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

With § 27, however, all is changed ; we are introduced to the picture of a man burning with enthusiasm to communicate, if not the direct teaching itself, at any rate the knowledge of its existence and saving power to all without distinction. In a few graphic sentences the history of the fortunes of this propagandist endeavour is sketched. An appeal is made of the most uncompromising nature; it is a clarion call to repentance, and we seem to be moving in an atmosphere that is Hebrew rather than Greek, prophetical rather than philosophical.

It would seem almost that this propagandist phase had been forced upon the community rather than that it was natural to it ; something seems to have occurred which obliged it to enter the arena of general life and proclaim its existence publicly. What this compulsion was we have no means of determining with any exactitude, for the historical indications are very obscure. If we were to conjecture that it was the vigorous preaching of nascent Christianity which wrought this change, we should, I think, be taking part for whole, for prior to Christianity there was the most energetic propaganda made by the Jews, the intensity of which may be estimated by the phrase " Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte," and the nature of which may be most clearly seen in the propaganda of the Sibylline writers, with whose diction the appeals to the " earth-born folk " in our text may be aptly compared, while the prayer at sunset may be paralleled with the prayers of the Essenes and Therapeuts.

On the other hand, the tradition of the Gnosis and Saving Faith preached by our Pcemandrists is distinctly not Hebrew; it is a philosophizing of other materials — materials which, as we have seen, were also partly used by Jewish and Christian mystics, and adapted to their own special traditions.

We thus see that at the time when Christianity came to birth there were many rival traditions contending for general recognition, all of them offering instruction in the Gnosis and hopes of Salvation, and I myself believe that all of them were partial manifestations of the impartial Quickening of the Spiritual Life which was at that time more abundantly poured forth than ever before or after in the Western world.

With § 30, if my conjecture of an interpolation is correct, the original treatise is continued, and we are told the nature of the awakening of the spiritual consciousness which has come to the new-born disciple.

Henceforth all things are new for him, they all have new meanings. He has become a man, instead of a " procession of fate " ; he has reached the " Plain of Truth." In Christian terms the Christ has been born in his heart consciously.

A HYMN OF PRAISE AND PRAYER FOR THE GNOSIS

31. The treatise is concluded with a most noble hymn, in which the further growth and effort of the VOL. n. 4 man in spirit is set forth. Henceforth his effort will be to become like unto the Father Himself, to pass from Sonship into the Perfection of perfection, Identity or At-one-ment with the Father.

The sentence, " That I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race, my Brethren and Thy Sons," seems to me to be either an interpolation, showing the same tendency as that of the propagandist section, or an indication that the whole hymn was added at the same time as the propagandist paragraphs, for the treatise proper seems to end naturally and consistently in the Hellenistic form of the tradition with the words, "I reached the Plain of Truth." l

THE NAME " POIMANDRES "

Many have already remarked that the name " Poimandres " is formed irregularly in Greek, and this has led to an interesting speculation by Granger, who writes :

"While, however, the name Poimandres does not answer to any Greek original, it is a close transliteration of a Coptic phrase. In the dialect of Upper Egypt p'm'n'tre means ' the witness.' That the Coptic article [pe] should be treated as part of the name itself is not unusual ; compare the name Pior.2 Such a title corresponds very closely in style with the titles of other works of this same period — for example, the True Word of Celsus, or the Perfect Word, which is an alternative title of the Asdepius. The term Poemandres, therefore, on this supposition, contains an allusion to

1 It is to be noticed that the Hymn is a Song of Holiness. "Holy art thou" is nine times repeated — most probably intentionally. This was noticed long ago by Casaubon. See R. 58, n. 3.

2 Palladius, Hist. Laus., 89.