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

The thought of the writer is evidently turned back towards the past, to a time when a mighty race, devoted to growth in wisdom, lived on earth and left great monuments of their wisdom in the work of their hands, dim traces of which were to be seen " in the renewal of the times." This seems to me to be a clear reference to the general belief of the time (commonly, though erroneously, called Stoic) that there were alternate periods of destruction, by fire and water, and of renewal. In Egypt the common belief, as we have pointed out elsewhere, was that the last destruction had been by water and flood. Before this Flood our author believed there had been a mighty race of Egyptians, the race of the First Hermes, and that some dim traces of the mighty works of this bygone wisdom-loving civilization were still to be seen.

I am, myself, strongly inclined to believe in this tradition ; and I have sometimes speculated as to the possibility of there being buried beneath one or more of the pyramids the remains of some prehistoric buildings (perhaps also of pyramid-shape) that have survived the " Flood."

CORPUS HERMETICUM IV. (V.)

THE CUP OR MONAD

OF HERMES TO TAT

(Text : P. 34-40 ; Pat. 26b-27.)

1. Hermes. With Reason (Logos), not with hands, did the World-maker l make the universal World 2 ; so that thou thus shouldst think of Him as everywhere and ever-being, the Author of all things, and One and Only, who by His Will 3 all beings hath created.

This Body of Him is a thing no man can touch, or see, or measure, a Body inextensible, like to no other frame. 'Tis neither Fire nor Water, Air nor Breath4; yet all of them come from it.5 Now being Good He willed to consecrate this [Body] to Himself alone, and set its Earth in order and adorn it.6

1 6 J>T)fjiiovpy4s. 2 rby irdvra K6<r/j.ov.

3 6f\r)<ris. * Perhaps meaning JSther.

6 Of. C. H.9 xiii. (xiv.) 6.

6 Kofffjtriffai, — the whole is a play on the word utto-pos (kosmos\ which means " order," " ornament," and " world." I have tried

2. So down [to Earth] He sent the Cosmos 1 of this Frame Divine,2 — man, a life that cannot die, and yet a life that dies. And o'er [all other] lives and over Cosmos [too], did man excel by reason of the Reason (Logos) and the Mind. For contemplator of God's works did man become; he marvelled and did strive to know their Author.

3. Reason (Logos) indeed, 0 Tat, among all men hath He distributed, bat Mind not yet ; not that He grudgeth any, for grudging cometh not from Him,3 but hath its place below, within the souls of men who have no Mind.

Tat. Why then did God, 0 father, not on all bestow a share of Mind ?

Her. He willed, my son, to have it set up in the midst for souls, just as it were a prize.

4. Tat. And where hath He had it set up ?
Her* He tilled a mighty Cup5 with it, and

sent it down, joining a Herald [to it], to whom He gave command to make this proclamation to the hearts of men :

to retain it in English by using both meanings. The three preceding sentences, from "This Body" onwards, are quoted by Stobaeus, Phys., I. ii. 30 ; G. i. 26 ; W. 38, 10 ff., under the heading " Of Hermes."

1 That is, "Order."

2 That is, the Body of God ; the One Element.

3 Cf. G. H., v. (vi.) 2.

4 A critical text of most of these two paragraphs is given, R.
214, n. 1.

6 Kparrjpa, lit. a crater or mixing-bowl.

Baptize 1 thyself with this Cup's baptism, what heart can do so, thou that hast faith thou ' canst ascend to Him that hath sent down the Cup, thou that dost know for what thou didst come into being !

As many then as understood the Herald's tidings and doused themselves in Mind, became partakers in the Gnosis ; and when they had "received the Mind" they were made "perfect men."

But they who do not understand the tidings, these, since they possess the aid of Reason [only] and not Mind, are ignorant wherefor they have come into being and whereby.

5. The senses of such men are like irrational creatures' ; and as their [whole] make-up is in their feelings and their impulses,2 they fail in all appreciation of8 those things which really are worth contemplation. These centre all their thought upon the pleasures of the body and its appetites, in the belief that for its sake man hath come into being.

But they who have received some portion of God's gift,4 these, Tat, if we judge by their deeds, have from Death's bonds won their release ; for they embrace in their own Mind all things,