation of Iamblichus’ On the Pythagorean Way of Life).
Albrecht, M. von et al., 2002. Jamblich, Peri tou pythagoreiou biou. Pythagoras:
Legende-Lehre-Lebensgestaltung, eingeleitet, übersetzt und mit interpretierenden Essays versehen von Michael von Albrecht, John Dillon, Martin George,
Michael Lurje, David S. du Toit, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Melnikova, I.E., trans. 2002. Iamvlikh, O pifagorovoj zhizni. Moscow: Aletheia
(a Russian translation of Iamblichus’ On the Pythagorean Way of Life).
Periago Lorente, Miguel, trans. 2003. Jámblico, Vida pitagórica, Protréptico. Madrid:
Gredos.
Romano, F., ed. and trans. 2006. Giamblico, Summa pitagorica: Vita di Pitagora,
Esortazione alla filosofia, Scienza matematica comune, Introduzione all’aritmetica di Nicomaco, Teologia dell’aritmetica. Milano: Bompiani.
Protrepticus
Pistelli, H., Klein, U. eds. 1888. Iamblichus, Protrepticus. Leipzig: Teubner (2nd corr.
ed. Stuttgart: Teubner 1996).
Johnson, Th., trans.1907,19882
.Iamblichus, The Exhortationto Philosophy, including
the Letters of Iamblichus and Proclus’ Commentary on the Chaldean Oracles,
with a foreword by J. Godwin, edited by S. Neuville. Grand Rapids: Phanes Press.
Schönberger, O. 1984. Iamblichos, Aufruf zur Philosophie. Würzburg.
Des Places, É., ed. and trans. 1989. Jamblique, Protreptique. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Molina Ayala, José. 1998. “Tradición y novedad en el Protréptico a la filosofía de Jámblico”, México, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (tesis de maestría,
includes translation).
Periago Lorente, Miguel, trans. 2003. Jámblico, Vida pitagórica, Protréptico. Madrid:
Gredos.
Mari, M., Musti, D., eds. 2003. Anonimo di Giamblico. La pace e il benessere, Idee
sull’ economia, la società, la morale, intr. di Domenico Musti, presentazione dell’
opera, storia degli studi, traduzione e commento di Manuela Mari, testo greco a
fronte. Milano: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli.
Romano, F., ed. and trans. 2006. Giamblico, Summa pitagorica: Vita di Pitagora,
Esortazione alla filosofia, Scienza matematica comune, Introduzione all’aritmetica di Nicomaco, Teologia dell’aritmetica. Milano: Bompiani.
Brisson L., trans. 2009. L’anonyme de Jamblique, Pradeau, J.-F., ed. Les Sophistes.
Paris: Flammarion (Protrepticus, 20, vol. 1, pp. 373–389).
De Communi mathematica scientia
Festa, N., Klein, U., ed. 1891. Iamblichus, De Communi mathematica scientia. Leipzig:
Teubner (2nd corr. ed. Stuttgart: Teubner 1975).
Schönberger, O., Knobloch, E., trasl. 2000. Iamblichos: Von der allgemeinen mathematischen Wissenschaft. St. Katharinen, Scripta Mercaturae.
Romano, F., ed. and trans. 2006. Giamblico, Summa pitagorica: Vita di Pitagora,
Esortazione alla filosofia, Scienza matematica comune, Introduzione all’aritmetica di Nicomaco, Teologia dell’aritmetica. Milano: Bompiani.
<PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 21 / 212>
10 introduction
In Nicomachi arithmeticam introductionem
Pistelli, H., Klein, U., eds. 1894. Iamblichus, In Nicomachi arithmeticam introductionem. Leipzig: Teubner (2nd corr. ed. Stuttgart: Teubner 1975).
Romano, F., ed. and trans. 2006. Giamblico, Summa pitagorica: Vita di Pitagora,
Esortazione alla filosofia, Scienza matematica comune, Introduzione all’aritmetica di Nicomaco, Teologia dell’aritmetica. Milano: Bompiani.
On Pythagoreanism V–VII
Tannery, P., ed.1892.“Psellus sur les nombres”, Revue des études grecques 5, 343–347.
O’Meara, D., ed. 1981. “New fragments from Iamblichus’ Collection of Pythagorean
Doctrines”, American Journal of Philology 102, 26–40.
O’Meara, D., ed. and trans. 1989. Pythagoras Revived. Mathematics and Philosophy in
Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
De mysteriis
Parthey G., ed. 1857. Iamblichus, De mysteriis. Berlin (rpr. Amsterdam 1965).
Quillard, P., trans. 1895. Le Livre de Jamblique sur les mystères, Paris: Librairie de l’art
indépendant.
Hopfner, Th., trans. 1922. Jamblichus, Über die Geheimlehren, Leipzig: Theosophisches Verlagshaus (rpr. 1987, Hildesheim: Olms).
Des Places, É., ed. and trans. 1966, 19892
. Jamblique, Les mystères d’Égypte. Paris: Les
Belles Lettres.
Sodano, A.R., trans. 1984. Giamblico, I misteri egiziani. Milano: Rusconi.
Lukomskij, L. Yu., trans. 1995. Iamvlikh, O egipetskikh misteriyakh. Moscow (a Russian translation of De mysteriis).
Ramos Jurado, Enrique A., trans. 1997. Jámblico, Sobre los misterios egipcios. Madrid:
Gredos.
Moreschini, Claudio, trans., 2003. Giamblico, I misteri degli egiziani. Milano: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli.
Clarke, E.C., Dillon, J., Hershbell, J., ed. and trans. 2004. Iamblichus, De mysteriis.
Leiden: Brill.
Broze, M., Van Liefferinge, C., trans. 2009. Jamblique, Les mystères d’Egypte, réponse
d’Abamon à la Lettre de Porphyre à Anébon, traduction nouvelle et commentaire.
Bruxelles: Ousia.
Commentaries on Plato and Aristotle
Dalsgaard Larsen, B., ed. 1972. Jamblique de Chalcis. Exégète et philosophe. Appendice: Testimonia et fragmenta exegetica. Aarhus.
Dillon, J., ed. and trans. 1973. Iamblichi Chalcidensis in Platonis dialogos commentariorum fragmenta. Leiden: Brill (2nd ed., The Prometheus Trust, 2010).
Svetlov R.V., trans. 2000. Iamvlikh, Kommentarii na dialogi Platona. St. Petersburg
(a Russian translation of the fragments of the Platonic commentaries by
Iamblichus).
<PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 22 / 212>
introduction 11
De anima
Festugière, A.-J., trans., 1953. La révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, III: Les doctrines
de l’âme (suivi de Jamblique, Traité de l’âme, pp. 177–264, traduction et commentaire, Porphyre, De l’animation de l’ embryon). Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Finamore, J., Dillon, J., ed. and trans. 2002. Iamblichus, De anima. Leiden: Brill.
Afonasin, E.V., trans. 2012.Jamvlikh o dyshe, ΣΧΟΛΗ 6.2, 211–248 (includes a Russian
translation of the De anima).
Epistulae
Johnson, Th., trans.1907,19882
.Iamblichus, The Exhortationto Philosophy, including
the Letters of Iamblichus and Proclus’ Commentary on the Chaldean Oracles,
with a foreword by J. Godwin, edited by S. Neuville. Grand Rapids: Phanes
Press.
Molina, José. 2005. “Jámblico, Epístola a Macedonio acerca del destino”, Nouatellus,
23–22, pp. 163–218.
O’Meara, D., Schamp, J., ed. and trans. 2006. Miroirs de prince de l’Empire romain
au IVe siècle. Fribourg: Academic Press / Paris: Cerf (extracts from Iamblichus’
Letters, pp. 10–43).
Dillon, J., Polleichtner, W., ed. and trans. 2009. Iamblichus of Chalcis, The Letters.
Atlanta: Scholars Press.
Taormina, D.P., Piccione, R.M., ed. and trans. 2010. Giamblico, I frammenti dalle
epistole. Napoli: Bibliopolis.
Afonasin, E.V., trans. 2010. Iamvlikh, Pisma, ΣΧΟΛΗ 4.1, 166–193, 4.2, 239–245
(a Russian translation of the Letters).
Theologoumena arithmeticae
De Falco, V., Klein, U. ed. 1922. [Iamblichus], Theologoumena arithmeticae. Leipzig:
Teubner (2nd corr. ed. Stuttgart 1975).
Waterfield, R., Critchlow, K., trans.1988. The Theology of Arythmetic. Onthe Mystical,
Mathematical and Cosmological Symbolism ofthe First Ten Numbers, attributedto
Iamblichus. Grand Rapids: Phanes Press.
Bibikhin, V., trans. 1988. [Iamvlikh], Teologoumeny arifmetiki, an attachment to
Losev, A.F., Istoriya antichnoj estetiki, vol. 7.2. Moscow: Iskusstvo, pp. 394–417
(a partial Russian translation of the Theologoumena arithmeticae).
Romano, F., ed. and trans. 2006. Giamblico, Summa pitagorica: Vita di Pitagora,
Esortazione alla filosofia, Scienza matematica comune, Introduzione all’aritmetica di Nicomaco, Teologia dell’aritmetica. Milano: Bompiani.
Bibikhin, V., Schetnikov, A., trans. 2009. [Iamvlikh], Teologoumeny arifmetiki, Afonasin, E.V., ed.Neopifagoreitsy. Novosibirsk: University Press (Special issue of the
journal ΣΧΟΛΗ 3.1–2, including a Russian translation of the Neopythagoreans:
the fragments of Moderatus and Numenius, Nicomachus’ Introduction to Arithmetic and the Manual of Harmonics, Theon of Smyrna’s Mathematics useful for
understanding Plato, and the Theologoumena arithmeticae).
<PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 23 / 212>
12 introduction
Varia
O’Meara, D.1989. Pythagoras Revived.Mathematics and Philosophy in Late Antiquity.
Oxford: Oxford University Press (an ET of the Commentary on the Golden Verses
attributed to Iamblichus).
Daiber, H. 1995. Neuplatonische Pythagorica in arabischem Gewande. Der Kommentar des Iamblichus zu den Carmina aurea. Ein verlorener griechischer Text in
arabischer Überlieferung. Amsterdam.
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THE PYTHAGOREAN WAY OF LIFE IN
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA AND IAMBLICHUS
Eugene Afonasin
Introductory Remarks
In his De communi mathematica scientia Iamblichus famously distinguishes
two orders of initiation within the Pythagorean School.1 However anachronistic, this distinction reflects a profound change of attitude to Pythagoreanism which took place in the process of transition from the Late Hellenistic
to the Early Roman period.2
Clement of Alexandria as a ‘Neopythagorean Philosopher’ is relatively
badly served, however. It will be useful therefore to collect various observations on this issue in a single outline. Clement is not only a good source,
which enhances our knowledge of the Pythagorean tradition. He also was
one of the first Christian philosophers to adopt the ancient theory of symbolism and to sow it in the new Christian soil. In his works the conceptual
system of the second-century Middle Platonists and Neopythagoreans and
the method of allegorical exegesis of Philo of Alexandria were incorporated
1 76, 16ff. Festa. Cf. also De vita Pythagorica, 81. For text, translation and discussion see
the article by Luc Brisson, included in this volume.
2 As a part of the classical heritage, transmitted to Late Antiquity, the Pythagorean
tradition is relatively well documented by the extant sources, fragments and testimonia, and
much work has recently been done in the field. One can also observe the real renaissance
of interest to philosophical biography in recent scholarship. This is especially true about
the mysterious figure of Apollonius and the Neoplatonic philosophical biographies. The
subject in general is covered in M. Hadas and M. Smith (1965). Also consider the numerous
publications on Apollonius of Tyana, such as the progressive editions and translations of his
Letters, Eusebius’ polemical work and Philostratus’ Bios (F. Conybeare 1950, R. Penella 1979,
and Ch. Jones 2005–2006), now classical monographs on Apollonius by M. Dzielska (1986)
and G. Anderson (1986), an account of scholarship on the subject by E. Bowie (1978), as well
as more recent studies by J.-J. Flinterman (1995) and Th. Schirren (2005).
Cf. also J. Bollansée (1999) on Hermippos, as well as M. Edwards (1993 and 2000b), G. Clark
(2000) É. Des Places (1982), A.-J. Festugière (1937), J. Dillon and J. Hershbell (1991), G. Staab
(2002), Al. Oikonomides (1977), P. Athanassiadi (1999 and 2006) and D. O’Meara (1989 and
2006) on the Neoplatonic biographies by Porphyry, Iamblichus, Marinus, and Damaskius. One can also recollect studies on Diogenes Laertius and Hippolytus (A. Delatte 1922,
A.-J. Festugière 1945, B. Centrone 1992, and J. Mansfeld 1992).
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14 eugene afonasin
in the open texture of the Christian Weltanschauung. His distinction between fundamental belief (koine pistis) and the highest faith, on the one
hand, and the scientific knowledge (episteme) and gnosis, on the other,
became fundamental for the later Christian theory of knowledge. The highest faith and true gnosis were considered to be the final steps leading to
Gnostic perfection, and symbolism played the central role in the process
of its achievement. Clement believed that the student should be directed
and educated according to a certain model (partially cast, as I shall argue,
according to the Pythagorean paradigm). The education under the direction
of a learned instructor required time, ability to listen and understand, and a
special disposition towards knowledge, fortified by faith that the real knowledge could be achieved. In the process of paideia the student was supposed
to acquire a certain state of moral perfection, in a symbolic way learning
things, that could not be perceived otherwise, and exercising his analytical
ability by means of natural and precise sciences.
Clement is not unique in his interest in Pythagoreanism. It is quite probable that, in his case, it was inherited from Philo (the best example being
a community of the Pythagorean type, described by Philo in his De vita
contemplativa), but equally possible is that the process went in both directions: Philo, the Gnostics, Clement (and other Christian philosophers), on
the one hand, and Platonists like Nicomachus, Porphyry and Iamblichus, on
the other, more or less independently created an image that agreed with the
best ideals and expectations of the epoch. As a result, Clement’s Pythagoras
resembles the true Gnostic, while the lives of Pythagoras and such ‘Neoplatonic saints’, as Plotinus, Proclus or Isidorus are often reminiscent of the
Christian vitae and even the Gospels.3
Working with Clement I have found it useful to compare his approach to
the Pythagorean tradition with that of Iamblichus. The reasons, I believe,
will become clear below, but what should be mentioned at the outset is
that my interest is substantially based on the fact that, developing their
variants of the “exhortation to philosophy” (protreptikoi logoi), these men
were much concerned with the educational value of the Pythagorean way of
life rather than (however important) biographical circumstances, designed
to place the ancient sage in the proper cultural context. Besides, Clement
3 A well known example is Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica, 12, where Thales is said to
proclaim ‘good news’. J. Dillon and J. Hershbell (1991) rightly suspect a Christian influence
here. Especially on the subject, see a useful though doubtful book by I. Lévy (1927) as well as
the studies by M.L. Lagrange (1936–1937), P. Jordan (1961), D. Blanch (1972), J. Schattenmann
(1979), D. Dombrowski (1987), R. Grant (1980), and J. Thom (1994).
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the pythagorean way of life 15
clearly occupies an intermediate position between the Neopythagorean
biographical tradition, firmly based on Nicomachus, and that more or less
vague and diffuse literary situation which preceded the great Neoplatonic
synthesis. Finally, as a relatively independent student of Pythagoreanism,
freely appropriating his sources for quite external purposes, Clement often
appears to be a good and disengaged testis.
What Did Clement Know about
Pythagoras and the Pythagorean Tradition?
Let us now turn to Clement’s writings, looking everywhere for the Pythagorean elements in them.4 Clement speaks about Pythagoras in various
contexts and dedicates a special chapter (Stromateis V 27–30) to the Pythagorean symbolism. No surprise that for the lover of mysticism Pythagoras
was an ancient sage and religious reformer; a God-inspired transmitter of
the spiritual tradition, which itself reaches back to the most ancient times.
From the very beginning the Pythagorean School functioned as a secret
society and was shrouded in mystery.
Pythagoras from Samos,—says Clement,—was a son of Mnesarchus, as Hippobotus says. But Aristoxenus in his book the Life of Pythagoras, as well as
Aristarchus and Theopompus say that he came from Tyre, Neanthes from
Syria or Tyre, so the majority agrees that Pythagoras was of barbarian origin.
(Strom. I 62, 2–3; cf. Diog. Laert. VIII 1)
He was a student of Pherekydes5 and his floruit falls at the time of the dictatorship of Polycrates of Samos, around the sixty-second Olympiad [ci.
532–529bce].6 But the real teacher of his was certain Sonchis, the highest
prophet of the Egyptians.7 Pythagoras traveled a lot and even “… underwent
circumcision in order to enter the Egyptian shrines to learn their philosophy”. He communicated with the best among the Chaldaeans and the Magi.
4 The works of Clement are extracted according to Otto Stählin’s edition. The Stromateis
I–III are quoted according to J. Ferguson’s translation, occasionally altered; for the rest of
Clement’s text I use William Wilson’s translation with alterations. A partial earlier version
of this paper was presented at the conference “The Quest for Truth: Greek Philosophy and
Epistemology” (Samos, Greece, August, 2000).
5 Strom. I 62, 4. Cf. Diog. Laert. I 12 and VIII 2.
6 Strom. I 65, 2.
7 Strom. I 69, 1. Actually, Clement makes almost all the Greek philosophers Egyptians,
and even Homer ‘as the majority agreed’ was of Egyptian origin (Strom. I 66, 1). So, Homer
was a local man, while Plato, Pythagoras, Thales and many others, though from the other
place, studied there. Apparently, the idea that he lived in a historic and intellectual centre of
the world was dear to Clement’s heart.
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16 eugene afonasin
And their “common table (τὸ ὁµακοεῖον) symbolizes (αἰνίττεται) that which
is called the Church (Strom. I 66, 2)”. Pythagoras was enthusiastic about
Zoroaster, the Persian Magus, and the followers of Prodicus’ heresy claim to
have obtained secret books of this prophet and religious reformer. “Alexander in his book On Pythagorean Symbols says that Pythagoras was a student
of an Assyrian, named Zaratas”.8
In addition, he believes that Pythagoras has
learnt many things from Gauls and Brahmans (Strom. I 69, 6–70, 1).
Clement is inclined to think that Pythagoras composed some writings
himself, but gave them out as if they contained ancient wisdom, revealed
to him for the first time. So did some of his students:
Ion of Chios9
in his Treblings says that Pythagoras attributed some of his
works to Orpheus. Epigenes in his book On Poetry attributed to Orpheus
says that the Descent into Hades and the Sacred Doctrine10 are works of the
Pythagorean Cercops and the Robe and the Physics of Brontinus.
(Strom. I 131, 4–5)
Pythagoras was by no means a mere transmitter; he himself was a sage,
prophet and the founder of a philosophic school:
The great Pythagoras applied himself ceaselessly to acquiring knowledge of
the future (Strom. I 133, 2). The Italian Pythagorean school of Philosophy,
which settled in Metapontum, lasted here for a long time.11 (I 63, 1)
Students underwent serious tests and exams before entering the school.
And even after being accepted they for many years remained only ‘hearers’, or (ἀκουσµατικοί), those who heard the voice of the master, but he
himself stayed hidden behind a curtain. Only after many years of preliminary studies did they become initiated or “learned enough” (µαθηµατικοί)
8 Hippolytus (Ref. I 11, referring to Diodorus and Aristoxenus) even retells the teaching of
this Zaratas about two daimones, the celestial and the ‘khthonion’. Cf. Porphyry, VP 41 which
seems to be based on the same source (Alexander Polyhistor).
9 Cf. Diog. Laert. I 120. The testimony of this tragic poet (circa 490–422bce) and other
early references to Pythagoras are conveniently assembled in Kirk–Raven–Schofield 1983,
216ff., esp. on this text, 220–221.
10 ῾Ο ἱερὸς λόγος. Cf. ἱρὸς λόγος in Herodotus, II, 81. The historian says here that it was
Pythagoras, not Orpheus who borrowed the sacred rites from the Egyptians and introduced
them to the Greeks. Cf. Diog. Laert. VIII 7.
11 Having accepted the notion of continuity of the Pythagorean tradition, Clement was
quite comfortable with various Pseudo-Pythagorica; at any rate no mention of the AntiPythagorean revolt is recorded (for complete accounts of the historical Pythagorean School
cf. W. Burkert 1972, Ch. Kahn 2001 and L. Zhmud 2011 (forthcoming); on the Pseudo-Pythagorica cf. H. Thesleff 1961, 1965 and 1971, W. Burkert 1961, A. Städele 1980, B. Centrone 1990,
C. Macris 2002).
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the pythagorean way of life 17
and accorded a privilege of seeing the Master himself.12 If a candidate was
rejected or accused of a bad deed a burial mound was erected in commemoration of his ‘death’.
Imagine now, that we are students at the Alexandrian school allegedly
founded by Clement’s teacher Pantenus,13 and listen to his lectures. What
shall we learn about Pythagoras?
Clement would tell us that Pythagoras was a perfect example of righteousness among the Greeks who was worth following. But the road
that leads to perfection is full of labor and everybody has to overcome it
personally:
Pythagoras used to say, that it is reasonable to help a man to lift a burden up,
but there is no obligation to help him down.14
Pythagoras instructed one to clean one’s body and soul before entering the
road by means of strictly drawn dietary regulations.15 One of the reasons for
this is that the burden of food prevents soul from ‘rising to higher levels of
reality’, a condition which, after certain exercise, could be reached during
sleep or meditation. Maintaining self-control and a right balance is therefore absolutely necessary for everyone entering on the path of knowledge:
‘A false balance (ζυγὰ δόλια) is an abomination in the Lord’s eye, but a just
weight is acceptable to him.’ (Prov. 11.1). It is on the basis of this that Pythagoras warns people ‘Step not over a balance (ζυγὸν µὴ ὑπερβαίνειν)’.16
It is said that the Pythagoreans abstain from sex. My own view, on the contrary, is that they married to produce children, and kept sexual pleasure under
control thereafter. This is why they place a mystical ban on eating beans,
not because they lead to belching, indigestion, and bad dreams, or because
a bean has the shape of a human head, as in the line: To eat beans is like eating your parents’ heads,—but rather because eating beans produces sterility
in women.17 (Strom. III 24, 1–2)
12 Strom. V 59, 1 (cf. V 67, 3). Note that Clement happened to be the first writer to use these
terms.
