Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
Commentary ...... 392
The Sethian Gnosis ..... 393
The Mithriac JEon ..... 399
Probable Date of Origin of the Hellenistic Mon-
Doctrine ...... 401
Abraxas ...... 402
The Feast of the Mon . . . .403
The Quintessence and the Monad . . . 403
The JSon in Plato . . . . .404
Concerning the Hellenistic Origin of JSonology . 405
The JSon the Logos ..... 406
The Roman Saeculum Cult derived from Egypt . 407 The jEonic Immensities of Egypt . . . 407
A Song of Praise to the JEon . . . 408
The Demiurgic ^Eon . . . . .410
The JEon in Theurgic Literature . . . 410
XII. THE SEVEN ZONES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS 413-428
Macrobius on " The Descent of the Soul from the
Heights of Cosmos to the Depths of Earth " . 413
The Tradition of Servius .... 418
Criticism of the Evidence . . . .419
The " Ophite " Hebdomad . . . .421
The Simpler Form of the Trismegistic Gnosis . 423 Concerning Leviathan and Behemoth . . 423
The " Fence of Fire " . . . .427
XIII. PLATO : CONCERNING METEMPSYCHOSIS . 429-436 The Soul and her Mysteries in the " Phsedrus " . 429 Plotinus on Metempsychosis .... 434 Proclus on the Descent of Souls into Irrational
Natures ...... 435
XIV. THE VISION OP ER . . . . 437-449
Er Son of Armenius . . . '. . 437
From the Mysteries ..... 438
The Cylinder . . . . . . 439
The Vision . . V . . 440
Commentary . . . .. ; • . . 448
CONTENTS XV
PAGE
XV. CONCERNING THE CRATER OR CUP . . 450-456
The Crater in Plato . . . . .450
In " Orpheus," Macrobius, and Proclus . . 451
The Vision of Aridseus .... 452
The Origin of the Symbol to be sought in Orphic
Tradition . . . . .456
XVI. THE DISCIPLES OF THRICE-GREATEST HERMES 457-481 Ptah, Sekhet and I-em-hetep (Asclepius) . . 457 Nefer-Tem . . . . . .458
Imhotep-Imuth-Asclepiiis .... 459
Thath-Tat ...... 461
The Incarnations of Thoth . . . 463
The Disciples of Lord Hermes in Petosiris and
Nechepso ..... 464
Tosothros-Asclepius ..... 465
Imuth-Asclepius the Master-Mason and Poet . 466
^sculapius the Healer .... 467
Asclepius in Trismegistic Tradition . . . 469
Concerning Ammon . . . . .471
Prophet and King ..... 472
Amenhotep- Asclepius .... 473
The Sacred Group of Four .... 474
James, John and Peter .... 475
The Triad of Disciples . . . .476
Chnum the Good Daimon .... 477
Osiris Disciple of Agathodaimon the Thrice-greatest 478
Logos-Mind the Good Daimon . . . 478
Chnum Good Mind the ^Eon . . . 480
Isis, Lady of Wisdom, Disciple of Thrice-greatest
Hermes . 481
Was he one or many, merging
Name and fame in one,
Like a stream, to which, converging,
Many streamlets run ?
Who shall call his dreams fallacious ?
Who has searched or sought
All the unexplored and spacious
Universe of thought ?
Who in his own skill confiding,
Shall with rule and line
Mark the border-land dividing
Human and divine ?
Trismegistus ! Three times greatest !
How thy name sublime
Has descended to this latest
Progeny of time !
LONGFELLOW, Hermes Tri&megistus.1
1 This poem is dated January 1882. Chambers (p. 155, n.) says:
" It is noteworthy that the last poem of Longfellow was a lyrical ode in
celebration of Hermes Trismegistus. "
Thrice-Greatest Hermes
THE EEMAINS OF THE TEISMEGISTIC
LITEEATUEE
WRITER AND EEADER
LITTLE did I think when, years ago, I began to translate some of the Trismegistic tractates, that the undertaking would finally grow into these volumes. My sole object then was to render the more important of these beautiful theosophic treatises into an English that might, perhaps, be thought in some small way worthy of the Greek originals. I was then more attracted by the sermons themselves than by the manifold problems to which they gave rise; I found greater pleasure in the spiritual atmosphere they created, than in the critical considerations which insistently imposed themselves upon my mind, as I strove to realise their importance for the history of the development of religious ideas in the Western world.
And now, too, when I take pen in hand to grapple with the difficulties of "introduction" for those who will be good enough to follow my all-insufficient labours, it is to the tractates themselves that I turn again and again for refreshment in the task; and every time I turn to them I am persuaded that the best of them are worthy of all the labour a man can bestow upon them.
VOL. I. I