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

4 G. here again refers apparently to the Naassene Documents, which, however, did not depend on the Gospel according to the Egyptians, as we have shown ; nor have we any sure ground for dating this widespread mystic gospel of Egypt as being of the second century rather than of the first. G. (p. 411) suggests that the scene of the Gospel of the Egyptians was on top of the Mount of Olives after the resurrection, which may very well be the case, and that the title of C. H.t xiii. (xiv.), "The Secret Sermon on the Mountain," has reference to this gospel, which is by no means probable, for our sermon keeps entirely within its own tradition in its setting.

the Good Shepherd had its roots in a previous tradition. 'It is probable that there were no statues before the age of Constantine, except the Good Shepherd.'1 We must therefore add Hermes to the list of pagan types which were taken over for its own purpose by the rising Christian art.

" Moreover, we are enabled to advance one step further the long-standing controversy as to the portraits of Jesus. Since the figure of the Good Shepherd is borrowed from Greek sculpture, it cannot be used as evidence for the earliest conceptions about the appearance of Jesus. And so the arguments of Farrar and others fall to the ground, in so far as they take the presence of this type to show that there was no genuine tradition of Christ's appearance.2

" We are now in a position to throw a little further light upon the famous inscription of Abercius. The inscription speaks of a Shepherd — ' Who feedeth on the plains His flock of sheep, and hath great eyes that gaze forth every way. For He did teach me [how to understand and] scriptures worthy to believe.'3

"The Shepherd, whose great eyes look in every direction, is no other than Hermes treated as a symbol of Christ. And so some of the arguments which may be directed against the Christian character of this inscription, and to which Harnack.4 attaches an exaggerated weight, are turned aside."

With all of this may be compared what we have already written in the Prolegomena on " The Popular Symbolic Kepresentation of the Shepherd" in the chapter on " ' Hermas ' and ' Hermes.' "

1 Lowrie, Christian Art and Archeology, p. 290.

2 Taken in connection with the above quotation from Lowrie, we should say that it disposes of the whole contention. And for further corroboration of this view we would refer the reader to the Acts of John.

3 G. gives the Greek text only, omitting the first line, which runs : " The disciple of the Pure Shepherd." Cf. R. 115.

* Cf. Class. Rev., ix. 297.

Compare also the Hymn to Attis in the Naassene tradition, where he is invoked " as Pan, as Bacchus, as Shepherd of bright stars." This is the macrocosmic side of the microcosmic mystery.

We should also not forget the interesting grouping on a Christian lamp l and gem,2 which goes back very probably to the third century.3 It represents the Christ as the Good Shepherd, after the Hermes type, with a lamb on his shoulder. Above his head are the Seven "Planets," the Lords of the Fate, and in addition the Sun and Moon on either side, as is frequently the case in Mithraic representations. Eound his feet seven lambs 4 crowd, symbolical of the "seven peoples," one under each " planet." Moreover, on the right is Noah's dove and ark, and Jonah being swallowed by the whale, while on the left is Jonah again, vomited on to the land and peacefully resting beneath the shade of the miraculous gourd-tree.

This seems to me to be a symbol of the mysteries, a glyph of rebirth. The lambs are the purified lower nature of the man, the purest essence of which is exalted to the head of the Great Man. This purified "little man" is swallowed by the Cosmic Fish, the Great Mother, the Womb of the Almighty, and the man is born again to rest under his own tree in the Paradise of the Further Shore.

It is also of interest to note that the Hermetic colonies already planted in Mesopotamia, in the earliest s R. 113. The gem has only six.

1 Garucci, Storia delta Arte Christiana, vi. tav. 474 ; Ferret, Catacombes de Rome, tab. 17, no. 5.

2 Ferret, ibid., tab. 16, no. 80

Islamic times of which the Arabian writers tell us, called their head the "Shepherd."1