13 On the question of historicity of the school see A. van den Hoek (1997).
14 Strom. I 10, 3; the very first reference to Pythagoras in the Stromateis.
15 Strom. II 92, 1. For a detailed account of the dietary regulations and philosophy beyond
them see R. Grant (1980) and D. Dombrovsky (1987).
16 Strom. II 79, 2 and V 30, 1; cf. Iamblichus, Prot., 21.
17 For this well attested Orphic fragment (648 Bernabé / 291 Kern) cf. also Diog. Laert.
VIII, 34–35 (where Alexander Polyhistor, quoting from Aristotle, relates that abstention from
beans is advised either because they resemble privy parts, or because they are like the gates of
Hades …, or because they are destructive, or because they are like the nature of the universe,
or, finally, because they are oligarchical, being used in the choice of rulers by lot),Iamblichus,
VP 61 (a curious story on how Pythagoras taught an ox to abstain from beans) and 109 (on
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18 eugene afonasin
Pythagoras advised us to take more pleasure in the Muses than in the Sirens,
teaching the practice of all form of wisdom without pleasure (Strom. I 48, 1).18
Heraclides of Pontus records that Pythagoras taught that happiness is the
scientific knowledge of the perfection of the numbers of the soul.19
(Strom. II 130, 1)
The goal of the Pythagoreans consists therefore not in abstaining fromdoing
certain important things, but rather in abstention from harmful and useless
things in order to attain to a better performance in those which are really
vital. As in the case with marriage (above), Clement generally disagrees with
those who put too much emphasis on self-restriction. He has a good reason
for doing this, as we shall see later whilst analyzing Clement’s critique of
some Gnostic ideas that are closely connected with the Pythagorean problematic. Pythagorean abstinentia should be based on reason and judgment
rather than tradition or ritual. Thus κοινωνία καὶ συ ένεια unites not only all
mankind, but also all living beings with the gods. This alone is the sufficient
reason for abstaining from flesh meat:
I think that it was a splendid statement of Hippodamus the Pythagorean:
‘Friendships are of three kinds, one group arising from knowledge of the gods,
one from the service of human beings, and one from animal pleasures.’ These
are respectively the friendships enjoyed by philosophers, ordinary men and
animals (Strom. II 102, 1) … I personally think that Pythagoras derived his
gentle attitude to irrational animals from the Law. For example, he declared
that people should refrain from taking new births out of their flocks of sheep
or goats or herds of cattle for immediate profit or by reason of sacrifice.
(Strom. II 92, 1)
Blaming those who justify unnecessary cruelty because of avarice or similar
external reasons, Clement completely ignores the traditional Pythagorean
explanation, based on the concept of the ‘unity of all living beings’, i. e.
the doctrine of reincarnation. Clement certainly knows this, but definitely
the fact that abstaining from beans has many unnamed sacred, natural and psychological
reasons) and the very end of his Protreptikos(where a theological reason is given). Hippolytus
(Ref. I 14, relaying on the above mentioned Zaratas) and Porphyry, VP 43 (also mentioning
the Chaldeans two sections above) say that beans were created simultaneously with men
and even suggest two experiments designed to prove this!
18 Cf. the beginning of the last chapter of Clement’s Protreptikos. In order to clean and
harmonize the soul the Pythagoreans had a habit of playing the lyre before going to sleep,
a fact also attested in Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride, 384a) and Iamblichus (De vita pyth.
110–115).
19 The whole passage II 131, 2–133, 7 is obviously taken from a doxography, which records
various ‘opinions of the philosophers about happiness’. Clement even indicates where he has
finished copying, saying ‘so much of that’ at the end of the extract.
<PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 30 / 212>
the pythagorean way of life 19
prefers another, more practical explanation, leaving metempsychosis to the
Gnostics who, according to his opinion, are guilty of a distortion of the
Pythagorean doctrine. Pythagoras is taken here
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unknown{"queries":["Give me a deep dive on the hermetic discussions of falls into bodies into our text and how it differs from iamblichus account.","Korē Kosmou fall into bodies soul descent embodiment Stobaeus Hermetic","Stobaeus Hermetica soul descent into bodies providence fate Heimarmene","Iamblichus descent of soul into body ensoulment fate vehicle of the soul ochêma De mysteriis VIII 6 7","Iamblichus De anima descent into body two-fold soul embodied intellect fate"],"source_filter":["files_uploaded_in_conversation"]}
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[L1] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 1 / 272>
[L2] HERMETICA II
[L3] This volume presents in new English translations the scattered fragments and testimonies regarding Hermes Thrice Great that complete
[L4] Brian Copenhaver’s translation of the Hermetica (Cambridge ).
[L5] It contains the twenty-nine fragments from Stobaeus (including the
[L6] famous Korē Kosmou), the Oxford and Vienna fragments (never
[L7] before translated into English), an expanded selection of fragments
[L8] from various authors (including Zosimus of Panopolis, Augustine,
[L9] and Albert the Great), and testimonies about Hermes from thirtyeight authors (including Cicero, Pseudo-Manetho, the Emperor
[L10] Julian, Al-Kindī, Michael Psellus, the Emerald Tablet, and Nicholas
[L11] of Cusa). All translations are accompanied by introductions and notes
[L12] which cite sources for further reading. These Hermetic texts will
[L13] appeal to a broad array of readers interested in western esotericism
[L14] including scholars of Egyptology, the New Testament, the classical
[L15] world, Byzantium, medieval Islam, the Latin Middle Ages, and the
[L16] Renaissance.
[L17] . is a research fellow at the Institute for Religion and
[L18] Critical Inquiry in Melbourne, Australia. His recent books include:
[L19] Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Ancient Jewish and Christian
[L20] Mythmaking (); Refutation of All Heresies: Text, Translation,
[L21] and Notes (); and Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of
[L22] Jesus as a Mediterranean God ().
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[L35] HERMETICA II
[L36] The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient
[L37] Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and
[L38] Introductions
[L39] M. DAVID LITWA
[L40] Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Melbourne
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[L43]
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[L47] University Printing House, Cambridge , United Kingdom
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[L52] Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.
[L53] It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit
[L54] of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
[L55] www.cambridge.org
[L56] Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/
[L57] : ./
[L58] © M. David Litwa
[L59] This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
[L60] and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
[L61] no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
[L62] permission of Cambridge University Press.
[L63] First published
[L64] Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc
[L65] A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
[L66] Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Control Number:
[L67] ---- Hardback
[L68] Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
[L69] of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication
[L70] and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
[L71] accurate or appropriate.
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[L74]
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[L78] For Sam, Annie, Alex, and Eve
[L79] שבת שלום
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[L91] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 7 / 272>
[L92] Contents
[L93] Preface page xi
[L94] Abbreviations xii
[L95] General Introduction
[L96] A Note on This Translation
[L97] Sigla Adopted for This Translation
[L98] ( –)
[L99] ( –)
[L100] ( –)
[L101] ( –)
[L102] Tertullian
[L103] Pseudo(?)-Cyprian
[L104] – Lactantius
[L105] – Iamblichus
[L106] – Zosimus
[L107] Ephrem the Syrian
[L108] – Cyril of Alexandria
[L109] Addendum: The Reception of Hermetic Fragments from Cyril
[L110] vii
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[L117] Marcellus of Ancyra
[L118] John Lydus
[L119] Gregory of Nazianzus
[L120] Didymus of Alexandria
[L121] Gaius Iulius Romanus
[L122] Augustine
[L123] Quodvultdeus
[L124] Michael Psellus
[L125] Albert the Great
[L126] Nicholas of Cusa
[L127]
[L128] ( –)
[L129] Artapanus
[L130] Cicero
[L131] Manilius
[L132] Thrasyllus
[L133] Dorotheus of Sidon
[L134] Philo of Byblos
[L135] Athenagoras
[L136] Virtues of Plants
[L137] Refutation of All Heresies
[L138] Pseudo-Manetho
[L139] Arnobius
[L140] Iamblichus
[L141] Marius Victorinus
[L142] The Emperor Julian
[L143] viii Contents
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[L150] Ammianus Marcellinus
[L151] Greek Magical Papyri
[L152] Filastrius
[L153] First Prologue to the Cyranides
[L154] Augustine
[L155] Hermias
[L156] Cyril of Alexandria
[L157] John of Antioch
[L158] Isidore of Seville
[L159] John of Damascus(?), Passion of Artemius
[L160] Al-Kindī
[L161] Abū Ma‘shar
[L162] Ibn an-Nadīm
[L163] Al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik
[L164] Michael Psellus
[L165] Emerald Tablet
[L166] Prefaces to the Composition of Alchemy and the Six Principles
[L167] of Nature
[L168] Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers
[L169] Book of Alcidus
[L170] Fifteen Stars, Stones, Plants, and Talismans
[L171] Book of the Beibenian Stars
[L172] Albert the Great
[L173] Picatrix
[L174] Nicholas of Cusa
[L175] Bibliography
[L176] Index
[L177] Contents ix
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[L190] Preface
[L191] Despite widespread interest in the Hermetica across the globe, currently
[L192] there does not exist a reliable and up-to-date English translation of the
[L193] various Hermetic fragments and testimonies. Indeed, some of these fragments and testimonies remain generally unknown.
[L194] At the turn of the twentieth century, G. R. S. Mead made a translation
[L195] of select fragments into Victorian English from now-outdated editions.
[L196] The translation of the fragments by Walter Scott () was based on his
[L197] own re-written Greek text – a jungle of emendations and transpositions.
[L198] When it came to testimonies, moreover, Scott did not actually translate the
[L199] Greek or Latin texts. He only rendered into English (via Latin translations)
[L200] texts originally written in Arabic.
[L201] The present translation serves a new generation of scholarly and lay
[L202] readers of the Hermetica. It remains faithful to – though critically engaged
[L203] with – the various manuscript traditions. Copious notes provide historical
[L204] background, parallels, and references for further reading. Included also are
[L205] many testimonies that Scott did not print. It is hoped that this volume will
[L206] spark interest in the full reception history of the Hermetica, which must
[L207] include Late Antiquity and the medieval period.
[L208] Here I gratefully acknowledge persons who read parts of the manuscript
[L209] and offered helpful suggestions: Brian P. Copenhaver, David Runia, and
[L210] Christian H. Bull. Christian Wildberg and Kevin Van Bladel also kindly
[L211] answered my inquiries and provided guidance based on their expertise. My
[L212] thanks also to Oxford University Press for the use of Van Bladel’s translations of Arabic source materials.
[L213] xi
[L214] D7%!C#8(C73)3 34 73D:DD$C,* 53!4% 697 #%95#%7D7%!C :DD$C,6# #%9
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[L216]
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[L218] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 12 / 272>
[L219] Abbreviations
[L220] ANRW Haase and others, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang
[L221] der römischen Welt
[L222] Ascl. The Latin Asclepius
[L223] BSGRT Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum
[L224] Teubneriana
[L225] CCAG Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vols.,
[L226] –
[L227] CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
[L228] CH Corpus Hermeticum
[L229] CH Deutsch Holzhausen, ed., Das Corpus Hermeticum Deutsch,
[L230] vols.,
[L231] Copenhaver Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
[L232] Hermeticum,
[L233] DGWE Hanegraaff, ed., Dictionary of Gnosis and Western
[L234] Esotericism, .
[L235] DH Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius
[L236] DK Diels and Kranz, eds., Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, th
[L237] edition
[L238] Disc. – Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (NHC VI,)
[L239] DPA Richard Goulet, ed., Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques,
[L240] vols., –
[L241] F Codex Farnesius
[L242] FH Hermetic Fragments from various sources
[L243] FHSG Fortenbaugh, Huby, Sharples, and Gutas, eds.,
[L244] Theophrastus of Eresus,
[L245] HHE Mahé, Hermès en Haute-Égypte, vols., –.
[L246] LS Long and Sedley, eds., The Hellenistic Philosophers,
[L247] vols.,
[L248] MSS Manuscripts
[L249] Mystique Festugière, Hermétisme et mystique païenne,
[L250] xii
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[L252]
[L253]
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,
[L255] ,
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[L257] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 13 / 272>
[L258] NF Nock and Festugière, eds., Corpus Hermeticum, vols.,
[L259] –
[L260] NHC Nag Hammadi Codices
[L261] NHS Nag Hammadi Studies
[L262] NRSV The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
[L263] OF Bernabé, ed., Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia
[L264] et fragmenta,
[L265] OH Oxford Hermetic Fragments
[L266] OLD P. G. W. Glare, ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary. –
[L267] OTP Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vols.,
[L268] –
[L269] P Codex Parisinus gr.
[L270] PG Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca, vols., –
[L271] PW Pauly and Wissowa, eds., Realencyclopädie, vols.,
[L272] –
[L273] Ref. Refutation of All Heresies
[L274] RHT Festugière, La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vols.,
[L275] nd edn., –
[L276] SC Sources Chrétiennes
[L277] Scarpi Scarpi, ed., La Rivelazione segreta di Ermete Trismegisto,
[L278] vols., –
[L279] SH Stobaean Hermetic Excerpts
[L280] SVF Von Arnim, ed., Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
[L281] TH Hermetic Testimonies
[L282] VC Vigiliae Christianae
[L283] VH Vienna Hermetic Fragments
[L284] Abbreviations xiii
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[L286]
[L287]
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[L289] ,
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[L294]
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[L296] ,
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[L299] General Introduction
[L300] There are five groups of philosophical Hermetic writings that do not
[L301] appear in Brian P. Copenhaver’s English translation entitled Hermetica: The Greek “Corpus Hermeticum” and the Latin “Asclepius”.
[L302] The first is
[L303] the large group of Hermetic excerpts from Stobaeus, an early fifth-century
[L304] anthologist. The second is the Coptic Hermetica (discovered in )
[L305] featuring two excerpts of previously known writings in addition to a
[L306] formerly unknown Hermetic tractate (the Discourse on the Eighth and
[L307] Ninth). The third group is the collection of Hermetic Definitions, a set
[L308] of maxims extant in Greek fragments but preserved only fully in Armenian. The fourth is the previously known set of diverse fragments quoted
[L309] by various (largely Christian) authors in Late Antiquity. The fifth comprises recently discovered Hermetic fragments currently preserved in
[L310] Vienna and Oxford.
[L311] The Coptic Hermetica are widely available in English translations of the
[L312] Nag Hammadi library. The Definitions are now conveniently accessible in
[L313] English thanks to the work of Jean-Pierre Mahé. What remains to be
[L314] translated are the fragments from Stobaeus, the fragments and testimonies
[L315] from various authors, and the fragments from the newly discovered papyri.
[L316] Copenhaver’s introduction to CH and Ascl. remain relevant (Copenhaver, xxxii–xlv). See also Peter
[L317] Kingsley, “An Introduction to the Hermetica: Approaching Ancient Esoteric Tradition,” in Roelof
[L318] van den Broek and Cis van Heertum, eds., From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis: Hermetism and
[L319] the Christian Tradition (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, ), –. See Marvin Meyer, ed., Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (New York: HarperOne,
[L320] ), –. Introductions to the Coptic Hermetica can be found in ibid., –; –;
[L321] –; Mahé, HHE, .–, –; .–; Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans-Gebhard Bethge,
[L322] and Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, eds., Nag Hammadi Deutsch: Studienausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, ),
[L323] –; –; –. Mahé’s translation can be found in Clement Salaman and others, trans., The Way of Hermes: New
[L324] Translations of “The Corpus Hermeticum” and “The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius”
[L325] (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, ), –. Mahé introduces the Armenian Definitions in
[L326] ibid., –.
[L327]
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[L334] It is high time to present a new translation and annotation of these (chiefly
[L335] philosophical) Hermetica to the English-speaking world.
[L336] Hermes-Thoth
[L337] Nothing binds together the multifarious Hermetic fragments beyond their
[L338] ascription to Hermes Thrice Great. Hermes Thrice Great is a fictional
[L339] character. Yet for many in the ancient world that fiction was history. If we
[L340] call Hermes Thrice Great a “myth,” we thereby recognize that he is greater
[L341] and more significant than any one historical figure. How do we introduce a
[L342] figure that appears in so many different ages in so many different guises? If
[L343] there was an “original” Hermes Thrice Great, we are obliged to pick up the
[L344] thread at significant points of reception.
[L345] Iamblichus (about – ) commences his book (later called On
[L346] the Mysteries) with the following flourish:
[L347] Hermes, the deity who presides over rational discourses, has long and
[L348] rightly been considered common to all who practice the sacred arts. He
[L349] who presides over true science concerning gods is one and the same
[L350] throughout the universe. It is to him that our ancestors dedicated the
[L351] discoveries of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.
[L352] Important here is the frank acknowledgement that many authors wrote
[L353] under the name of Hermes. The practice of pseudepigraphy was logical for
[L354] devotees of Hermes. True wisdom and learning merited ascription to the
[L355] lord of all learning. This is why many Egyptian scholars attributed their
[L356] writings to Hermes. Iamblichus, himself writing under a false name
[L357] (“Abammon,” an Egyptian priest), calls these writers his “ancestors.” These
[L358] “ancestors” were probably Hellenized Egyptian scribes and priests who
[L359] lived not very long before Iamblichus himself.
[L360] Later, Iamblichus gives a taste of how many persons were writing under
[L361] the name of Hermes. In On the Mysteries ., he passes on the report of a
[L362] certain Seleucus, who attributed to Hermes a total of , books.
[L363] A better-known source, the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho, nearly
[L364] Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .. On Hermetic pseudepigraphy, see Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in
[L365] Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, ), –; and more generally, Bart
[L366] D. Ehrman, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics
[L367] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, ), –; –.
[L368] General Introduction
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[L375] doubled this number, crediting Hermes with , volumes (or
[L376] volumes for each single day in a -year period). So many books
[L377] would easily fill the shelves of a large temple library (the Egyptian “House
[L378] of Life”). Perhaps this is the point – all the wisdom of the Egyptian sacred
[L379] priesthood ultimately reverts to Hermes.
[L380] According to Iamblichus, Hermes wrote hundreds of tomes on specialized topics like “the gods in the fiery zone,” “the gods in the aether,” and
[L381] “the gods in the heavens.”
[L382] Hermes was the ultimate theologian, yet the
[L383] scope of his expertise was in fact more vast. There are existing treatises on
[L384] astrology, the virtues of stones, the principles of creation, the origin and
[L385] nature of the soul, alchemical practices, Fate, the effects of climate on
[L386] intelligence, healing, and even why children resemble their parents – all
[L387] ascribed to Hermes.
[L388] The many genres of Hermetic learning are well illustrated by a passage
[L389] in Clement of Alexandria. This Christian writer around describes a
[L390] procession of Egyptian officials in which forty-two fundamental writings of
[L391] Hermes were displayed (the number of Egypt’s districts or “nomes”). The
[L392] highest-ranking priest, whom the Greeks called “Prophet,” carried the ten
[L393] “hieratic” books on laws, the gods, and the training of priests. The Stolekeeper presented ten books on education and sacrifice. The Sacred Scribe
[L394] held up a decade of books on hieroglyphs, geography, and the temples.
[L395] Then came the Astrologer, who showed four books on astronomical
[L396] matters (fixed stars, planets, conjunctions, and the risings of astral bodies).
[L397] Finally, the Singer held in his hands a songbook and an instruction manual
[L398] for kings. As a supplement, six books on medical matters (anatomy,
[L399] medicines, medical instruments, and gynecology) were displayed. All this
[L400] vast store of knowledge was ascribed to Hermes.
[L401] Who was this Hermes? We must first of all distinguish a Greek deity
[L402] from a significantly different Egyptian one. The Greek Hermes was the
[L403] “winged son of kindly Maia,” racing on the winds as Zeus’s crafty herald,
[L404] The number has yet deeper significance in Egyptian astrology, as pointed out by Christian H. Bull,
[L405] “The Tradition of Hermes: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom”
[L406] (Ph.D. diss., University of Bergen, ), –. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .–. See, for instance, the small treatises On Earthquakes and the Brontologion attributed to Hermes
[L407] Thrice Great in CCAG .–; –. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ...–.... On books in temple libraries, see further Serge
[L408] Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt, new edition, trans. David Lorton (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
[L409] University Press, ), –; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the
[L410] Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ), –; Jan Assmann, Religion
[L411] and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Stanford: Stanford University Press, ), , –,
[L412] nn.–.
[L413] General Introduction
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[L420] helmeted with the cap of invisibility, wielding the twisted caduceus with
[L421] the power to put even Argus with his hundred eyes to sleep. The
[L422] Egyptian Hermes, on the other hand, was Thoth, depicted as the ibisheaded scribe of the gods, secretary of Re, giver of oracles, master of magic,
[L423] lord of the moon often appearing in the form of a dog-faced baboon.
[L424] When the Greeks dominated Egypt, they identified the Egyptian god
[L425] Thoth with Hermes. But why? What did they see in these two gods that
[L426] was similar?
[L427] There are several overlaps, yet we will focus on two. First of all,
[L428] Hermes as psychopomp, or escort of the dead, resembled Thoth as seen in
[L429] the various versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (or the Book of Going
[L430] Forth by Day), chapter . In the Hall of Two Truths, Thoth hears the
[L431] confession of the deceased person. After the person’s heart is weighed
[L432] against the feather of Maat (“Justice,” or “Truth”), Thoth carefully
[L433] inscribes the result with his tablet and stylus. If the heart is pure, Thoth
[L434] leads the candidate into the presence of Osiris, the ultimate judge of the
[L435] dead, and finally into the Field of Reeds. Perhaps the most famous scene
[L436] of Hermes leading souls is the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, book . In
[L437] this scene, Hermes guides the freshly slaughtered suitors of Penelope to the
[L438] netherworld. Mindless, the suitors squeak like bats on their way to the
[L439] halls of Hades.
[L440] Yet there was a more basic similarity between Hermes and Thoth.
