Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

It would perhaps have been simpler for some of my readers — it certainly would have been shorter — had I condensed what Plutarch has to say ; but my desire is rather to let this student of the comparative theology of his day speak for himself, and not to give my own views; for I still believe, in spite of the superior formal education of the twentieth century, that we cannot normally know more about the ancient mysteries and their inner purport than the best minds who were initiated into them while they still flourished.

For not only are we without the precise data which these ancients possessed, but also the phase of thought through which we have recently been passing, and in which we mostly still are, is not one which can sympathetically tolerate those very considerations which, in my opinion, provide the most fertile ground of explanation of the true inwardness of what was best in those mystery-traditions.

Moreover, I have thought it of service to give a full version of this treatise of Plutarch's from a decent critical text,1 for the only translation in English read by me is by no means a careful piece of work,2 and manifestly rendered from a very imperfect text ; also, the language of Plutarch in some passages appears to me to be deserving of more careful handling than has as yet been accorded . it, for a number of sentences seem to have been purposely phrased so as to be capable of conveying a double meaning.

Finally, with regard to his own interpretation, I would suggest that Plutarch, as was natural to a Greek, has more insisted on intellectual modes of thought than perhaps an Egyptian priest would have been inclined to do ; for it seems probable that to the Egyptian mind the chief interest would lie in the possibility of the realisation of immediate contact with the Mystery in all those modes which are not so much intellectual as

1 I use the texts of Parthey, Plutarch: Uber Isis und Osiris (Berlin, 1850), and of Bernardakis, Plutarchi Ghaeronensis Moralia (" Bibliotheca Teubneriana " ; Leipzig, 1889), ii. 471 ff.

2 See King (C. W.), Plutarch's Morals: Theosophical Essays (London, 1889), pp. 1-71. S. Squire's Plutarch's Treatise of Isis and Osiris (Cambridge, 1744) I have not read, and few can procure a copy nowadays.

sensible ; in other words, it would be by making himself a vehicle of the Great Breath in his body rather than a mirror of the Mystery in his mind, that the son of the Nile Land would seek for union.

It is, moreover, of interest to find that Plutarch addresses his treatise to a lady. For though we have extant several moral tractates addressed to wives — such as Porphyry's Letter to Marcella, and Plutarch's Consolation to his own wife, Timoxena — it is rare to find philosophical treatises addressed to women, and nowadays many women are once more interested in such " philosophy."

Plutarch wrote his essay at Delphi (Ixviii. 6), and addressed it to Klea, a lady who held a distinguished position among the Delphic priestesses, and who had herself been initiated into the Osiriac Mysteries — her very name Klea being, perhaps, her mystery -name (xxxv.). The treatise is, therefore, addressed to one who was prepared to read into it more than appears on the surface.

It should also be remembered that in all probability the main source of Plutarch's information was the now lost treatise of Manetho on the Egyptian Eeligion, and in this connection it is of interest to record Granger's opinion, who, in referring to Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride, says :

"First he deals with those opinions which identify the Egyptian gods with natural objects — Osiris with the Nile, Isis with the land, and so on. Then he considers the interpretations of those who identify the gods with the sun and moon, etc. (ch. Ixi.). These speculations summarise for us, at first or second hand, some of the Hermetic books current in Plutarch's time." l

1 Granger (F.), "The Poemander of Hermes Trismegistus,"
Jour. Theol Stud., vol. v. No. 19, p. 399.

CONCERNING ISIS AND OSIRIS

ADDRESS TO KLEA CONCERNING GNOSIS AND THE
SEARCH FOR TRUTH l