Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. II (the Corpus Hermeticum) — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

4 Eventus etfors.

5 Cf. the conclusion of C. H.t xvii.

XLI

1. Now when they came forth from the holy place,1 they turned their faces towards the south 2 when they began their prayers to God.

For when the sun is setting, should anyone desire to pray to God, he ought to turn him thitherwards 3 ; so also at the rising of the same, unto that spot which lies beneath the sun.4

As they were just beginning to recite the prayer, Asclepius did whisper :

[Asc.~\ Let us suggest to father, Tat, — what he did bid us do,5 — that we should say our prayer to God with added incense and with unguents.

Whom when Thrice-greatest heard, he grew distressed and said :

2. [Tris.~\ Nay, nay, Asclepius ; speak more propitious words ! For this is like to profanation of [our] sacred rites, — when thou dost pray to God, to offer incense and the rest.

For naught is there of which He stands in need, in that He is all things, or all are in Him.

1 De adyto ; " down from," literally.

2 This is apparently an error for south-west or west.

3 That is, to the setting sun or the west. Cf. G.H., xiii. (xiv.)
16, Comment.

4 Subsolanus, lying beneath the sun ; that is to say, eastern.
6 Gf. xxxviii. 1 above.

But let us worship, pouring forth our thanks.
For this is the best incense in God's sight, —
when thanks are given to Him by men.1

3. [We give] Thee grace, Thou highest [and] most excellent ! For by Thy Grace we have received the so great Light of Thy own Gnosis.

0 holy Name, fit [Name] to be adored, 0 Name unique, by which the Only God 2 is to be blest through worship of [our] Sire, — [of Thee] who deignest to afford to all a Father's piety, and care, and love, and whatsoever virtue is more sweet [than these], endowing [us] with sense, [and] reason, [and] intelligence; — with sense that we may feel Thee ; with reason that we may track Thee out from the appearances of things 3 ; with means of recognition that we may joy in knowing Thee.

4. Saved by Thy Power divine, let us rejoice that Thou hast shown Thyself to us in all Thy Fullness. Let us rejoice that Thou hast deigned to consecrate us, [still] entombed in bodies, to Eternity.

For this is the sole festival of praise worthy of man, — to know Thy Majesty.

We have known Thee ; yea, by the Single
Sense of our intelligence, we have perceived

1 For the three preceding paragraphs, see Lact., D. /., vi. 25.

2 The Cosmos, presumably, as the One God.

3 Suspicionibus ; hints, perhaps, and so phenomena.

Thy Light supreme, — 0 Thou true Life of life,
0 Fecuiid Womb that giveth birth to every
nature !

5. We have known Thee, 0 Thou completely filled with the Conception from Thyself of Universal Nature !

We have known Thee, 0 Thou Eternal
Constancy !

For in the whole of this our prayer in worship of Thy Good, this favour only of Thy Goodness do we crave ; — that Thou wilt keep us constant in our Love of knowing Thee,1 and let us ne'er be cut off from this kind of Life.

With this desire we [now] betake us to [our] pure and fleshless meal.2

COMMENTARY

THE TITLE

The titles in the Latin MSS. vary. The heading preferred by Hildebrand is " Asclepius, or a Dialogue of Thrice-greatest Hermes " ; while in the Bipontine edition, the title stands : " Thrice-greatest Hermes Concerning the Nature of the Gods ; A Sermon addressed to Asclepius." Menard, the French translator, prefers : " A Sermon of Initiation, or Asclepius."

The treatise begins with a transparent gloss, in all
probability originally the marginal note of some scribe,
1 Or of Thy Gnosis. 2 Cosnam.

or student, which has improperly crept into the text. It runs : " This Asclepius is my Sun-god " ; that is to say, apparently : " This Sermon ' Asclepius ' has illumined me " ; from which it is evident that the title lying before the scribe was " Asclepius " simply, as may be seen from § 2 : "It is, however, with thy name I will inscribe this treatise." Stobseus, moreover, in quoting from the original Greek (of xxvii. 4), heads his extract simply, " Of Hermes from the [Sermons] to Asclepius."

On the other hand, the Church Father Lactantius, writing at the beginning of the fourth century, and quoting from the Greek original, says twice, categorically (D. /., iv. 6 and vii. 8) : " Hermes in illo libro qui Ao'yo? reAef09 VMcribtowr" \ that is, "Hermes in the Book entitled 'The Perfect Sermon,' or 'The Sermon of Initiation ' " ; while Johannes Laurentius Lydus on three occasions quotes from this " Perfect Sermon " of Hermes, and on each occasion so names it.