[L441] Hermes is more than a herald or messenger. He is the Logos – the Reason,
[L442] Speech, or Word of God. The Word devises speech and brings his own
[L443] interpretation, which the Greeks called hermeneia.
[L444] Thoth is also the god
[L445] who presides over speech and interpretation. He is called “the heart of Re,
[L446] the tongue of Atum, the throat of the God whose name is hidden.” As
[L447] The “winged son of kindly Maia” derives from Horace, Odes, .. Other similarities between Thoth and Hermes are catalogued by Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel,
[L448] Thot à travers ses épithètes dans les scènes d’offrandes des temples d’époque gréco-romaine (Brussels:
[L449] Egyptology Foundation Queen Elizabeth, ), –; Andreas Löw, Hermes Trismegistos als
[L450] Zeuge der Wahrheit: Die christliche Hermetikrezeption von Athenagoras bis Laktanz, Theophaneia
[L451] (Berlin: Philo, ), –. See Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews
[L452] (London: British Museum, ), (spell b); C. J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures
[L453] of the Ancient Egyptian Religion (Leiden: Brill, ), –. For Hermes as Logos (or Word), see Ref. ..; Seneca, On Benefits .; Cornutus, Nature of the
[L454] Gods ; Heraclitus, Homeric Problems ; Acts :; Varro in Augustine, City of God .; Justin,
[L455] First Apology .; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (Moralia b). For devising speech, see Plato, Cratylus e–b; compare Diodorus, Library of History . (τὰ
[L456] περὶ τὴν ἑρμενείαν).
[L457] General Introduction
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[L464] divine speech personified, Thoth is also a creator. “What bursts from his
[L465] heart has immediate existence; what he pronounces exists for eternity.”
[L466]
[L467] In the Hellenistic period (roughly – ), Greeks living in Egypt
[L468] and Hellenized Egyptians crafted an amalgam of Thoth and Hermes who
[L469] was called “the Egyptian Hermes” or later “Hermes Thrice Greatest”
[L470] (Trismegistos, Termaximus). This Hermes is superlatively great in a superlative (threefold) way. Following English convention, however, here we call
[L471] “Thrice Greatest Hermes” simply “Hermes Thrice Great.”
[L472] Greeks typically conceived of Hermes Thrice Great in a Euhemeristic
[L473] fashion. That is to say, they often considered him to have been an ancient
[L474] man – a real scribe of a real Pharaoh, often the first divine Pharaoh called
[L475] Ammon (the Egyptian god Amun). This scribe, named Thoth or Theuth,
[L476] invented the alphabet and the art of writing. Ever since, humans have
[L477] been using writing to preserve the vast array of accumulated knowledge.
[L478] Thoth was later deified to become a recognized Egyptian god or daimon (a
[L479] kind of mediating deity). Writing was the best-known benefit that
[L480] Thoth offered to human beings, but it was not the only one.
[L481] Greeks attributed to Thoth the invention of a host of other arts. Plato
[L482] (– ) made Thoth the discoverer of mathematics and astronomy.
[L483] Hecataeus of Abdera (fourth century ) ascribed to him the
[L484] invention of a common language, religious ritual, music, wrestling,
[L485] dancing, and the culture of the olive. The Jewish writer Artapanus (third
[L486] These titles derive from hieroglyphic inscriptions from the temple of Denderah printed in
[L487] Festugière, RHT, . and Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: A History of the Belief in Christ from
[L488] the Beginnings of Christianity to Irenaeus, trans. John E. Steely (Nashville: Abingdon, ),
[L489] –. The temple is dated to the time of Nero (mid first century ). Compare the
[L490] inscription on the door of the library of the great temple of Philae: “the glorious Ibis who came
[L491] forth from the heart of the god [Re]; tongue of Tenen [Ptah] when he gives command, throat of
[L492] him of the hidden name [Amun]” (quoted in Patrick Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of
[L493] Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt [London: Oxford University Press, ],
[L494] –). In the Shabaka text, Thoth functions as creator in the form of Ptah (ibid., ).
[L495] According to a fourth-century papyrus fragment called the Strasbourg Cosmogony, Hermes is
[L496] depicted as creator of the world. For an introduction see Jean-Marie Flamand, “Cosmogonie de
[L497] Strasbourg,” DPA .–. See further Youri Volokhine, “Le dieu Thot et la parole,” Revue de
[L498] l’histoire des religions (): –. For Thoth the inventor of writing, see Philo of Byblos in Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel ..
[L499] (= TH a), as well as the writers cited in the next paragraph. Plato (Philebus b) expressed uncertainty as to whether Hermes (Thoth) was a god, a daimon, or
[L500] divine man. Perhaps he was a man guided by a daimon, as in Ammianus Marcellinus, Historical
[L501] Events .. (TH ). In some Hermetic texts, Hermes Thrice Great is distinguished from his
[L502] grandfather Thoth (Ascl. , with Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, –). A purely Euhemeristic
[L503] conception of Hermes Thrice Great is taken up by Christians such as Lactantius, Wrath of God
[L504] . (with the comments of Löw, Hermes –, –), Institutes .. (= FH a); Augustine,
[L505] City of God . (TH b). Plato, Phaedrus c–d; a. Diodorus, Library of History ..
[L506] General Introduction
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[L513] to second centuries ), after identifying Moses with Hermes, makes him
[L514] the teacher of navigation, devisor of weapons, machines of war, and
[L515] philosophy. According to the Roman orator Cicero (mid first century
[L516] ), Hermes-Thoth “gave the Egyptians their laws and letters.”
[L517] In the
[L518] early first century , the Roman poet Manilius called Hermes “first
[L519] founder of this great and holy science” – meaning astrology. The
[L520] Christian writer Tertullian in the early third century dubbed Hermes
[L521] Thrice Great “teacher of all the natural philosophers.”
[L522] This tradition of
[L523] philosophy stretched back to Thales in the sixth century . When one
[L524] reads these testimonies (printed more fully at the end of this volume), one
[L525] gains a sense of the vast knowledge ascribed to Hermes. There was nary a
[L526] branch of learning over which the Thrice Great did not preside.
[L527] To the question: “Why was the Egyptian Hermes called ‘Thrice
[L528] Great’?” one can answer: triple greatness was the special prerogative of
[L529] Thoth. A god twice or thrice great was a god supremely great – greater
[L530] indeed than all his divine competitors (at least in the minds of his
[L531] devotees). Clay shards in the archive of Hor (around ) yield
[L532] a Greek translation of Thoth’s Egyptian epithet: “the greatest, yes,
[L533] greatest god, great Hermes!”
[L534] In Egyptian, the repetition likely had a
[L535] Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel ..– = frag. in OTP .–. See further Gerard
[L536] Mussies, “The Interpretatio Judaica of Thot-Hermes,” in M. Heerma van Voss, among others, eds.,
[L537] Studies in Egyptian Religion Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee (Leiden: Brill, ), – at
[L538] –. Cicero, Nature of the Gods . (= TH ). Manilius, Astronomica . (= TH ). Tertullian, Against the Valentinians . (= FH a). See further Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, . See in particular TH from Cyril of Alexandria. Florian Ebeling notes that, “From the second millennium on, Thoth was revered as the ‘twice
[L539] great,’ which was then escalated into ‘thrice great,’ that is, ‘greatest of all’” (The Secret History of
[L540] Hermes Trisme
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[L1] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 1 / 272>
[L2] HERMETICA II
[L3] This volume presents in new English translations the scattered fragments and testimonies regarding Hermes Thrice Great that complete
[L4] Brian Copenhaver’s translation of the Hermetica (Cambridge ).
[L5] It contains the twenty-nine fragments from Stobaeus (including the
[L6] famous Korē Kosmou), the Oxford and Vienna fragments (never
[L7] before translated into English), an expanded selection of fragments
[L8] from various authors (including Zosimus of Panopolis, Augustine,
[L9] and Albert the Great), and testimonies about Hermes from thirtyeight authors (including Cicero, Pseudo-Manetho, the Emperor
[L10] Julian, Al-Kindī, Michael Psellus, the Emerald Tablet, and Nicholas
[L11] of Cusa). All translations are accompanied by introductions and notes
[L12] which cite sources for further reading. These Hermetic texts will
[L13] appeal to a broad array of readers interested in western esotericism
[L14] including scholars of Egyptology, the New Testament, the classical
[L15] world, Byzantium, medieval Islam, the Latin Middle Ages, and the
[L16] Renaissance.
[L17] . is a research fellow at the Institute for Religion and
[L18] Critical Inquiry in Melbourne, Australia. His recent books include:
[L19] Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Ancient Jewish and Christian
[L20] Mythmaking (); Refutation of All Heresies: Text, Translation,
[L21] and Notes (); and Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of
[L22] Jesus as a Mediterranean God ().
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[L35] HERMETICA II
[L36] The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient
[L37] Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and
[L38] Introductions
[L39] M. DAVID LITWA
[L40] Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Melbourne
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[L58] © M. David Litwa
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[L63] First published
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[L78] For Sam, Annie, Alex, and Eve
[L79] שבת שלום
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[L92] Contents
[L93] Preface page xi
[L94] Abbreviations xii
[L95] General Introduction
[L96] A Note on This Translation
[L97] Sigla Adopted for This Translation
[L98] ( –)
[L99] ( –)
[L100] ( –)
[L101] ( –)
[L102] Tertullian
[L103] Pseudo(?)-Cyprian
[L104] – Lactantius
[L105] – Iamblichus
[L106] – Zosimus
[L107] Ephrem the Syrian
[L108] – Cyril of Alexandria
[L109] Addendum: The Reception of Hermetic Fragments from Cyril
[L110] vii
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[L117] Marcellus of Ancyra
[L118] John Lydus
[L119] Gregory of Nazianzus
[L120] Didymus of Alexandria
[L121] Gaius Iulius Romanus
[L122] Augustine
[L123] Quodvultdeus
[L124] Michael Psellus
[L125] Albert the Great
[L126] Nicholas of Cusa
[L127]
[L128] ( –)
[L129] Artapanus
[L130] Cicero
[L131] Manilius
[L132] Thrasyllus
[L133] Dorotheus of Sidon
[L134] Philo of Byblos
[L135] Athenagoras
[L136] Virtues of Plants
[L137] Refutation of All Heresies
[L138] Pseudo-Manetho
[L139] Arnobius
[L140] Iamblichus
[L141] Marius Victorinus
[L142] The Emperor Julian
[L143] viii Contents
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[L150] Ammianus Marcellinus
[L151] Greek Magical Papyri
[L152] Filastrius
[L153] First Prologue to the Cyranides
[L154] Augustine
[L155] Hermias
[L156] Cyril of Alexandria
[L157] John of Antioch
[L158] Isidore of Seville
[L159] John of Damascus(?), Passion of Artemius
[L160] Al-Kindī
[L161] Abū Ma‘shar
[L162] Ibn an-Nadīm
[L163] Al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik
[L164] Michael Psellus
[L165] Emerald Tablet
[L166] Prefaces to the Composition of Alchemy and the Six Principles
[L167] of Nature
[L168] Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers
[L169] Book of Alcidus
[L170] Fifteen Stars, Stones, Plants, and Talismans
[L171] Book of the Beibenian Stars
[L172] Albert the Great
[L173] Picatrix
[L174] Nicholas of Cusa
[L175] Bibliography
[L176] Index
[L177] Contents ix
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[L190] Preface
[L191] Despite widespread interest in the Hermetica across the globe, currently
[L192] there does not exist a reliable and up-to-date English translation of the
[L193] various Hermetic fragments and testimonies. Indeed, some of these fragments and testimonies remain generally unknown.
[L194] At the turn of the twentieth century, G. R. S. Mead made a translation
[L195] of select fragments into Victorian English from now-outdated editions.
[L196] The translation of the fragments by Walter Scott () was based on his
[L197] own re-written Greek text – a jungle of emendations and transpositions.
[L198] When it came to testimonies, moreover, Scott did not actually translate the
[L199] Greek or Latin texts. He only rendered into English (via Latin translations)
[L200] texts originally written in Arabic.
[L201] The present translation serves a new generation of scholarly and lay
[L202] readers of the Hermetica. It remains faithful to – though critically engaged
[L203] with – the various manuscript traditions. Copious notes provide historical
[L204] background, parallels, and references for further reading. Included also are
[L205] many testimonies that Scott did not print. It is hoped that this volume will
[L206] spark interest in the full reception history of the Hermetica, which must
[L207] include Late Antiquity and the medieval period.
[L208] Here I gratefully acknowledge persons who read parts of the manuscript
[L209] and offered helpful suggestions: Brian P. Copenhaver, David Runia, and
[L210] Christian H. Bull. Christian Wildberg and Kevin Van Bladel also kindly
[L211] answered my inquiries and provided guidance based on their expertise. My
[L212] thanks also to Oxford University Press for the use of Van Bladel’s translations of Arabic source materials.
[L213] xi
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[L219] Abbreviations
[L220] ANRW Haase and others, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang
[L221] der römischen Welt
[L222] Ascl. The Latin Asclepius
[L223] BSGRT Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum
[L224] Teubneriana
[L225] CCAG Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vols.,
[L226] –
[L227] CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
[L228] CH Corpus Hermeticum
[L229] CH Deutsch Holzhausen, ed., Das Corpus Hermeticum Deutsch,
[L230] vols.,
[L231] Copenhaver Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
[L232] Hermeticum,
[L233] DGWE Hanegraaff, ed., Dictionary of Gnosis and Western
[L234] Esotericism, .
[L235] DH Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius
[L236] DK Diels and Kranz, eds., Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, th
[L237] edition
[L238] Disc. – Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (NHC VI,)
[L239] DPA Richard Goulet, ed., Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques,
[L240] vols., –
[L241] F Codex Farnesius
[L242] FH Hermetic Fragments from various sources
[L243] FHSG Fortenbaugh, Huby, Sharples, and Gutas, eds.,
[L244] Theophrastus of Eresus,
[L245] HHE Mahé, Hermès en Haute-Égypte, vols., –.
[L246] LS Long and Sedley, eds., The Hellenistic Philosophers,
[L247] vols.,
[L248] MSS Manuscripts
[L249] Mystique Festugière, Hermétisme et mystique païenne,
[L250] xii
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[L252]
[L253]
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,
[L255] ,
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[L258] NF Nock and Festugière, eds., Corpus Hermeticum, vols.,
[L259] –
[L260] NHC Nag Hammadi Codices
[L261] NHS Nag Hammadi Studies
[L262] NRSV The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
[L263] OF Bernabé, ed., Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia
[L264] et fragmenta,
[L265] OH Oxford Hermetic Fragments
[L266] OLD P. G. W. Glare, ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary. –
[L267] OTP Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vols.,
[L268] –
[L269] P Codex Parisinus gr.
[L270] PG Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca, vols., –
[L271] PW Pauly and Wissowa, eds., Realencyclopädie, vols.,
[L272] –
[L273] Ref. Refutation of All Heresies
[L274] RHT Festugière, La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vols.,
[L275] nd edn., –
[L276] SC Sources Chrétiennes
[L277] Scarpi Scarpi, ed., La Rivelazione segreta di Ermete Trismegisto,
[L278] vols., –
[L279] SH Stobaean Hermetic Excerpts
[L280] SVF Von Arnim, ed., Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
[L281] TH Hermetic Testimonies
[L282] VC Vigiliae Christianae
[L283] VH Vienna Hermetic Fragments
[L284] Abbreviations xiii
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[L299] General Introduction
[L300] There are five groups of philosophical Hermetic writings that do not
[L301] appear in Brian P. Copenhaver’s English translation entitled Hermetica: The Greek “Corpus Hermeticum” and the Latin “Asclepius”.
[L302] The first is
[L303] the large group of Hermetic excerpts from Stobaeus, an early fifth-century
[L304] anthologist. The second is the Coptic Hermetica (discovered in )
[L305] featuring two excerpts of previously known writings in addition to a
[L306] formerly unknown Hermetic tractate (the Discourse on the Eighth and
[L307] Ninth). The third group is the collection of Hermetic Definitions, a set
[L308] of maxims extant in Greek fragments but preserved only fully in Armenian. The fourth is the previously known set of diverse fragments quoted
[L309] by various (largely Christian) authors in Late Antiquity. The fifth comprises recently discovered Hermetic fragments currently preserved in
[L310] Vienna and Oxford.
[L311] The Coptic Hermetica are widely available in English translations of the
[L312] Nag Hammadi library. The Definitions are now conveniently accessible in
[L313] English thanks to the work of Jean-Pierre Mahé. What remains to be
[L314] translated are the fragments from Stobaeus, the fragments and testimonies
[L315] from various authors, and the fragments from the newly discovered papyri.
[L316] Copenhaver’s introduction to CH and Ascl. remain relevant (Copenhaver, xxxii–xlv). See also Peter
[L317] Kingsley, “An Introduction to the Hermetica: Approaching Ancient Esoteric Tradition,” in Roelof
[L318] van den Broek and Cis van Heertum, eds., From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis: Hermetism and
[L319] the Christian Tradition (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, ), –. See Marvin Meyer, ed., Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (New York: HarperOne,
[L320] ), –. Introductions to the Coptic Hermetica can be found in ibid., –; –;
[L321] –; Mahé, HHE, .–, –; .–; Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans-Gebhard Bethge,
[L322] and Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, eds., Nag Hammadi Deutsch: Studienausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, ),
[L323] –; –; –. Mahé’s translation can be found in Clement Salaman and others, trans., The Way of Hermes: New
[L324] Translations of “The Corpus Hermeticum” and “The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius”
[L325] (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, ), –. Mahé introduces the Armenian Definitions in
[L326] ibid., –.
[L327]
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[L334] It is high time to present a new translation and annotation of these (chiefly
[L335] philosophical) Hermetica to the English-speaking world.
[L336] Hermes-Thoth
[L337] Nothing binds together the multifarious Hermetic fragments beyond their
[L338] ascription to Hermes Thrice Great. Hermes Thrice Great is a fictional
[L339] character. Yet for many in the ancient world that fiction was history. If we
[L340] call Hermes Thrice Great a “myth,” we thereby recognize that he is greater
[L341] and more significant than any one historical figure. How do we introduce a
[L342] figure that appears in so many different ages in so many different guises? If
[L343] there was an “original” Hermes Thrice Great, we are obliged to pick up the
[L344] thread at significant points of reception.
[L345] Iamblichus (about – ) commences his book (later called On
[L346] the Mysteries) with the following flourish:
[L347] Hermes, the deity who presides over rational discourses, has long and
[L348] rightly been considered common to all who practice the sacred arts. He
[L349] who presides over true science concerning gods is one and the same
[L350] throughout the universe. It is to him that our ancestors dedicated the
[L351] discoveries of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.
[L352] Important here is the frank acknowledgement that many authors wrote
[L353] under the name of Hermes. The practice of pseudepigraphy was logical for
[L354] devotees of Hermes. True wisdom and learning merited ascription to the
[L355] lord of all learning. This is why many Egyptian scholars attributed their
[L356] writings to Hermes. Iamblichus, himself writing under a false name
[L357] (“Abammon,” an Egyptian priest), calls these writers his “ancestors.” These
[L358] “ancestors” were probably Hellenized Egyptian scribes and priests who
[L359] lived not very long before Iamblichus himself.
[L360] Later, Iamblichus gives a taste of how many persons were writing under
[L361] the name of Hermes. In On the Mysteries ., he passes on the report of a
[L362] certain Seleucus, who attributed to Hermes a total of , books.
[L363] A better-known source, the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho, nearly
[L364] Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .. On Hermetic pseudepigraphy, see Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in
[L365] Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, ), –; and more generally, Bart
[L366] D. Ehrman, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics
[L367] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, ), –; –.
[L368] General Introduction
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[L375] doubled this number, crediting Hermes with , volumes (or
[L376] volumes for each single day in a -year period). So many books
[L377] would easily fill the shelves of a large temple library (the Egyptian “House
[L378] of Life”). Perhaps this is the point – all the wisdom of the Egyptian sacred
[L379] priesthood ultimately reverts to Hermes.
[L380] According to Iamblichus, Hermes wrote hundreds of tomes on specialized topics like “the gods in the fiery zone,” “the gods in the aether,” and
[L381] “the gods in the heavens.”
[L382] Hermes was the ultimate theologian, yet the
[L383] scope of his expertise was in fact more vast. There are existing treatises on
[L384] astrology, the virtues of stones, the principles of creation, the origin and
[L385] nature of the soul, alchemical practices, Fate, the effects of climate on
[L386] intelligence, healing, and even why children resemble their parents – all
[L387] ascribed to Hermes.
[L388] The many genres of Hermetic learning are well illustrated by a passage
[L389] in Clement of Alexandria. This Christian writer around describes a
[L390] procession of Egyptian officials in which forty-two fundamental writings of
[L391] Hermes were displayed (the number of Egypt’s districts or “nomes”). The
[L392] highest-ranking priest, whom the Greeks called “Prophet,” carried the ten
[L393] “hieratic” books on laws, the gods, and the training of priests. The Stolekeeper presented ten books on education and sacrifice. The Sacred Scribe
[L394] held up a decade of books on hieroglyphs, geography, and the temples.
[L395] Then came the Astrologer, who showed four books on astronomical
[L396] matters (fixed stars, planets, conjunctions, and the risings of astral bodies).
[L397] Finally, the Singer held in his hands a songbook and an instruction manual
[L398] for kings. As a supplement, six books on medical matters (anatomy,
[L399] medicines, medical instruments, and gynecology) were displayed. All this
[L400] vast store of knowledge was ascribed to Hermes.
[L401] Who was this Hermes? We must first of all distinguish a Greek deity
[L402] from a significantly different Egyptian one. The Greek Hermes was the
[L403] “winged son of kindly Maia,” racing on the winds as Zeus’s crafty herald,
[L404] The number has yet deeper significance in Egyptian astrology, as pointed out by Christian H. Bull,
[L405] “The Tradition of Hermes: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom”
[L406] (Ph.D. diss., University of Bergen, ), –. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .–. See, for instance, the small treatises On Earthquakes and the Brontologion attributed to Hermes
[L407] Thrice Great in CCAG .–; –. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ...–.... On books in temple libraries, see further Serge
[L408] Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt, new edition, trans. David Lorton (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
[L409] University Press, ), –; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the
[L410] Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ), –; Jan Assmann, Religion
[L411] and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Stanford: Stanford University Press, ), , –,
[L412] nn.–.
