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

1 The texts are given by Berthelot (M. P. S.), Les Akhimistes grecs.

2 See The Book of the Dead, cxliv., cxlvii.

3 Griffith (F. LI.), Stories of the High Priests of Memphis (Oxford,
1900), pp. 45 tf.

" HERMAS " AND " HERMES " 381

has left an account of his mystic experiences, though unfortunately transmitted to us only in Arabic translation from the original Greek.1

Crates leaves his body and enters the unseen world. "While I was praying," he writes, "I felt myself suddenly carried into the airs [of heaven], following the same path as the sun and moon." Here he meets with Thrice-greatest Hermes in the guise of " an old man, the most beautiful of men, seated on a chair ; he was clad in white raiment, and held a book in his hand resting on the arm of the chair."

Compare this with " Hennas " (Vis. ii. 2, 2) : "I see opposite me a chair, and on it a covering of wool white as hail ; 2 then came there an old woman, in shining white raiment, having a book in her hand, and sat down alone."

After this revelation, and when the "old woman" had ceased reading from the book, four young men came and carried off the chair, and departed with it to the East (ibid., 4, 1).

Here again it is of interest to compare this with the introduction to a magical " light-ritual," where the seer has a vision of four men with crowns on their heads who bring in the " throne of the god. " 3

Crates is taught from the book and bidden to write what he is told. " Make thy book according to the instructions which I have given ; and know that I am with thee and will never leave thee till thou hast accomplished all."

So also " Hermas " ; compare also the last sentence

1 Berthelot (M. P. S.), La (Jhimie au Moyen Age, iii. 44 ff., 268, n. 1 ; R. 361.

2 According to the Ethiopic translation. See The Apostolic
Fathers, p. 325, n. 4, in the "Ante-Nicene Christian Library,"
vol. i. (Edinburgh, 1867).

3 Kenyon (F. G.), Greek Pap. Cat., p. 65 ; E. 280, n. 3.

with the phrase in the Introduction to the " Pastoral Hermas " : "I am sent . . . that I may dwell with thee for the rest of the days of thy life."

In another vision, Crates is instructed in a dialogue which strongly reflects the style and substance of our Trismegistic sermons. And in yet another he moves in the psychic reflection of the setting of the now for the most part lost Isis-type of the literature, which has a more strongly Egyptian colouring. He is transported to yet another heaven and firmament, and there sees the temple of Ptah (Hephaestus), and the statue of Venus (Isis), which holds converse with him.

He was then evidently saturated with the Trismegistic tradition, and had access to treatises which are now, unfortunately, lost to us, for it is just this type of the literature which shows signs of the more direct influence of Egyptian ideas, and the mention of the temple of Ptah is a striking confirmation that Eeitzenstein is on the right track in his analysis of the oldest deposit of the " Pceinandres," which he connects with the Ptah-tradition.

That the end and aim of the later Egyptian religion, and of all Hellenistic religious circles in general, was a Gnosis, or definite mystical experience in the form of visions and apocalypses, is manifest on all sides ; and that this also was the chief interest of very numerous circles in the Early Church is a fundamental fact in the study of Christian origins which should not be impatiently brushed on one side, or minimised almost to extinction as of no real importance, but which should be restored to the first rank in seeking" HERMAS " AND " HERMES " 383 an explanation of the many obscure problems of these early days which no purely objective considerations will solve.