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

"This (H. he says) is the great and true beginning of the signs which Jesus wrought in Cana of Galilee, and made manifest His Kingship [or Kingdom] of the Heavens." 5

This (H. he says) is the Kingship [or Kingdom] of the Heavens within us,6 stored up as a Treasure,7 as " Leaven hid in three measures of Flour." 8

1 Sc. " Heavenly Horn of Men."

2 Cf. Gen. xliv. 5.

3 Bergk includes these verses among the Anacreontica, n. 63, p. 835. Cf. Anacr., i. 10 (Bergk, 50, 10).

4 The last line is reconstructed by Cruice (not. in loc.). Cf.
Anacr,, xxvi. 25, 26. Was Omar Khayyam, then, "Anacreon
palingenes," or was the same spirit in each ?

5 Cf. John ii. 11. The reading of our quotation, however, is very different from that of the familiar Textus Eeceptus.

e Cf. Luke xvii. 21. 7 Cf. Matt. xiii. 44.

8 Cf. Matt. xiii. 33 = Luke xiii. 20.

(19 J) S. This is (H. he says) the Great Ineffable
Mystery of the Samothracians, —

C. — which it is lawful for the perfect alone to know — [that is] (H. he says) for us.

J. For the Samothracians, in the Mysteries which are solemnised among them, explicitly hand on the tradition that this Adam is the Man Original.

S. Moreover,2 in the initiation temple of the Samothracians stand two statues of naked men, with both hands raised to heaven and ithyphallic, like the statue of Hermes in Cyllene.3

J. The statues aforesaid are images of the Man
Original.4

C. And [also] of the regenerated 5 spiritual [man], in all things of like substance with that Man.

This (H. he says) is what was spoken by the Saviour :

" If ye do not drink My Blood and eat My Flesh, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of the Heavens.6

" But even if ye drink (H. he says) the Cup which I drink,7 where I go, there ye cannot come." 8

1 This seems to connect immediately with the end of § 16. See
R. 100, n. 4.

2 S. probably had "For," which was glossed by J. into
" Moreover."

3 But this "statue," as we have seen, was the ithyphallus simply.

4 Or Typal Man.

5 Or, generated or born from Above.

6 Cf. John vi. 53, which reads in T. R. : " Amen, Amen, I say unto you, if ye eat not the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have not Life in yourselves."

7 Cf. Matt. xx. 22 = Mark x. 38 (where the phrase is put in a question).

8 Cf. John viii. 21 and xiii. 33. It is remarkable that in the text of our Gospels these logoi are addressed to the Jews ; C., however, takes them as sayings addressed to the disciples. It is possible that we may have here a " source " of the Fourth Gospel !

For He knew (H. he says) of which nature each of His disciples is, and that it needs must be that each of them should go to his own nature.

For from the twelve tribes (H. he says) He chose twelve disciples, and through them He spake to every tribe.1

On this account (H. he says) all have not heard the preachings of the twelve disciples ; and even if they hear, they cannot receive them. For the [preachings] which are not according to their nature are contrary to it.

S. This [Man] (H. he says) the Thracians who dwell round Haimos call Korybas,2 and the Phrygians in like manner with the Thracians ; for taking the source of His descent from the Head Above 3 —

J. — and from the expressive Brain 4 —

S. — and passing through all the sources of all things beneath — how and in what manner He descends we do not understand.

J. This is (H. he says) what was spoken :

" His Voice we heard, but His Form we have not seen." 5

For (H. he says) the Voice of Him, when He hath been delegated and expressed, is heard, but the Form that descended from Above, from the Inexpressible [Man] — what it is, no one knows. It is in the earthy plasm, but no one has knowledge of it.

This [Man] (H. he says) is He who " inhabiteth the

1 These " tribes," then, were not the Jewish tribes, ten of which did not return, but twelve typical natures of men, and something else.

2 See Immisch's excellent art., " Kureten u. Korybanten," in
Roscher, ii. 1587-1628.

3 Kopv/Sas, the Lord of the Corybantes, or frenzied priests of Cybele, is thus feigned by mystical word-play to be & ait'b-KopvQrisj8aj, " he who descends from the head."

* Qf. C., § 14.

5 Apparently a quotation from some Jewish apocryphon. Cf.
John v. 37 : " Ye have never at any time heard His voice nor
have ye seen His form."

Flood," l according to the Psalter, who cries and calls from " many waters." 2

The " many waters " (H. he says) are the manifold genesis of men subject to death, from which He shouts and calls to the Inexpressible Man, saying :