[L413] General Introduction
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[L420] helmeted with the cap of invisibility, wielding the twisted caduceus with
[L421] the power to put even Argus with his hundred eyes to sleep. The
[L422] Egyptian Hermes, on the other hand, was Thoth, depicted as the ibisheaded scribe of the gods, secretary of Re, giver of oracles, master of magic,
[L423] lord of the moon often appearing in the form of a dog-faced baboon.
[L424] When the Greeks dominated Egypt, they identified the Egyptian god
[L425] Thoth with Hermes. But why? What did they see in these two gods that
[L426] was similar?
[L427] There are several overlaps, yet we will focus on two. First of all,
[L428] Hermes as psychopomp, or escort of the dead, resembled Thoth as seen in
[L429] the various versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (or the Book of Going
[L430] Forth by Day), chapter . In the Hall of Two Truths, Thoth hears the
[L431] confession of the deceased person. After the person’s heart is weighed
[L432] against the feather of Maat (“Justice,” or “Truth”), Thoth carefully
[L433] inscribes the result with his tablet and stylus. If the heart is pure, Thoth
[L434] leads the candidate into the presence of Osiris, the ultimate judge of the
[L435] dead, and finally into the Field of Reeds. Perhaps the most famous scene
[L436] of Hermes leading souls is the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, book . In
[L437] this scene, Hermes guides the freshly slaughtered suitors of Penelope to the
[L438] netherworld. Mindless, the suitors squeak like bats on their way to the
[L439] halls of Hades.
[L440] Yet there was a more basic similarity between Hermes and Thoth.
[L441] Hermes is more than a herald or messenger. He is the Logos – the Reason,
[L442] Speech, or Word of God. The Word devises speech and brings his own
[L443] interpretation, which the Greeks called hermeneia.
[L444] Thoth is also the god
[L445] who presides over speech and interpretation. He is called “the heart of Re,
[L446] the tongue of Atum, the throat of the God whose name is hidden.” As
[L447] The “winged son of kindly Maia” derives from Horace, Odes, .. Other similarities between Thoth and Hermes are catalogued by Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel,
[L448] Thot à travers ses épithètes dans les scènes d’offrandes des temples d’époque gréco-romaine (Brussels:
[L449] Egyptology Foundation Queen Elizabeth, ), –; Andreas Löw, Hermes Trismegistos als
[L450] Zeuge der Wahrheit: Die christliche Hermetikrezeption von Athenagoras bis Laktanz, Theophaneia
[L451] (Berlin: Philo, ), –. See Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews
[L452] (London: British Museum, ), (spell b); C. J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures
[L453] of the Ancient Egyptian Religion (Leiden: Brill, ), –. For Hermes as Logos (or Word), see Ref. ..; Seneca, On Benefits .; Cornutus, Nature of the
[L454] Gods ; Heraclitus, Homeric Problems ; Acts :; Varro in Augustine, City of God .; Justin,
[L455] First Apology .; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (Moralia b). For devising speech, see Plato, Cratylus e–b; compare Diodorus, Library of History . (τὰ
[L456] περὶ τὴν ἑρμενείαν).
[L457] General Introduction
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[L464] divine speech personified, Thoth is also a creator. “What bursts from his
[L465] heart has immediate existence; what he pronounces exists for eternity.”
[L466]
[L467] In the Hellenistic period (roughly – ), Greeks living in Egypt
[L468] and Hellenized Egyptians crafted an amalgam of Thoth and Hermes who
[L469] was called “the Egyptian Hermes” or later “Hermes Thrice Greatest”
[L470] (Trismegistos, Termaximus). This Hermes is superlatively great in a superlative (threefold) way. Following English convention, however, here we call
[L471] “Thrice Greatest Hermes” simply “Hermes Thrice Great.”
[L472] Greeks typically conceived of Hermes Thrice Great in a Euhemeristic
[L473] fashion. That is to say, they often considered him to have been an ancient
[L474] man – a real scribe of a real Pharaoh, often the first divine Pharaoh called
[L475] Ammon (the Egyptian god Amun). This scribe, named Thoth or Theuth,
[L476] invented the alphabet and the art of writing. Ever since, humans have
[L477] been using writing to preserve the vast array of accumulated knowledge.
[L478] Thoth was later deified to become a recognized Egyptian god or daimon (a
[L479] kind of mediating deity). Writing was the best-known benefit that
[L480] Thoth offered to human beings, but it was not the only one.
[L481] Greeks attributed to Thoth the invention of a host of other arts. Plato
[L482] (– ) made Thoth the discoverer of mathematics and astronomy.
[L483] Hecataeus of Abdera (fourth century ) ascribed to him the
[L484] invention of a common language, religious ritual, music, wrestling,
[L485] dancing, and the culture of the olive. The Jewish writer Artapanus (third
[L486] These titles derive from hieroglyphic inscriptions from the temple of Denderah printed in
[L487] Festugière, RHT, . and Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: A History of the Belief in Christ from
[L488] the Beginnings of Christianity to Irenaeus, trans. John E. Steely (Nashville: Abingdon, ),
[L489] –. The temple is dated to the time of Nero (mid first century ). Compare the
[L490] inscription on the door of the library of the great temple of Philae: “the glorious Ibis who came
[L491] forth from the heart of the god [Re]; tongue of Tenen [Ptah] when he gives command, throat of
[L492] him of the hidden name [Amun]” (quoted in Patrick Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of
[L493] Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt [London: Oxford University Press, ],
[L494] –). In the Shabaka text, Thoth functions as creator in the form of Ptah (ibid., ).
[L495] According to a fourth-century papyrus fragment called the Strasbourg Cosmogony, Hermes is
[L496] depicted as creator of the world. For an introduction see Jean-Marie Flamand, “Cosmogonie de
[L497] Strasbourg,” DPA .–. See further Youri Volokhine, “Le dieu Thot et la parole,” Revue de
[L498] l’histoire des religions (): –. For Thoth the inventor of writing, see Philo of Byblos in Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel ..
[L499] (= TH a), as well as the writers cited in the next paragraph. Plato (Philebus b) expressed uncertainty as to whether Hermes (Thoth) was a god, a daimon, or
[L500] divine man. Perhaps he was a man guided by a daimon, as in Ammianus Marcellinus, Historical
[L501] Events .. (TH ). In some Hermetic texts, Hermes Thrice Great is distinguished from his
[L502] grandfather Thoth (Ascl. , with Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, –). A purely Euhemeristic
[L503] conception of Hermes Thrice Great is taken up by Christians such as Lactantius, Wrath of God
[L504] . (with the comments of Löw, Hermes –, –), Institutes .. (= FH a); Augustine,
[L505] City of God . (TH b). Plato, Phaedrus c–d; a. Diodorus, Library of History ..
[L506] General Introduction
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[L513] to second centuries ), after identifying Moses with Hermes, makes him
[L514] the teacher of navigation, devisor of weapons, machines of war, and
[L515] philosophy. According to the Roman orator Cicero (mid first century
[L516] ), Hermes-Thoth “gave the Egyptians their laws and letters.”
[L517] In the
[L518] early first century , the Roman poet Manilius called Hermes “first
[L519] founder of this great and holy science” – meaning astrology. The
[L520] Christian writer Tertullian in the early third century dubbed Hermes
[L521] Thrice Great “teacher of all the natural philosophers.”
[L522] This tradition of
[L523] philosophy stretched back to Thales in the sixth century . When one
[L524] reads these testimonies (printed more fully at the end of this volume), one
[L525] gains a sense of the vast knowledge ascribed to Hermes. There was nary a
[L526] branch of learning over which the Thrice Great did not preside.
[L527] To the question: “Why was the Egyptian Hermes called ‘Thrice
[L528] Great’?” one can answer: triple greatness was the special prerogative of
[L529] Thoth. A god twice or thrice great was a god supremely great – greater
[L530] indeed than all his divine competitors (at least in the minds of his
[L531] devotees). Clay shards in the archive of Hor (around ) yield
[L532] a Greek translation of Thoth’s Egyptian epithet: “the greatest, yes,
[L533] greatest god, great Hermes!”
[L534] In Egyptian, the repetition likely had a
[L535] Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel ..– = frag. in OTP .–. See further Gerard
[L536] Mussies, “The Interpretatio Judaica of Thot-Hermes,” in M. Heerma van Voss, among others, eds.,
[L537] Studies in Egyptian Religion Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee (Leiden: Brill, ), – at
[L538] –. Cicero, Nature of the Gods . (= TH ). Manilius, Astronomica . (= TH ). Tertullian, Against the Valentinians . (= FH a). See further Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, . See in particular TH from Cyril of Alexandria. Florian Ebeling notes that, “From the second millennium on, Thoth was revered as the ‘twice
[L539] great,’ which was then escalated into ‘thrice great,’ that is, ‘greatest of all’” (The Secret History of
[L540] Hermes Trisme
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[L1] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 1 / 272>
[L2] HERMETICA II
[L3] This volume presents in new English translations the scattered fragments and testimonies regarding Hermes Thrice Great that complete
[L4] Brian Copenhaver’s translation of the Hermetica (Cambridge ).
[L5] It contains the twenty-nine fragments from Stobaeus (including the
[L6] famous Korē Kosmou), the Oxford and Vienna fragments (never
[L7] before translated into English), an expanded selection of fragments
[L8] from various authors (including Zosimus of Panopolis, Augustine,
[L9] and Albert the Great), and testimonies about Hermes from thirtyeight authors (including Cicero, Pseudo-Manetho, the Emperor
[L10] Julian, Al-Kindī, Michael Psellus, the Emerald Tablet, and Nicholas
[L11] of Cusa). All translations are accompanied by introductions and notes
[L12] which cite sources for further reading. These Hermetic texts will
[L13] appeal to a broad array of readers interested in western esotericism
[L14] including scholars of Egyptology, the New Testament, the classical
[L15] world, Byzantium, medieval Islam, the Latin Middle Ages, and the
[L16] Renaissance.
[L17] . is a research fellow at the Institute for Religion and
[L18] Critical Inquiry in Melbourne, Australia. His recent books include:
[L19] Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Ancient Jewish and Christian
[L20] Mythmaking (); Refutation of All Heresies: Text, Translation,
[L21] and Notes (); and Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of
[L22] Jesus as a Mediterranean God ().
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[L35] HERMETICA II
[L36] The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient
[L37] Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and
[L38] Introductions
[L39] M. DAVID LITWA
[L40] Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Melbourne
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[L58] © M. David Litwa
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[L78] For Sam, Annie, Alex, and Eve
[L79] שבת שלום
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[L91] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 7 / 272>
[L92] Contents
[L93] Preface page xi
[L94] Abbreviations xii
[L95] General Introduction
[L96] A Note on This Translation
[L97] Sigla Adopted for This Translation
[L98] ( –)
[L99] ( –)
[L100] ( –)
[L101] ( –)
[L102] Tertullian
[L103] Pseudo(?)-Cyprian
[L104] – Lactantius
[L105] – Iamblichus
[L106] – Zosimus
[L107] Ephrem the Syrian
[L108] – Cyril of Alexandria
[L109] Addendum: The Reception of Hermetic Fragments from Cyril
[L110] vii
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[L117] Marcellus of Ancyra
[L118] John Lydus
[L119] Gregory of Nazianzus
[L120] Didymus of Alexandria
[L121] Gaius Iulius Romanus
[L122] Augustine
[L123] Quodvultdeus
[L124] Michael Psellus
[L125] Albert the Great
[L126] Nicholas of Cusa
[L127]
[L128] ( –)
[L129] Artapanus
[L130] Cicero
[L131] Manilius
[L132] Thrasyllus
[L133] Dorotheus of Sidon
[L134] Philo of Byblos
[L135] Athenagoras
[L136] Virtues of Plants
[L137] Refutation of All Heresies
[L138] Pseudo-Manetho
[L139] Arnobius
[L140] Iamblichus
[L141] Marius Victorinus
[L142] The Emperor Julian
[L143] viii Contents
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[L150] Ammianus Marcellinus
[L151] Greek Magical Papyri
[L152] Filastrius
[L153] First Prologue to the Cyranides
[L154] Augustine
[L155] Hermias
[L156] Cyril of Alexandria
[L157] John of Antioch
[L158] Isidore of Seville
[L159] John of Damascus(?), Passion of Artemius
[L160] Al-Kindī
[L161] Abū Ma‘shar
[L162] Ibn an-Nadīm
[L163] Al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik
[L164] Michael Psellus
[L165] Emerald Tablet
[L166] Prefaces to the Composition of Alchemy and the Six Principles
[L167] of Nature
[L168] Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers
[L169] Book of Alcidus
[L170] Fifteen Stars, Stones, Plants, and Talismans
[L171] Book of the Beibenian Stars
[L172] Albert the Great
[L173] Picatrix
[L174] Nicholas of Cusa
[L175] Bibliography
[L176] Index
[L177] Contents ix
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[L190] Preface
[L191] Despite widespread interest in the Hermetica across the globe, currently
[L192] there does not exist a reliable and up-to-date English translation of the
[L193] various Hermetic fragments and testimonies. Indeed, some of these fragments and testimonies remain generally unknown.
[L194] At the turn of the twentieth century, G. R. S. Mead made a translation
[L195] of select fragments into Victorian English from now-outdated editions.
[L196] The translation of the fragments by Walter Scott () was based on his
[L197] own re-written Greek text – a jungle of emendations and transpositions.
[L198] When it came to testimonies, moreover, Scott did not actually translate the
[L199] Greek or Latin texts. He only rendered into English (via Latin translations)
[L200] texts originally written in Arabic.
[L201] The present translation serves a new generation of scholarly and lay
[L202] readers of the Hermetica. It remains faithful to – though critically engaged
[L203] with – the various manuscript traditions. Copious notes provide historical
[L204] background, parallels, and references for further reading. Included also are
[L205] many testimonies that Scott did not print. It is hoped that this volume will
[L206] spark interest in the full reception history of the Hermetica, which must
[L207] include Late Antiquity and the medieval period.
[L208] Here I gratefully acknowledge persons who read parts of the manuscript
[L209] and offered helpful suggestions: Brian P. Copenhaver, David Runia, and
[L210] Christian H. Bull. Christian Wildberg and Kevin Van Bladel also kindly
[L211] answered my inquiries and provided guidance based on their expertise. My
[L212] thanks also to Oxford University Press for the use of Van Bladel’s translations of Arabic source materials.
[L213] xi
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[L218] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 12 / 272>
[L219] Abbreviations
[L220] ANRW Haase and others, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang
[L221] der römischen Welt
[L222] Ascl. The Latin Asclepius
[L223] BSGRT Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum
[L224] Teubneriana
[L225] CCAG Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vols.,
[L226] –
[L227] CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
[L228] CH Corpus Hermeticum
[L229] CH Deutsch Holzhausen, ed., Das Corpus Hermeticum Deutsch,
[L230] vols.,
[L231] Copenhaver Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
[L232] Hermeticum,
[L233] DGWE Hanegraaff, ed., Dictionary of Gnosis and Western
[L234] Esotericism, .
[L235] DH Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius
[L236] DK Diels and Kranz, eds., Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, th
[L237] edition
[L238] Disc. – Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (NHC VI,)
[L239] DPA Richard Goulet, ed., Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques,
[L240] vols., –
[L241] F Codex Farnesius
[L242] FH Hermetic Fragments from various sources
[L243] FHSG Fortenbaugh, Huby, Sharples, and Gutas, eds.,
[L244] Theophrastus of Eresus,
[L245] HHE Mahé, Hermès en Haute-Égypte, vols., –.
[L246] LS Long and Sedley, eds., The Hellenistic Philosophers,
[L247] vols.,
[L248] MSS Manuscripts
[L249] Mystique Festugière, Hermétisme et mystique païenne,
[L250] xii
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[L255] ,
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[L258] NF Nock and Festugière, eds., Corpus Hermeticum, vols.,
[L259] –
[L260] NHC Nag Hammadi Codices
[L261] NHS Nag Hammadi Studies
[L262] NRSV The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
[L263] OF Bernabé, ed., Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia
[L264] et fragmenta,
[L265] OH Oxford Hermetic Fragments
[L266] OLD P. G. W. Glare, ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary. –
[L267] OTP Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vols.,
[L268] –
[L269] P Codex Parisinus gr.
[L270] PG Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca, vols., –
[L271] PW Pauly and Wissowa, eds., Realencyclopädie, vols.,
[L272] –
[L273] Ref. Refutation of All Heresies
[L274] RHT Festugière, La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vols.,
[L275] nd edn., –
[L276] SC Sources Chrétiennes
[L277] Scarpi Scarpi, ed., La Rivelazione segreta di Ermete Trismegisto,
[L278] vols., –
[L279] SH Stobaean Hermetic Excerpts
[L280] SVF Von Arnim, ed., Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
[L281] TH Hermetic Testimonies
[L282] VC Vigiliae Christianae
[L283] VH Vienna Hermetic Fragments
[L284] Abbreviations xiii
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[L299] General Introduction
[L300] There are five groups of philosophical Hermetic writings that do not
[L301] appear in Brian P. Copenhaver’s English translation entitled Hermetica: The Greek “Corpus Hermeticum” and the Latin “Asclepius”.
[L302] The first is
[L303] the large group of Hermetic excerpts from Stobaeus, an early fifth-century
[L304] anthologist. The second is the Coptic Hermetica (discovered in )
[L305] featuring two excerpts of previously known writings in addition to a
[L306] formerly unknown Hermetic tractate (the Discourse on the Eighth and
[L307] Ninth). The third group is the collection of Hermetic Definitions, a set
[L308] of maxims extant in Greek fragments but preserved only fully in Armenian. The fourth is the previously known set of diverse fragments quoted
[L309] by various (largely Christian) authors in Late Antiquity. The fifth comprises recently discovered Hermetic fragments currently preserved in
[L310] Vienna and Oxford.
[L311] The Coptic Hermetica are widely available in English translations of the
[L312] Nag Hammadi library. The Definitions are now conveniently accessible in
[L313] English thanks to the work of Jean-Pierre Mahé. What remains to be
[L314] translated are the fragments from Stobaeus, the fragments and testimonies
[L315] from various authors, and the fragments from the newly discovered papyri.
[L316] Copenhaver’s introduction to CH and Ascl. remain relevant (Copenhaver, xxxii–xlv). See also Peter
[L317] Kingsley, “An Introduction to the Hermetica: Approaching Ancient Esoteric Tradition,” in Roelof
[L318] van den Broek and Cis van Heertum, eds., From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis: Hermetism and
[L319] the Christian Tradition (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, ), –. See Marvin Meyer, ed., Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (New York: HarperOne,
[L320] ), –. Introductions to the Coptic Hermetica can be found in ibid., –; –;
[L321] –; Mahé, HHE, .–, –; .–; Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans-Gebhard Bethge,
[L322] and Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, eds., Nag Hammadi Deutsch: Studienausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, ),
[L323] –; –; –. Mahé’s translation can be found in Clement Salaman and others, trans., The Way of Hermes: New
[L324] Translations of “The Corpus Hermeticum” and “The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius”
[L325] (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, ), –. Mahé introduces the Armenian Definitions in
[L326] ibid., –.
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[L334] It is high time to present a new translation and annotation of these (chiefly
[L335] philosophical) Hermetica to the English-speaking world.
[L336] Hermes-Thoth
[L337] Nothing binds together the multifarious Hermetic fragments beyond their
[L338] ascription to Hermes Thrice Great. Hermes Thrice Great is a fictional
[L339] character. Yet for many in the ancient world that fiction was history. If we
[L340] call Hermes Thrice Great a “myth,” we thereby recognize that he is greater
[L341] and more significant than any one historical figure. How do we introduce a
[L342] figure that appears in so many different ages in so many different guises? If
[L343] there was an “original” Hermes Thrice Great, we are obliged to pick up the
[L344] thread at significant points of reception.
[L345] Iamblichus (about – ) commences his book (later called On
[L346] the Mysteries) with the following flourish:
[L347] Hermes, the deity who presides over rational discourses, has long and
[L348] rightly been considered common to all who practice the sacred arts. He
[L349] who presides over true science concerning gods is one and the same
[L350] throughout the universe. It is to him that our ancestors dedicated the
[L351] discoveries of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.
[L352] Important here is the frank acknowledgement that many authors wrote
[L353] under the name of Hermes. The practice of pseudepigraphy was logical for
[L354] devotees of Hermes. True wisdom and learning merited ascription to the
[L355] lord of all learning. This is why many Egyptian scholars attributed their
[L356] writings to Hermes. Iamblichus, himself writing under a false name
[L357] (“Abammon,” an Egyptian priest), calls these writers his “ancestors.” These
[L358] “ancestors” were probably Hellenized Egyptian scribes and priests who
[L359] lived not very long before Iamblichus himself.
[L360] Later, Iamblichus gives a taste of how many persons were writing under
[L361] the name of Hermes. In On the Mysteries ., he passes on the report of a
[L362] certain Seleucus, who attributed to Hermes a total of , books.
[L363] A better-known source, the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho, nearly
[L364] Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .. On Hermetic pseudepigraphy, see Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in
[L365] Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, ), –; and more generally, Bart
[L366] D. Ehrman, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics
[L367] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, ), –; –.
[L368] General Introduction
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[L375] doubled this number, crediting Hermes with , volumes (or
[L376] volumes for each single day in a -year period). So many books
[L377] would easily fill the shelves of a large temple library (the Egyptian “House
[L378] of Life”). Perhaps this is the point – all the wisdom of the Egyptian sacred
[L379] priesthood ultimately reverts to Hermes.
[L380] According to Iamblichus, Hermes wrote hundreds of tomes on specialized topics like “the gods in the fiery zone,” “the gods in the aether,” and
[L381] “the gods in the heavens.”
[L382] Hermes was the ultimate theologian, yet the
[L383] scope of his expertise was in fact more vast. There are existing treatises on
[L384] astrology, the virtues of stones, the principles of creation, the origin and
[L385] nature of the soul, alchemical practices, Fate, the effects of climate on
[L386] intelligence, healing, and even why children resemble their parents – all
[L387] ascribed to Hermes.
