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

n'ucpoi/" That is : " And the logion [oracle, the Urim-and- Thummim, or instrument of the Logos, according to Philo] of God shall be to them tribulation on tribulation, hope on hope, still little still little." See Epiphanius, Hcer., xxv. 4. "Saulasau saulasau " = " tribulation on tribulation, tribulation on tribulation ; " " kaulakau kaulakau " = " hope on hope, hope on hope ; " " zeesar [zeesar] " = " still little still little "—that is, the " Height of Hope," the "Depth of Tribulation," and the " As yet Very Little "— evidently referring to the as yet small number of the Regenerate. Cf. Pistis Sophia, 354 : " One out of a thousand, and two out of ten thousand." See Salmon's article, " Caulacau," in Smith and Wace's D. of Ch. Biog.t i. 424 f. It is also to be noticed that Epiphanius ascribes the origin of these names to the Nicolaitans. In Hebrew the corresponding name would be Balaamites ; and Balaam or Bileam (Nico-laus) was one of the Rabbinical by-names for Jeschu (Jesus). See D. J. L., p. 188.

5 This and the following paragraph seem to have been misin all, whom the ignorant call three-bodied Geryones — Earth-flow-er, as though flowing from the earth ; l while the Greek [theologi] generally call Him the " Heavenly Horn of Men," 2 because He has mixed and mingled 3 all things with all.

C. For " all things (H. he says) were made through Him, and without Him no one thing was made that was made. In Him is Life." «

This (H. he says) is " Life," the ineffable Kace of perfect men, which was unknown to former generations.

And the " nothing " 6 which hath been made " without Him,"
is the special cosmos ; 6 for the latter hath been made without
Him by the third and fourth [? Ruler].7

placed by J. or C., for § 19 connects directly with the exposition concerning the ithyphallic Hermes. See B. 100, n. 4.

1 &s ftt yys pfovra Tri-pvSv-rjv.

2 Men was the Phrygian Deus Lunus. See Drexler's admirable art. s.v. in Roscher, ii. 2687-2770.

3 KfKtpaxt — a word-play on ntpas (horn), unreproducible in
English.

4 John i. 3, 4. So the present text ; but it must have been
" nothing" in the text which lay before C.

5 6y. the logos, from The Book of the Great Logos according to the Mystery : " Jesus, the Living One, answered and said : Blessed is the man who knoweth this [Word (Logos')], and hath brought down the Heaven, and borne the Earth and raised it heavenwards, and he becometh the Middle, for it (the Middle) is ' nothing.' " — Schmidt (C.), Gnostische Schriften in koptischer Sprache aus dem Codex Brucianus (Leipzig, 1892), p. 144 ; and Koptisch-gnostische Schriften (Leipzig, 1905), p. 259.

6 That is the world of phenomena, or cosmos of species (ISutos) and not of genera or wholes.

7 The fourth Demiurgic Power of the Sensible World was Esaldaios, as we have already seen from J., § 12. The indications are too vague to recover the " measures " and " numbers " of the system. But the " third and fourth " are apparently both " fiery " — the former giving " light," the latter " heat." Compare § 23 C., who speaks of the third Gate, or entrance to the third Heaven. This Heaven, the third from below, would correspond with the first setheric sphere — there being, presumably,';-three before the fourth or middle, the " Fiery Ruler."

J. This1 (H. he says) is the drinking- vessel— the Cup in which " the King drinketh and divineth." 2

This (H. he says) was found hidden in the " fair seed " of Benjamin.

(18) S. The Greeks also speak of it (H. he says) with inspired tongue, as follows :

" Bring water, bring [me] wine, boy !
Give me to drink, and sink me in slumber ! 3
My Cup tells me of what race I must be born,
[Speaking with silence unspeaking]." *

C. This (H. he says) would be sufficient alone if men would understand — the Cup of Anacreon speaking forth speechlessly the Ineffable Mystery.

J. For (H. he says) Anacreon's Cup is speechless— in as much as it tells him (says Anacreon) with speechless sound of what Kace he must be born —

C. — that is, spiritual, not carnal —

J. — if he hear the Hidden Mystery in Silence.

C. And this is the Water at those Fair Nuptials which Jesus turned and made Wine.