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

4 Prov. xxiv. 16 — same reading as LXX. Cf. Luke xvii. 4. : " If he trespass against thee seven times in a day and turn again to thee, saying, ' I repent ' ; thou shalt forgive." This saying is apparently from the "Logia" source; cf. Matt, xviii. 21, and compare the idea with the scheme of the " repentance " of the Pistis Sophia.

5 The seven planetary spheres ; but it may also connect with the idea of the falling "stars" as the souls descending into matter, according to the Platonic and Hermetic doctrine.

6 Probably the Egyptians in their Mysteries, connecting with what is summarised by H. at end of § 6 and beginning of § 7.

Genesis, that it is none of these things, but that it begets and makes all generated things, saying : " I become what I will, and am what I am." l Therefore (H. he says) That which moves all is unmoved ; for It remains what It is, making all things, and becomes no one of the things produced. (H. He says that) This is the Only Good—

C. And concerning this was spoken what was said by the
Saviour :

" Why callest thou me Good ? One is Good 2 — my Father in the Heavens, who maketh His sun to rise on righteous and unrighteous, and sendeth rain on saints and sinners." 3

H. And who are the saints on whom He sendeth rain and the sinners on whom He also sendeth rain — this also he tells subsequently with the rest.

S. — and (H. that) This is the Great, Hidden, and
Unknown Mystery of the Egyptians, Hidden and [yet]
Eevealed.

For there is no temple (H. he says) before the

1 Evidently a logos from some Hellenistic scripture. In the evidence of Zosimus which we adduce at the end of our Trismegistic Fragments, he quotes (§§ 15 and 7) from the " Inner I)oor" — a lost treatise of Hermes Trismegistus — as follows : " For that the Son of God having power in all things, becoming all things that He willeth, appeareth as He willeth to each." Thus we have S. quoting the original logos, which, I suggest, belongs to the " Pcemandres " type of Trismegistic literature. Therefore that type was in existence before S. This confirms our attribution of the " they declare " to the Egyptians and their Mysteries (Trismegisticism being principally the Hellenised form of those Mysteries), and also the completion of R. at the end of the first paragraph of § 7 above.

2 Of. Matt. xix. 17 = Mark x. 18 = Luke xviii. 19. The first clause agrees with Mark and Luke, the second with Matthew (omitting "the" before "Good"). The presumably primitive reading of the positive command, " Call me not Good," has disappeared entirely from this phase of tradition.

3 A different form from Matt. v. 45, but the same idea ; for the other tradition, see Luke vi. 35.

entrance of which the Hidden [Mystery] does not stand naked, pointing from below above, and crowned with all its fruits of generation.

(10) And (H. they say) it stands so symbolised not only in the most sacred temples before the statues, but also set up for general knowledge —

C. — as it were " a light not under the bushel, but " set " on the candlestick" 1 — a preaching " heralded forth on the house-tops."2

S. — on all the roads and in all the streets, and alongside the very houses as a boundary and limit of the dwelling ; (H. that) This is the God spoken of by all, for they call Him Bringer-of-good, not knowing what they say.

H. And this mystery [-symbol] the Greeks got from the
Egyptians, and have it [even] to this day.

At anyrate, he says, we see the " Hermes " 3 honoured by them in this form.

(11) S. And the Cyllenians, treating [this symbol] with special honour, [regard it as the] Logos.4

For (H. he says) Hermes is [the] Logos, who, as being the Interpreter and Fabricator of all things that have been and are and shall be, was honoured by them under the symbolism of this figure, namely an ithyphallus.

And that he (H. that is Hermes, so symbolised) is

1 Of. Matt v. 15 = Mark iv. 21 = Luke viii. 16 and xL 33.

2 Gf. Matt. x. 27 = Luke xii. 3.

3 That is, symbolically distinguished statues of Hermes.

4 The text is faulty ; but compare Pausanias, VI. xxvi. 5, where, speaking of Cyllene, he says : " The image of Hermes which the people of the place revere exceedingly, is nothing but an ithyphallus on a pedestal." This famous symbolic figure at Cyllene is mentioned also by Artemidorus, Oneirocr., i. 46 ; and by Lucian, Jupiter Tragoedus, 42. Of. J. Q. Frazer's Pausanias (London, 1898), iv. 110.