[L388] The many genres of Hermetic learning are well illustrated by a passage
[L389] in Clement of Alexandria. This Christian writer around describes a
[L390] procession of Egyptian officials in which forty-two fundamental writings of
[L391] Hermes were displayed (the number of Egypt’s districts or “nomes”). The
[L392] highest-ranking priest, whom the Greeks called “Prophet,” carried the ten
[L393] “hieratic” books on laws, the gods, and the training of priests. The Stolekeeper presented ten books on education and sacrifice. The Sacred Scribe
[L394] held up a decade of books on hieroglyphs, geography, and the temples.
[L395] Then came the Astrologer, who showed four books on astronomical
[L396] matters (fixed stars, planets, conjunctions, and the risings of astral bodies).
[L397] Finally, the Singer held in his hands a songbook and an instruction manual
[L398] for kings. As a supplement, six books on medical matters (anatomy,
[L399] medicines, medical instruments, and gynecology) were displayed. All this
[L400] vast store of knowledge was ascribed to Hermes.
[L401] Who was this Hermes? We must first of all distinguish a Greek deity
[L402] from a significantly different Egyptian one. The Greek Hermes was the
[L403] “winged son of kindly Maia,” racing on the winds as Zeus’s crafty herald,
[L404] The number has yet deeper significance in Egyptian astrology, as pointed out by Christian H. Bull,
[L405] “The Tradition of Hermes: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom”
[L406] (Ph.D. diss., University of Bergen, ), –. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .–. See, for instance, the small treatises On Earthquakes and the Brontologion attributed to Hermes
[L407] Thrice Great in CCAG .–; –. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ...–.... On books in temple libraries, see further Serge
[L408] Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt, new edition, trans. David Lorton (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
[L409] University Press, ), –; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the
[L410] Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ), –; Jan Assmann, Religion
[L411] and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Stanford: Stanford University Press, ), , –,
[L412] nn.–.
[L413] General Introduction
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[L420] helmeted with the cap of invisibility, wielding the twisted caduceus with
[L421] the power to put even Argus with his hundred eyes to sleep. The
[L422] Egyptian Hermes, on the other hand, was Thoth, depicted as the ibisheaded scribe of the gods, secretary of Re, giver of oracles, master of magic,
[L423] lord of the moon often appearing in the form of a dog-faced baboon.
[L424] When the Greeks dominated Egypt, they identified the Egyptian god
[L425] Thoth with Hermes. But why? What did they see in these two gods that
[L426] was similar?
[L427] There are several overlaps, yet we will focus on two. First of all,
[L428] Hermes as psychopomp, or escort of the dead, resembled Thoth as seen in
[L429] the various versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (or the Book of Going
[L430] Forth by Day), chapter . In the Hall of Two Truths, Thoth hears the
[L431] confession of the deceased person. After the person’s heart is weighed
[L432] against the feather of Maat (“Justice,” or “Truth”), Thoth carefully
[L433] inscribes the result with his tablet and stylus. If the heart is pure, Thoth
[L434] leads the candidate into the presence of Osiris, the ultimate judge of the
[L435] dead, and finally into the Field of Reeds. Perhaps the most famous scene
[L436] of Hermes leading souls is the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, book . In
[L437] this scene, Hermes guides the freshly slaughtered suitors of Penelope to the
[L438] netherworld. Mindless, the suitors squeak like bats on their way to the
[L439] halls of Hades.
[L440] Yet there was a more basic similarity between Hermes and Thoth.
[L441] Hermes is more than a herald or messenger. He is the Logos – the Reason,
[L442] Speech, or Word of God. The Word devises speech and brings his own
[L443] interpretation, which the Greeks called hermeneia.
[L444] Thoth is also the god
[L445] who presides over speech and interpretation. He is called “the heart of Re,
[L446] the tongue of Atum, the throat of the God whose name is hidden.” As
[L447] The “winged son of kindly Maia” derives from Horace, Odes, .. Other similarities between Thoth and Hermes are catalogued by Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel,
[L448] Thot à travers ses épithètes dans les scènes d’offrandes des temples d’époque gréco-romaine (Brussels:
[L449] Egyptology Foundation Queen Elizabeth, ), –; Andreas Löw, Hermes Trismegistos als
[L450] Zeuge der Wahrheit: Die christliche Hermetikrezeption von Athenagoras bis Laktanz, Theophaneia
[L451] (Berlin: Philo, ), –. See Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews
[L452] (London: British Museum, ), (spell b); C. J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures
[L453] of the Ancient Egyptian Religion (Leiden: Brill, ), –. For Hermes as Logos (or Word), see Ref. ..; Seneca, On Benefits .; Cornutus, Nature of the
[L454] Gods ; Heraclitus, Homeric Problems ; Acts :; Varro in Augustine, City of God .; Justin,
[L455] First Apology .; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (Moralia b). For devising speech, see Plato, Cratylus e–b; compare Diodorus, Library of History . (τὰ
[L456] περὶ τὴν ἑρμενείαν).
[L457] General Introduction
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[L460]
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[L464] divine speech personified, Thoth is also a creator. “What bursts from his
[L465] heart has immediate existence; what he pronounces exists for eternity.”
[L466]
[L467] In the Hellenistic period (roughly – ), Greeks living in Egypt
[L468] and Hellenized Egyptians crafted an amalgam of Thoth and Hermes who
[L469] was called “the Egyptian Hermes” or later “Hermes Thrice Greatest”
[L470] (Trismegistos, Termaximus). This Hermes is superlatively great in a superlative (threefold) way. Following English convention, however, here we call
[L471] “Thrice Greatest Hermes” simply “Hermes Thrice Great.”
[L472] Greeks typically conceived of Hermes Thrice Great in a Euhemeristic
[L473] fashion. That is to say, they often considered him to have been an ancient
[L474] man – a real scribe of a real Pharaoh, often the first divine Pharaoh called
[L475] Ammon (the Egyptian god Amun). This scribe, named Thoth or Theuth,
[L476] invented the alphabet and the art of writing. Ever since, humans have
[L477] been using writing to preserve the vast array of accumulated knowledge.
[L478] Thoth was later deified to become a recognized Egyptian god or daimon (a
[L479] kind of mediating deity). Writing was the best-known benefit that
[L480] Thoth offered to human beings, but it was not the only one.
[L481] Greeks attributed to Thoth the invention of a host of other arts. Plato
[L482] (– ) made Thoth the discoverer of mathematics and astronomy.
[L483] Hecataeus of Abdera (fourth century ) ascribed to him the
[L484] invention of a common language, religious ritual, music, wrestling,
[L485] dancing, and the culture of the olive. The Jewish writer Artapanus (third
[L486] These titles derive from hieroglyphic inscriptions from the temple of Denderah printed in
[L487] Festugière, RHT, . and Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: A History of the Belief in Christ from
[L488] the Beginnings of Christianity to Irenaeus, trans. John E. Steely (Nashville: Abingdon, ),
[L489] –. The temple is dated to the time of Nero (mid first century ). Compare the
[L490] inscription on the door of the library of the great temple of Philae: “the glorious Ibis who came
[L491] forth from the heart of the god [Re]; tongue of Tenen [Ptah] when he gives command, throat of
[L492] him of the hidden name [Amun]” (quoted in Patrick Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of
[L493] Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt [London: Oxford University Press, ],
[L494] –). In the Shabaka text, Thoth functions as creator in the form of Ptah (ibid., ).
[L495] According to a fourth-century papyrus fragment called the Strasbourg Cosmogony, Hermes is
[L496] depicted as creator of the world. For an introduction see Jean-Marie Flamand, “Cosmogonie de
[L497] Strasbourg,” DPA .–. See further Youri Volokhine, “Le dieu Thot et la parole,” Revue de
[L498] l’histoire des religions (): –. For Thoth the inventor of writing, see Philo of Byblos in Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel ..
[L499] (= TH a), as well as the writers cited in the next paragraph. Plato (Philebus b) expressed uncertainty as to whether Hermes (Thoth) was a god, a daimon, or
[L500] divine man. Perhaps he was a man guided by a daimon, as in Ammianus Marcellinus, Historical
[L501] Events .. (TH ). In some Hermetic texts, Hermes Thrice Great is distinguished from his
[L502] grandfather Thoth (Ascl. , with Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, –). A purely Euhemeristic
[L503] conception of Hermes Thrice Great is taken up by Christians such as Lactantius, Wrath of God
[L504] . (with the comments of Löw, Hermes –, –), Institutes .. (= FH a); Augustine,
[L505] City of God . (TH b). Plato, Phaedrus c–d; a. Diodorus, Library of History ..
[L506] General Introduction
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[L512] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 20 / 272>
[L513] to second centuries ), after identifying Moses with Hermes, makes him
[L514] the teacher of navigation, devisor of weapons, machines of war, and
[L515] philosophy. According to the Roman orator Cicero (mid first century
[L516] ), Hermes-Thoth “gave the Egyptians their laws and letters.”
[L517] In the
[L518] early first century , the Roman poet Manilius called Hermes “first
[L519] founder of this great and holy science” – meaning astrology. The
[L520] Christian writer Tertullian in the early third century dubbed Hermes
[L521] Thrice Great “teacher of all the natural philosophers.”
[L522] This tradition of
[L523] philosophy stretched back to Thales in the sixth century . When one
[L524] reads these testimonies (printed more fully at the end of this volume), one
[L525] gains a sense of the vast knowledge ascribed to Hermes. There was nary a
[L526] branch of learning over which the Thrice Great did not preside.
[L527] To the question: “Why was the Egyptian Hermes called ‘Thrice
[L528] Great’?” one can answer: triple greatness was the special prerogative of
[L529] Thoth. A god twice or thrice great was a god supremely great – greater
[L530] indeed than all his divine competitors (at least in the minds of his
[L531] devotees). Clay shards in the archive of Hor (around ) yield
[L532] a Greek translation of Thoth’s Egyptian epithet: “the greatest, yes,
[L533] greatest god, great Hermes!”
[L534] In Egyptian, the repetition likely had a
[L535] Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel ..– = frag. in OTP .–. See further Gerard
[L536] Mussies, “The Interpretatio Judaica of Thot-Hermes,” in M. Heerma van Voss, among others, eds.,
[L537] Studies in Egyptian Religion Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee (Leiden: Brill, ), – at
[L538] –. Cicero, Nature of the Gods . (= TH ). Manilius, Astronomica . (= TH ). Tertullian, Against the Valentinians . (= FH a). See further Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, . See in particular TH from Cyril of Alexandria. Florian Ebeling notes that, “From the second millennium on, Thoth was revered as the ‘twice
[L539] great,’ which was then escalated into ‘thrice great,’ that is, ‘greatest of all’” (The Secret History of
[L540] Hermes Trisme
[L541] The file is too long and its contents have been truncated.
[L542]
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Make sure to include fileciteturn8file0 in your response to cite this file, or to surface it as a link.
[L1] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 1 / 272>
[L2] HERMETICA II
[L3] This volume presents in new English translations the scattered fragments and testimonies regarding Hermes Thrice Great that complete
[L4] Brian Copenhaver’s translation of the Hermetica (Cambridge ).
[L5] It contains the twenty-nine fragments from Stobaeus (including the
[L6] famous Korē Kosmou), the Oxford and Vienna fragments (never
[L7] before translated into English), an expanded selection of fragments
[L8] from various authors (including Zosimus of Panopolis, Augustine,
[L9] and Albert the Great), and testimonies about Hermes from thirtyeight authors (including Cicero, Pseudo-Manetho, the Emperor
[L10] Julian, Al-Kindī, Michael Psellus, the Emerald Tablet, and Nicholas
[L11] of Cusa). All translations are accompanied by introductions and notes
[L12] which cite sources for further reading. These Hermetic texts will
[L13] appeal to a broad array of readers interested in western esotericism
[L14] including scholars of Egyptology, the New Testament, the classical
[L15] world, Byzantium, medieval Islam, the Latin Middle Ages, and the
[L16] Renaissance.
[L17] . is a research fellow at the Institute for Religion and
[L18] Critical Inquiry in Melbourne, Australia. His recent books include:
[L19] Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Ancient Jewish and Christian
[L20] Mythmaking (); Refutation of All Heresies: Text, Translation,
[L21] and Notes (); and Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of
[L22] Jesus as a Mediterranean God ().
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[L34] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 3 / 272>
[L35] HERMETICA II
[L36] The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient
[L37] Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and
[L38] Introductions
[L39] M. DAVID LITWA
[L40] Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Melbourne
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[L43]
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[L55] www.cambridge.org
[L56] Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/
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[L58] © M. David Litwa
[L59] This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
[L60] and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
[L61] no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
[L62] permission of Cambridge University Press.
[L63] First published
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[L78] For Sam, Annie, Alex, and Eve
[L79] שבת שלום
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[L91] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 7 / 272>
[L92] Contents
[L93] Preface page xi
[L94] Abbreviations xii
[L95] General Introduction
[L96] A Note on This Translation
[L97] Sigla Adopted for This Translation
[L98] ( –)
[L99] ( –)
[L100] ( –)
[L101] ( –)
[L102] Tertullian
[L103] Pseudo(?)-Cyprian
[L104] – Lactantius
[L105] – Iamblichus
[L106] – Zosimus
[L107] Ephrem the Syrian
[L108] – Cyril of Alexandria
[L109] Addendum: The Reception of Hermetic Fragments from Cyril
[L110] vii
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[L116] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 8 / 272>
[L117] Marcellus of Ancyra
[L118] John Lydus
[L119] Gregory of Nazianzus
[L120] Didymus of Alexandria
[L121] Gaius Iulius Romanus
[L122] Augustine
[L123] Quodvultdeus
[L124] Michael Psellus
[L125] Albert the Great
[L126] Nicholas of Cusa
[L127]
[L128] ( –)
[L129] Artapanus
[L130] Cicero
[L131] Manilius
[L132] Thrasyllus
[L133] Dorotheus of Sidon
[L134] Philo of Byblos
[L135] Athenagoras
[L136] Virtues of Plants
[L137] Refutation of All Heresies
[L138] Pseudo-Manetho
[L139] Arnobius
[L140] Iamblichus
[L141] Marius Victorinus
[L142] The Emperor Julian
[L143] viii Contents
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[L149] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 9 / 272>
[L150] Ammianus Marcellinus
[L151] Greek Magical Papyri
[L152] Filastrius
[L153] First Prologue to the Cyranides
[L154] Augustine
[L155] Hermias
[L156] Cyril of Alexandria
[L157] John of Antioch
[L158] Isidore of Seville
[L159] John of Damascus(?), Passion of Artemius
[L160] Al-Kindī
[L161] Abū Ma‘shar
[L162] Ibn an-Nadīm
[L163] Al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik
[L164] Michael Psellus
[L165] Emerald Tablet
[L166] Prefaces to the Composition of Alchemy and the Six Principles
[L167] of Nature
[L168] Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers
[L169] Book of Alcidus
[L170] Fifteen Stars, Stones, Plants, and Talismans
[L171] Book of the Beibenian Stars
[L172] Albert the Great
[L173] Picatrix
[L174] Nicholas of Cusa
[L175] Bibliography
[L176] Index
[L177] Contents ix
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[L189] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 11 / 272>
[L190] Preface
[L191] Despite widespread interest in the Hermetica across the globe, currently
[L192] there does not exist a reliable and up-to-date English translation of the
[L193] various Hermetic fragments and testimonies. Indeed, some of these fragments and testimonies remain generally unknown.
[L194] At the turn of the twentieth century, G. R. S. Mead made a translation
[L195] of select fragments into Victorian English from now-outdated editions.
[L196] The translation of the fragments by Walter Scott () was based on his
[L197] own re-written Greek text – a jungle of emendations and transpositions.
[L198] When it came to testimonies, moreover, Scott did not actually translate the
[L199] Greek or Latin texts. He only rendered into English (via Latin translations)
[L200] texts originally written in Arabic.
[L201] The present translation serves a new generation of scholarly and lay
[L202] readers of the Hermetica. It remains faithful to – though critically engaged
[L203] with – the various manuscript traditions. Copious notes provide historical
[L204] background, parallels, and references for further reading. Included also are
[L205] many testimonies that Scott did not print. It is hoped that this volume will
[L206] spark interest in the full reception history of the Hermetica, which must
[L207] include Late Antiquity and the medieval period.
[L208] Here I gratefully acknowledge persons who read parts of the manuscript
[L209] and offered helpful suggestions: Brian P. Copenhaver, David Runia, and
[L210] Christian H. Bull. Christian Wildberg and Kevin Van Bladel also kindly
[L211] answered my inquiries and provided guidance based on their expertise. My
[L212] thanks also to Oxford University Press for the use of Van Bladel’s translations of Arabic source materials.
[L213] xi
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[L215]
[L216]
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[L218] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 12 / 272>
[L219] Abbreviations
[L220] ANRW Haase and others, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang
[L221] der römischen Welt
[L222] Ascl. The Latin Asclepius
[L223] BSGRT Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum
[L224] Teubneriana
[L225] CCAG Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vols.,
[L226] –
[L227] CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
[L228] CH Corpus Hermeticum
[L229] CH Deutsch Holzhausen, ed., Das Corpus Hermeticum Deutsch,
[L230] vols.,
[L231] Copenhaver Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
[L232] Hermeticum,
[L233] DGWE Hanegraaff, ed., Dictionary of Gnosis and Western
[L234] Esotericism, .
[L235] DH Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius
[L236] DK Diels and Kranz, eds., Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, th
[L237] edition
[L238] Disc. – Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (NHC VI,)
[L239] DPA Richard Goulet, ed., Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques,
[L240] vols., –
[L241] F Codex Farnesius
[L242] FH Hermetic Fragments from various sources
[L243] FHSG Fortenbaugh, Huby, Sharples, and Gutas, eds.,
[L244] Theophrastus of Eresus,
[L245] HHE Mahé, Hermès en Haute-Égypte, vols., –.
[L246] LS Long and Sedley, eds., The Hellenistic Philosophers,
[L247] vols.,
[L248] MSS Manuscripts
[L249] Mystique Festugière, Hermétisme et mystique païenne,
[L250] xii
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[L252]
[L253]
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3D
,
[L255] ,
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[L257] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 13 / 272>
[L258] NF Nock and Festugière, eds., Corpus Hermeticum, vols.,
[L259] –
[L260] NHC Nag Hammadi Codices
[L261] NHS Nag Hammadi Studies
[L262] NRSV The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
[L263] OF Bernabé, ed., Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia
[L264] et fragmenta,
[L265] OH Oxford Hermetic Fragments
[L266] OLD P. G. W. Glare, ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary. –
[L267] OTP Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vols.,
[L268] –
[L269] P Codex Parisinus gr.
[L270] PG Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca, vols., –
[L271] PW Pauly and Wissowa, eds., Realencyclopädie, vols.,
[L272] –
[L273] Ref. Refutation of All Heresies
[L274] RHT Festugière, La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vols.,
[L275] nd edn., –
[L276] SC Sources Chrétiennes
[L277] Scarpi Scarpi, ed., La Rivelazione segreta di Ermete Trismegisto,
[L278] vols., –
[L279] SH Stobaean Hermetic Excerpts
[L280] SVF Von Arnim, ed., Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
[L281] TH Hermetic Testimonies
[L282] VC Vigiliae Christianae
[L283] VH Vienna Hermetic Fragments
[L284] Abbreviations xiii
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[L286]
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[L299] General Introduction
[L300] There are five groups of philosophical Hermetic writings that do not
[L301] appear in Brian P. Copenhaver’s English translation entitled Hermetica: The Greek “Corpus Hermeticum” and the Latin “Asclepius”.
[L302] The first is
[L303] the large group of Hermetic excerpts from Stobaeus, an early fifth-century
[L304] anthologist. The second is the Coptic Hermetica (discovered in )
[L305] featuring two excerpts of previously known writings in addition to a
[L306] formerly unknown Hermetic tractate (the Discourse on the Eighth and
[L307] Ninth). The third group is the collection of Hermetic Definitions, a set
[L308] of maxims extant in Greek fragments but preserved only fully in Armenian. The fourth is the previously known set of diverse fragments quoted
[L309] by various (largely Christian) authors in Late Antiquity. The fifth comprises recently discovered Hermetic fragments currently preserved in
[L310] Vienna and Oxford.
[L311] The Coptic Hermetica are widely available in English translations of the
[L312] Nag Hammadi library. The Definitions are now conveniently accessible in
[L313] English thanks to the work of Jean-Pierre Mahé. What remains to be
[L314] translated are the fragments from Stobaeus, the fragments and testimonies
[L315] from various authors, and the fragments from the newly discovered papyri.
[L316] Copenhaver’s introduction to CH and Ascl. remain relevant (Copenhaver, xxxii–xlv). See also Peter
[L317] Kingsley, “An Introduction to the Hermetica: Approaching Ancient Esoteric Tradition,” in Roelof
[L318] van den Broek and Cis van Heertum, eds., From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis: Hermetism and
[L319] the Christian Tradition (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, ), –. See Marvin Meyer, ed., Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (New York: HarperOne,
[L320] ), –. Introductions to the Coptic Hermetica can be found in ibid., –; –;
[L321] –; Mahé, HHE, .–, –; .–; Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans-Gebhard Bethge,
[L322] and Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, eds., Nag Hammadi Deutsch: Studienausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, ),
[L323] –; –; –. Mahé’s translation can be found in Clement Salaman and others, trans., The Way of Hermes: New
[L324] Translations of “The Corpus Hermeticum” and “The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius”
[L325] (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, ), –. Mahé introduces the Armenian Definitions in
[L326] ibid., –.
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[L334] It is high time to present a new translation and annotation of these (chiefly
[L335] philosophical) Hermetica to the English-speaking world.
[L336] Hermes-Thoth
[L337] Nothing binds together the multifarious Hermetic fragments beyond their
[L338] ascription to Hermes Thrice Great. Hermes Thrice Great is a fictional
[L339] character. Yet for many in the ancient world that fiction was history. If we
[L340] call Hermes Thrice Great a “myth,” we thereby recognize that he is greater
[L341] and more significant than any one historical figure. How do we introduce a
[L342] figure that appears in so many different ages in so many different guises? If
[L343] there was an “original” Hermes Thrice Great, we are obliged to pick up the
[L344] thread at significant points of reception.
[L345] Iamblichus (about – ) commences his book (later called On
[L346] the Mysteries) with the following flourish:
[L347] Hermes, the deity who presides over rational discourses, has long and
[L348] rightly been considered common to all who practice the sacred arts. He
[L349] who presides over true science concerning gods is one and the same
[L350] throughout the universe. It is to him that our ancestors dedicated the
[L351] discoveries of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.
[L352] Important here is the frank acknowledgement that many authors wrote
[L353] under the name of Hermes. The practice of pseudepigraphy was logical for
[L354] devotees of Hermes. True wisdom and learning merited ascription to the
[L355] lord of all learning. This is why many Egyptian scholars attributed their
[L356] writings to Hermes. Iamblichus, himself writing under a false name
[L357] (“Abammon,” an Egyptian priest), calls these writers his “ancestors.” These
[L358] “ancestors” were probably Hellenized Egyptian scribes and priests who
[L359] lived not very long before Iamblichus himself.
[L360] Later, Iamblichus gives a taste of how many persons were writing under
[L361] the name of Hermes. In On the Mysteries ., he passes on the report of a
[L362] certain Seleucus, who attributed to Hermes a total of , books.
[L363] A better-known source, the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho, nearly
[L364] Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .. On Hermetic pseudepigraphy, see Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in
[L365] Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, ), –; and more generally, Bart
[L366] D. Ehrman, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics
[L367] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, ), –; –.
[L368] General Introduction
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[L375] doubled this number, crediting Hermes with , volumes (or
[L376] volumes for each single day in a -year period). So many books
[L377] would easily fill the shelves of a large temple library (the Egyptian “House
[L378] of Life”). Perhaps this is the point – all the wisdom of the Egyptian sacred
[L379] priesthood ultimately reverts to Hermes.
[L380] According to Iamblichus, Hermes wrote hundreds of tomes on specialized topics like “the gods in the fiery zone,” “the gods in the aether,” and
[L381] “the gods in the heavens.”
[L382] Hermes was the ultimate theologian, yet the
[L383] scope of his expertise was in fact more vast. There are existing treatises on
[L384] astrology, the virtues of stones, the principles of creation, the origin and
[L385] nature of the soul, alchemical practices, Fate, the effects of climate on
[L386] intelligence, healing, and even why children resemble their parents – all
[L387] ascribed to Hermes.
[L388] The many genres of Hermetic learning are well illustrated by a passage
[L389] in Clement of Alexandria. This Christian writer around describes a
[L390] procession of Egyptian officials in which forty-two fundamental writings of
[L391] Hermes were displayed (the number of Egypt’s districts or “nomes”). The
[L392] highest-ranking priest, whom the Greeks called “Prophet,” carried the ten
[L393] “hieratic” books on laws, the gods, and the training of priests. The Stolekeeper presented ten books on education and sacrifice. The Sacred Scribe
[L394] held up a decade of books on hieroglyphs, geography, and the temples.
[L395] Then came the Astrologer, who showed four books on astronomical
[L396] matters (fixed stars, planets, conjunctions, and the risings of astral bodies).
[L397] Finally, the Singer held in his hands a songbook and an instruction manual
[L398] for kings. As a supplement, six books on medical matters (anatomy,
[L399] medicines, medical instruments, and gynecology) were displayed. All this
[L400] vast store of knowledge was ascribed to Hermes.
[L401] Who was this Hermes? We must first of all distinguish a Greek deity
[L402] from a significantly different Egyptian one. The Greek Hermes was the
[L403] “winged son of kindly Maia,” racing on the winds as Zeus’s crafty herald,
[L404] The number has yet deeper significance in Egyptian astrology, as pointed out by Christian H. Bull,
[L405] “The Tradition of Hermes: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom”
[L406] (Ph.D. diss., University of Bergen, ), –. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .–. See, for instance, the small treatises On Earthquakes and the Brontologion attributed to Hermes
[L407] Thrice Great in CCAG .–; –. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ...–.... On books in temple libraries, see further Serge
[L408] Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt, new edition, trans. David Lorton (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
[L409] University Press, ), –; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the
[L410] Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ), –; Jan Assmann, Religion
[L411] and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Stanford: Stanford University Press, ), , –,
[L412] nn.–.
[L413] General Introduction
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[L420] helmeted with the cap of invisibility, wielding the twisted caduceus with
[L421] the power to put even Argus with his hundred eyes to sleep. The
[L422] Egyptian Hermes, on the other hand, was Thoth, depicted as the ibisheaded scribe of the gods, secretary of Re, giver of oracles, master of magic,
[L423] lord of the moon often appearing in the form of a dog-faced baboon.
[L424] When the Greeks dominated Egypt, they identified the Egyptian god
[L425] Thoth with Hermes. But why? What did they see in these two gods that
[L426] was similar?
[L427] There are several overlaps, yet we will focus on two. First of all,
[L428] Hermes as psychopomp, or escort of the dead, resembled Thoth as seen in
[L429] the various versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (or the Book of Going
[L430] Forth by Day), chapter . In the Hall of Two Truths, Thoth hears the
[L431] confession of the deceased person. After the person’s heart is weighed
[L432] against the feather of Maat (“Justice,” or “Truth”), Thoth carefully
[L433] inscribes the result with his tablet and stylus. If the heart is pure, Thoth
[L434] leads the candidate into the presence of Osiris, the ultimate judge of the
[L435] dead, and finally into the Field of Reeds. Perhaps the most famous scene
[L436] of Hermes leading souls is the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, book . In
[L437] this scene, Hermes guides the freshly slaughtered suitors of Penelope to the
[L438] netherworld. Mindless, the suitors squeak like bats on their way to the
[L439] halls of Hades.
[L440] Yet there was a more basic similarity between Hermes and Thoth.
[L441] Hermes is more than a herald or messenger. He is the Logos – the Reason,
[L442] Speech, or Word of God. The Word devises speech and brings his own
[L443] interpretation, which the Greeks called hermeneia.
[L444] Thoth is also the god
[L445] who presides over speech and interpretation. He is called “the heart of Re,
[L446] the tongue of Atum, the throat of the God whose name is hidden.” As
[L447] The “winged son of kindly Maia” derives from Horace, Odes, .. Other similarities between Thoth and Hermes are catalogued by Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel,
[L448] Thot à travers ses épithètes dans les scènes d’offrandes des temples d’époque gréco-romaine (Brussels:
[L449] Egyptology Foundation Queen Elizabeth, ), –; Andreas Löw, Hermes Trismegistos als
[L450] Zeuge der Wahrheit: Die christliche Hermetikrezeption von Athenagoras bis Laktanz, Theophaneia
[L451] (Berlin: Philo, ), –. See Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews
[L452] (London: British Museum, ), (spell b); C. J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures
[L453] of the Ancient Egyptian Religion (Leiden: Brill, ), –. For Hermes as Logos (or Word), see Ref. ..; Seneca, On Benefits .; Cornutus, Nature of the
[L454] Gods ; Heraclitus, Homeric Problems ; Acts :; Varro in Augustine, City of God .; Justin,
[L455] First Apology .; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (Moralia b). For devising speech, see Plato, Cratylus e–b; compare Diodorus, Library of History . (τὰ
[L456] περὶ τὴν ἑρμενείαν).
[L457] General Introduction
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[L464] divine speech personified, Thoth is also a creator. “What bursts from his
[L465] heart has immediate existence; what he pronounces exists for eternity.”
[L466]
[L467] In the Hellenistic period (roughly – ), Greeks living in Egypt
[L468] and Hellenized Egyptians crafted an amalgam of Thoth and Hermes who
[L469] was called “the Egyptian Hermes” or later “Hermes Thrice Greatest”
[L470] (Trismegistos, Termaximus). This Hermes is superlatively great in a superlative (threefold) way. Following English convention, however, here we call
[L471] “Thrice Greatest Hermes” simply “Hermes Thrice Great.”
[L472] Greeks typically conceived of Hermes Thrice Great in a Euhemeristic
[L473] fashion. That is to say, they often considered him to have been an ancient
[L474] man – a real scribe of a real Pharaoh, often the first divine Pharaoh called
[L475] Ammon (the Egyptian god Amun). This scribe, named Thoth or Theuth,
[L476] invented the alphabet and the art of writing. Ever since, humans have
[L477] been using writing to preserve the vast array of accumulated knowledge.
[L478] Thoth was later deified to become a recognized Egyptian god or daimon (a
[L479] kind of mediating deity). Writing was the best-known benefit that
[L480] Thoth offered to human beings, but it was not the only one.
[L481] Greeks attributed to Thoth the invention of a host of other arts. Plato
[L482] (– ) made Thoth the discoverer of mathematics and astronomy.
[L483] Hecataeus of Abdera (fourth century ) ascribed to him the
[L484] invention of a common language, religious ritual, music, wrestling,
[L485] dancing, and the culture of the olive. The Jewish writer Artapanus (third
[L486] These titles derive from hieroglyphic inscriptions from the temple of Denderah printed in
[L487] Festugière, RHT, . and Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: A History of the Belief in Christ from
[L488] the Beginnings of Christianity to Irenaeus, trans. John E. Steely (Nashville: Abingdon, ),
[L489] –. The temple is dated to the time of Nero (mid first century ). Compare the
[L490] inscription on the door of the library of the great temple of Philae: “the glorious Ibis who came
[L491] forth from the heart of the god [Re]; tongue of Tenen [Ptah] when he gives command, throat of
[L492] him of the hidden name [Amun]” (quoted in Patrick Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of
[L493] Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt [London: Oxford University Press, ],
[L494] –). In the Shabaka text, Thoth functions as creator in the form of Ptah (ibid., ).
[L495] According to a fourth-century papyrus fragment called the Strasbourg Cosmogony, Hermes is
[L496] depicted as creator of the world. For an introduction see Jean-Marie Flamand, “Cosmogonie de
[L497] Strasbourg,” DPA .–. See further Youri Volokhine, “Le dieu Thot et la parole,” Revue de
[L498] l’histoire des religions (): –. For Thoth the inventor of writing, see Philo of Byblos in Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel ..
[L499] (= TH a), as well as the writers cited in the next paragraph. Plato (Philebus b) expressed uncertainty as to whether Hermes (Thoth) was a god, a daimon, or
[L500] divine man. Perhaps he was a man guided by a daimon, as in Ammianus Marcellinus, Historical
[L501] Events .. (TH ). In some Hermetic texts, Hermes Thrice Great is distinguished from his
[L502] grandfather Thoth (Ascl. , with Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, –). A purely Euhemeristic
[L503] conception of Hermes Thrice Great is taken up by Christians such as Lactantius, Wrath of God
[L504] . (with the comments of Löw, Hermes –, –), Institutes .. (= FH a); Augustine,
[L505] City of God . (TH b). Plato, Phaedrus c–d; a. Diodorus, Library of History ..
[L506] General Introduction
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[L513] to second centuries ), after identifying Moses with Hermes, makes him
[L514] the teacher of navigation, devisor of weapons, machines of war, and
[L515] philosophy. According to the Roman orator Cicero (mid first century
[L516] ), Hermes-Thoth “gave the Egyptians their laws and letters.”
[L517] In the
[L518] early first century , the Roman poet Manilius called Hermes “first
[L519] founder of this great and holy science” – meaning astrology. The
[L520] Christian writer Tertullian in the early third century dubbed Hermes
[L521] Thrice Great “teacher of all the natural philosophers.”
[L522] This tradition of
[L523] philosophy stretched back to Thales in the sixth century . When one
[L524] reads these testimonies (printed more fully at the end of this volume), one
[L525] gains a sense of the vast knowledge ascribed to Hermes. There was nary a
[L526] branch of learning over which the Thrice Great did not preside.
[L527] To the question: “Why was the Egyptian Hermes called ‘Thrice
[L528] Great’?” one can answer: triple greatness was the special prerogative of
[L529] Thoth. A god twice or thrice great was a god supremely great – greater
[L530] indeed than all his divine competitors (at least in the minds of his
[L531] devotees). Clay shards in the archive of Hor (around ) yield
[L532] a Greek translation of Thoth’s Egyptian epithet: “the greatest, yes,
[L533] greatest god, great Hermes!”
[L534] In Egyptian, the repetition likely had a
[L535] Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel ..– = frag. in OTP .–. See further Gerard
[L536] Mussies, “The Interpretatio Judaica of Thot-Hermes,” in M. Heerma van Voss, among others, eds.,
[L537] Studies in Egyptian Religion Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee (Leiden: Brill, ), – at
[L538] –. Cicero, Nature of the Gods . (= TH ). Manilius, Astronomica . (= TH ). Tertullian, Against the Valentinians . (= FH a). See further Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, . See in particular TH from Cyril of Alexandria. Florian Ebeling notes that, “From the second millennium on, Thoth was revered as the ‘twice
[L539] great,’ which was then escalated into ‘thrice great,’ that is, ‘greatest of all’” (The Secret History of
[L540] Hermes Trisme
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[L2] HERMETICA II
[L3] This volume presents in new English translations the scattered fragments and testimonies regarding Hermes Thrice Great that complete
[L4] Brian Copenhaver’s translation of the Hermetica (Cambridge ).
[L5] It contains the twenty-nine fragments from Stobaeus (including the
[L6] famous Korē Kosmou), the Oxford and Vienna fragments (never
[L7] before translated into English), an expanded selection of fragments
[L8] from various authors (including Zosimus of Panopolis, Augustine,
[L9] and Albert the Great), and testimonies about Hermes from thirtyeight authors (including Cicero, Pseudo-Manetho, the Emperor
[L10] Julian, Al-Kindī, Michael Psellus, the Emerald Tablet, and Nicholas
[L11] of Cusa). All translations are accompanied by introductions and notes
[L12] which cite sources for further reading. These Hermetic texts will
[L13] appeal to a broad array of readers interested in western esotericism
[L14] including scholars of Egyptology, the New Testament, the classical
[L15] world, Byzantium, medieval Islam, the Latin Middle Ages, and the
[L16] Renaissance.
[L17] . is a research fellow at the Institute for Religion and
[L18] Critical Inquiry in Melbourne, Australia. His recent books include:
[L19] Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Ancient Jewish and Christian
[L20] Mythmaking (); Refutation of All Heresies: Text, Translation,
[L21] and Notes (); and Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of
[L22] Jesus as a Mediterranean God ().
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[L35] HERMETICA II
[L36] The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient
[L37] Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and
[L38] Introductions
[L39] M. DAVID LITWA
[L40] Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Melbourne
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[L78] For Sam, Annie, Alex, and Eve
[L79] שבת שלום
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[L92] Contents
[L93] Preface page xi
[L94] Abbreviations xii
[L95] General Introduction
[L96] A Note on This Translation
[L97] Sigla Adopted for This Translation
[L98] ( –)
[L99] ( –)
[L100] ( –)
[L101] ( –)
[L102] Tertullian
[L103] Pseudo(?)-Cyprian
[L104] – Lactantius
[L105] – Iamblichus
[L106] – Zosimus
[L107] Ephrem the Syrian
[L108] – Cyril of Alexandria
[L109] Addendum: The Reception of Hermetic Fragments from Cyril
[L110] vii
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[L117] Marcellus of Ancyra
[L118] John Lydus
[L119] Gregory of Nazianzus
[L120] Didymus of Alexandria
[L121] Gaius Iulius Romanus
[L122] Augustine
[L123] Quodvultdeus
[L124] Michael Psellus
[L125] Albert the Great
[L126] Nicholas of Cusa
[L127]
[L128] ( –)
[L129] Artapanus
[L130] Cicero
[L131] Manilius
[L132] Thrasyllus
[L133] Dorotheus of Sidon
[L134] Philo of Byblos
[L135] Athenagoras
[L136] Virtues of Plants
[L137] Refutation of All Heresies
[L138] Pseudo-Manetho
[L139] Arnobius
[L140] Iamblichus
[L141] Marius Victorinus
[L142] The Emperor Julian
[L143] viii Contents
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[L150] Ammianus Marcellinus
[L151] Greek Magical Papyri
[L152] Filastrius
[L153] First Prologue to the Cyranides
[L154] Augustine
[L155] Hermias
[L156] Cyril of Alexandria
[L157] John of Antioch
[L158] Isidore of Seville
[L159] John of Damascus(?), Passion of Artemius
[L160] Al-Kindī
[L161] Abū Ma‘shar
[L162] Ibn an-Nadīm
[L163] Al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik
[L164] Michael Psellus
[L165] Emerald Tablet
[L166] Prefaces to the Composition of Alchemy and the Six Principles
[L167] of Nature
[L168] Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers
[L169] Book of Alcidus
[L170] Fifteen Stars, Stones, Plants, and Talismans
[L171] Book of the Beibenian Stars
[L172] Albert the Great
[L173] Picatrix
[L174] Nicholas of Cusa
[L175] Bibliography
[L176] Index
[L177] Contents ix
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[L190] Preface
[L191] Despite widespread interest in the Hermetica across the globe, currently
[L192] there does not exist a reliable and up-to-date English translation of the
[L193] various Hermetic fragments and testimonies. Indeed, some of these fragments and testimonies remain generally unknown.
[L194] At the turn of the twentieth century, G. R. S. Mead made a translation
[L195] of select fragments into Victorian English from now-outdated editions.
[L196] The translation of the fragments by Walter Scott () was based on his
[L197] own re-written Greek text – a jungle of emendations and transpositions.
[L198] When it came to testimonies, moreover, Scott did not actually translate the
[L199] Greek or Latin texts. He only rendered into English (via Latin translations)
[L200] texts originally written in Arabic.
[L201] The present translation serves a new generation of scholarly and lay
[L202] readers of the Hermetica. It remains faithful to – though critically engaged
[L203] with – the various manuscript traditions. Copious notes provide historical
[L204] background, parallels, and references for further reading. Included also are
[L205] many testimonies that Scott did not print. It is hoped that this volume will
[L206] spark interest in the full reception history of the Hermetica, which must
[L207] include Late Antiquity and the medieval period.
[L208] Here I gratefully acknowledge persons who read parts of the manuscript
[L209] and offered helpful suggestions: Brian P. Copenhaver, David Runia, and
[L210] Christian H. Bull. Christian Wildberg and Kevin Van Bladel also kindly
[L211] answered my inquiries and provided guidance based on their expertise. My
[L212] thanks also to Oxford University Press for the use of Van Bladel’s translations of Arabic source materials.
[L213] xi
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[L218] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 12 / 272>
[L219] Abbreviations
[L220] ANRW Haase and others, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang
[L221] der römischen Welt
[L222] Ascl. The Latin Asclepius
[L223] BSGRT Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum
[L224] Teubneriana
[L225] CCAG Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vols.,
[L226] –
[L227] CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
[L228] CH Corpus Hermeticum
[L229] CH Deutsch Holzhausen, ed., Das Corpus Hermeticum Deutsch,
[L230] vols.,
[L231] Copenhaver Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
[L232] Hermeticum,
[L233] DGWE Hanegraaff, ed., Dictionary of Gnosis and Western
[L234] Esotericism, .
[L235] DH Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius
[L236] DK Diels and Kranz, eds., Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, th
[L237] edition
[L238] Disc. – Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (NHC VI,)
[L239] DPA Richard Goulet, ed., Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques,
[L240] vols., –
[L241] F Codex Farnesius
[L242] FH Hermetic Fragments from various sources
[L243] FHSG Fortenbaugh, Huby, Sharples, and Gutas, eds.,
[L244] Theophrastus of Eresus,
[L245] HHE Mahé, Hermès en Haute-Égypte, vols., –.
[L246] LS Long and Sedley, eds., The Hellenistic Philosophers,
[L247] vols.,
[L248] MSS Manuscripts
[L249] Mystique Festugière, Hermétisme et mystique païenne,
[L250] xii
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[L255] ,
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[L258] NF Nock and Festugière, eds., Corpus Hermeticum, vols.,
[L259] –
[L260] NHC Nag Hammadi Codices
[L261] NHS Nag Hammadi Studies
[L262] NRSV The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
[L263] OF Bernabé, ed., Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia
[L264] et fragmenta,
[L265] OH Oxford Hermetic Fragments
[L266] OLD P. G. W. Glare, ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary. –
[L267] OTP Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vols.,
[L268] –
[L269] P Codex Parisinus gr.
[L270] PG Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca, vols., –
[L271] PW Pauly and Wissowa, eds., Realencyclopädie, vols.,
[L272] –
[L273] Ref. Refutation of All Heresies
[L274] RHT Festugière, La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vols.,
[L275] nd edn., –
[L276] SC Sources Chrétiennes
[L277] Scarpi Scarpi, ed., La Rivelazione segreta di Ermete Trismegisto,
[L278] vols., –
[L279] SH Stobaean Hermetic Excerpts
[L280] SVF Von Arnim, ed., Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
[L281] TH Hermetic Testimonies
[L282] VC Vigiliae Christianae
[L283] VH Vienna Hermetic Fragments
[L284] Abbreviations xiii
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[L299] General Introduction
[L300] There are five groups of philosophical Hermetic writings that do not
[L301] appear in Brian P. Copenhaver’s English translation entitled Hermetica: The Greek “Corpus Hermeticum” and the Latin “Asclepius”.
[L302] The first is
[L303] the large group of Hermetic excerpts from Stobaeus, an early fifth-century
[L304] anthologist. The second is the Coptic Hermetica (discovered in )
[L305] featuring two excerpts of previously known writings in addition to a
[L306] formerly unknown Hermetic tractate (the Discourse on the Eighth and
[L307] Ninth). The third group is the collection of Hermetic Definitions, a set
[L308] of maxims extant in Greek fragments but preserved only fully in Armenian. The fourth is the previously known set of diverse fragments quoted
[L309] by various (largely Christian) authors in Late Antiquity. The fifth comprises recently discovered Hermetic fragments currently preserved in
[L310] Vienna and Oxford.
[L311] The Coptic Hermetica are widely available in English translations of the
[L312] Nag Hammadi library. The Definitions are now conveniently accessible in
[L313] English thanks to the work of Jean-Pierre Mahé. What remains to be
[L314] translated are the fragments from Stobaeus, the fragments and testimonies
[L315] from various authors, and the fragments from the newly discovered papyri.
[L316] Copenhaver’s introduction to CH and Ascl. remain relevant (Copenhaver, xxxii–xlv). See also Peter
[L317] Kingsley, “An Introduction to the Hermetica: Approaching Ancient Esoteric Tradition,” in Roelof
[L318] van den Broek and Cis van Heertum, eds., From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis: Hermetism and
[L319] the Christian Tradition (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, ), –. See Marvin Meyer, ed., Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (New York: HarperOne,
[L320] ), –. Introductions to the Coptic Hermetica can be found in ibid., –; –;
[L321] –; Mahé, HHE, .–, –; .–; Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans-Gebhard Bethge,
[L322] and Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, eds., Nag Hammadi Deutsch: Studienausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, ),
[L323] –; –; –. Mahé’s translation can be found in Clement Salaman and others, trans., The Way of Hermes: New
[L324] Translations of “The Corpus Hermeticum” and “The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius”
[L325] (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, ), –. Mahé introduces the Armenian Definitions in
[L326] ibid., –.
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[L334] It is high time to present a new translation and annotation of these (chiefly
[L335] philosophical) Hermetica to the English-speaking world.
[L336] Hermes-Thoth
[L337] Nothing binds together the multifarious Hermetic fragments beyond their
[L338] ascription to Hermes Thrice Great. Hermes Thrice Great is a fictional
[L339] character. Yet for many in the ancient world that fiction was history. If we
[L340] call Hermes Thrice Great a “myth,” we thereby recognize that he is greater
[L341] and more significant than any one historical figure. How do we introduce a
[L342] figure that appears in so many different ages in so many different guises? If
[L343] there was an “original” Hermes Thrice Great, we are obliged to pick up the
[L344] thread at significant points of reception.
[L345] Iamblichus (about – ) commences his book (later called On
[L346] the Mysteries) with the following flourish:
[L347] Hermes, the deity who presides over rational discourses, has long and
[L348] rightly been considered common to all who practice the sacred arts. He
[L349] who presides over true science concerning gods is one and the same
[L350] throughout the universe. It is to him that our ancestors dedicated the
[L351] discoveries of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.
[L352] Important here is the frank acknowledgement that many authors wrote
[L353] under the name of Hermes. The practice of pseudepigraphy was logical for
[L354] devotees of Hermes. True wisdom and learning merited ascription to the
[L355] lord of all learning. This is why many Egyptian scholars attributed their
[L356] writings to Hermes. Iamblichus, himself writing under a false name
[L357] (“Abammon,” an Egyptian priest), calls these writers his “ancestors.” These
[L358] “ancestors” were probably Hellenized Egyptian scribes and priests who
[L359] lived not very long before Iamblichus himself.
[L360] Later, Iamblichus gives a taste of how many persons were writing under
[L361] the name of Hermes. In On the Mysteries ., he passes on the report of a
[L362] certain Seleucus, who attributed to Hermes a total of , books.
[L363] A better-known source, the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho, nearly
[L364] Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .. On Hermetic pseudepigraphy, see Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in
[L365] Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, ), –; and more generally, Bart
[L366] D. Ehrman, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics
[L367] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, ), –; –.
[L368] General Introduction
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[L375] doubled this number, crediting Hermes with , volumes (or
[L376] volumes for each single day in a -year period). So many books
[L377] would easily fill the shelves of a large temple library (the Egyptian “House
[L378] of Life”). Perhaps this is the point – all the wisdom of the Egyptian sacred
[L379] priesthood ultimately reverts to Hermes.
[L380] According to Iamblichus, Hermes wrote hundreds of tomes on specialized topics like “the gods in the fiery zone,” “the gods in the aether,” and
[L381] “the gods in the heavens.”
[L382] Hermes was the ultimate theologian, yet the
[L383] scope of his expertise was in fact more vast. There are existing treatises on
[L384] astrology, the virtues of stones, the principles of creation, the origin and
[L385] nature of the soul, alchemical practices, Fate, the effects of climate on
[L386] intelligence, healing, and even why children resemble their parents – all
[L387] ascribed to Hermes.
[L388] The many genres of Hermetic learning are well illustrated by a passage
[L389] in Clement of Alexandria. This Christian writer around describes a
[L390] procession of Egyptian officials in which forty-two fundamental writings of
[L391] Hermes were displayed (the number of Egypt’s districts or “nomes”). The
[L392] highest-ranking priest, whom the Greeks called “Prophet,” carried the ten
[L393] “hieratic” books on laws, the gods, and the training of priests. The Stolekeeper presented ten books on education and sacrifice. The Sacred Scribe
[L394] held up a decade of books on hieroglyphs, geography, and the temples.
[L395] Then came the Astrologer, who showed four books on astronomical
[L396] matters (fixed stars, planets, conjunctions, and the risings of astral bodies).
[L397] Finally, the Singer held in his hands a songbook and an instruction manual
[L398] for kings. As a supplement, six books on medical matters (anatomy,
[L399] medicines, medical instruments, and gynecology) were displayed. All this
[L400] vast store of knowledge was ascribed to Hermes.
[L401] Who was this Hermes? We must first of all distinguish a Greek deity
[L402] from a significantly different Egyptian one. The Greek Hermes was the
[L403] “winged son of kindly Maia,” racing on the winds as Zeus’s crafty herald,
[L404] The number has yet deeper significance in Egyptian astrology, as pointed out by Christian H. Bull,
[L405] “The Tradition of Hermes: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom”
[L406] (Ph.D. diss., University of Bergen, ), –. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .–. See, for instance, the small treatises On Earthquakes and the Brontologion attributed to Hermes
[L407] Thrice Great in CCAG .–; –. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ...–.... On books in temple libraries, see further Serge
[L408] Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt, new edition, trans. David Lorton (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
[L409] University Press, ), –; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the
[L410] Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ), –; Jan Assmann, Religion
[L411] and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Stanford: Stanford University Press, ), , –,
[L412] nn.–.
[L413] General Introduction
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[L420] helmeted with the cap of invisibility, wielding the twisted caduceus with
[L421] the power to put even Argus with his hundred eyes to sleep. The
[L422] Egyptian Hermes, on the other hand, was Thoth, depicted as the ibisheaded scribe of the gods, secretary of Re, giver of oracles, master of magic,
[L423] lord of the moon often appearing in the form of a dog-faced baboon.
[L424] When the Greeks dominated Egypt, they identified the Egyptian god
[L425] Thoth with Hermes. But why? What did they see in these two gods that
[L426] was similar?
[L427] There are several overlaps, yet we will focus on two. First of all,
[L428] Hermes as psychopomp, or escort of the dead, resembled Thoth as seen in
[L429] the various versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (or the Book of Going
[L430] Forth by Day), chapter . In the Hall of Two Truths, Thoth hears the
[L431] confession of the deceased person. After the person’s heart is weighed
[L432] against the feather of Maat (“Justice,” or “Truth”), Thoth carefully
[L433] inscribes the result with his tablet and stylus. If the heart is pure, Thoth
[L434] leads the candidate into the presence of Osiris, the ultimate judge of the
[L435] dead, and finally into the Field of Reeds. Perhaps the most famous scene
[L436] of Hermes leading souls is the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, book . In
[L437] this scene, Hermes guides the freshly slaughtered suitors of Penelope to the
[L438] netherworld. Mindless, the suitors squeak like bats on their way to the
[L439] halls of Hades.
[L440] Yet there was a more basic similarity between Hermes and Thoth.
[L441] Hermes is more than a herald or messenger. He is the Logos – the Reason,
[L442] Speech, or Word of God. The Word devises speech and brings his own
[L443] interpretation, which the Greeks called hermeneia.
[L444] Thoth is also the god
[L445] who presides over speech and interpretation. He is called “the heart of Re,
[L446] the tongue of Atum, the throat of the God whose name is hidden.” As
[L447] The “winged son of kindly Maia” derives from Horace, Odes, .. Other similarities between Thoth and Hermes are catalogued by Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel,
[L448] Thot à travers ses épithètes dans les scènes d’offrandes des temples d’époque gréco-romaine (Brussels:
[L449] Egyptology Foundation Queen Elizabeth, ), –; Andreas Löw, Hermes Trismegistos als
[L450] Zeuge der Wahrheit: Die christliche Hermetikrezeption von Athenagoras bis Laktanz, Theophaneia
[L451] (Berlin: Philo, ), –. See Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews
[L452] (London: British Museum, ), (spell b); C. J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures
[L453] of the Ancient Egyptian Religion (Leiden: Brill, ), –. For Hermes as Logos (or Word), see Ref. ..; Seneca, On Benefits .; Cornutus, Nature of the
[L454] Gods ; Heraclitus, Homeric Problems ; Acts :; Varro in Augustine, City of God .; Justin,
[L455] First Apology .; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (Moralia b). For devising speech, see Plato, Cratylus e–b; compare Diodorus, Library of History . (τὰ
[L456] περὶ τὴν ἑρμενείαν).
[L457] General Introduction
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[L464] divine speech personified, Thoth is also a creator. “What bursts from his
[L465] heart has immediate existence; what he pronounces exists for eternity.”
[L466]
[L467] In the Hellenistic period (roughly – ), Greeks living in Egypt
[L468] and Hellenized Egyptians crafted an amalgam of Thoth and Hermes who
[L469] was called “the Egyptian Hermes” or later “Hermes Thrice Greatest”
[L470] (Trismegistos, Termaximus). This Hermes is superlatively great in a superlative (threefold) way. Following English convention, however, here we call
[L471] “Thrice Greatest Hermes” simply “Hermes Thrice Great.”
[L472] Greeks typically conceived of Hermes Thrice Great in a Euhemeristic
[L473] fashion. That is to say, they often considered him to have been an ancient
[L474] man – a real scribe of a real Pharaoh, often the first divine Pharaoh called
[L475] Ammon (the Egyptian god Amun). This scribe, named Thoth or Theuth,
[L476] invented the alphabet and the art of writing. Ever since, humans have
[L477] been using writing to preserve the vast array of accumulated knowledge.
[L478] Thoth was later deified to become a recognized Egyptian god or daimon (a
[L479] kind of mediating deity). Writing was the best-known benefit that
[L480] Thoth offered to human beings, but it was not the only one.
[L481] Greeks attributed to Thoth the invention of a host of other arts. Plato
[L482] (– ) made Thoth the discoverer of mathematics and astronomy.
[L483] Hecataeus of Abdera (fourth century ) ascribed to him the
[L484] invention of a common language, religious ritual, music, wrestling,
[L485] dancing, and the culture of the olive. The Jewish writer Artapanus (third
[L486] These titles derive from hieroglyphic inscriptions from the temple of Denderah printed in
[L487] Festugière, RHT, . and Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: A History of the Belief in Christ from
[L488] the Beginnings of Christianity to Irenaeus, trans. John E. Steely (Nashville: Abingdon, ),
[L489] –. The temple is dated to the time of Nero (mid first century ). Compare the
[L490] inscription on the door of the library of the great temple of Philae: “the glorious Ibis who came
[L491] forth from the heart of the god [Re]; tongue of Tenen [Ptah] when he gives command, throat of
[L492] him of the hidden name [Amun]” (quoted in Patrick Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of
[L493] Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt [London: Oxford University Press, ],
[L494] –). In the Shabaka text, Thoth functions as creator in the form of Ptah (ibid., ).
[L495] According to a fourth-century papyrus fragment called the Strasbourg Cosmogony, Hermes is
[L496] depicted as creator of the world. For an introduction see Jean-Marie Flamand, “Cosmogonie de
[L497] Strasbourg,” DPA .–. See further Youri Volokhine, “Le dieu Thot et la parole,” Revue de
[L498] l’histoire des religions (): –. For Thoth the inventor of writing, see Philo of Byblos in Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel ..
[L499] (= TH a), as well as the writers cited in the next paragraph. Plato (Philebus b) expressed uncertainty as to whether Hermes (Thoth) was a god, a daimon, or
[L500] divine man. Perhaps he was a man guided by a daimon, as in Ammianus Marcellinus, Historical
[L501] Events .. (TH ). In some Hermetic texts, Hermes Thrice Great is distinguished from his
[L502] grandfather Thoth (Ascl. , with Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, –). A purely Euhemeristic
[L503] conception of Hermes Thrice Great is taken up by Christians such as Lactantius, Wrath of God
[L504] . (with the comments of Löw, Hermes –, –), Institutes .. (= FH a); Augustine,
[L505] City of God . (TH b). Plato, Phaedrus c–d; a. Diodorus, Library of History ..
[L506] General Introduction
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[L513] to second centuries ), after identifying Moses with Hermes, makes him
[L514] the teacher of navigation, devisor of weapons, machines of war, and
[L515] philosophy. According to the Roman orator Cicero (mid first century
[L516] ), Hermes-Thoth “gave the Egyptians their laws and letters.”
[L517] In the
[L518] early first century , the Roman poet Manilius called Hermes “first
[L519] founder of this great and holy science” – meaning astrology. The
[L520] Christian writer Tertullian in the early third century dubbed Hermes
[L521] Thrice Great “teacher of all the natural philosophers.”
[L522] This tradition of
[L523] philosophy stretched back to Thales in the sixth century . When one
[L524] reads these testimonies (printed more fully at the end of this volume), one
[L525] gains a sense of the vast knowledge ascribed to Hermes. There was nary a
[L526] branch of learning over which the Thrice Great did not preside.
[L527] To the question: “Why was the Egyptian Hermes called ‘Thrice
[L528] Great’?” one can answer: triple greatness was the special prerogative of
[L529] Thoth. A god twice or thrice great was a god supremely great – greater
[L530] indeed than all his divine competitors (at least in the minds of his
[L531] devotees). Clay shards in the archive of Hor (around ) yield
[L532] a Greek translation of Thoth’s Egyptian epithet: “the greatest, yes,
[L533] greatest god, great Hermes!”
[L534] In Egyptian, the repetition likely had a
[L535] Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel ..– = frag. in OTP .–. See further Gerard
[L536] Mussies, “The Interpretatio Judaica of Thot-Hermes,” in M. Heerma van Voss, among others, eds.,
[L537] Studies in Egyptian Religion Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee (Leiden: Brill, ), – at
[L538] –. Cicero, Nature of the Gods . (= TH ). Manilius, Astronomica . (= TH ). Tertullian, Against the Valentinians . (= FH a). See further Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, . See in particular TH from Cyril of Alexandria. Florian Ebeling notes that, “From the second millennium on, Thoth was revered as the ‘twice
[L539] great,’ which was then escalated into ‘thrice great,’ that is, ‘greatest of all’” (The Secret History of
[L540] Hermes Trisme
[L541] The file is too long and its contents have been truncated.
[L542]
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[L1] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 1 / 272>
[L2] HERMETICA II
[L3] This volume presents in new English translations the scattered fragments and testimonies regarding Hermes Thrice Great that complete
[L4] Brian Copenhaver’s translation of the Hermetica (Cambridge ).
[L5] It contains the twenty-nine fragments from Stobaeus (including the
[L6] famous Korē Kosmou), the Oxford and Vienna fragments (never
[L7] before translated into English), an expanded selection of fragments
[L8] from various authors (including Zosimus of Panopolis, Augustine,
[L9] and Albert the Great), and testimonies about Hermes from thirtyeight authors (including Cicero, Pseudo-Manetho, the Emperor
[L10] Julian, Al-Kindī, Michael Psellus, the Emerald Tablet, and Nicholas
[L11] of Cusa). All translations are accompanied by introductions and notes
[L12] which cite sources for further reading. These Hermetic texts will
[L13] appeal to a broad array of readers interested in western esotericism
[L14] including scholars of Egyptology, the New Testament, the classical
[L15] world, Byzantium, medieval Islam, the Latin Middle Ages, and the
[L16] Renaissance.
[L17] . is a research fellow at the Institute for Religion and
[L18] Critical Inquiry in Melbourne, Australia. His recent books include:
[L19] Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Ancient Jewish and Christian
[L20] Mythmaking (); Refutation of All Heresies: Text, Translation,
[L21] and Notes (); and Iesus Deus: The Early Christian Depiction of
[L22] Jesus as a Mediterranean God ().
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[L35] HERMETICA II
[L36] The Excerpts of Stobaeus, Papyrus Fragments, and Ancient
[L37] Testimonies in an English Translation with Notes and
[L38] Introductions
[L39] M. DAVID LITWA
[L40] Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Melbourne
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[L43]
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[L78] For Sam, Annie, Alex, and Eve
[L79] שבת שלום
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[L91] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 7 / 272>
[L92] Contents
[L93] Preface page xi
[L94] Abbreviations xii
[L95] General Introduction
[L96] A Note on This Translation
[L97] Sigla Adopted for This Translation
[L98] ( –)
[L99] ( –)
[L100] ( –)
[L101] ( –)
[L102] Tertullian
[L103] Pseudo(?)-Cyprian
[L104] – Lactantius
[L105] – Iamblichus
[L106] – Zosimus
[L107] Ephrem the Syrian
[L108] – Cyril of Alexandria
[L109] Addendum: The Reception of Hermetic Fragments from Cyril
[L110] vii
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[L117] Marcellus of Ancyra
[L118] John Lydus
[L119] Gregory of Nazianzus
[L120] Didymus of Alexandria
[L121] Gaius Iulius Romanus
[L122] Augustine
[L123] Quodvultdeus
[L124] Michael Psellus
[L125] Albert the Great
[L126] Nicholas of Cusa
[L127]
[L128] ( –)
[L129] Artapanus
[L130] Cicero
[L131] Manilius
[L132] Thrasyllus
[L133] Dorotheus of Sidon
[L134] Philo of Byblos
[L135] Athenagoras
[L136] Virtues of Plants
[L137] Refutation of All Heresies
[L138] Pseudo-Manetho
[L139] Arnobius
[L140] Iamblichus
[L141] Marius Victorinus
[L142] The Emperor Julian
[L143] viii Contents
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[L150] Ammianus Marcellinus
[L151] Greek Magical Papyri
[L152] Filastrius
[L153] First Prologue to the Cyranides
[L154] Augustine
[L155] Hermias
[L156] Cyril of Alexandria
[L157] John of Antioch
[L158] Isidore of Seville
[L159] John of Damascus(?), Passion of Artemius
[L160] Al-Kindī
[L161] Abū Ma‘shar
[L162] Ibn an-Nadīm
[L163] Al-Mubaššir ibn Fātik
[L164] Michael Psellus
[L165] Emerald Tablet
[L166] Prefaces to the Composition of Alchemy and the Six Principles
[L167] of Nature
[L168] Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers
[L169] Book of Alcidus
[L170] Fifteen Stars, Stones, Plants, and Talismans
[L171] Book of the Beibenian Stars
[L172] Albert the Great
[L173] Picatrix
[L174] Nicholas of Cusa
[L175] Bibliography
[L176] Index
[L177] Contents ix
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[L190] Preface
[L191] Despite widespread interest in the Hermetica across the globe, currently
[L192] there does not exist a reliable and up-to-date English translation of the
[L193] various Hermetic fragments and testimonies. Indeed, some of these fragments and testimonies remain generally unknown.
[L194] At the turn of the twentieth century, G. R. S. Mead made a translation
[L195] of select fragments into Victorian English from now-outdated editions.
[L196] The translation of the fragments by Walter Scott () was based on his
[L197] own re-written Greek text – a jungle of emendations and transpositions.
[L198] When it came to testimonies, moreover, Scott did not actually translate the
[L199] Greek or Latin texts. He only rendered into English (via Latin translations)
[L200] texts originally written in Arabic.
[L201] The present translation serves a new generation of scholarly and lay
[L202] readers of the Hermetica. It remains faithful to – though critically engaged
[L203] with – the various manuscript traditions. Copious notes provide historical
[L204] background, parallels, and references for further reading. Included also are
[L205] many testimonies that Scott did not print. It is hoped that this volume will
[L206] spark interest in the full reception history of the Hermetica, which must
[L207] include Late Antiquity and the medieval period.
[L208] Here I gratefully acknowledge persons who read parts of the manuscript
[L209] and offered helpful suggestions: Brian P. Copenhaver, David Runia, and
[L210] Christian H. Bull. Christian Wildberg and Kevin Van Bladel also kindly
[L211] answered my inquiries and provided guidance based on their expertise. My
[L212] thanks also to Oxford University Press for the use of Van Bladel’s translations of Arabic source materials.
[L213] xi
[L214] D7%!C#8(C73)3 34 73D:DD$C,* 53!4% 697 #%95#%7D7%!C :DD$C,6# #%9
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[L216]
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[L218] <PARSED TEXT FOR PAGE: 12 / 272>
[L219] Abbreviations
[L220] ANRW Haase and others, eds., Aufstieg und Niedergang
[L221] der römischen Welt
[L222] Ascl. The Latin Asclepius
[L223] BSGRT Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum
[L224] Teubneriana
[L225] CCAG Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, vols.,
[L226] –
[L227] CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
[L228] CH Corpus Hermeticum
[L229] CH Deutsch Holzhausen, ed., Das Corpus Hermeticum Deutsch,
[L230] vols.,
[L231] Copenhaver Copenhaver, trans., Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
[L232] Hermeticum,
[L233] DGWE Hanegraaff, ed., Dictionary of Gnosis and Western
[L234] Esotericism, .
[L235] DH Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius
[L236] DK Diels and Kranz, eds., Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, th
[L237] edition
[L238] Disc. – Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (NHC VI,)
[L239] DPA Richard Goulet, ed., Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques,
[L240] vols., –
[L241] F Codex Farnesius
[L242] FH Hermetic Fragments from various sources
[L243] FHSG Fortenbaugh, Huby, Sharples, and Gutas, eds.,
[L244] Theophrastus of Eresus,
[L245] HHE Mahé, Hermès en Haute-Égypte, vols., –.
[L246] LS Long and Sedley, eds., The Hellenistic Philosophers,
[L247] vols.,
[L248] MSS Manuscripts
[L249] Mystique Festugière, Hermétisme et mystique païenne,
[L250] xii
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,
[L255] ,
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[L258] NF Nock and Festugière, eds., Corpus Hermeticum, vols.,
[L259] –
[L260] NHC Nag Hammadi Codices
[L261] NHS Nag Hammadi Studies
[L262] NRSV The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
[L263] OF Bernabé, ed., Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia
[L264] et fragmenta,
[L265] OH Oxford Hermetic Fragments
[L266] OLD P. G. W. Glare, ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary. –
[L267] OTP Charlesworth, ed., Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vols.,
[L268] –
[L269] P Codex Parisinus gr.
[L270] PG Migne, ed., Patrologia Graeca, vols., –
[L271] PW Pauly and Wissowa, eds., Realencyclopädie, vols.,
[L272] –
[L273] Ref. Refutation of All Heresies
[L274] RHT Festugière, La Révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste, vols.,
[L275] nd edn., –
[L276] SC Sources Chrétiennes
[L277] Scarpi Scarpi, ed., La Rivelazione segreta di Ermete Trismegisto,
[L278] vols., –
[L279] SH Stobaean Hermetic Excerpts
[L280] SVF Von Arnim, ed., Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta
[L281] TH Hermetic Testimonies
[L282] VC Vigiliae Christianae
[L283] VH Vienna Hermetic Fragments
[L284] Abbreviations xiii
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[L286]
[L287]
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[L289] ,
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[L296] ,
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[L299] General Introduction
[L300] There are five groups of philosophical Hermetic writings that do not
[L301] appear in Brian P. Copenhaver’s English translation entitled Hermetica: The Greek “Corpus Hermeticum” and the Latin “Asclepius”.
[L302] The first is
[L303] the large group of Hermetic excerpts from Stobaeus, an early fifth-century
[L304] anthologist. The second is the Coptic Hermetica (discovered in )
[L305] featuring two excerpts of previously known writings in addition to a
[L306] formerly unknown Hermetic tractate (the Discourse on the Eighth and
[L307] Ninth). The third group is the collection of Hermetic Definitions, a set
[L308] of maxims extant in Greek fragments but preserved only fully in Armenian. The fourth is the previously known set of diverse fragments quoted
[L309] by various (largely Christian) authors in Late Antiquity. The fifth comprises recently discovered Hermetic fragments currently preserved in
[L310] Vienna and Oxford.
[L311] The Coptic Hermetica are widely available in English translations of the
[L312] Nag Hammadi library. The Definitions are now conveniently accessible in
[L313] English thanks to the work of Jean-Pierre Mahé. What remains to be
[L314] translated are the fragments from Stobaeus, the fragments and testimonies
[L315] from various authors, and the fragments from the newly discovered papyri.
[L316] Copenhaver’s introduction to CH and Ascl. remain relevant (Copenhaver, xxxii–xlv). See also Peter
[L317] Kingsley, “An Introduction to the Hermetica: Approaching Ancient Esoteric Tradition,” in Roelof
[L318] van den Broek and Cis van Heertum, eds., From Poimandres to Jacob Böhme: Gnosis: Hermetism and
[L319] the Christian Tradition (Amsterdam: In de Pelikaan, ), –. See Marvin Meyer, ed., Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition (New York: HarperOne,
[L320] ), –. Introductions to the Coptic Hermetica can be found in ibid., –; –;
[L321] –; Mahé, HHE, .–, –; .–; Hans-Martin Schenke, Hans-Gebhard Bethge,
[L322] and Ursula Ulrike Kaiser, eds., Nag Hammadi Deutsch: Studienausgabe (Berlin: de Gruyter, ),
[L323] –; –; –. Mahé’s translation can be found in Clement Salaman and others, trans., The Way of Hermes: New
[L324] Translations of “The Corpus Hermeticum” and “The Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius”
[L325] (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, ), –. Mahé introduces the Armenian Definitions in
[L326] ibid., –.
[L327]
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[L334] It is high time to present a new translation and annotation of these (chiefly
[L335] philosophical) Hermetica to the English-speaking world.
[L336] Hermes-Thoth
[L337] Nothing binds together the multifarious Hermetic fragments beyond their
[L338] ascription to Hermes Thrice Great. Hermes Thrice Great is a fictional
[L339] character. Yet for many in the ancient world that fiction was history. If we
[L340] call Hermes Thrice Great a “myth,” we thereby recognize that he is greater
[L341] and more significant than any one historical figure. How do we introduce a
[L342] figure that appears in so many different ages in so many different guises? If
[L343] there was an “original” Hermes Thrice Great, we are obliged to pick up the
[L344] thread at significant points of reception.
[L345] Iamblichus (about – ) commences his book (later called On
[L346] the Mysteries) with the following flourish:
[L347] Hermes, the deity who presides over rational discourses, has long and
[L348] rightly been considered common to all who practice the sacred arts. He
[L349] who presides over true science concerning gods is one and the same
[L350] throughout the universe. It is to him that our ancestors dedicated the
[L351] discoveries of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.
[L352] Important here is the frank acknowledgement that many authors wrote
[L353] under the name of Hermes. The practice of pseudepigraphy was logical for
[L354] devotees of Hermes. True wisdom and learning merited ascription to the
[L355] lord of all learning. This is why many Egyptian scholars attributed their
[L356] writings to Hermes. Iamblichus, himself writing under a false name
[L357] (“Abammon,” an Egyptian priest), calls these writers his “ancestors.” These
[L358] “ancestors” were probably Hellenized Egyptian scribes and priests who
[L359] lived not very long before Iamblichus himself.
[L360] Later, Iamblichus gives a taste of how many persons were writing under
[L361] the name of Hermes. In On the Mysteries ., he passes on the report of a
[L362] certain Seleucus, who attributed to Hermes a total of , books.
[L363] A better-known source, the Egyptian priest and historian Manetho, nearly
[L364] Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .. On Hermetic pseudepigraphy, see Anthony Grafton, Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in
[L365] Western Scholarship (Princeton: Princeton University Press, ), –; and more generally, Bart
[L366] D. Ehrman, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics
[L367] (Oxford: Oxford University Press, ), –; –.
[L368] General Introduction
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[L375] doubled this number, crediting Hermes with , volumes (or
[L376] volumes for each single day in a -year period). So many books
[L377] would easily fill the shelves of a large temple library (the Egyptian “House
[L378] of Life”). Perhaps this is the point – all the wisdom of the Egyptian sacred
[L379] priesthood ultimately reverts to Hermes.
[L380] According to Iamblichus, Hermes wrote hundreds of tomes on specialized topics like “the gods in the fiery zone,” “the gods in the aether,” and
[L381] “the gods in the heavens.”
[L382] Hermes was the ultimate theologian, yet the
[L383] scope of his expertise was in fact more vast. There are existing treatises on
[L384] astrology, the virtues of stones, the principles of creation, the origin and
[L385] nature of the soul, alchemical practices, Fate, the effects of climate on
[L386] intelligence, healing, and even why children resemble their parents – all
[L387] ascribed to Hermes.
[L388] The many genres of Hermetic learning are well illustrated by a passage
[L389] in Clement of Alexandria. This Christian writer around describes a
[L390] procession of Egyptian officials in which forty-two fundamental writings of
[L391] Hermes were displayed (the number of Egypt’s districts or “nomes”). The
[L392] highest-ranking priest, whom the Greeks called “Prophet,” carried the ten
[L393] “hieratic” books on laws, the gods, and the training of priests. The Stolekeeper presented ten books on education and sacrifice. The Sacred Scribe
[L394] held up a decade of books on hieroglyphs, geography, and the temples.
[L395] Then came the Astrologer, who showed four books on astronomical
[L396] matters (fixed stars, planets, conjunctions, and the risings of astral bodies).
[L397] Finally, the Singer held in his hands a songbook and an instruction manual
[L398] for kings. As a supplement, six books on medical matters (anatomy,
[L399] medicines, medical instruments, and gynecology) were displayed. All this
[L400] vast store of knowledge was ascribed to Hermes.
[L401] Who was this Hermes? We must first of all distinguish a Greek deity
[L402] from a significantly different Egyptian one. The Greek Hermes was the
[L403] “winged son of kindly Maia,” racing on the winds as Zeus’s crafty herald,
[L404] The number has yet deeper significance in Egyptian astrology, as pointed out by Christian H. Bull,
[L405] “The Tradition of Hermes: The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of Hellenized Wisdom”
[L406] (Ph.D. diss., University of Bergen, ), –. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, .–. See, for instance, the small treatises On Earthquakes and the Brontologion attributed to Hermes
[L407] Thrice Great in CCAG .–; –. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, ...–.... On books in temple libraries, see further Serge
[L408] Sauneron, The Priests of Ancient Egypt, new edition, trans. David Lorton (Ithaca, NY: Cornell
[L409] University Press, ), –; Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the
[L410] Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ), –; Jan Assmann, Religion
[L411] and Cultural Memory: Ten Studies (Stanford: Stanford University Press, ), , –,
[L412] nn.–.
[L413] General Introduction
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[L420] helmeted with the cap of invisibility, wielding the twisted caduceus with
[L421] the power to put even Argus with his hundred eyes to sleep. The
[L422] Egyptian Hermes, on the other hand, was Thoth, depicted as the ibisheaded scribe of the gods, secretary of Re, giver of oracles, master of magic,
[L423] lord of the moon often appearing in the form of a dog-faced baboon.
[L424] When the Greeks dominated Egypt, they identified the Egyptian god
[L425] Thoth with Hermes. But why? What did they see in these two gods that
[L426] was similar?
[L427] There are several overlaps, yet we will focus on two. First of all,
[L428] Hermes as psychopomp, or escort of the dead, resembled Thoth as seen in
[L429] the various versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead (or the Book of Going
[L430] Forth by Day), chapter . In the Hall of Two Truths, Thoth hears the
[L431] confession of the deceased person. After the person’s heart is weighed
[L432] against the feather of Maat (“Justice,” or “Truth”), Thoth carefully
[L433] inscribes the result with his tablet and stylus. If the heart is pure, Thoth
[L434] leads the candidate into the presence of Osiris, the ultimate judge of the
[L435] dead, and finally into the Field of Reeds. Perhaps the most famous scene
[L436] of Hermes leading souls is the opening of Homer’s Odyssey, book . In
[L437] this scene, Hermes guides the freshly slaughtered suitors of Penelope to the
[L438] netherworld. Mindless, the suitors squeak like bats on their way to the
[L439] halls of Hades.
[L440] Yet there was a more basic similarity between Hermes and Thoth.
[L441] Hermes is more than a herald or messenger. He is the Logos – the Reason,
[L442] Speech, or Word of God. The Word devises speech and brings his own
[L443] interpretation, which the Greeks called hermeneia.
[L444] Thoth is also the god
[L445] who presides over speech and interpretation. He is called “the heart of Re,
[L446] the tongue of Atum, the throat of the God whose name is hidden.” As
[L447] The “winged son of kindly Maia” derives from Horace, Odes, .. Other similarities between Thoth and Hermes are catalogued by Maria-Theresia Derchain-Urtel,
[L448] Thot à travers ses épithètes dans les scènes d’offrandes des temples d’époque gréco-romaine (Brussels:
[L449] Egyptology Foundation Queen Elizabeth, ), –; Andreas Löw, Hermes Trismegistos als
[L450] Zeuge der Wahrheit: Die christliche Hermetikrezeption von Athenagoras bis Laktanz, Theophaneia
[L451] (Berlin: Philo, ), –. See Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, ed. Carol Andrews
[L452] (London: British Museum, ), (spell b); C. J. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures
[L453] of the Ancient Egyptian Religion (Leiden: Brill, ), –. For Hermes as Logos (or Word), see Ref. ..; Seneca, On Benefits .; Cornutus, Nature of the
[L454] Gods ; Heraclitus, Homeric Problems ; Acts :; Varro in Augustine, City of God .; Justin,
[L455] First Apology .; Plutarch, Isis and Osiris (Moralia b). For devising speech, see Plato, Cratylus e–b; compare Diodorus, Library of History . (τὰ
[L456] περὶ τὴν ἑρμενείαν).
[L457] General Introduction
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[L464] divine speech personified, Thoth is also a creator. “What bursts from his
[L465] heart has immediate existence; what he pronounces exists for eternity.”
[L466]
[L467] In the Hellenistic period (roughly – ), Greeks living in Egypt
[L468] and Hellenized Egyptians crafted an amalgam of Thoth and Hermes who
[L469] was called “the Egyptian Hermes” or later “Hermes Thrice Greatest”
[L470] (Trismegistos, Termaximus). This Hermes is superlatively great in a superlative (threefold) way. Following English convention, however, here we call
[L471] “Thrice Greatest Hermes” simply “Hermes Thrice Great.”
[L472] Greeks typically conceived of Hermes Thrice Great in a Euhemeristic
[L473] fashion. That is to say, they often considered him to have been an ancient
[L474] man – a real scribe of a real Pharaoh, often the first divine Pharaoh called
[L475] Ammon (the Egyptian god Amun). This scribe, named Thoth or Theuth,
[L476] invented the alphabet and the art of writing. Ever since, humans have
[L477] been using writing to preserve the vast array of accumulated knowledge.
[L478] Thoth was later deified to become a recognized Egyptian god or daimon (a
[L479] kind of mediating deity). Writing was the best-known benefit that
[L480] Thoth offered to human beings, but it was not the only one.
[L481] Greeks attributed to Thoth the invention of a host of other arts. Plato
[L482] (– ) made Thoth the discoverer of mathematics and astronomy.
[L483] Hecataeus of Abdera (fourth century ) ascribed to him the
[L484] invention of a common language, religious ritual, music, wrestling,
[L485] dancing, and the culture of the olive. The Jewish writer Artapanus (third
[L486] These titles derive from hieroglyphic inscriptions from the temple of Denderah printed in
[L487] Festugière, RHT, . and Wilhelm Bousset, Kyrios Christos: A History of the Belief in Christ from
[L488] the Beginnings of Christianity to Irenaeus, trans. John E. Steely (Nashville: Abingdon, ),
[L489] –. The temple is dated to the time of Nero (mid first century ). Compare the
[L490] inscription on the door of the library of the great temple of Philae: “the glorious Ibis who came
[L491] forth from the heart of the god [Re]; tongue of Tenen [Ptah] when he gives command, throat of
[L492] him of the hidden name [Amun]” (quoted in Patrick Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of
[L493] Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt [London: Oxford University Press, ],
[L494] –). In the Shabaka text, Thoth functions as creator in the form of Ptah (ibid., ).
[L495] According to a fourth-century papyrus fragment called the Strasbourg Cosmogony, Hermes is
[L496] depicted as creator of the world. For an introduction see Jean-Marie Flamand, “Cosmogonie de
[L497] Strasbourg,” DPA .–. See further Youri Volokhine, “Le dieu Thot et la parole,” Revue de
[L498] l’histoire des religions (): –. For Thoth the inventor of writing, see Philo of Byblos in Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospel ..
[L499] (= TH a), as well as the writers cited in the next paragraph. Plato (Philebus b) expressed uncertainty as to whether Hermes (Thoth) was a god, a daimon, or
[L500] divine man. Perhaps he was a man guided by a daimon, as in Ammianus Marcellinus, Historical
[L501] Events .. (TH ). In some Hermetic texts, Hermes Thrice Great is distinguished from his
[L502] grandfather Thoth (Ascl. , with Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, –). A purely Euhemeristic
[L503] conception of Hermes Thrice Great is taken up by Christians such as Lactantius, Wrath of God
[L504] . (with the comments of Löw, Hermes –, –), Institutes .. (= FH a); Augustine,
[L505] City of God . (TH b). Plato, Phaedrus c–d; a. Diodorus, Library of History ..
[L506] General Introduction
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[L513] to second centuries ), after identifying Moses with Hermes, makes him
[L514] the teacher of navigation, devisor of weapons, machines of war, and
[L515] philosophy. According to the Roman orator Cicero (mid first century
[L516] ), Hermes-Thoth “gave the Egyptians their laws and letters.”
[L517] In the
[L518] early first century , the Roman poet Manilius called Hermes “first
[L519] founder of this great and holy science” – meaning astrology. The
[L520] Christian writer Tertullian in the early third century dubbed Hermes
[L521] Thrice Great “teacher of all the natural philosophers.”
[L522] This tradition of
[L523] philosophy stretched back to Thales in the sixth century . When one
[L524] reads these testimonies (printed more fully at the end of this volume), one
[L525] gains a sense of the vast knowledge ascribed to Hermes. There was nary a
[L526] branch of learning over which the Thrice Great did not preside.
[L527] To the question: “Why was the Egyptian Hermes called ‘Thrice
[L528] Great’?” one can answer: triple greatness was the special prerogative of
[L529] Thoth. A god twice or thrice great was a god supremely great – greater
[L530] indeed than all his divine competitors (at least in the minds of his
[L531] devotees). Clay shards in the archive of Hor (around ) yield
[L532] a Greek translation of Thoth’s Egyptian epithet: “the greatest, yes,
[L533] greatest god, great Hermes!”
[L534] In Egyptian, the repetition likely had a
[L535] Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel ..– = frag. in OTP .–. See further Gerard
[L536] Mussies, “The Interpretatio Judaica of Thot-Hermes,” in M. Heerma van Voss, among others, eds.,
[L537] Studies in Egyptian Religion Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee (Leiden: Brill, ), – at
[L538] –. Cicero, Nature of the Gods . (= TH ). Manilius, Astronomica . (= TH ). Tertullian, Against the Valentinians . (= FH a). See further Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, . See in particular TH from Cyril of Alexandria. Florian Ebeling notes that, “From the second millennium on, Thoth was revered as the ‘twice
[L539] great,’ which was then escalated into ‘thrice great,’ that is, ‘greatest of all’” (The Secret History of
[L540] Hermes Trisme
[L541] The file is too long and its contents have been truncated.
[L542]
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Across the Stobaean excerpts—especially the long Isis/Horus material—embodiment is not treated as a single, uniform metaphysical “event.” It is a cluster of related explanations that sometimes sit in tension with each other, and that tension is itself part of what the material contributes: you can watch Hermetic authors (or redactors) trying to hold together (1) a myth of chastening/punishment, (2) a providential cosmology in which embodiment can be a mission, and (3) a quasi-physiological account of how soul is impeded by elemental mixture.
So the Hermetic “fall” here is moral-educational in texture: the body is a disciplining condition that both humbles and trains, and that makes the soul ready for what revelation is going to give later.
This is not a small tweak. It forces you to treat “descent” as a category with internal differentiation: the same metaphysical motion—entry into a body—can be read as penal for some, vocational/administrative for others, and it is situated within a cosmic hierarchy of rulers that operates by correspondence (“as above, so below”)—Craftsman → Sun → Moon → human king. fileciteturn10file3L12-L18
If you’re building a “Hermetic anthropology,” this matters: the tradition is not simply otherworldly escapism. It can also imagine embodied governance as a divinely anchored office.
That line is crucial because it gives the “fall” a distinctive Hermetic accent: it is not merely metaphysical descent (as in a neutral emanationist picture), but a kind of forced lodging—fated rather than naturally appetitive. Litwa even flags the broader Hermetic topos of the soul entering unwillingly/“by necessity.” fileciteturn10file1L21-L24
This is where the “fall into body” becomes less a one-time cosmogonic drama and more an ongoing condition: embodied life is epistemically and affectively compromising. The fall is re-described as loss of steadiness, not only loss of location.
That adds an important structural point: the Hermetic “fall” is not the last word; the tradition is obsessed with cosmic placement and re-placement, and the body is one station in a larger logistics of souls.
The simplest contrast is that Iamblichus refuses to let descent mean “mere punishment” or “mere mistake.” But the deeper difference is how descent is integrated into the metaphysics of salvation, ritual, and divine manifestation.
Even when Iamblichus describes embodied life as alienation—loss of the soul’s “spherical form,” entrapment in material oppositions—this is not narrated as a penal imprisonment imposed externally so much as a predictable consequence of how noetic life is expressed in generation. fileciteturn10file6L13-L15
Hermetic texts can speak as if the soul is simply “in the body” and thereby oppressed by elemental mixture; Iamblichus insists on an intermediate body that both makes embodiment possible and makes ritual transformation technically intelligible.
That is a different spiritual geometry than the Hermetic materials where the soul’s lack of natural urge for body and its being “weighed down and oppressed” can make liberation feel like a shedding of burdens. fileciteturn10file1L4-L7 fileciteturn10file2L1-L6
Iamblichus is still intensely aware of embodiment’s constraints—but he builds a soteriology in which the goal is not simply to flee generation, but to coordinate, purify, and illuminate the mediating vehicle so that the divine can appear in embodied life.
The Hermetic dossier can gesture toward embodiment-as-service (royal souls) fileciteturn10file3L20-L23, but Iamblichus generalizes the logic: embodiment is not just the site of rule or punishment; it is the site where the divine life is made manifest through ritual transformation.
That sits oddly beside the Hermetic insistence that the soul has no natural urge for body and is cognitively hampered by embodiment. fileciteturn10file1L4-L7 fileciteturn10file2L6-L10 The Hermetic texts certainly know “remembering” (and Litwa explicitly frames the Korē Kosmou as a divine pedagogical gift meant to guide humans back to knowledge of who they are). fileciteturn11file0L27-L31 But Iamblichus’ point is more radical: embodied life can be the very medium through which that remembrance is enacted as divine presence.
The Stobaean Hermetica give you a plural account of descent: sometimes punitive/chastening, sometimes vocational (royal souls), often fated and experienced as oppression by elemental embodiment. fileciteturn10file3L7-L11 fileciteturn10file1L4-L7 fileciteturn10file2L1-L6 Iamblichus, by contrast, systematizes descent through the doctrine of a mediating vehicle and builds a theurgic soteriology in which the “solution” is not simply release from body but the illumination and reconfiguration of embodied life such that ascent and descent interlock—the soul’s return coinciding with a god’s descent into perceptible/ritual form. fileciteturn9file6L16-L20 fileciteturn9file8L15-L20
If you want, I can take one specific Hermetic strand (punitive transgression, royal mission, or elemental oppression) and do a tighter, line-by-line comparison with the closest Iamblichean analogue (vehicle, fate vs providence, or theurgy as “descent of the god”).